Carrie and Carolen shot out into the morning like little rockets while Ingrid, Nancy and I moved at a slower pace.
These old-time telephone lines were neat.
We had pretty easy walking the first couple of miles leapfrogging with Fishing Guy group. They were super fast though and quickly passed us by.
After this little bridge, the up and up began.
Ingrid and Nancy taking a breather.
It's difficult to relay the massiveness of the canyon. At times, Nancy and Ingrid looked like they were about 1 inch tall next to the towering cliffs.
Eventually we climbed out of the shade and into the hot sun. Long, winding stretches of trail clung to the cliff sides. We kept a slow steady pace. A lady called HD Mama passed us (part of Fishing Guy group). We chatted for awhile and found out she was using R2R2R as training for the Continental Divide Trail. I'll be following her journey: http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=17396
We took a break just past Supai Tunnel. It was still warm but the temperature was dropping and the air was getting thinner. I could feel it in my breathing.
We did alot of these step-ups and then step-downs coming back down. Going back down was the real killer. I was thankful I didn't have a full pack.
I have this bracelet that says "She believed she could, so she did." When I started getting really tired, I repeated this over and over.
We started hitting little patches of snow but they were totally manageable and not slick at all. Ingrid gave us snow baths on the backs of our necks and really revived us. She put snow in her hat to cool off her head.
We made it to the North Rim and there was quite a bit of snow. Carrie had already been at the top for 2 hours!!! Carolen had been at the top for about 45 minutes I think she said. We sprawled out on the ground for lunch and rest. Carrie and Carolen started their way back down while Nancy, Ingrid, and I took about an hour to recuperate.
Going up was tough but not as tough as I expected. Going back down was a whole different story. Those step-downs were killer. My illiotibial band was not happy. I tried to copy Nancy and alternate legs going down these things but it got to the point where I couldn't bend my left knee and had to step-down with my right leg, then swing the left one around without bending it. I had a hitch in my giddyup. Every time I stopped, the leg would totally freeze up and it would take a bit for it to loosen. Longer strides seemed to help. Ingrid was having some shin splint problems and she had KT tape all over her knee and shin and I could see she was struggling too. I had serious thoughts that I would have to unfurl my quilt right there on the precipice and stay the night. I had contingency plans rolling around in my head as I stumbled down off the North Rim.
Not far below the North Rim, Camo Pants came striding up the trail alone. We stopped to chat and asked where the rest of his crew was and he said "I don't know!" Alright, we thought that was kind of weird since the rest of his group seemed to be struggling the last time we saw them.
When we made it down to the Supai Tunnel point, who do we see all sprawled out and looking beat down? Camo Pant's group! The 3 younger guys and the one old dude were all sacked out looking very despondent. We told them we had seen Camo Pants close to the Rim about an hour before. One of the guys asked us if we ever took breaks. I thought that was cute. For the rest of the day we wondered if they had made it to the North Rim and what had happened to them.
We made it back to Cottonwood a little worse for wear. It had taken us about 11 hours to do the round trip. When we got back into camp, we found out the ravens had decimated Ingrid's water filter bottle and had dragged Nancy's Jetboil onto the ground and also got into some of Carolen's stuff. So crazy!
I went down to the creek in the dark to filter water so I wouldn't have to do it in the morning. The stars were twinkling at me; congratulating me on making it back from the North Rim.
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