[00:00:01] Joe: All right everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the live
[00:00:05] Joe: ultralight podcast. Powered by Outdoor Vitals. Today we have a very unusual episode. We're
[00:00:12] Joe: going to be recording this in a car seven smelly dudes talking about our recent trip to the Grand Canyon I didn't do much personally, I Walked down the south rim. What is it? The South Kaibab Trail? And camped overnight and basically held our place at Camp while these other guys went many, many more miles. We met up a camp and then I also left before they did and had a had a
[00:00:44] Joe: nice slow hike up. The bright angel Trail and it was really nice. But what did you guys do?
[00:00:52] Brigham: Bring a bring him. What was the plan? Was the north rim trail? And then run back down. to the Phantom Ranch, Bright Angel, Campground area. Day one and day two. It was basically just a hike out. So day one that route was supposed to be what? We expected maybe about 35 miles day two, we expect about 10 miles. What did it end up being? Yeah, 38.25 on day one. And 10.7 on
[00:01:46] Tayson: day two. Whose idea was this? Yours. I think I remember us talking about New product by going rim to rim in the Grand Canyon. And then somehow someone said, oh no, we should go rim to rim to rim. Well, the point is you Test out of fastpack. You might as well have the point is to have your camping gear in there, so it's kind of silly to drive all the way down
[00:02:30] Tayson: here. You could really do the rim to rim in the day easily. But then you were not going to, you're not going to camp on paper easily for some people. It would be easy in theory Theory. Smooth as butter. but, Yeah. So start off great. Start it off. I run it on the
[00:02:57] Tayson: south Kai about Trail is beautiful. It was nice. We were We thought we were going at a decently decent pace. Like, not going too fast, out of the gate and got to the bottom. It was like seven miles down, we're all feeling, really good. We then we started to go up. This really long, wash. So the trail is like eight miles of like going up. This kind of wash Canyon and then
[00:03:21] Tayson: you turn and go straight up the To the north rim, it and that's like six miles up. So, So yeah, I was like 14 miles ish from the campground area, but started off being really, really narrow, really pretty. A lot more than I expected. Like the whole rundown been nervous about like Haze or spend a ton of dust in the air. Wasn't sure what we'd be able to really see in the
[00:03:43] Tayson: distance, but it was really pretty start hacking up this to the north rim and the Canyons really tight, really really nice. And yeah things were going really. Well, I guess, at that point, I think. a few people were feeling some discomfort from The Rundown because I think when we got to the bottom, Started to realize how much running down that trail took out of us. So I don't have anything else about that.
[00:04:13] Brigham: Well, when you say running down, Were you really saying is? Every two and a half to four feet, there's a log, across the trail, and then this sand and rocks create like potholes in front of the logs from the mules and all the people. And so rather than running down the south side but it's more like your hopping from log to log. And dodging rocks and jumping over. Rock drainage lines that
[00:04:44] Brigham: go across the trail. So by the time we got down, I think all of our Our calves and our quads were quite pumped. and, National Park. Yeah. so, the South Sky Map Trail is amazing, you get an awesome view of The expanse of the south rim. But that trail is the roughest trail that we were on. So we started off. Faster and harder than we thought we did. I think for me,
[00:05:29] Derek: I for me, I feel most
[00:05:34] Derek: comfortable running downhill. So, I didn't think that first. Eight miles or whatever it was were too bad for me. What really started. Killing my legs was when we started going
[00:05:49] Derek: up, the north rim trail.
[00:05:52] Derek: and that was just about as steep, but, The trail was rough, we were already tired. At that point we were almost 20 miles in I think or 15 to 20 somewhere in there before we even started climbing and then we had to climb up thousands of feet of elevation up to the north rim. And by the time we got there, I was I was pretty beat. But the run in. Coming down
[00:06:17] Derek: the South Kaibab Trail. I actually felt pretty pretty. Okay, I didn't notice like a little bit of tightness and one of my calves but I'm kind of the odd one out. where,
[00:06:29] Derek: I just feel more comfortable going down, things up things where
[00:06:33] Derek: a lot of these guys will they'll go right up stuff and that's their preference but yeah, I think running down that like, typically when you run down a trail, And he'll strike meaning. Your foot is landing on. Its heel. And you're kind of rolling forward with your with your staff, but because that one was so technical. You have to Point your toes and land on your toe to navigate all the rocks,
[00:07:04] Derek: and the logs balance on this and that. And so I think,
[00:07:09] Derek: Down that in our calves. were burning already and obviously it's going to be it's gonna be your your quads up going downhill but
[00:07:22] Derek: This really was surprised me how much soreness and fatigue there was in those because typically running downhill, you just heel striking and it's just mainly a quad sticking the meaning.
[00:07:32] Joe: I've seen a lot of elk right now, don't know. Training me.
[00:07:41] Tayson: Yeah. I'll just for me I've been kind of ramping up my miles to where I'm running
[00:07:47] Tayson: about 20 miles a week and the last three or four weeks I've been trying to hit quite a bit of elevation somewhere
[00:07:53] Tayson: in the 6000 foot worth of elevation a week
[00:07:57] Tayson: range. So I thought I was because I've got other events and stuff. I thought I was going to be Unique spot.
