Rim to Rim to Rim

We made it! We finally made it from Grand Canyon North Rim to South Rim....yeah!!! The trip was indeed an adventorous one. It wasn't as easy as we thought. Though it wasn't extremely hard physically....it could be a mental torture if your determination is not strong enough to complete the entire hike. The distance from North Rim to South Rim is 23.9 miles. Not flat ground all the way, it was 23.9 miles uphill and downhill plus 3-hour walk of flat ground. But then again, the flat ground was the toughest part of all cos it's at the bottom of the canyon and the temperature went up to as high as 108 degree farenheit or 40 plus degree celcius. There wans't any shade at all for the 3 hours and we were exposed to the sun all the way and the worse thing was there wasn't any water points along this long stretch of trail at all. It was indeed like walking at desert for 3.5 hours. We alomost collapsed when we arrived at Phantom Ranch (the deepest point of the whole canyon.....but we survived!) It might not sound difficult to professional hiker but it was really tough for people like us who have never gone through proper trainings.

We started at 6.45am from North Kaibab trail (North Rim). We met Cindy's and Edward's frens on the way down...they were hiking up to North Rim from South Rim, the opposite direction of us. After 4 hours walk, we arrived at Ribbon Falls, a place where we could cool ourselves down. We took 2-hour break at Ribbon Falls and carried on our trip to Phantom Ranch.


This stretch of trail was the toughest of all as I said....flatground but extremely hot. The moment we arrived at Phantom Ranch, all of us were like survivors stranded at desert....we literally ran into to the restaurant to snatch some cold drinks. We almost died of thirst man. We were too tired to continue and slept 2 hours on the bench outside the restaurant.

Jakub wanted to do Rim to Rim to Rim, which means from North Rim to South Rim and then back to North Rim. But looking at our condition at Phantom Ranch, we could barely make it for Rim to Rim. To fulfill his dream(Rim to Rim to Rim), we decided to CHIONG all the way to South Rim on the same day, else we couldn't make it back in 3 days. We set off from Phantom Ranch at 6pm, estimated arrival time at South Rim was 1am. Wah....we still gotta locate the campground at South Rim and set up our tents...it might take another 1.5 hours to settle everything. In the end, we decided to hike only to Indian Garden on that day and carried on our journey to South Rim the next morning. Anyway it was just 3 hour from South Rim.


We woke up late the next morning. We were supposed to wake up at 5am but we woke up at 8.30am instead. That also means that Jakub's dream of Rim to Rim to Rim was no longer possible. Haha...the rest of us heaved a sigh of relief for the scrap of plan....haha! Since we no longer have to do Rim to Rim to Rim, we took our time slowly walk up to Southh Rim. We were lucky enough to watch a helicopter rescue along the way up. The helicopter rescue costs USD5000....hmmmm never ever take it even you stucked there.


4 hours later, we arrived at Grand Canyon South Rim. We were so excited that we finally made it to South Rim.

Hmmm....I personally feel that South Rim is not as beautiful as North Rim. It's developed and commercialised but it's not done in a proper way. Everything is so inorganised and messy. I'm so glad that I chose North Rim.

We headed directly to the employee cafe hoping that we could bump into someone we know. We were so lucky to meet this chinese girl called Lan Yuan who was willing to provide us with free accomodation. Girls dorm and guys dorm in South Rim are separateed...not like North Rim, girls and guys live together in the same dorm. Lan Yuan brought us around South Rim to show us all the "must-visits". At night, we joined Lan Yuan's frens for a farewell BBQ. So glad to have her there. We slept in Alfred, Victor and Peixing's room that night. Haha...the world is so small, Peixing was the guy whom we met along the way down to the canyon...and he stayed in my room with my room mate when he came to North Rim (when I was still hiking towards South Rim). Haha...that was really interesting.


Thanks victor for bring us around the next day. We had a great time in South Rim.


However shits do happened! Our shuttle bus back to North Rim which scheduled to leave at 1.30pm left without us even we were there on time at the front desk. I was damn pissed and I was damn nasty with the people there. I belived that this the way we should deal with this kinda of situation if not the people would just take it lightly. I held the front desk guy responsible for everything that happened cos he was the one who told us to wait at the front desk. Even though I knew that the shuttle bus was the only transport back to North Rim, but I just din care...I kept pushing the guy to provide us transport by hook or by crook. I tried calling Trans Canyon shuttle bus service but to no avail. The guy who answered the called was damn freaking rude...typical ignorant and apathetic American. I really really hate this kinda cocky Americans. I have no choice but to keep bugging the front desk guy. I even went to South Rim HR office to talk to the manager to see if she can do anything. She tried helping us but too bad, we failed again! I gotta go back to the front desk to bug that guy again. Felt sorry for him cos it wasn't completely his fault. But I just had to find someone to responsible for it. I would describe myself as a dog which doesnt let go when it bites on something. We even made a placard with "WE NEED RIDE BACK TO NORTH RIM" on it and stood at the main lobby hoping that someone would give us a ride back. After a while, the front desk manager came to me to tell me that he found someone to send us back. We were really overthrilled when we heard that...jumping and shouting like crazy at the lobby! We made it again! We gave our email addresses to them before we left just in case they wanna visit to Grand Canyon North Rim, Malaysia, Singapore or even Czech Republic. Haha....felt a bit paiseh for being nasty with the people there.
Lesson to learn: Never give up even it might seem impossible.

The girl who sent us back is Celia. She had a day off the next day and she wanted to visit North Rim. She even brought us to Desert View, a must-visit in South Rim before we left. Another good thing was, we only paid USD5 for the gasoline instead USD35 for the shuttle bus. It was indeed a blessing in disguise man. We provided her with free accomodation and free food as a form of appreciation. We were really lucky.


I just received an email from the Front Desk manager from South Rim when I was writing this blog. The manager apologised for whatever happened yesterday. He has shown his professionalism in handling situation like this. Thanks so much Glenn.


I was really an unforgettable trip! I would never forget this interesting trip.

RIM TO RIM TO RIM!!!!!