As I write today, I am grateful for this day and the challenge in sight for myself and my husband Kyle. The pandemic limited our travels but allowed us to plan for outdoor experiences to see the world. We embraced ourselves for the change happening and cancelled our gym membership. We decided to purchase an Elliptical machine for home use. The machine took 6 months to arrive but included the most amazing training membership called IFIT. I have enjoyed my trainings of over 200 sessions with different Elite Trainers. I have experienced many places around the world that have me craving the travel life again.
I found a strenuous running series with Tommy Rivs in October 2021, the series ” Grand Canyon South Rim to River to Rim”and that’s where this adventure began! The series was six workouts, 45 – 60 minutes length for each session running in and out of the GRAND CANYON! OMG what an amazing challenge that inspired me to plan a real life hiking trip to the Grand Canyon!!!! I was encouraged by Kyle’s enthusiasm and excitement to join me. This series kicked my butt let me tell you and I loved every aspect of it! The views were incredible and the trainings were very informative,,,I especially love Rivs comment “hydrate or die-drate”, OMG! I finished completing the last two sessions back to back because I just had to complete the series and share this with Kyle. He was very enthusiast yet questioning me about this real life experience! So, he did what he does best …research the possibilities!
Since then, Kyle has completed the Grand Canyon elliptical series and I completed it a second time, not sure how many more times I will complete before our real life hike but the more fit i am the better. For now, We found another Grand Canyon Hike Series that we are embarking on this week to experience the hike style trainings. So far, this has been informative and a fun series!
We began our preparations by applying for a permit to spend the night in the Canyon. We waited for the reply from National Park Services……..and we got the permit! So we got busy planning, preparing, and researching for our adventure. Since this is our first real backpacking adventure our initial gear purchases were a tent, backpacks, trekking poles and hiking shoes.
Off we go…more planning, researching and preparing for this amazing adventure that we can share right here so stay tuned……
Other Links:
Video of our climb out the canyon
Video of our climb into the canyon
Blog Posts: Our Decent, Our Ascent, Our Equipment, Preparation Part 1, and Preparation Part 2