[00:08:03] Tayson: And yeah, I apparently have things
[00:08:07] Tyler: to learn still but that was me. For my training. I tried to kind of peek my training a week and a half before we came down here so that I had time to rest. And at that point I had I've been trail running slash hiking like 30 to 35 miles a week and getting about 4,000 feet of elevation gain in a week because in the ultra marathon Running World they kind of
[00:08:40] Tyler: tell you to run in one week, the amount that you'll be doing in the race and so that's kind of been our thought process behind our training, and What I think we were not as prepared for was just the steepness of going straight down the canyon. Traversing. From south to North up, the Grand Canyon, and then going straight back up the Cliffside. So it was super steep. Will I also think? Something
[00:09:19] Tyler: that is hard to train for where we live. And Keeping in mind, we live in an awesome place where we can trail run. Like to her heart's content, right out our back doors basically. But it's hard to find trails with all that log placement and The Rock steps. Like that's I think that actually played a pretty big factor in in my legs at least for running downhill, and because that's you can't
[00:09:48] Tyler: get in any kind of a rhythm running downhill and so all like, all my running is all trail running, but I can never, I can't really duplicate those trail conditions that the Grand Canyon has.
[00:10:09] Darren: For my training. I was probably the least prepared of all these guys. I do a lot of treadmill running and I was trying to up the outdoor running but I didn't get the elevation games that Tyler and taste more talking about. And so yeah, definitely those logs coming down. That's what beats like about a foot drop off of each step. And so when you add thousands of feet of elevation and 1,000
[00:10:33] Darren: of steps, it adds up. So for me I was one of the guys that when I got to the bottle. I could feel it and I was cramping up pretty bad on the way up to the next side. These guys kind of had to slow down just for me but definitely worth it.
[00:10:49] Tayson: So, Say that you were cramping up, like, how far is like 14 miles or whatever up to the 15 miles up to the South Side? When did you start to cramp when we were still on the lower flatter stuff or when they got
[00:11:04] Tayson: to the end where we're like, Six miles.
[00:11:09] Darren: Of just so my cramping started happening, we'd made it to Phantom Ranch. We got past that and so it's probably three or four miles after and notice it whenever I start running downhill again, that might have and my thighs would start to cramp up. I've never had that before.
[00:11:27] Tayson: So about 15 miles
[00:11:29] Darren: about 15 miles in. Yeah and so I literally just had to walk, I was pounding, STM packs, just making sure that I was getting as many electrolytes in me as I could just, you know, make sure I wasn't getting dehydrated. But I just think that I tore every muscle I had up on that way, downhill and trying to push it further, which is causing me to cramp up the rest of the
[00:11:53] Darren: way. And so I was able to kind of find my Pace where I could get past it, but it was definitely slower pace and I would have wanted Derek. so, some of the ways that I've been training is I do a good mix between
[00:12:12] Derek: Running on pavement and then trail running for me like the I guess the reasoning behind that is I go for higher distances on pavement which is easier for me to ramp that up more quickly in my training. What's on pavement? It's just easier to run on but then I've been working a lot on elevation and stabilization like in my ankles and knees when I'm doing trail running which I still do most
[00:12:36] Derek: days on the trails but that's a lot of what I've been doing. I've I think it definitely helped on this trip but that day. I don't know if we've said this actually but that first day was almost 40 miles and I was just not ready for that. I think that pushed my limits quite a bit. Obviously, well, I got it done but I probably could have trained a little bit more for
[00:13:05] Derek: that. it's going farther and Maybe training the little bit more at elevation that I was. I'm gonna ask for each of you guys. Highest high lowest low. Of the trip. Okay, well, Jason saying something so here.
[00:13:34] Tayson: All right. It's fun. Doing this in the car, we did miss one person in the car. So Eric is a buddy of mine. I grew up with since like the fourth grade. I
[00:13:44] Tayson: invited him. We had another, you know, another spot or two in our campsite. So I invited him to come and give It, you know, you got
[00:13:50] Tayson: a month to train. Good luck. If you can't make it, it's sweet. You just you just turn around. But so, what did you do for your training?
[00:13:59] Eric: Well. Mostly just running on the road for most part. I mean, a lot of the routes that I was taking, you know, had a decent incline's to him and tried to ramp up the distance. but
[00:14:15] Tayson: I don't even think he did in the week or
[00:14:17] Eric: anything like that between 15 and 20 miles a week, but yeah, just so
[00:14:31] Tayson: we got to the bottom and we're leaving the campgrounds and stuff. How are you feeling at that point?
[00:14:36] Eric: I felt great. But when we got to the bottom the downhill, I guess, kind of allows you to keep up your momentum and I mean, it was kind of difficult navigating, everything, but It ends up being, I guess, not as difficult obviously, going downhill,
[00:14:56] Eric: so fell. All right, had some blisters on my feet and some weird spots, but there's some tape on those and they ended up being just fine, the rest of the trip and even feeling really
[00:15:07] Tayson: Did the Luca tape so it doesn't look good tape on your basically, the
[00:15:10] Eric: ball, your foot area and that hold up to the rest of the trip. Yeah. Did I think a couple of times I was just speeding up a little bit too much to either catch up. for, I was, you know, Taking her. Or something like that and just just enough friction to add it or blister underneath the cows heard you have there. So, Kind of just save me for the rest of the trip.
