{"id":338,"date":"2016-07-14T03:47:24","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T03:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/?p=338"},"modified":"2016-07-25T16:46:20","modified_gmt":"2016-07-25T16:46:20","slug":"it-will-kick-your-butt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/2016\/07\/14\/it-will-kick-your-butt\/","title":{"rendered":"It will kick your butt!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"South<\/a>

South Rim sunset – photo by Tricia Kissinger<\/p><\/div>\n

There are tours that fill up fast, according to UWSP Adventure Tours, and hiking Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon (GC) promised to be one of those. My spouse Karl and I had been talking about a great need to see GC and standing on the Rim wasn\u2019t going to cut it. Many of us can probably attribute our resurgence of love for national parks due to the Ken Burn\u2019s series on Public Television and 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the formation of the National Park Service. When UWSP Adventure Tours announced that registration was opening, we jumped into our boots and started the count down.<\/p>\n

Tour Leader Prof. Corey Huck provided his Grand Canyon training program to the group last summer, but for us, training really got serious six months out. Nothing spells out \u201cshaking up a Wisconsin winter hibernation plan\u201d like the \u201cHuck Make It Out Alive Plan.\u201d At least, that\u2019s how seriously we took it. We watched videos on extreme temperatures, dehydration, elevation gains and body abuse from descending and climbing. And thus, the diligent training began in January.<\/p>\n

\"Karl<\/a>

Karl Kissinger posing on the trail – photo by Tricia Kissinger<\/p><\/div>\n

Walking, cross country skiing, yoga, lunges, stair climbing, balance exercises, biking, and running \u2013 you name it, we did it. At three months out, our hiking group converged for our traveler orientation. Orientations are valuable (having done a few UWSP AT tours before); It\u2019s nice to meet your fellow hikers, discuss gear, ask questions, get answers, and provide a delusional sense of calm that \u201cyou\u2019ve got this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corey said a few times during the orientation that if you want to enjoy your trip, make sure you are conditioned and ready for it. He shared stories from the dark side and, even though we all sat with smiles on our faces, a wave of \u201choly-crap\u201d passed over us all.<\/p>\n

\"bridge<\/a>

bridge over the Colorado River – photo by Tricia Kissinger<\/p><\/div>\n

Flash forward to the end of May and we all stood on the South Rim and swooned with giddy excitement that we would be the lucky few who get to enter the curvy trail and descend from 6,800 feet to the Colorado River at 2,400 feet above see level. No one can explain the beauty that one sees on this hike \u2013 the sun constantly changes the canyon walls, the scenery evolves, the trail steepens, meanders, climbs and can frighten. Hiking down Bright Angel Trail for a few miles is a breeze. And after about 6 or 7 miles, you then feel like you had both knees replaced one hour ago and Nurse Ratched is behind you making you trudge onward. We all observed the hikers going in the opposite direction and on their way out. We admired them, cheered them, and wondered why they looked dazed.<\/p>\n

At the bottom, plunging into the icy cold waters of the Colorado River is like submerging into a giant Slurpee while sitting in an oven. To reward ourselves, Karl and I had stashed cans of beer from a local brewery in the bottom of our packs. A quick chill in the river and the hoppy suds began smoothing out the rough edges of pain provided by the canyon.<\/p>\n

\"relaxing<\/a>

The hiking crew relaxing at the Phantom Ranch (leader Corey Huck is center) – photo by Tricia Kissinger<\/p><\/div>\n

Day 2 \u2013 The Ascent: The dazed look we saw on the hikers the day before soon became the look we all wore on the day we hiked up to the North Rim at 8,300 feet. Fortified on pancakes and bacon, and as rested as one can be when sleeping in a bunk house, we took on the day with excitement of what was ahead. Despite the difficulty of hiking 14 miles that day and over half of that was uphill, it was a day filled with wonder and beauty. Corey said to us at the Cottonwood water stop, \u201cFrom here on out, you will get your butt kicked.\u201d We had to remind ourselves to stop and do a 360 every once in awhile. With mouths hanging open from breathing hard, we finally \u201ctopped out\u201d\u00a0(canyon-speak for hiking out of the canyon) with an immense feeling of self-accomplishment and respect for the canyon.<\/p>\n

\"Vern<\/a>

Vern Schroth & Tricia Kissinger taking a dual selfie – photo by Tricia Kissinger<\/p><\/div>\n

To give you details of the wonder of the canyon would never capture her depths of beauty. Just know that if you are even slightly curious or thought about visiting GC, you don\u2019t want to know everything before you go. You want to be part of the mystery and enjoy it in on a deeply personal level. Most importantly, the one thing you need to remember is you want to be conditioned mentally and physically for this intense experience. Corey Huck is wise in his advice that you want to enjoy yourself. Don\u2019t mess with the Grand Canyon! Go for the journey and come back richer in mates, memories, and muscles.<\/p>\n

Written by Tricia Kissinger ’92 (Hike the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim 2016 hiker)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are tours that fill up fast, according to UWSP Adventure Tours, and hiking Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon (GC) promised to be one of those. My spouse Karl and I had been talking about a great need to see GC and standing on the Rim wasn\u2019t going to cut it. Many of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,95,3],"tags":[105,108,100,19,96,97,44,98,84,102,109,104,106,103,107,99,72,101,7,14,41,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions\/371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/adventuretours\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}