The invitation
One hard thing.
Once a year.
This is the second one. DeCaLiBron was the first. Four fourteeners in a day, July 2026. The plan is to run one every year, new place, same idea. Not a retreat. Not a golf trip with a cause attached. One thing hard enough that finishing it actually means something, done with a group of men who chose to show up for it.
What I want out of it is simple. To stand at the South Rim on Saturday evening and watch every one of us come up out of that canyon. To have done something together that nobody describes casually afterward, because it was genuinely hard. To still be talking about it in ten years.
We work hard all year. This is the other half of that.
Why north to south. You lose 5,800 feet going down the North Kaibab and only gain 4,400 climbing out the Bright Angel. Going the other direction costs an extra 1,400 feet of climbing at the end of a very long day. We go north to south. Everyone does.
Who's on it
A group of men.
One door left open.
If your kid wants in, they're in
This is a men's trip and that's the whole design. The one exception is your own kid. If they want to do it, bring them.
There's no expectation either way and nobody's keeping score. If they come, they hike with you, at your pace, and they're yours to look after.
The women's side
Friday night there's a ladies' dinner in Sedona, and Saturday there's a hike while we're in the canyon.
That side of this is still taking shape. The goal is for it to become its own event with its own hard day. Not a holding pattern while the men are gone. If your wife has thoughts on what it should be, I want them.
Pick your course
Three days, or five.
Same hike either way. The difference is whether you bring your wife and make a week of it.
In Friday, out Sunday
- Fly into Phoenix Friday morning, early. Wheels down by 7:00 AM.
- Rent cars in groups, drive to the South Rim, leave the cars there.
- 1:30 PM shuttle to Kaibab Lodge on the north side.
- Cross the canyon Saturday.
- Dinner in Sedona Saturday night, fly home Sunday afternoon.
In Wednesday, out Sunday
- Fly into Phoenix Wednesday, drive to Sedona, check in.
- Wednesday open. Thursday evening, Cathedral Rock.
- Friday the men head north and join the short-course group.
- Saturday: the canyon for us, Sedona for the women.
- Everyone back at one table Saturday night.
Day by day
The route sheet.
Land and land softly
Fly into PHX whenever it suits you. Sedona is about two hours north. Check in, find dinner, don't plan anything.
Short, steep, and worth it
Cathedral Rock is about 1.2 miles round trip with roughly 700 feet of it going straight up. A hands-on scramble across bare slickrock to a saddle between the spires, an hour and a half door to door. It's the best ninety minutes in Sedona and one of the great places in Arizona to be standing when the light goes.
The parking catch: Thursday through Sunday the trailhead lot is closed and the only way in is the free Sedona Shuttle from the North SR-179 Park & Ride, which stops running around 5:30 PM. The lot reopens to cars once the shuttle shuts down. So it's either a morning trip on the shuttle, or drive in after 5:30 with a Red Rock Pass and take the summit at sunset.
If we go at sunset, bring the headlamp you're bringing Saturday anyway. The downclimb in the dark is real. And go easy on the descent. Saturday needs those quads.
Get to the far side
Converge at the South Rim by 12:30 PM. Short-course guys come straight from Phoenix (3.5 hours); full-course guys come up from Sedona (2.5 hours). Park the cars and leave your car duffel in the trunk: that bag is your reward tomorrow night.
An hour on the rim: stop at the Backcountry Information Center for current water and trail conditions, then walk a stretch of the rim and look at what you're about to walk into.
1:30 PM shuttle north: 220 miles around the canyon, arriving Kaibab Lodge around 5:30 PM. Dinner at the lodge. Sort packs. Lights out by 8:30, because morning comes at 2:45.
No cell service on the Kaibab Plateau. The lodge has Starlink. Text home from the South Rim before you get on the bus.
03:29. The bus
Trans-Canyon picks up at Kaibab Lodge at 3:29 AM and puts us at the North Kaibab Trailhead at 4:14. That's the earliest run there is. The next one doesn't reach the trailhead until 5:29, which is after sunrise. So we take the early one.
Down the North Kaibab in the dark, through the Box before the heat, past Phantom Ranch by late morning, across the Colorado, then up the Bright Angel. Cars and clean clothes waiting at the top. Then Sedona, and a table with everybody at it.
Long breakfast, then home
Nobody's moving fast. Eat well, drive the two hours to PHX, fly out in the afternoon. Book afternoon flights. Do not book a 9:00 AM departure.