[00:15:38] Tayson: So I feel like Spirits are pretty high. We were heading up the canyon, the views I thought were better than I even expected. The whole thing. I think exceeded my expectations for scenery and whatnot, but started heading up and we probably we got to Upper Campground which I'm gonna forget what it's called Cottonwood. I think Cottonwood Campground. Stop for lunch. And at that point, I think more aches and pains and things
[00:16:06] Tayson: that started to shake out. We were probably six miles up from the bottom. I'll call the bottom, like where the river is And just stopped for lunch. It's about 11 oclock, Arizona time. Keep in mind, we started at 6:00. Here. And so we stopped for lunch at 11. And started to kind of make a game plan to maybe start up in the pace a little bit to increase some of the pacing. So,
[00:16:31] Tayson: yeah, at that point, I think it was it was it was interesting.
[00:16:36] Tayson: Darren had been kind of cramping already. So I kind of asked you Daren if like like are you gonna do
[00:16:43] Tayson: this man? Are you gonna make it? Like I'm trapping is tough because like you can't just Will yourself to stop cramping, right?
[00:16:50] Tayson: But Darren gave us the
[00:16:52] Tayson: hard commitment and Darren and Eric was feeling like he didn't want to slow us down. So he was he was gonna hang out there and maybe keep going and then back to camp. And so we it's kind of split up with Eric from there and then started to head farther up. So about another two miles up. We got to
[00:17:11] Tayson: base car. Last water point.
[00:17:14] Tayson: Camels up right there. And then it was supposed to be, like, five miles up to the rim. And I think this is where the trip got really exciting. Because at this point we were, Let's see, we would have been 17 mi into the day and we started to climb up. And out of the north rim. So yeah, how's everyone feeling
[00:17:37] Tayson: on that climb out and how would you guys describe it?
[00:17:41] Darren: One thing we have a mentioned is the wind. So all day long, we had constant 30 mile per hour winds with gusts, I don't know. Probably 40 50 miles per hour. Would you guys agree with that? It's like so when we're, when we start walking up, these trails. keep in mind that once I have a Ledge, It's like 100 feet drops off and the other side is a wall. So a big
[00:18:08] Darren: gust of wind if you're not using your Trekking poles, right? You could get blown right off. It was it was pretty sketchy, but that was that was exciting for me, I think
[00:18:19] Tyler: I think we kind of forgot about the wind after we got down to the bottom, Phantom Ranch, because that's a really tight, little really low Canyon. But then, as we came up out of the really tight Canyon and we got to that Manzanita area that Payson was saying is like, where the climb up, the north rim starts, then all the sudden, we're just blasted with wind as the canyon opens, and we
[00:18:43] Tyler: start to gain elevation and and, you'll see in our video footage, like, Everyone was getting blown around up there and the trekking poles were worth their weight in gold. Plus we were a little, you know, we're kind of tired but then we're We're pushing 20 miles and fighting the wind and in the Cliffy like most extreme looking part of the trail. So Yeah
[00:19:12] Derek: we're climbing up out of there and it just gets steeper and then when we start passing all these Ledges like some of them like the trail gets narrower and narrower. And it's On that wind is blowing. And it was, it was crazy. I felt definitely a few times. Like, I just about got blown off, but we keep climbing up and eventually. it starts turning into more of like, I guess not write
[00:19:41] Derek: on a cliff Edge. The trail starts being more windy up, just steeper Hills and steeper inclines and and it was crazy because we thought we were getting close to the top because you can see, if you look up what you think is the top of the hill with the higher, you get the top of the hill actually gets higher and higher too is more. There's more opens up to your vision. And
[00:20:03] Derek: so this climb just kept going and going and going and we were Just all wondering when when a we actually gonna get to the top. At one point, we thought we were pretty close and then tasting, he actually pulled out his maps and was looking at it and he didn't have the heart to tell us that we still had over. Over 2000 feet of, yeah. yeah, we saw we as 2200 feet
[00:20:30] Derek: of elevation to climb still, and he just didn't Didn't want to tell us? I think we didn't want to. be demoralized, but it took almost everything we had to get to the top and we didn't finish that trail very strong. It was kind of gets the top and everybody kind of collapse and take a break. Um before we started heading back down. I think the worst thing for me though as far
[00:20:56] Derek: as getting to the top was realizing. Well we have I mean yeah we made it the top and that's a you know that's a pretty good accomplishment. You feel pretty good about yourself. But then you remember oh well we've got to still hike another 15, 16 miles back down to camp. And that just took the wind right out of my sails. Like, okay. this accomplishment is no longer as cool because there's
[00:21:22] Derek: just this other thing looming now, but
[00:21:26] Tayson: 23 miles from the South Korean to the North Korean. And so you know we had a lot of miles under our belt. By the time we got clear up to the top there. But yeah like Derek said we had a lot more time on trail left that day. It was
[00:21:42] Derek: 23 miles plus factor in thousands of feet of elevation climbing. Jason something like 8,000 feet of elevation climbing. So I mean, we were pretty, we were pretty tired at that point and then Still a long ways to go. So, Start heading back down and daring, gets a head starts as his legs were still cramping and feeling uncomfortable. So, he leaves while some of the rest of us are still packing up stuff
[00:22:09] Derek: and getting ready to go and Eventually we all kind of get split up. I left and, and eventually caught up to Darren. It took me a number of miles to do so, but I caught up to him and we hiked a lot of the way out. but these other guys I think also Ended up splitting up for other other reasons as well.
[00:22:34] Tayson: Definitely where the trip turned for me.
[00:22:37] Tayson: It was it was like Night and day, someone just switched out the lights. I felt like for me because on the way up, I was feeling good, you know, just I mean tired like everyone else, but just feeling good. We sat down for like kind of 30 minutes and and had some food and drink a little bit. And then when we got up to leave I went to step off the very first step.
