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Welcome to THE home of Grand Canyon hiking. If it happens below the rim—from short day hikes to Rim2Rims and beyond—you'll learn all the tips and tricks to have your safest and most memorable Grand Canyon experience.
Host Brian Speciale brings you stories of triumph, tragedy, and trail-won wisdom—told by first-timers, seasoned vets, and Canyon insiders alike.
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This is the Grand Canyon Hiker Dude Show presented by Hiken. Hiking plus kinship. That's Hiken. Together, we roam. Here's your host, my hubby, and cofounder of Heikin, Brian Special.
Brian:Well, what's your why? We've all got our reasons for dropping in below the rim. For some, it's a once in a lifetime chance to experience the magic of one of the seven natural wonders of the world. For others, it's time spent with family and friends, or it's having a time goal and finding out if all the training will pay off. Others though have more profound whys.
Brian:It can be a celebration of life, a bucket list hike to honor someone you've lost, or a way to connect with the essence of the earth. For Tiffany Yeager, it's many of those things but so much more. Tiffany is 43, a wife and mother of three daughters aged 11, seven, and five. She lives in Battle Creek, Michigan and has drawn inspiration from the Grand Canyon as she faces down a health crisis that threatens her life. Tiffany just returned from a 20 plus mile adventure that three and a half years ago no one would have thought possible, except perhaps Tiffany.
Brian:Her story begins during the pandemic when she wasn't feeling quite right. It's the beginning of a tale that's sure to leave you inspired and with a new perspective on life. This is the Grand Canyon Hiker Dude show powered by Hikin'. Together, we roam.
Tiffany:I just wasn't feeling that great. I was really tired for a few months and I ended up going to my local hospital because I thought I had COVID. And I let it go on for a few months because I didn't want to overwhelm the hospital. Was a lot of COVID still going around then, and so I said, You're fine. It's fine.
Tiffany:And I thought, Well, I have long hauler COVID. Finally got to the point where I was just so fatigued, I went to the hospital. When I got there, they drew my blood and I knew something was off, and this is weird, but it's true, with just my blood draw. When I saw my blood in the vial, it looked strange. It looked thick, very dark.
Tiffany:And I remember saying to the lab tech, Why does my blood look like that? And they're like, I don't know. It was fairly quickly after that the doctors came in the room and they said, We want to be honest with you. We are pretty certain you have some form of blood cancer. We don't know what type of blood cancer, but we know that we're not equipped to handle this here.
Tiffany:And I said, Yeah, but there is a cancer center, right? And they said, Yeah, but we don't do blood cancer. You need to go to the University of Michigan. And I didn't cry. I wasn't sad.
Tiffany:I almost felt relieved in a way because I knew something was wrong. I thought it was COVID. I thought it was long hauler COVID, but it was cancer. So from there, they sent me by ambulance to the University of Michigan, which is about an hour and a half away. I was still kind of a little in denial.
Tiffany:I said, Well, I'm going go home because I told my kids I'm just coming to get checked up for COVID, so I'm going to go home and just let them know that I'm going to a different hospital. And they were like, Looking at how thick your blood is, we would guess that maybe you have twenty four hours left to live. You're going to get tired and you're going to fall asleep and you're not going to wake up. That blood is just it's not going to be able to pass through your heart. It's too thick.
Tiffany:So it was kind of wild. So I went thinking I had COVID and then I didn't really get a chance to say goodbye to my kids. They told me I had blood cancer and I was sent off to the University of Michigan. It wild. When I got there, my husband had followed in his truck and I got there.
Tiffany:They said, We're sorry, we can't let you in. There was still COVID restrictions. So I went into the ICU and I spent the first week there completely alone. So they said, We think you have blood cancer. Sent me to a hospital across the state, and then I was just alone to process all that.
Tiffany:Within that first week is when they found out that I had acute myeloid leukemia, and there are different forms of leukemia. So AML is what they would call the least favorable form of leukemia, which already, when I heard the word leukemia, I'm like, That's a very serious cancer, right? And then to find out it was acute myeloid leukemia, it was scary. So I spent the next six months pretty much living at the University of Michigan. I did multiple rounds of chemo that were not successful, but they were able to get my blood, like the cancer counts in my blood, low enough to where I was eligible for a bone marrow transplant, so I did end up receiving a bone marrow transplant at about six months post original diagnosis.