Saturday, May 22, 2027
North Kaibab
to Bright Angel.
- Distance
- 23.9miles
- Descent
- 5,800feet down
- Ascent
- 4,400feet up
- On trail
- 12–15hours, moving slow
Targets below assume the 4:14 AM drop and a group pace. They are targets, not a schedule. Finishing after dark is normal and completely fine. That's what the second headlamp is for.
| Mile | Waypoint | Elev. | Water | Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.0 | North Kaibab Trailhead | 8,241′ | , | 4:15 AM |
| 1.7 | Supai Tunnel | 6,800′ | Seasonal | 5:00 AM |
| 4.7 | Roaring Springs | 5,220′ | Seasonal | 6:30 AM |
| 6.8 | Cottonwood Campground | 4,080′ | Seasonal | 7:30 AM |
| 8.4 | Ribbon Falls junction | 3,720′ | , | 8:15 AM |
| 14.0 | Phantom Ranch | 2,546′ | Year-round | 10:30 AM |
| 15.5 | Colorado River crossing | 2,400′ | , | 11:05 AM |
| 19.4 | Havasupai Gardens | 3,800′ | Seasonal | 1:45 PM |
| 20.8 | Three-Mile Resthouse | 4,748′ | Seasonal | 3:15 PM |
| 22.3 | Mile-and-a-Half Resthouse | 5,729′ | Seasonal | 4:45 PM |
| 23.9 | Bright Angel Trailhead · South Rim | 6,860′ | Year-round | 6:15 PM |
Seasonal water is not a promise. The transcanyon waterline breaks regularly and taps get shut off with no notice. Post-fire, some North Kaibab sources have been off entirely. We confirm every source at the Backcountry Information Center on Friday, and everyone carries capacity for three liters and a way to treat creek water regardless of what they tell us.
You start the day standing on 270-million-year-old limestone and you're standing on 1.7-billion-year-old schist by mid-morning. Then you climb back up through every layer of it.
What to bring
Two bags.
That's the system.
The car duffel
- Clean shirt, shorts or pants, underwear, socks
- Sandals or slip-onsYour feet will be swollen. Do not plan to put boots back on.
- Towel and a pack of baby wipesThere's no shower between the trailhead and dinner.
- A warm layerThe South Rim is 6,860 ft and gets cold after sundown.
- Cold drinks and real food for the drive to Sedona
- Phone charger and a battery bank
- A contractor bag for the hiking clothesSeal them. Everyone will thank you.
Everything else, and it's on your back
Pack Friday like you're already on the trail, because you are. Your day pack is also your overnight bag.
- No pajamas. Sleep in your base layer or tomorrow's shirt.
- No camp shoes, no second outfit, no book, no toiletry kit. Toothbrush and a travel tube.
- Phone charger. The one item worth the weight Friday night.
- Whatever you wear on the bus is what you wear down.
Water and fuel
- 3 liters of capacity, minimumA bladder plus one bottle, so you can mix electrolytes separately from plain water.
- Water treatment. Filter or tabletsNot optional. Taps fail.
- Electrolyte tabs or powder, more than you thinkSalt is what keeps you upright. Plain water alone in that heat is how people go down.
- 3,000+ calories of food you'll actually eatSalty beats sweet after mile 15. Bring the thing you crave when you're wrecked.
- Breakfast you can eat in the dark on the bus
Feet and legs
- Boots or trail runners with 100+ miles already on themNothing new. Nothing.
- Two pairs of socks. Swap at Phantom Ranch
- Trekking polesThe most useful thing you'll carry. 5,800 ft of descent is what wrecks quads.
- Blister kit: Leukotape, a needle, a few band-aids
Sun, dark and cold
- Headlamp, spare batteries, and a second lightDark at both ends of the day.
- Light insulating layer and a wind shellIt's 8,241 ft and near freezing at 4 AM. You'll shed it by 6.
- Sun hoodie or light long sleeveLong sleeves beat sunscreen in the inner canyon.
- Wide-brim hat and sunglasses
- Sunscreen and lip balm
- Bandana or buffSoak it in Bright Angel Creek. Best cooling you'll get.
- Small trash bag. Everything you bring comes out with you
- ID, a card, and your park passThe shuttle won't board you without all three.
Leave it home
Cotton anything. Brand-new boots. The big camera. Anything you haven't already hiked in. And don't make your phone your only light source. It'll be at 12% by Havasupai Gardens and you'll want it for the picture at the top. Go easy on the ibuprofen, too: heavy doses plus heavy sweating plus a lot of plain water is a bad combination down there.
