Hole to Hump Run 2010

Everything Set To Go

Susan and Matt were set to do support, we had John’s suburban for driving around on all the dirt roads and I had my food drops and supplies all packed and ready to go. I have tried this thing twice before, so the planning and preparing was quite easy compared to the first time. I had already done all the dirty work of driving the route, making maps, and trying this thing twice to learn the what’s, when’s, where’s and how’s of this thing. The only thing I didn’t have dialed was what it feels like to push through mile 70 at Kendrick Park and finish this thing. I was determined to push through that wall this time.

What is the Hole to Hump? It’s pretty simple…Run from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the top of Mt. Humphrey’s. Here’s a bit more detail…Start at Phantom Ranch, in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Go up the S. Kaibab Trail (7.5 miles) to the south rim and follow the Rim Drive Road East (10ish miles) to Grandview Lookout. From Grandview Lookout, it’s all dirt roads (a bit over 60 miles of ‘em) until near Mt. Humphrey’s. The dirt road section of the route follows the old Stagecoach Route that was used back in the day for people to get from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon in yep, you guessed it… stagecoaches. Finally, the AZ trail (7ish miles) is followed near Mt. Humphrey’s to the Humphrey’s Trail Head and the journey is finished with the 4.5 mile section of the Humphrey’s Trail to the summit. Thus, Hole to Hump. In the end, it’s about 11,000 ft. of elevation gain and a little over 90 miles (not counting the effort to get down into the canyon before the run and going back down Mt. Humphrey’s after reaching the summit. That’s another 11 miles and about 10,000 ft of elevation loss to tack on that’s not counted).

This path isn’t the “approved” way or anything. It is just the most “common” way to do it. There are a few other ways out there like the not very extreme version of following the main highway from the Grand Canyon to Mt. Humphrey’s (I haven’t heard of anyone running it this way as you would have to run on the narrow shoulder of one of the more dangerous and busy roads in the state of Arizona) and the very, very extreme version of sometimes following dirt roads and sometimes going straight for the mountain through the forest and desert and then at the end climbing straight up the north side of the mountain off trail. This last version is the most direct but also has some serious route finding and the most risky. I chose the most “common” way because I like the idea of following the Stagecoach Route and staying off the Highway as it is the most direct way to the mountain from the Grand Canyon that still stay on dirt roads to get help if need be.

As you may have noticed, I haven’t said anything about this being an organized race. Well it isn’t and probably never will be. The Grand Canyon National Park doesn’t allow organized races in the canyon and the Humphrey’s Trail on Mt. Humphrey’s is in a wilderness area and would be very difficult to get the permits to race on. Besides, it is an organizer’s nightmare to get a bunch of runners to the bottom of the Grand Canyon to start a race and then finish on top of a mountain and then have to get everyone back down after already maxing themselves running 90+ miles.

It’s probably better this way in my opinion. I kind of like the idea that it is an “underground” run that isn’t all hyped with a bunch of people running it all the time. To do this thing you have to put the time in planning, organizing and getting support all on your own. You will be running by yourself or with a few friends. It’s a bit out there and I think that can be more satisfying then having course markers at every turn, aid stations every 10 miles and people everywhere to bail you out.

Although I guess, because it is all on dirt roads, you can play it how you want and have support the whole way and mark the whole course. You can do it that way or anyway you like. I guess that is the freedom this route gives. Go hard with less help and drops or go easy with lots of support. I know people that have done it with no support (Andrew Frost used a bike trailer connected to his body to bring all his supplies so he could do it unsupported) and I know people that have done it with a car driving most of the course with them, to each their own.

