Section 5: Chasing Lemonade
We’re on our way to Phantom Ranch and as you may know, Phantom Ranch has the Canteen, which is a small restaurant and convenience store that sells world famous lemonade. The Canteen closes to general traffic (or at least while we were there) at 4pm, so our goal was clear.
We left Manzanita at about 1:30pm, and with about 8.5 miles to go, we were pretty confident we could make it by four.
We were heading back into the flatter, yet mostly downhill section of exposed terrain and then through The Box into Phantom Ranch Campground. At this point, we’re in the true heat of the day. Temperatures were around 105° F and you could really feel it when we got into the section of open canyon where the walls didn’t provide any shade. While we thought that this section would be quicker because it’s more runnable, it was also incredibly hot and once we passed Cottonwood Campground, there was no water for 6.5 miles.
So, we booked It to Cottonwood and refilled our bottles being sure to get as much hydration as our body could take and fully filling all three flasks, preparing to run with my poles in my hand so my quiver could be the holder of my third Salomon xA filter flask.
As we set out from Cottonwood, we were all in pretty good spirits and along the way we got plenty of encouragement. Despite the suggestion by the national park service not to hike in the heat of the day, there were a lot of people going North at this time of day, my guess is that many were rim-to-rim hikers. Nearly every person or group we passed gave us a huge smile and most of them gave us some kind of verbal support. “You guys are amazing!” “Incredible guys! Keep crushing it!” “You’re an inspiration!” It was so motivating to hear along the way and it really takes the mind off the challenge of the task at hand to get those positive vibes. Of course, we returned the energy, as one does when you feel the camaraderie of the trail. As I said earlier, this aspect of the journey was so energizing, you can’t overlook it. Embrace the love you get from everyone around you and give it right back. There’s plenty to go around when you’re walking among the majesty of this natural wonder.
We were cruising at this point (for us), keeping about a 12 min/mile pace. We took only a couple breaks where we stopped along the way to get some shade and rest for a min or two while we ate. The first of those breaks was out in an exposed flat section that had no cover from the sun at all. We ended up finding a large boulder in the middle of the field and I took a seat in the dirt right under it. I felt like an animal taking shade in the heat while I nibbled on a cookies and cream Honey Stinger waffle. Typically I really like these, but at that moment, it was not pleasant to put down.
One thing to note for this long “downhill” section of the trail is that while it is on average downhill, there are still plenty of uphill sections. I suggested that since we were making good time to get to Phantom Ranch, we run all the flats and downhills and speed walk the uphills. This turned out to be a pretty good call. We all had heavy legs at this point, so these little sections of walking sprinkled into our running were a nice rest while still moving quickly. Our 12 minute miles were a result of this run/walk model and overall it’s a pretty solid way to conserve energy and still move at a pretty good clip (Shout out to a solo R3 runner from YouTube for this tip, she was right on).
By the time we made it back to the Box, we were all running low on water, and I think Evan and Scott might have even run out, which only further motivated us to get to Phantom Ranch more quickly. The Box turned out to be our savior because the narrow portion of the canyon is sunk between high winding walls, which actually meant a lot of shade along the way. Even though it was the mid-afternoon and the sun was high, we got a lot of shade as the trail winds. In addition to the shade there was also a breeze funneling through the canyon, and while it was probably a hot breeze relatively speaking, to us it felt nice and cool. It was still hot through this section, but the shade mixed with the strong breeze made this the most enjoyable part of the return run.
A quick aside…
I want to rewind to our pre-event planning for a second. When we were talking through how this day would go, one thing we planned on was a lot of talking with each other. We had many ideas we wanted to hash out, plans to make and shit to shoot. The reality of what happened is that almost none of that was said while in the canyon. It turned out that A) it was tough to hear each other along the route, especially if you were in back or front, and B) there was a level of focus on the task at hand that was required throughout that prevented our minds from freely meandering through all our idle thoughts. It’s actually quite impressive that you can sustain such mental focus on only the things important to pursuing this goal for such a sustained period of time. Anyway, all chit chat was saved for later and so for anyone else reading this, don’t expect to solve the world’s problems or come up with new innovative ideas while out on the trail. That may be something for breakfast the next day.
Lemonade, finally!
At 3:30pm we emerged from the Box and into the North end of Phantom Ranch. We made it just in time! We walked through the campground to the Canteen and I immediately went to the window and ordered us four lemonades. $26 for four sugar waters… 100% worth the money. The acclaim was confirmed. Perhaps because we were 40 miles into this thing and it was insanely hot or perhaps because it really was the best lemonade ever created. Either way it hit the spot. I debated getting another one but didn’t and in hindsight, regret that decision.
From all the videos I watched of Phantom Ranch, I was expecting a nice picnic area with plenty of seating and shade. It turned out that none of that was true. Outside the Canteen, there were a couple of park benches sitting in full sun, and an area of medium sized stones you could sit on. The water spigot is also completely unshaded and there’s one bench along the outside of the Canteen, but there was a German couple sitting there already. I ended up pulling my pack off and sitting down on a rock next to the building and tried to relax and enjoy my lemonade, though this was pretty uncomfortable.
As I’m relaxing, I notice that my calves are dancing. I had all these micro spasms going on that were pretty strange and an indicator that I was dehydrated. I would need to remedy this before the last 10 miles, so I chugged about a liter of water and a couple Salt Stick electrolyte pills. I also decided I needed something else salty to eat so I went back to the window and bought a bag of potato chips. I didn’t really want to eat these in the moment, but I forced them down and I’m glad I did. The extra salt was really helpful and it was something different in my stomach that really helped.
As another aside, I wish I had some good pictures to share of the Canteen at Phantom Ranch, but at this point I was so low energy and we were focused on recovery that I didn’t take my phone out once. There are, however, plenty of good images online and on other accounts if you’re really curious. It’s a pretty neat place.
Something fun for the family, he thought…
While researching the Grand Canyon on the National Park Service website (nps.gov) I saw a video that talked about Phantom Ranch and one of the things it said was that the Canteen is technically a post office and you could send a postcard from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to be carrier out by mule. Having two small kids, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to do this, so I bought a postcard and a stamp, wrote my family a letter and put it in the small letter mailbox they have. The postcards are already pre-stamped with “Mailed by Mule at the bottom of the Grand Canyon from Phantom Ranch,” which I thought would be really cool to explain to them when the letter finally showed up at home. Punchline: my 6 year old thought it was cool for all of 10 seconds. It was more exciting for me than anyone else in the house as it turned out.
Let’s Get On!
Anyway, the guys were ready to go so I tried to hurry, but it took me a little extra time to get ready because at this point was feeling pretty gassed. During this stop, I didn’t do much talking. I just kept thinking “ok, only 10 miles to go, it’s definitely going to be dark when we get out, so now we just have to push.” But despite the positive self-talk I was dragging. There were groups of people there at Phantom Ranch that were buying beers from the Canteen and hanging out drinking in front of one of the cabins. It looked like heaven. Nonetheless we had to move.
This place is definitely a reprieve and the lemonade and other snacks they sell are definitely worth chasing on your way back to the South rim, but it’s not quite as comfy as I was hoping and other than the food and the postcards, not a great place to hang out in the heat of the sun.