House rules
Short list. All of it matters.
- Nobody hikes alone. Pairs at minimum. We can spread out across the day, but no one is ever by themselves down there.
- The slowest man sets the pace of his group. If that's you, good. You're doing it right. If it isn't you, wait.
- The last real bail-out is Roaring Springs, mile 4.7. Past that point the fastest way out is forward. Decide early, not at mile ten. There's a 6 PM and an 8 PM pickup back on the north side if you turn around.
- Anyone can turn around, and nobody says a word about it. Not on the trail, not at dinner, not next year.
- Heat is the danger, not the distance. If someone stops sweating, stops making sense, or stops eating, we stop with them and get them cool and shaded. That call outranks the schedule and it outranks dinner.
- If your kid comes, they're with you. Your call to bring them, your pace, your responsibility.
- Everybody finishes on the South Rim before anybody drives to dinner. We came together, we leave together.
Between now and May
Do the training.
The mileage isn't what gets people. It's 4,400 feet of climbing at the back end of a fourteen-hour day, in heat, on legs that have already absorbed 5,800 feet of downhill. Downhill is what wrecks quads. Train for that specifically.
The bar: before you come, do at least one 15-mile day with 3,000 feet of climbing, in the shoes and the pack you're bringing. Do it twice if you can. Stairs and hills with weight beat flat miles every time.
Nine months is plenty of time. It is not plenty of time to start in April.
If your kid is coming, the honest bar is a kid who has already finished a hard all-day hike in a decent mood. If they're not there yet, bring them for the Sedona days instead and put them on Cathedral Rock. There's another one of these next year.
Straight talk
What isn't solved yet.
I'd rather you see these now than find out in May.
Friday is a very long day and Saturday starts at 2:45 AM.
Short-course guys are wheels-down in Phoenix by 7:00 AM, at the South Rim by 12:30, on a bus until 5:30, in bed by 8:30, and up at 2:45. That's about six hours of sleep before a fourteen-hour hike. If your flight options don't support a 7:00 AM arrival, come in Thursday night and sleep in Sedona or Flagstaff.
Fix: fly Thursday if your schedule allowsKaibab Lodge is the only lodging, and it will sell out.
The Grand Canyon Lodge burned in the 2025 Dragon Bravo Fire and hasn't been rebuilt, so there is nothing on the North Rim itself. Kaibab Lodge is five miles outside the north entrance with cabins that sleep two to eight, plus a handful of hiker trailers for overflow. With the in-park lodge gone, everything on that plateau fills fast.
Book this before flights · first thing we lockSaturday dinner in Sedona is late math.
Sedona is two and a half to three hours from the South Rim. Finish at 6:15 PM and we're sitting down around 9:30, after 24 miles, and somebody has to drive. Options: a late casual table in Sedona, a hired driver so nobody's behind the wheel, or a simple dinner near the rim and the real celebration at a long Sunday breakfast.
Needs headcount firstThe women's Saturday needs a shape.
Right now it's a Sedona hike and a dinner. It should be more than that if this is going to run every year. Whether that's a real objective of its own, a different trail, or something else entirely is an open question and I'd rather solve it with input than decide it alone.
Open · bring ideasTrail closures move around.
The waterline project and post-fire rockfall have closed and reopened pieces of the corridor repeatedly. The River Trail and Silver Bridge were shut for most of two seasons. We confirm the exact route to the river and out the south side about sixty days ahead, and again at the Backcountry Information Center on Friday.
Route confirmed 60 days outThe date has one week of margin.
Highway 67 and the shuttle season open May 15. Our hike is May 22. Seven days later. Heavy snow years have pushed the North Rim opening into June. Memorial Day weekend, May 28–30, gives us another week of buffer and costs us crowds and higher prices.
Say the word and we move it · deciding by OctoberWhat to do now
Say yes by
September 15, 2026.
Lodging and shuttle seats for May 2027 are already bookable and the north side has far fewer beds than it used to. I need a real headcount to hold anything. Three things:
- Are you in.
- Short course or full course.
- Anyone with you. Wife, kid, both.
Reply on the thread this came in on, or text me. You've got my number.
Shuttles → rim-to-rim and trailhead runs · 928-638-2820
Trail and water status → nps.gov key hiking messages
I'll book the rooms and the rides as soon as I have the list. After that the only thing left is the training, and that part's on you.