[00:22:57] Tayson: I think I even have to go pro running and I just felt like
[00:23:01] Tayson: excruciating pain. as new like okay something's not feeling good with my knees and that basically turned into the rest of the downhill for me, where me and Brigham Bring him at already. Had knee pain on the way up and all I had talked about that, but at that points, when my knee pain kicked on, I just saw like I needles jabbing into my, my knee and so the next five miles me
[00:23:28] Tayson: and Brigham Basically just crawled down the trail and Tyler. Stay back with us. But you know, me and Brigham were just limping. I mean, it'd be quite comical to see what it would look like. Us, just down each
[00:23:42] Tayson: stair. and, Yeah, there's there's gonna be some video. I'm sure of us but it it was quite weird because basically what I what I kind of self-diagnosed with is that my my quad and my IT bands were just locking up and they're so tight and so sore intense that it was just tweaking my knee enough to come really sharp pains in my knee. so yeah, that that client down. Probably the hardest
[00:24:10] Tayson: like. Single five, six miles of
[00:24:12] Tayson: trail that I've ever done just from a pain tolerance perspective. But fortunately for me, once we got to the bottom when it wasn't such a Stark. you know, downward Trail, I was able to kind of pick up the pace again, but Yeah, break him. How was how old are you feeling on the downhill and what's your knee situation?
[00:24:37] Brigham: I was feeling pretty miserable. a yeah, I don't I Tyler was very Gracious to stay back and Hike out those long. And I like, very, very long 14 miles with with me because I was moving like, at a snail's pace. And yeah, it was I think I told Tyler was, like, the worst pain of had My since I had a kidney stone a few years ago and it was, it's pretty bad.
[00:25:14] Brigham: so I don't know what the deal is with the knee, but Yeah, it's it's I had I had to go to a place I haven't been to, in a long time to actually, get back to Camp last night. So yeah,
[00:25:29] Tayson: Yeah. So At that point in time is 7:00. And I realized that
[00:25:36] Tayson: I have. Tent and we're quite a bit. Slower down the trail than we thought and I'm like man, Eric's going to be sitting at Camp all day or something doesn't even have a tent to sleep in tonight. So I'm like I'm feeling like I need to kind of up my Pace, get back to camp and
[00:25:53] Tayson: you know, let him have a place to sleep, but so I actually started
[00:25:57] Tayson: jogging down the trail and thought I'd been told that Darren was running which I found out was not true later. So I was I thought Derek and Darren were like basically to Camp by the time I
[00:26:10] Tayson: was there. But I ended up catching them about three or four miles down the trail
[00:26:14] Tayson: and just said, yeah, I feel like I gotta keep pushing here. Get this stuff back to camp but not and so at that point, Derek joined me. And Darren kept, you know, his Pace. He was clicking along miles pretty pretty quickly. And so yeah, me and Derek Kind of pushed back to campus quick as we could, we stepped over. We counted eight scorpions that we stepped over a handful of frogs and
[00:26:41] Tayson: one wall seat that looked just like a pair of cougar eyes. So it was a it's quite the trip. And definitely, by the end of it, we're feeling kind of tired. It was one of those where like you knew how many miles you're supposed to be going. So you keep checking your watch and then you get to the mile that you think you're supposed to be at camp and you're not there and
[00:27:01] Tayson: pull out the map. And you're like, oh yeah I was still got another Mile. And
[00:27:05] Tayson: at that point in the day, You're you're about coming up on like 16 hours into the day and you're just done. It's dark.
[00:27:13] Tayson: You're running with the headlamp on at this point and anyways so we we push back to Camp. Got there at
[00:27:20] Tayson: about 9. you know, searching high and low for Eric, but now he's just over in the bush is sleeping, you know, he's just He just threw this pad right down on the dirt and he was squirting. Sleeping with the Scorpions. I woke him up. Like dude. What's going on? I don't think he even said anything to me for like five minutes. Something like I don't know why are you okay? Yeah. Joe
[00:27:47] Tayson: pokes, his head out of the tent, too. He drifted off on my man. You guys are really staying upwards. Think about us, aren't you? So, yeah, so we get our tents pitched, you know, we're hammer in and Stakes into concrete, dirt, next to 10th, that's probably 10 feet away from another campsite because they just have to Stacked in there. But there's just nothing else we could do. So we made a little
[00:28:11] Tayson: bit of ruckus pitch. Start 10, start. Think we were starting in on dinner and Darren showed up, he's probably 25 minutes or so behind us and he kind of did the same. And then yeah, at that point, those two were like, all right, we're going to bed and I was like, where's Tyler and Brigham? Hey, I thought they'd be, you know, closer and so I was like, well, I better stay up
[00:28:38] Tayson: and make sure they're all right. And so, you know, Nine to ten and then 10:30 and then 11. And I, Like to one point and I'll have to go back and see if I ever even did message Tyler on the Garmin. But I was sitting on top of a picnic table waiting. I tried to send a message to Tylor and I, Kept like falling asleep. While I was trying to write the
[00:29:00] Tayson: message and having to rewrite it because it wasn't making any sense. And then I Luckily caught myself falling off of the picnic table, as I fell asleep. And then I just like, I just gotta stand up, but I was just so exhausted. All these were just so exhausted, so I kind of stood around there and eventually I saw two little red lights coming into camp. And yeah, I was a little worried
[00:29:29] Tayson: about you guys. So how did your your last? Eight miles from where I split off from you go. They went very slow and painfully, but the Moonlight was nice. When I talked about that it was nice to hike by the Moonlight. It's like a little romantic painful date with Tyler. Yep, I talked his ear off. we we chose not to use headlights because of the Romantic lighting and because when you had
[00:30:00] Brigham: your headlamp on you attracted bugs, which attracted bats And there was just tons of bats. And so, yeah, we got we got like really Good Nite ize. We could see really well, by the time, we were rolling in the camp. So I think it's worth Darren mentioning what his motivation was for getting back to Camp because that's still just even finish the trail. I mean, yeah, I mean
[00:30:29] Tayson: you At one point it was like you have to find a deeper level inside. And that's something, I think that I think is just really interesting in this whole story is we were, we were pushing the limits, right? This is gonna be our all of our longest days on trail, of our most elevation ever gained on trail and You know, subsequently. Became quite painful for a lot of us. Different ways, right?