For support, I went with:
-S. Kaibab Trailhead (7.5 miles) – Susan met me
-Grandview Lookout Tower (about 18 miles) – Susan met me
-Moqui Stop (about 35 miles) – Food and water drop
-Cedar Ranch (about 60 miles) – Matt met me
-Kendrick Park (about 70-75 miles) - Matt met me in two locations a few miles apart and then traveled with me the rest of the way on foot
-Humphrey’s Trailhead (about 90 miles) -Susan met me with friends Frank and Gina
-Humphrey’s Trail – Susan and Matt hiked with me

For energy:
Gu Gels
Shot Bloks
Nuun
Boiled potatoes with salt
A couple burritos (refried beans, cheese, avocado and salt)
A couple eggs
Potato Chips

For carrying energy, water and extra cloths:
Combination of a Nathan Hydration pack and a couple hand helds

Big Respect

I wanted to thank all those that have inspired me to keep trying this thing and to even realize that it was something to do in the first place. Andrew Frost for doing it with a bike trailer, unsupported, Mathieu Brown for having completed it in just over 25 hours and of course the man, Scott Baxter, for his early pioneering effort of running the route in less then 24 hours. His record of 21 hours 29 minutes with Alan Williams in 1982 may still be the fastest time. Thanks for the inspiration guys.

Getting to the start

It was not a given that the run was going to happen even up to the morning of the run. Because the run was last minute, I had a few hurdles of peoples schedules, vehicles and some questionable weather to deal with the weeks leading up to the run but the night before the run was the real kicker.

The plan for the night before the run (Friday) was for Susan and I to do a few food and water drops along the route with Matt in tow for the ones near Flagstaff (he was going to be supporting me at a few of them the next night during the run) and then Susan and I would go ahead alone to do the final one near Moqui Stop and then camp near Grandview Lookout Tower. We would then get up and drive the few miles to the S. Kaibab Trailhead and the start of the run the next morning (Saturday).

Everything went well with the section of drops with Matt. There was a fair bit of rain and I knew it was dumping snow on Humphrey’s (worrying me about the finish of the run…) but the driving was o.k. on the dirt roads. Everything seemed fine so far. Besides, the weather was supposed to improve overnight with clearing skies. The rain was supposed to stop.

I was a bit worried about what the dirt roads were going to be like near the Grand Canyon for my final drop at Moqui Stop and camping but the weather forecast gave me hope that the roads would be o.k. by the time we got to them and continue to improve for the run. Note: Dirt roads in the Flagstaff area are notorious for becoming big muck piles in rainy weather.

It got a lot more exciting after Susan and I said our goodbyes to Matt and continued on to the dirt roads we would need to navigate near the Grand Canyon. The weather was getting better (no more rain) but the roads were in a little worse shape. The main dirt road we had to follow was doing o.k. for the first 10 miles or so but then we tried to take a right and follow a less traveled dirt road the 3 or so miles to Moqui Stop and only made it a ½ mile in before sliding around a bit in some muck and finally stopping, admitting defeat and turning around near a corral and an extremely bad section of the road. It was pretty much a pond of ruts and muck that we didn’t need to test. Luckily, we weren’t that many miles from Moqui Stop and I felt that placing the food and water drop here instead would be fine. There was no reason to get stuck trying to advance our food and water drop a couple more miles.

After dropping the food and water, we slowly made the drive back to the better dirt road and continued on our way. We had about 12 miles of what I remembered from before to be good dirt road to travel until our preferred camping spot near Grandview Lookout Tower and a good night’s sleep before starting into the canyon at 8 am.

Oh…did I forget to mention that by the time we were in this section of dirt roads it was about 9 pm? So, as long as the next section of roads went well we would be sleeping by 10 or 11 pm. Reasonable.

Well, we only made it another couple miles until we hit a huge muck pile that totally caught me by surprise. I had no time to stop before I was right in the worse part, fighting to keep the suburban from going completely sideways and getting hopelessly stuck. There were a few moments where I think I didn’t breathe and I had the front wheels totally cranked trying to keep the back end from coming around completely.

Somehow we made it through to a drier patch of road and stopped the vehicle to collect ourselves. I was really surprised we made it through and did not want to go back through it. Way too risky, I thought. It really freaked me out.

I got out of the vehicle to assess the upcoming section of road as it didn’t look a whole lot better and as I walked it I realized that my fears were confirmed. It looked horrible. I was not interested in testing this section of road, especially when I don’t know if it was going to get even worse further ahead.

