On Friday Nov 21, Michael Wirth and I hiked down the New Hance Trail and camped by the Colorado, with a backcountry permit. After a couple weeks of some monumental ‘training’, exploring the Canyon together, we were pretty dialed as running partners so filtering our water in the mighty and muddy river and pressing start on our gpx felt very routine. I haven’t really partnered up for running things before like this, but the process though challenging in some ways is also more memorable, more rewarding. The trail itself is extremely difficult. Loosely tracing the way through gardens of yucca and cacti and in and out of dozens of washes and side canyons, you run 96 miles westward on the southern contour of the Canyon. It’s really punchy, really hard to run, and the inhospitable terrain and repetitive side hilling invariably destroys your body. Mike pushed through injury in a way I’ve never seen done before making the call to bail in the Gems. I wrapped it up on Sunday morning after 14hrs of headlamp navigation and started my long 17 mile walk back to the rim. Many many thanks to Abby and Cordis Hall and Ben for helping us attempt this thing and helping us get outta there! The Canyon is a harsh but magical place.