Grand Canyon Rim to Rim, Version 2017.4

After a wonderful break at Manzanita Rest Area, we started off again with an increased sense of urgency.  We had approximately 8.6 miles to go before reaching Phantom Ranch, and “The Box” stood somewhere in between here and there.  “The Box” is a stretch of trail within the inner gorge where the walls are very close together, and the 1.7 billion year old rock is dark in color.  The rock retains the heat, and it feels like an oven during the mid-day hours.  It is also absolutely beautiful, a spectacular scene to walk through.  Our pace was deliberate here, moving along at about 20 minutes per mile, resisting the urge to stop as often as we had been for photos.  We stopped briefly at Cottonwood Campground, another nice resting area before hustling up for the 7 mile push to Phantom Ranch.

 

It was during this stretch that I began to wear down.  Not bad, my legs were still good, but my lungs were failing me a bit as I ran out of breath frequently and my heart rate increased.  The heat, while certainly present, did not seem to be overwhelming and certainly not oppressive.  I had applied plenty of 100 spf sunscreen at the last rest stop, and my wide brim hat cast a comfortable shadow over my face.  I continued to snack on jerky, trail mix, energy bars, and pretzels while drinking water continually from my Camelbak and Gatorade from my water bottle.  I was thankful for the training I had done, but was really wishing I had done more down hill workouts.  My quads were beginning to tighten up courtesy of the steep downhill descent. All in all the crew seemed to be holding up well.

 

The trail again changed character, descending more slowly with more scrub brush along the both sides.  We also had a noisy partner in Bright Angel Creek, walking within earshot of it almost continually.  We also had to cross over it many times on a series of well-constructed bridges.  The water was beautiful, and the sight of it made me with I could just spend all day exploring the creek.

The further we walked, the tighter the walls got. We were walking along a trail with the canyon walls on one side, and the creek on the other.  Everything was beautiful, and for a few miles I forgot about any of my body aches and just tried to take it all in.  

We were still mostly in the shade and moving along well.  Then suddenly we came upon a sign for Phantom Ranch, it seemed to me like it just popped up out of nowhere.  Time for a break, and I was ready.