I wasn’t really psyched to go back through what we had just been through either so we decided to park it right there and sleep. We figured that a good night of clearing skies and above freezing temperatures would help dry out the road a bit and we would try for getting out in the morning. No need to get stuck in the middle of the night just because we were being impatient.

Seemed like a good plan until sometime in the middle of the night when it started to downpour, and downpour it did. For pretty much the rest of the night it rained off and on with some pretty amazingly strong bits of raining.

As I went in and out of consciousness stressing about the rain and being kept up with my bouts with Shiloh (our dog) walking around, not laying down and generally keeping me up, I slowly came to grips with the fact that we may not be getting out of our camping spot for quite a while and that I wasn’t going to be running Hole to Hump at all. It seemed pretty clear that the more important thing here was getting off this dirt road and onto pavement again someday, whenever that may be.

In the morning, after waking up and laying around assuming defeat for a while and feeling all whacked out from lack of sleep, Susan emerged from the vehicle to check things out and commented that the road wasn’t that wet. I wasn’t convinced but got up to check it out anyway and sure enough the road was miraculously in pretty decent shape. Not great, but better than the night before.

I know this doesn’t make sense after all the raining that happened over night but, whatever, I’d take it. It was still early enough in the morning that if we could get out we could make it to the S. Kaibab Trail by about 9 am and I could still run this thing. A bit behind schedule but for sure workable.

I was a bit worried about muddy dirt roads that could seriously slow me down for running and how much snow there was on Humphrey’s after yesterday’s dumping but I’m not sure if I cared enough at this point to let it stop me. I just wanted to start running. Susan and I discussed the fact that I still had an opportunity to make this happen and both of us agreed to take a shot.

Luckily, after making sure the suburban was in four wheel drive and holding our breath again the muddy section went pretty smoothly. Before we knew it we were back on pavement and feeling much more optimistic. The weather was still a bit threatening but it was supposed to keep getting better and we were on our way. By a little before 9 am we had reached the S. Kaibab Trailhead and it was on. Crisis averted. I was going to have my chance at doing this thing.

The Run

By 9ish I was packed to go into the canyon, Susan and I walked the short distance to the S. Kaibab Trailhead from where we parked, took a few photos, said goodbye and I started in.


-feeling strong before the run!

-on the hike over to the S. Kaibab Trailhead to start hiking in.

-Basking in the glory of the Grand Canyon before heading in! I love this place.

My goal was to be in the bottom of the canyon and ready to come back out by Noon (three hours later). I tried to take my time going down but I really had a hard time holding back with all the excitement of what I was about to do so I decided to just let my legs carry me down at whatever pace they wanted as long as I wasn’t running.

The journey down was full of entertainment as I had a few fun conversations with fellow hikers, saw some runners and got to listen in on some weird conversations from a fundamentalist mormon group (all the women were hiking in dresses of course).

I reached the bottom in just over 2 hours, a bit fast for what I was looking for but I felt fine so no big deal. I tried to wait as long as I could to start the run and come out at Noon but my impatience got the best of me and I started back up from the S. Kaibab bridge at exactly 11:45 am.

I felt really good considering the rough night and the hike in and was ready to give it my best. My goal was to get back up the 7.5 miles and almost 5,000 ft of elevation gain of the S. Kaibab Trail in about 2:45 with a mix of walking the steep parts and jogging the flats. Even with keeping to this goal, I moved well and was able to reach the rim in 2:20 (2:05 pm). I was a little worried that I may have come out too fast but it didn’t seem like a big effort coming out so I tried to just focus on the next section.

When I got to the parking spot for the S. Kaibab Trail, Susan was there in efficiency mode ready to help in any way. She was really, really helpful and I was able to get my pack off and change over to a hand held for the next 11 mile section of road to Grandview Lookout Tower very quickly.

