Rim to Rim to Rim (R3)

Some statistics:
South Kaibab Trail is 7.1 miles to the bottom of the canyon from the South Rim. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Kaibab_Trail
North Kaibab Trail is 14 miles from the bottom of the canyon to the North Rim. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Kaibab_Trail
Bright Angel Trail is 8.1 miles from the bottom of the canyon to the South Rim. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_Angel_Trail

On Friday, Geo and Mark left Prescott around 3 pm. They met Sabrina and Walter at the Mather Campground on the South Rim around 7. They had dinner and went to bed. Wake up came early on Saturday morning. They broke down the camp and moved the vehicles and were on the South Kaibab Trail at 6:55 am. Geo was the first one up on the North Rim around 6 pm. The rest followed shortly. Meanwhile, Simona and I left Glendale at 7:30 am and were in Flagstaff by 9:30. We had some errands to run and then we were back on the road at 12. We made it to the North Rim at 4 pm and had the camp set up before 5 pm. Geo ran into the campsite and sent Simona back with the car to pick up the others (it's about a mile and a half to the campsite from the trailhead).

On Sunday morning, we were up at 5:30 but didn't make it to the trailhead until 7 am. They were quickly off and I got to go take some pictures before meeting back up with Simona at the campground. We packed up by 9:15 and then we hiked on a North Rim trail called Widforss. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widforss_Trail We hiked about 2 miles each way. Then we hit the road to the South Rim. We arrived just after 4 pm because of multiple stops for taking pictures along the way. What a scenic drive it is! We set up the camp and got a shower before Geo arrived at 7:05 pm. He ran from Indian Gardens all the way to the campsite. That took him one hour and 35 minutes. Wow. It took a little longer for Sabrina to summit and then Mark and Walter came along too. We were all clean and had dinner by 10 pm. Mark drove home that night (he had to teach on Monday!) and the rest of us passed out and were up before 6:30 on Monday morning.

The drive home was easy compared to all the little stretches of highway we were on Saturday and Sunday. We got home about 12:30 pm on Monday and we were back to our routines instantly!

Total trail miles hiked: 43.2, with a bit extra for hiking on the rims (just shy of two marathons, which would be 52.4 miles).
Total miles driven: approx. 794 in 3 days.
Hours of sleep (for Krissy): 6 each night (one night without a sleeping bag due to my last-minute counting error).
Hours of enjoyment (for Krissy): the whole trip!

I hope you think that my husband and friends are crazy: this is not normal behavior. R3 is not meant for everyone and certainly not reasonable in 2 days. These people are very lucky. It could have been very bad for them. Thankfully, they survived and are even talking about doing it again!

Enjoy my pictures. I hope to be adding more from Sabrina and Simona soon.

Best of Krissy's R3