Tiffany:With that transplant, they gave me afterwards, they gave me about ten to fifteen percent chance to make it five years. So right now, I'm at three and a half years.
Brian:What a story. And all this happening, I assume you're right around 40 at the time that this is happening. You've got your husband. You've got very, very young daughters who who need you. Just what kind of a reset on perspective was that for you, especially considering that you were lying in an ICU bed having to deal with this without family support because of the COVID restrictions, that someone couldn't be there with you holding your hand and helping you through
Tiffany:it? It was really hard, and I had to dig deep, almost find a primal version of myself where every day, I'm going to survive. I didn't get to say goodbye to my kids. When you have leukemia, it's not like you're a week there and then a week at home. You're just gone.
Tiffany:You lived there for months. Also, I couldn't see my kids. They would never let my children come up. It wasn't personal. It was just there were COVID restrictions.
Tiffany:And when you have leukemia, they have to destroy your bone marrow. When you have no bone marrow, you have no immune system. So I didn't get to see my kids at all. It was just, I had this I almost feel like it helped me now looking back at it. It gave me just this burning drive to get home to my children.
Tiffany:I have to survive this. I want to go home. I want to hug them. I want to tell them, I made it. It's okay.
Tiffany:I'm here. I'm not going to leave you again. It kind of gave me even more of a drive, as fat as the situation was.
Brian:So when doctors give you a diagnosis and then a prognosis like that, you can, I think, choose one of two directions? You can just spiral, or you can say, No, I'm going to fight this and I'm going to live life the way that I want to, and I think it's pretty clear the direction that you chose.
Tiffany:I honestly only remember crying twice in the hospital. I never really let myself feel sorry for myself or consider death as an option. It just wasn't an option for me. I was going to get out of there. I had plans.
Tiffany:I literally booked flights and vacations lying in my hospital bed. I told my nurses, Oh, you know, I'm going to go back to Hawaii. I'm going to go back to Maui. I really love it there. I already booked it.
Tiffany:And they're like, Oh, okay. So I made plans. Think I shared in the original post on Facebook that a chaplain, I really liked talking with him, and he said, No, I think maybe you should make a bucket list. And at first I let it kind of offend me, and I thought, I'm not going to die. You think bucket list is something you're going to do before you die.
Tiffany:And remember telling him, Okay, I'm going to make that bucket list, but that bucket list is my bucket list of when I get out of this hospital, I'm going to live. I am really going to live. I'm going to go out there and do everything I always wanted to do. I'm going to go back to Hawaii. I'm going to start hiking.
Tiffany:I wasn't a hiker. I was a runner. I did a lot of running, but hiking was out of my element. I almost felt like I wasn't good enough for it. And I was like, I'm going to do everything I want to do.
Tiffany:I've been making bucket lists the last three years and I've been fulfilling them. And not only that, but once I get to that five year mark, because I will get to that five year mark where they will consider me in remission, those buckle lists are just going to keep on going. I picture my life like a lot of people when they hear you have cancer, it's almost like an hourglass with sand and sand is just running through and it's running out. I picture that hourglass just getting flipped over. Every time it gets low, it gets flipped back over.
Tiffany:My life doesn't have an expiration date. I'm just going to keep going. I'm going to keep doing everything I want to do. If anything, I feel like I'm living more, much more now than I did before.
Brian:Well, before we get into the specifics of the bucket list item that included the Grand Canyon, Obviously, you did make it back to your husband and your daughters, and I'm just curious, how long was that after you were in the hospital, and what was that moment like when you were finally able to see them again?
Tiffany:I did about a month the first time in the hospital receiving chemo, and then they did let me come home for, I think, two weeks. And it was so hard. They told me at the end of the two weeks, they did a bone marrow biopsy and they said the cancer is still there. So I knew I had to go back. At that point, I gave all the hugs.
Tiffany:I knew I'd be gone for at least another month. And that was the process that kept happening. I would get a little bit of time, but it would be a month or more stretch each time. So I would hug a little longer. I would just stare at them and soak it in.