The next section to Grandview Lookout Tower was one of my least favorite parts of the run and I was really, really glad to finish it. There isn’t a lot to say about this section except that it is pretty boring running along the Rim Drive Road, so it is all pavement running and car dodging. Luckily, they had just finished repaving this section and there was a fair bit of gravel on the side that was flat so I could run off road sometime too. That was nice.

I put in a decent pace on this part to get it over with so it wouldn’t drag on forever and got to Grandview Lookout Tower in seriously improving weather by 4 pm. Again, Susan was awesome and helped wherever she could. We got me changed into some new cloths, packed my Nathan pack and I was off headed toward Moqui Stop in less than 10 minutes. Oh yeah…not before I had to wait a minute to make sure Susan could start the suburban! The starter was giving her trouble that day and it took a few turns of the key to get it started. Whew! Luckily, that was the last support stop she had until she met me at Mt. Humphrey’s the next morning. As long as she didn’t turn off the car she would be fine to get home. All would be o.k.

-Getting my Nathan pack ready to go at Grandview Lookout Tower.

-One last gulp. Time to go solo for a while...

-Hard to see... but I'm in the back end of the photo running off toward Mt. Humphrey's more than 70 miles away (just leaving Grandview Lookout Tower).

From Grandview Lookout Tower I was to be on my own all the way to Cedar Ranch (where I would see Matt), almost 37 miles, so I had my Nathan pack and two hand helds for the journey. I only filled my Nathan ¾ full with water though because it was only 13 miles or so to my drop near Moqui Stop. I was going light on cloths still too because I had all my cloths for running through the night in my drop near Moqui Stop. At the drop near Moqui, is where I would really weight myself down with a full Nathan pack and full handhelds for the remaining 27 miles to Cedar Ranch and Matt.

It was all pretty cruiser running still to Moqui as the roads were drying out well and I didn’t have any trouble till I got to the area where our car got stuck for the night. It was kind of strange running past that spot realizing that I had been there stressing all night not a whole lot more than 12 hours earlier, wondering if I would even get to do this thing at all.

When I got to my drop near Moqui Stop around 7 pm it was still really, really muddy there and I had to do a fair bit of running through the woods instead of on the road. Not a big deal, as the forest is so open in this area but still a little slower as it was dusk and getting a bit harder to see. I stopped at my drop near Moqui just as it was getting dark, perfect timing as I was glad to have more cloths incase I needed it before it started getting super dark and cold. I was also psyched to eat a bean burrito that I had stashed there with my food and water as I was finally getting to the point where it would be nice to eat something that was real food and would settle the stomach. Mmmm…that burrito was good. Way better than Gu.

The next section is my other least favorite section of the run, the wide open Babbitt Ranch section. I don’t really do very well with wide open, flat dirt roads without much change in scenery and this next 27 mile section is, for me, the worse. There is a short section that goes through a canyon that is pleasant but besides that it is mostly moonscape boring. The only redeeming thing is that I did this all at night and so I couldn’t really see too much around me. It did help but I can not explain to you enough how boring for me it is to run for 5 hours in the dark with a headlamp that only shows you a circle of flat dirt road 5 feet in front of you. Booorrrrinnng.

When I did reach Cedar Ranch and Matt, I was 60ish miles in and finally done with the horrid Babbitt Ranch section. I had felt good about my effort to this point though as I had run all the miles except run/walking the S. Kaibab to start and then the last 7 or 8 to Cedar Ranch. I definitely was feeling good and mostly stopped running the whole way because I was getting a bit paranoid about the next section that has killed me every year so far, the dreaded 9 or so miles to the start of Kendrick Park. Both times I had previously tried Hole to Hump I unraveled in this section and stopped at Kendrick Park. This time I was determined to have enough energy to push through to Kendrick Park feeling good.

When I met Matt at Cedar Ranch it was almost 1 am so our conversation wasn’t the most exciting. He was great though, offering up cookies and other snacks and making sure that I was in good shape before I continued on. It was nice but also strange to see someone out in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere for only a few moments before I was on my own again heading down the next lonely dirt road by headlamp.

