Ever since I first hiked the Grand Canyon 8 years ago I had
always wanted to run the Kaibab – Bright Angel loop in a day. The 28.5 km loop
starts at the South rim drops 2300 m via the steep Kaibab trail down to the
Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon before climbing back up to the South
rim via the Bright Angel trail.
Every year over 250 people are rescued from the Grand Canyon and
there are a number of warning signs advising against making the trip in one
day. With this in mind we made sure we carried enough water for the full trip
so we did not have to rely on the sometimes dry water sources on route. We also planned
to leave early in the morning to take advantage of the cooler part of the day
and avoid the 35°C+ temps that the mid afternoon serves up.
All geared up my wife and I hit the trail at 6am ready to
tackle the Grand Canyon.
The descent down to the mighty Colorado River came and went
very smoothly and we started up the climb to the top with legs feeling a little
battered but feeling good.
As we climbed the sun really started to heat up and the red
dust that coated us started to become apparent as the sweat glands started to
work.
In the final 8km the climbing started to get serious and the
trail was flooded with day hikers heading both up and down. With the feet
really starting to feel the hammering they had taken we pushed on steadily to
the top and finished comfortably in 6 hours 40 min.