[00:30:56] Tayson: So you I felt like on the way up. Is like, you know you're kind of saying this in the face of like I've I feel like you, you found another gear at one point. I asked you about that and he told us what your motivation was. So, what was that?
[00:31:11] Darren: Well, there's two, there's two motivations. One was the dinner for when I was done and this, but more importantly, is, I told my wife and kids, I was gonna do this and I was not gonna stop. I had this trip planned for a long time, and I've been wanting to do it for a long time. So, Quitting was never an option for me. So I just kind of had to keep saying
[00:31:32] Darren: to myself, like gotta finish. Got its like the stupidest Little Engine. That Could not not stupid but that's how that's How I felt like the super engine that couldn't get up there. So I just had to keep on going and it was it was awesome to find the get to the top, but the way down. Yeah. That was a lot easier on the way down for me. But yeah, so the second
[00:31:59] Darren: motivation was my dinner and I had packed a steak for 30, some odd miles for that day. And my motivation was just to get back to camp and cook This. Not So frozen steak. We I froze it the night before, but by the time we got done, it was it was room temperature. Hey, so I was like, do I want to do? I want to test this. And I would have placed money
[00:32:29] Tayson: that you were about to get sick that night, that was waiting for it. So
[00:32:34] Darren: the borderline there was like, I'm just gonna eat half and if I don't feel sick by the end of that, I'll keep going and I'm not sick.
[00:32:42] Tayson: So I put enough
[00:32:43] Darren: seasoning on there. At least to help it was it was a little bit sketch. I didn't I didn't cook the potatoes. Like I was hoping I was just too tired but those are my two motivations just Tell my family, I could do it and then getting back. So
[00:32:58] Tayson: I think I think what you told me that was probably a little bit more. Realistic was, I don't think I could look Danny in the face if I didn't do this.
[00:33:06] Darren: So, Danny is my wife and she would never let me hear the end of it if I didn't finish it. So
[00:33:12] Tayson: it was a very strong motivation for him because he, he hung tight. I mean, it at times, you know, he was lagging behind and we were waiting for him a little bit, but by the top of the mountain, he was at our Saint pace. And I was, I was really impressed with that. Yeah. Anything else on day one that we missed?
[00:33:37] Darren: I don't think so.
[00:33:38] Tayson: We all crashed him. We all agreed also to
[00:33:45] Tayson: Sleep, Inn in the morning, but
[00:33:46] Tayson: Darren tell me how that went.
[00:33:49] Darren: Okay. So here the sun comes up earlier than anywhere else in the world. I swear like, what? Time was it? Fourth 305. Yeah,
[00:34:01] Darren: like when sunshine on me, I can't sleep. So,
[00:34:07] Tayson: you know, Cobra Kai up here Eric Trump name is Cobra Kai now from wearing a bandana. He would have gladly lent you that bandana to cover your eyes, you know? It always just keep your eyes closed when you sleep very much and you could have kept sleeping, couple hours, would have been great for all of us. So we were up. I don't know. You guys were moving around. Like 6 a.m. at
[00:34:28] Tyler: least earlier. Now it's more like 5:30 Brigham Darren and I were Up.
[00:34:36] Tyler: I was a little bitter I wanted.
[00:34:40] Tyler: To that didn't go to sleep until midnight.
[00:34:42] Tyler: We got it me and Brigham got in real late and then all the sudden it's like super bright at 5:30 in the morning. I was not happy about it but I couldn't go back to sleep either and it was Not night. well, so then we got up and Basically looked like a herd of Grumpy Old Men, as we lumbered around the campground, using the restroom and getting some water. And in fact,
[00:35:08] Tyler: I believe someone overheard people calling us back. There was a camp, the people in the campsite next to us were all like, in their 60s or 70s, and they had like a guide that was cooking them. Polenta cheese, and bacon dinner, and all this stuff for breakfast. And I saw, Eric, Derek and Tayson walk by him and they just start laughing. And they're like, those guys are walking worse than we are
[00:35:40] Tyler: and me and Brigham can help it just start laughing at that, because We were we were all looking pretty rough. It was definitely rough. A lot of our calves were just kind of like locked up and crazy sore and me, and Brigham's, knees were really sore and I mean everyone just had their own eggs. Yeah, I got a breakfast and Joe snuck off at some point before we were all ready. Want
[00:36:11] Tyler: to get a head start because He's building a day before his little word about getting up and out. Making sure his knee was fine. But also just want to get a head
[00:36:20] Tyler: start thinking that, you know, thinking we were fresh but that was
[00:36:23] Joe: far from the truth. I had been told this was a fastpacking trip. Was only hiking. I was I was getting footage. So I was stopping
[00:36:35] Joe: you know, every like couple hundred feet to get a new cool view of the Grand Canyon and trying to capture
[00:36:41] Joe: that for our YouTube videos. And and so yeah I figured I would be going at a snail space compared to you
[00:36:47] Joe: guys and so I went on ahead how late after I left? Did you guys actually
[00:36:53] Tayson: get started 45 minutes or an hour?