At Cedar Ranch, I ate my second Burrito and again it was oh, so good. I was really glad to have those things as I didn’t make them too big or small and they perfectly hit the spot to settle the stomach which I knew I needed at this point being that this next section always killed me because I stopped wanting to eat.

This year, this section from Cedar Ranch to Kendrick went totally different. I ran at least a third of it and felt good walking the rest. Again, I felt like I could have maybe ran more but was paranoid that I might pay for it later and run out of energy so I kept to a walking pace most of the time. Not to say that I felt great or anything. The accumulation of miles was most definitely settling in and walking felt really good at this point. Running was starting to become pretty painful and a lot of work.

When I did finally make it through to Kendrick, I felt a completely different feeling than in past years. During both of my previous efforts I was a complete wreck and this year I exchanged pleasantries with Matt, gathered my food and water for the next section and was off. I didn’t even have a thought of stopping. That was a BIG change over past years and a BIG break through. I was extremely tires and running seemed out of the question but I was still walking at a good pace as I left Matt at the start of Kendrick and feeling positive. It was about 4 am and I felt great about my chances to summit.

Matt then went 3 or 4 miles further up the road to our next check in point and where he would travel with me by foot the rest of the way up the mountain. This next few miles proved to be one of the more difficult of the whole run. It started well but after a few miles I started to get really, really cold and couldn’t seem to eat enough or move fast enough to heat back up. I was at about 8,000 ft at this point, the sun hadn’t come up yet, all the clouds had disappeared and I had already traveled 70+ miles…and oh, yeah I started to see patches of ice on the ground. No wonder I was so cold.

I DID make it to Matt after what seemed like forever and had renewed optimism as the sun started to rise and Matt had good, positive energy.

As Matt and I started moving away from Kendrick Park and toward the mountain, I just wanted to warm up. It was all I could think about…well, I was also thinking about how there was a ton of snow on Mt. Humphrey’s (way more than I expected) and wondering how on earth we were going to work our way through it to the summit.

It was an amazingly beautiful morning, and through my exhaustion, wanting to be warm and fear of the conditions on the mountain I was really happy to be in such a wonderful place, walking through amazing aspen groves in full fall color and seeing the sun rise over Mt. Humphreys reflecting light off an amazing blanket of glistening snow.

I was almost there. Less than ten miles to the Mt. Humphrey’s trail head, Susan and the final stretch to the summit. Even with the great effort it took me to move my body forward at this point it was all worth it. This was my dream. I had pushed through the barrier of Kendrick Park and was focused on the summit. I wanted to keep moving forward and feel every sensation that was a part of it.

By the time Matt and I made it to Bizmark Lake (a few miles from the Humphrey’s Trailhead) I had even run a few times. Not very impressive running, mostly 4 mile an hour struggling for a few switchbacks but it made me feel that I had what it takes to make it to the summit. I still had something in me. Matt was great too because along this last section to the Humphrey’s Trailhead he kept me moving forward even when I took abnormally long breaks to try and pee even though I didn’t really have to go that bad and couldn’t get anything out. He just kept saying “keep moving forward.” That’s all he really needed to say, except after those long pee breaks when he would just tell me to get moving again. He wasn’t fooled.

The last few miles from Bizmark to Humphrey’s trail went slow but well and when we hiked the last bit of meadow up to the Humphrey’s trail parking lot I felt pretty good, reenergized by the sight of Susan coming down to us with warm tea and lots of good, positive energy. I was really glad to see her and glad for her to see me in good shape instead of a sniveling wreck like last year in Kendrick Park when I quit. I reached the Humphrey’s Trailhead parking lot at 10 am, 22 hours 15 minutes and almost 90 miles from when I started at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

-Looking up at Mt. Humphrey's and it's winter coat.

-Hiking up to the Humphrey's parking lot. Susan bringing tea to us!

-Very happy to see Susan again and very happy to be doing well.

-Beautiful Fall colors on the mountain. Last few steps to the Humphrey's parking lot.

