Rim trail to South Kaibab TH to Ribbon Falls back to South RIM via Bright Angel trail. One word to sum up this adventure EPIC. Headed down to the big ditch with three of my bros, Scarback, Gdoc, and Hairdog - all named men. We booked a couple nights at the south rim, so not to worry about lodging etc, Got there late Thursday night and decided we'd leave from the visitors center at 4:30 AM on Friday. With the amount of training we were all at we decided to scrap the plans for the full r2r2r and push for the r2rf2r.
Morning came fast and furious - We were running the rim trail connector to South Kaibab before I knew what hit me. South Kaibab is an amazing trail especially in the early morning dawn. We ran down the trail much faster than we expected and before long we were standing on the bridge crossing the colorado river heading into Phantom Ranch. At Phantom we decided to push up to Ribbon falls and see how everyone was feeling, so we headed out - Bright Angel canyon is great - stunning views etc. We lost HD somewhere on this trail and didn't find him again until he wandered up to the Bright Angel TH on the South Rim.. The three of us pushed the pace up the canyon a bit and while we were waiting for him at the falls, he missed the trail and went past Cottonwood campground... So he got some bonus miles..
We had a lemonade at Phantom Ranch on the way back.. very nice.
The climb from Phantom back to the south rim is a serious amount of vertical gain and pain. When you hit Indian Gardens and see you have about 5 miles and about 3500 ft left you feel the pain. It's also at this point you start seeing the day hiker carnaige along the trail. We pushed the pace pretty good passing almost everyone. even though we were into our trekk about 28 miles at this point. Scarback and Gdoc were pushing a hard pace and pulled me up the final climbs.
Epic fun day. PEACE.
Vert gain approx 6000 ft Total elevation gain/loss approx 12,000 ft
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