[00:36:57] Joe: Okay, so Derek would have passed me.
[00:36:59] Tayson: Because Derek was only like 20 minutes behind me by the time. I finished the trail. Way to go. hey, was Derek's rule for fastpacking, as you do not run up hill like at all. And then when you're on flat ground, And then when you're on the downhill you sprint and and it just so happened that all 10 miles of today was like uphill, if not very steep uphill. So we definitely weren't catching you
[00:37:42] Joe: so, who Let's say, Derek, I guess you were first. The meet me. Well, how did your, how did your hike go
[00:37:49] Joe: tell us about it?
[00:37:49] Derek: Well, for the first little while I was hanging out with this part of the group, I think, Darren and Brigham. And I left earlier, bring them and, and Darren, I think we're still dealing with legs and knee, pain and whatnot, and and left before tasting and Tyler, and Eric, we're ready to go. And I was just ready. So I just decided to leave with them as well. So, everything packed up. So
[00:38:16] Derek: we hiked together for a while. Until those other guys caught up with us. and we got to this point where They have they have these bathrooms. These toilets that are spread out every every, I don't know, however, many miles just throughout the canyon along the trail, and we passed one, but it was closed because the ranger was cleaning it and they they take quite a while to clean them. Sometimes. So we
[00:38:45] Derek: kept hiking past there, but I kind of realized
[00:38:47] Derek: a while after that, you know, I kind of want to use a toilet. and so, I decided I was gonna, I was gonna hike faster and just get out of there and get to the next place as soon as I could. So I kind of took off, I wasn't never running, but for me, one thing I've noticed is like I actually feel like it's easier for me to hike at a faster
[00:39:11] Derek: Pace. Sometimes it wears Less on my muscles. I think it has something to do with the maybe the acid that builds up on the long slow movements. And I was feeling some of that going. At some of the places that we were at this morning early in the morning and so when I started moving fast, I was hey like this isn't so bad like I feel pretty good now that I'm moving
[00:39:38] Derek: so I kind of just kept going at that pace throughout the rest of the day. and, I thought it was. honestly, this is my First time that I've been to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. So on day one that run down into the Canyon from South Kaibab Trailhead was just blowing my mind and then today as we were running out, I I was just loving that angel or what's it
[00:40:08] Derek: called? The bright angel Bright, Angel Trail. was like, Just tons of Desert Oasis type environments, one after the other with these Springs. And these little, you know, I don't know, streams different things. Things of water that are popping up out of the rocks and out of the canyon and I just thought that was beautiful hiking up. And yeah, I think, I think I ended up getting to the very top of the
[00:40:40] Derek: south rim here. Like 20 minutes after Joe. Did I never I never saw him but I got, I finished about 1:30 in the afternoon and it was, it was good. I did stop quite a few times for a little mini breaks and the shade, the switchbacks were just those are pretty. Yeah, they're you think you're getting done? And again the same thing happened to me I'm like I could see the rim
[00:41:06] Derek: of like the top of what I thought were the Cliffs of like the of the south rim that I get a little bit higher and see, there's another row of cliffs. they're taller than those just a little bit for their back and that kept happening, I'm like, oh well, I'm not near as close to the top as I thought Yeah. As we get higher up, there's the south rim is like really
[00:41:29] Derek: touristy. So for anyone that's not been there before, there's all kinds of people that visit the Grand Canyon specifically at that bright angel Trailhead. There's there's plenty of people coming down and Hiking just a couple miles before going back up. So the higher I got the more people I ran out into and a lot of them were pretty friendly and I actually enjoyed I actually enjoy chatting with them on the way
[00:41:52] Derek: up that actually kept me going when I was really tired. So we're getting Oh yeah. So it tasting reminder, I just there was the bunch of people taking pictures as I rounded a corner around one of the switchbacks. And I look at what they're taking pictures of pointing at. And there's a ram just hanging out right by the trail and so I go right up over to it and snap a couple
[00:42:16] Derek: pictures and he did not care. One bit that I was there. He's just chopping on a bush. eating leaves and doing whatever he wanted. And so I took a selfie with him, he's about five feet away from me, and so that was kind of cool. But as I kept going up, talking to people's kind of like, Captain me entertained or distracted, from how tired it was, because we're at this point, I
[00:42:38] Derek: was getting close to, you know, 50 miles, almost from the two days that we've been hiking. Our day and a half that we've been hiking and running Um, so just chatting with people along the way, actually distracted me pretty well and was kind of nice. but then I got to the top found, Joe and felt really satisfied and glad that I didn't have the hike anymore today. So,
[00:43:10] Tayson: Now, that we're gonna have to rename Derek's Trail name to banyo. Because I think every single bathroom we pass. He's gonna go in it and attempt to do some business. Just so that he doesn't have to do it outside. I don't know. I think I've seen a pattern between High lines Skyline. Now this one you find every single bathroom and you visited and I'm sure you're not using it every time. I
[00:43:36] Tayson: think you're just like You're like, I've got to try. It's here. So I think you're new Charlie and his Bano man. More convenient.