In the Humphrey’s trail parking lot I also got to see Frank and Gina who were so nice to come up to the mountain to cheer me on and also take photos. I got to sit down for a few minutes (AWESOME!) and chill out while everyone took photos with me and then we finally snapped into shape and got our stuff together to hike up Humphrey’s.

-OMG! Sitting down!!!

-Frank and Gina!

-Susan and Shiloh!

Matt!

-The mountain!

-Packed and ready to start up the 4.5 mile Humphrey's Trail to the summit.

Matt and Susan were both wonderful enough to make the effort to the summit with me and I was sure glad to have them as I was most definitely going to need the encouragement and watchful eye making my way through the fresh snow up there.

-Aspens in the snow.

-Hiking early on the Humphrey's Trail with Matt's poles in hand. Man, these things were life savers.

So it began… the burly part of the whole deal (as if the whole rest of it wasn’t hard enough). We hit snow immediately and had to slog through slick, slushy snow that got deeper and deeper as we ascended. I moved relatively well along the first mile or so and then I started to get really slow. I could tell because day hikers were cruising past us up and down the trail as if I wasn’t even moving. I also wasn’t really talking as much. I pretty much was going into death march mode. I was pretty determined to summit but not making very quick work of it.

-I was starting to have the look of death in this photo. Still chuggin' along though...just keep moving forward.

After almost 3 miles up the Humphrey’s trail I had a really, really rough patch and had to sit down and put all of my clothes on as I was starting to get really, really cold. I tried to put my mountaineering boots on and had to bail on it because of extreme pain (my feet had swollen up to much to fit!). When I finally got talked into standing back up my body had tightened up so much that I went into a pretty ridiculous whining and negative Nancy tantrum about my condition and my fear of dying on the mountain.

-Oh boy...

-I was having a very rough patch here and if you notice carefully Matt is laughing...very funny Matt!

Susan finally talked me into continuing and once I got my body moving I started to move better and better with every step. It was pretty hard for me for the first bit of hiking after she talked me into continuing as I was on the verge of tears (I most definitely shed a few) and painfully whimpered on every step. Oh, it was excruciating. I have never felt such pain in my life but, like I said, I got going again and actually started to feel pretty good and optimistic until the harsh reality hit us a bit farther up the trail when we did some math and realized that we didn’t have headlamps, we wouldn’t reach the top and get back down to the car before dark, all the sopping snow was going to turn into a treacherous ice rink slope after dark and it was also howling wind on the upper ridge and I was having a hard time keeping warm. Wow, that’s a lot against us. All of a sudden, it didn’t look good. I really wanted to continue but it, all of a sudden, seemed like a really stupid and dangerous idea. It was most definitely not important enough to me to summit if it meant serious harm or death. It’s just not worth it. I was going to have a hard enough time just getting down as is was.

So we turned around. Very, very difficult and somewhat sad decision but on the hobble back down to the car we discussed how I had still broken through a big wall of mine and made it to within 2 miles of the summit of Mt. Humphrey’s and was stopped by the bad weather conditions. I was pretty psyched to know that I had it in me physically to make it if we didn’t have such extreme conditions on the mountain. My body could do it. That was a big step for me. In the end, I may not have finished Hole to Hump but I wasn’t sure I really cared. I didn’t stand on top but I broke through the wall and now I know I can. That is what I was really searching for on that effort, to break through and know that I can. After that realization came to me, everything changed. I now know there is a whole new level of possible for me in running. A whole new world to explore.

Thank you

Thank you to Susan and Matt for their big time help in supporting me especially at the end when they were the glue that kept the whole thing together. I learned one thing from them…to keep moving forward (well…unless your going to die I guess). Seems like an easy thing to do until mile 90. I’d also like to thank John for letting us almost get his Suburban stuck. Without his vehicle the whole thing wouldn’t have happened. Last but not least, I’d like to thank Frank and Gina for coming up to Humphrey’s to cheer me on for the last leg. It was very thoughtful.

Susan- Thank you for understanding and supporting me with all my running adventures. I know it can’t be easy. You are wonderful to make the time and help me realize my dreams.