Grand Canyon Rim to Rim with nothing on my feet and a smile on my face

[Thea Gavin]

My long-planned trip this weekend was a success, even if it was slower than I had hoped.

I had planned to run as much as possible, but my left knee started hurting three miles down the North Kaibab trail, so I walked the whole way across, 14 miles (7 hours) in the rain to Phantom Ranch, 10 miles (6.5 hours) up Bright Angel Trail the next morning. Trail conditions were awesome--lots of damp packed sand, and the rougher sections always seemed to have nice smooth landing spots in between the rocks. My brain radar is pretty good at subconsciously placing my feet at this point.

Super fun! I'm looking forward to the day when my knee cooperates and I can run more . . . there's a lot of sweet almost-level smoothish single-track that I can't wait to revisit.

And . . . all the R2R2Rimmers were an inspiration!

The only time I put my sandals on the whole time was to have dinner in the Canteen at Phantom Ranch. For them, "No shoes no shirt no service."

For me: No shoes = LOTS OF FUN!

A longer post with photos is at my blog: www.theagavin.com

 

[rickwhitelaw]

Congratulations on achieving your goal Thea.

As a barefoot hiker this is huge. You made it sound easy. I know how rugged the trails are. Although there are some smooth areas, the majority is rocky chips blasted out of the sides of the cliffs, gravel in the middle section of the trail, and hot sand near the river. Combine that with the thousands of step ups for erosion control, the remoteness, the vertical change, etc., impressive. I hope to follow in your footsteps this week. Speedy recovery on your sore knee and muscles.

Rick

 

[bf in az]

Trail conditions were awesome--lots of damp packed sand, and the rougher sections always seemed to have nice smooth landing spots in between the rocks.

Congratulations. I ran it in shoes a couple of months ago and noticed at the time how runnable some of the sections were, though there were some that looked pretty tough. How did you handle the rock chips during the lower half of the N. Kaibab?

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Inspirational! Congrats!

 

[Barfuß Chelsea]

Great story, beautiful pictures!!! Thanks so much for sharing!

 

[Longboard]

Very impressive. I read your blog post as well, very nice write up!

 

[Barefooting Bob]

Congrats, I would like to run that one day, barefoot of course.

 

[Thea Gavin]

Congratulations. I ran it in shoes a couple of months ago and noticed at the time how runnable some of the sections were, though there were some that looked pretty tough. How did you handle the rock chips during the lower half of the N. Kaibab?

It was amazing--the trail seemed to be a packed sand thread between the rock chips through the infamous "Box." Here's a photo:


And the section along the River, lower Bright Angel: wow! The rains had packed the sand down into the most amazing trail surface! It was perfect . . . I feel really blessed to have been down there during and right after a day of (mostly) gentle rain. Sigh. Wish I were there right now

 

[Thea Gavin]

Congrats, I would like to run that one day, barefoot of course.

It was definitely a highlight of my 53-year existence. Go for it!

 

[Thea Gavin]

Very impressive. I read your blog post as well, very nice write up!

Thanks! Appreciate it

 

[Thea Gavin]

Great story, beautiful pictures!!! Thanks so much for sharing!

Thanks for being part of my journey by reading about it

 

[Thea Gavin]

Congratulations on achieving your goal Thea.

As a barefoot hiker this is huge. You made it sound easy. I know how rugged the trails are. Although there are some smooth areas, the majority is rocky chips blasted out of the sides of the cliffs, gravel in the middle section of the trail, and hot sand near the river. Combine that with the thousands of step ups for erosion control, the remoteness, the vertical change, etc., impressive. I hope to follow in your footsteps this week. Speedy recovery on your sore knee and muscles.

Rick

Rick--Thanks so much for your "pre-run" advice and encouragement. Good luck on your Grand Canyon adventure this week!

 

[SillyC]

YOU ROCK!!!!

 

[Tfox]

It sounds like the rain gods smiled upon you and your bare feet! Nice job. The North Kaibab is is very steep. Maybe try going the other way next time?