May
2006
Running the Grand Canyon: May 2006
Posted by Carl Hutzler
Our good friend Davy Crockett who used to bring up the rear of our hiking group (with me) started running in these crazy 100 mile races back in 2005 called Ultra Marathons. In order to train for these races which cover 100 miles (duh!) and 1000’s of vertical feet, he often ran the Grand Canyon.
Davy is in exceptional shape and knows his body very well….and his limits. No one should really do this alone (like Davy) nor venture out into the GC without proper training and know how. It is just way to dangerous. But given that Davy had done this many times and that the rest of us would only be going half the distance Davy was going, we felt confident we could do it.
Do it? Do what? Well, Davy’s plan was start at 1am and to run from the South Rim along the Bright Angel Trail down to the bottom and cross the Colorado River at Phantom Ranch. He would then continue up to the North Rim on the N. Kabob trail. Once he got to the North Rim, well he had to get back home…..no car shuttle involved. Just turn around and run back the other way!
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May
2006
Grand Gulch and The Grand Canyon: May 2006
Posted by Carl Hutzler
Grand Gulch was a very different hike than I had ever been on before. We had done many hikes in the southern Utah high dessert but this hike was very different as it had a number of Anasazi cliff dwellings from the time of 1200BC to 1300AD to explore along the route.
The trailhead is in the southern most part of Utah near the towns of Blanding and Mexican Hat. There is a ranger station along RTE 261 where you can get a pass to stay in the back country. And if you want, you can even start your hike from there. But we dumped a car and started at the southern entrance instead.
We began hiking down a small sandy path which quickly gave way to some moderate canyon country. Not too long after, it started to rain! No kidding, rain in the high dessert! And not just a little rain, but a steady cold rain. Luckily we were just about at the first set of ruins and decided to climb up to explore in the nice sheltered area above.