[00:43:59] Tayson: You know, where we left off, just your day today. What happened?
[00:44:05] Darren: Yes. So for me, I mean, yeah, I took off with Brigham and Derek all around the same time, and we just kind of Hiked out of there. Like Derek had kind of mentioned. Yeah. Like my legs weren't cramping up today but they were still really tender and I didn't want to risk it. So I was just taking it as a regular hike not really pushing myself. On the way up. And yeah,
[00:44:35] Darren: we kind of all kind of stuck together for a while and I don't know, I won't point. I kind of got separated. I don't know if they took a break or not, but I just kind of kept going up. Was kind of him just for a little while and then Derek caught up to me. and Derek's Derek's a freaking meal, he can get up the mountain so fast as The skull passed
[00:44:59] Darren: me, man. Like there's no keeping up with you and then not too long after that. Tyler and catching up with me too. And then we kind of hiked out together. From that point, you probably felt bad for me. It seemed me, limping up the mountain, but Had a second day. Yeah. Not hot. It says 62 degrees. I I don't, I don't agree with that. They get felt like it was 80 degrees
[00:45:32] Darren: all the way up. The sun was hitting the sand reflecting back on us and I felt like I was melting all day long. So whenever they were shade, I would take advantage of it. I was just trying to stay right in the middle of the pack. Now I was happy with that. And yeah, like Derek said just talk into the random people they come in from all different walks of life. And
[00:45:52] Darren: I have some interesting stories, we saw a family at what three kids, and they were really nice people. I mean, the youngest kid, probably seen, like, seven years old and they had quite the trip planned out. This was just the start of it, you're gonna go to Zion Hike, The Narrows. They're gonna go over to you, you'll send me anywhere else like,
[00:46:16] Tyler: yeah, they were gonna do Bryce Canyon and few others all in one big family trip. Yeah, sounded awesome. They're all in good spirits and
[00:46:24] Darren: made me look at. Oh, it's dead. Having these, you know, three younger kids. They were they were getting after it. Yeah. So
[00:46:35] Darren: but yeah, we ended up getting up to the top maybe 25 minutes after Derek is what they were telling us. So it was an accomplishment, it felt really good to get done with this hike. Enjoyed it.
[00:46:51] Tyler: Yeah, I think the day was pretty good for me. I definitely had. Sore legs this morning. Kind of like Derek. I felt like if I could Get a little bit faster of a pace. I'd be able to loosen up and shake some of the soreness out of them. So I kind of broke away from Casey and Brigham and Eric and started trying to hunt down Darren and Derek, and that was good.
[00:47:25] Tyler: I think that did help a little bit, but by the time I found there and I was like, okay, I don't need to like set a record going up this, cuz It's hot and I was running low on food. And you know, that if we Burned all the way up to the top. We still have to just sit around in the sun, wait for tasting to get here, with the car keys.
[00:47:47] Tyler: So I just, we just started talking to people and making jokes and and watching desert. Bighorns climb up the cliffs and there's a good time. It was hard. Like that's a That's a. Dang, steep. Climb up out of there and it does feel like it isn't gonna end, but it was a good day. Day two, let's see. Sorry, I'm trying to not doze off over here. Not because the subject is born,
[00:48:24] Brigham: because I'm tired. so, Yeah. Stepped off with Derek and Darren. who, of course, we're just being nice to walk at my snails pace and I, Don't know. I the I'd say my Knee. Just Progressively, probably just got worse throughout the day. I think by the time I was done, it was Max Payne. So yeah, I didn't nothing really got better with with the miles or anything. But that was beautiful, it was
[00:49:09] Brigham: nice morning. Yeah, when we stopped it, the Indian Garden for a little break. 80 degrees and I don't know what time was it like 9:30 or 10? Yeah, it was yeah. So yeah, definitely. Took took some serious effort. to get up to the top with the knee issue, but Yeah, it's cool. Cool to get done and oh, Yeah, yes. So there I was just. just miserable and just putting myself through pain.
[00:50:01] Brigham: we were like, Maybe a half a mile from the top. and, there was a like an overhanging Tree by, you know, the overhang the, the trail And right, when I walked under it, a big giant Crow decided to leave the tree and poop on my head, and my arm and my leg. I don't even know how that's possible. Hit all those three places with poop butt. I got. I got Drive By
[00:50:33] Brigham: by a crow. So, but I was wearing my hood over my hat, so I think that was pretty good protection. Yeah. Good day. yeah, when the day, can't get any worse, Never say that because it always can you can get get pooped on by a bird at any moment. Yeah. So I, I tucked in with Eric and bring him at the back here and quite enjoyed it. I had
[00:51:12] Tayson: Some knee pain starting out and it kind of dissipated. But anytime I started to pick up the pace, it would come back. Just a little bit. And anytime there was like any downhill which was almost never it would come back immediately. But so I was, I was happy to, you know, give these guys company and anytime that I had any kind of like, oh man, this this climbs going on, I just
[00:51:33] Tayson: look at Brigham or air can be like, oh, I'm shaped
[00:51:37] Tayson: it was great because no Brigham is the Brigham. We always talk about this is like
[00:51:45] Tayson: He like, rarely ever leads the pack. But he'll tuck into like the second position and you can't shake him like you could like run up the Mountainside and I feel like you don't you can't shake him out of that spot. You just he just follows whatever face you set? He's there. So I know he was hurting pretty bad because he was, he was slowing down a little bit and I think me
[00:52:06] Tayson: and Eric just enjoyed that aspect of it. So yeah, I'll let Eric talk for a minute, but I also want to hear how much about how much she enjoyed the squirrels, you know? Climbing on a shoulders and stuff.
