Oh man, where to start. This trail is tough for so many reasons, not the least of which is the required planning and logistics.
Water/weather: There is only a super small window of the year when this can be done unsupported due to the unreliable water in the Gems (40 miles of particularly rugged and remote terrain on the drier side of the park). It is a gamble as to whether and when there will be water in the various canyons, but after gathering as much beta as I could (there is not a lot), I estimated that late March should be the best bet— it had to be after FR 328 was dry enough to drive to get out to the west end, but before the pot holes of water in the canyons dried up. I bought several days of South Bass permits months in advance to ensure I had the flexibility to catch a good weather window, later returning those I did not use. On a previous recon mission, I had left a safety water cache in Ruby canyon just in case things dried up before I got there again, but I didn’t end up needing it (refilled from a puddle then poured out the cache on video). The GC had a dry winter and a heat streak was coming in, so I think in another week, doing this unsupported might have been unfeasible.
Required extra mileage: I ran east to west, starting at the New Hance trailhead at 4am. That 6.2 mile descent in the dark was tedious and took me longer than expected. I officially started the Tonto at 7:07am. While I was running, my friend Kayla journeyed out to the other end of the trail with supplies (for context, this involved her traveling a total of over 24 miles with a heavy pack). After I arrived at the finish at Garnet and took a relatively brief break with a warm meal, we set out to hike a very brutal 12 miles through the night back to South Bass to camp. Then the next morning, we ascended 5.5 miles out of the canyon plus the additional 7 miles to the car parked at the reservation boundary. (total mileage covered= 127.28 miles)
The Tonto: She was a beast, especially in the notorious Gems. The desert plant life is mean and unavoidable, the trail disappears a hundred times, the majority of the trail is rocky and rugged, and while the vert looks low, it’s never flat—always going in and out of canyons and climbing up and down water drainages, crawling over and around rocks and boulders. Navigating the Gems in the dark was a trip, and then the full sun the following day was quite brutal. The Grand Canyon itself is so peaceful though. I saw at most a couple dozen people the whole time, most of which were in their camps as I passed through the night. I also encountered some beautiful big horned sheep.
It took everything out of me to make this thing happen, but I am so incredibly proud and grateful for this experience, in one of the most iconic places on Earth.