[00:52:19] Eric: Yeah, so that's probably one of the biggest things about this whole trip is the squirrels are just so, I mean things,
[00:52:27] Eric: you know, I'm just hanging out in the back, you know, trying to keep up with my minimal amount of training or whatnot, probably one of the hardest hikes I've ever done but I think it was Indian Garden where they're just literally inches away from my elbow and I didn't even know it and they're just trying to, like, eat the food that I've got in my hand and, you know, we're swapping them
[00:52:47] Eric: away, you know, and try to fend them off with Pools and they're just totally vicious. But, you know, that made it to the top eventually. Time to go get a burrito. This would be what? What was like that I guess. Time in the canyon versus your expectations. Okay, just well it was definitely a lot harder than expected to be. The downhill, you know, it was what it was and I kind of
[00:53:38] Eric: expected all that but I kind of thought that I'd be able to hang on a little bit longer with everybody on day one. The trail just seems to never end on day two, so it just was a lot harder than I expected. But
[00:53:55] Eric: I looked into it beforehand. So should have done my research but I ended up being all right, and it was a good time. I'm glad it went, but pushing your limits. I get it deep or anything to get out of there. I think so. Yeah. Just, you know, mentally trying to, you know, keep on going, you know, but
[00:54:26] Derek: All right, well, this podcast has been going on for a little while. Does anybody have any final thoughts? Any final stories before I and this thing. Oh, highest high and lowest low a real quick off the top of your head. Highest high was the first half of day one. Like I said, I really get along with running downhills So I actually was having a blast as we were just running down the
[00:55:02] Derek: South Kaibab Trail. The first eight to ten miles and that was definitely my high seeing the Grand Canyon from the South Rim View for the first time. low with low was probably, Oh man. probably getting to the north rim and realizing melt. And I still needed a hike another, you know, 15 to 17 miles back to Camp. That was probably the low for me.
[00:55:40] Tyler: All right, for me. I think the highest high was Just hitting the top of the South Korean, the sunrise. We were wanting to be hitting it early than Sunrise, but I was glad that we hit it when we did, because the views were amazing. And it was just so cool and exciting to be coming in. Seeing it like that and be feeling fresh and and just be cruising down there. So I
[00:56:11] Tyler: think that that was probably the highest just really excited about the trip. And then the lowest low I think was probably the last couple miles of, the first day where Brigham and I are just kind of, Stumble in through the canyon in the dark thinking that camp is going to be just around the corner every corner, and it not be in there. And then and then I, when I finally got into
[00:56:44] Tyler: camp that was kind of when like, like, I don't know if it's mental or if it's just a reaction of like stopping them and letting my guard down. But that was when I started to feel a little sick and over exerted and and just completely spent and so that took a minute for me to Like, even be able to move. Like I just laid down on the picnic table and when we
[00:57:11] Tyler: got in and had to Do some breathing exercises and just give myself a second before I could even set up my tent. So that was My
[00:57:24] Darren: highest high was same as tired, Tyler's just getting started on that south rim. There was some amazing views over there. Just being able to see, I've never seen the Grand Canyon before. So for me, it was all new and that was just awesome to see lowest low. You can probably guess was just when I started cramping. It's like you know, when tasting comes and says hey how you doing? And he has
[00:57:48] Darren: that question in his mouth like just like gonna be able to finish because we don't really want to wait. It's like, it's like, so no. It's like, it's always done the nice this way. It's like, but I never wanted to be that guy. And so That was the lowest low. I was like, I hope I can finish. It's like it was hard and so yeah, it sucked. But you know, I was
[00:58:15] Darren: able to do it. So I was happy about that, but that was a low points. When I had to consider for myself, like should I really do this? Am I gonna do more damage? Against better judgment. I probably I still went but that was the lowest low.
[00:58:33] Brigham: All right, well for the sake, of not repeating, everybody's highest high. My highest high was the finishing, the south rim today and being done. uh,
[00:58:50] Brigham: Because it's a great hike. I love coming down here, but definitely lowest low was the first night crutching myself down the trail for 14 miles in the dark. Well, no like eight miles in the dark. Knowing that. Tyler was fully capable of going much faster and was having to stick back with me for an extra probably three hours of hiking. They didn't need to do so that definitely was painful and not
[00:59:22] Brigham: enjoyable. It was a well,
[00:59:30] Eric: I guess the biggest fight for me was when we're running down, and Thinking to myself, man, I can hang with these guys who's gonna go great and then the low part was getting a cottonwood Campground. You know, I already recognized that. I can't hang. So that was one. I know decided to tap out and turn around because I kept on going, it would be another 20 miles and I just didn't have
[01:00:00] Eric: it in me to keep on going.
[01:00:04] Joe: You say the highest high? Yeah, running down. Yeah. Apparently this trip sucked. Everyone was happy at the beginning and to get it over with what I got out of all of these answers. Now, I Obviously, the rundown was really beautiful. It's really awesome but
[01:00:22] Tayson: I'd say the highest high for me.