Tiffany:And then when I went for my bone marrow transplant, that was supposed to be about like a seven week stay. That one was really hard. You're gonna be gone for a month and a half to two months, and my kids are in school, and I'm missing all of that. I'm just missing out on life. It was really hard.
Tiffany:The times that I had with them became so much more special.
Brian:How hard was it, or is it, for them to understand what's happening with mom?
Tiffany:The kids did understand at the time what was going on. We did try to shelter them a little bit. They would make me promise, Promise me that you're coming home, mom. You have to promise when you go to the hospital, you're coming home. And it was a promise that was out of my control, but I still said it.
Tiffany:I'll be back. It might be a month or so, but I'll be back. Even now, three and a half years later, my middle daughter is seven. If I leave the house or I go to a doctor's appointment, and she wants to know what kind of doctor's appointment it is. Well, she's the dentist, you know?
Tiffany:And she'll say, Promise me you're coming home. And I promise I'm gonna come home. So it was hard on them, but kids are so resilient.
Brian:Before we started recording, I asked you if you'd lived in Michigan your entire life, and you said yes. I said, okay, that makes you a Michigander. And you said, no, it's a Michigander. Okay. So now I know I've learned something today, Tiffany.
Brian:You're a lifelong Michigander. So how does someone living in Michigan make it a part of their bucket list as a non hiker, maybe, at the time that one day on your bucket list is to hike the Grand Canyon.
Tiffany:Well, I've always just thought the Grand Canyon was so beautiful.
Brian:Is that just from pictures and videos and things? You'd never seen it before with your own eyes.
Tiffany:No. Just from pictures and things like that. And I had heard about a Native American tribe that lives in the Grand Canyon, and it just blew me away. It's the last place in America where they still get their mail by pack mule. I was like, Man, the Grand Canyon is just wild.
Tiffany:I wanna see this place. But in Michigan, it's very flat. I walk, I run, but hiking really wasn't something that was part of my lifestyle. I wanted it to be, but it was just a little out of my element. So I was like, I'm going to make this my lifestyle.
Tiffany:I'm going to train the best of my ability to get to the Grand Canyon. So I did a lot of treadmill training with an incline, and I do have a lot of trails by my house, like a lot of wooded trails that are really beautiful. They don't have a lot of incline in them, but still, I would get out and run those and hike those. I also used my infrared sauna to get accustomed to the heat because it's cold here. So I used my sauna.
Tiffany:And then once I found the Facebook group and I found Coach Arnie, I started walking backwards every day for ten minutes a day. And I've been doing that for quite a while. I mean, even today, I've walked backwards for ten minutes a day at the end of my treadmill workout.
Brian:So, you clearly think it helps.
Tiffany:Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. It does help because I'm just, I mean, you can only incline train so much on a treadmill. It's not the same as the Grand Canyon, but I think that the backwards walking, it just strengthens your legs in different areas than it does just regular walking.
Brian:So as you start to train and get this idea in your mind that you're gonna hike the Grand Canyon, obviously there are so many logistics that you have to learn. What was your plan? What was the ultimate goal of this adventure when you started planning it, what, a year or two ago?
Tiffany:Yeah. So I actually went to the Grand Canyon for the first time last year. It was part of my last year's bucket list. So I did go and hike down to the Havasupai Reservation, which was honestly the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life out of anywhere in the world that I've been.
Brian:Are you talking about you went to Havasupai, like Havasupai Falls?
Tiffany:Yeah. Yeah. So I did, I got a permit, and I went down and I camped there for four days. I think I did 75 miles in that four days.
Brian:By yourself?
Tiffany:No, my husband went with me.
Brian:Okay.
Tiffany:Yeah. So we hiked down to the confluence, and it was just beautiful. So because I had done it before, I was able to get in on an early permit. I did it again this year in April. And from there, was like, Okay, I've done this twice.
Tiffany:Now I want to see the Bright Angel Trail. Because that's the iconic trail. You hear Grand Canyon and Heigerts and it's the Bright Angel Trail. I need to see this trail. So that's when I started looking into all of that was about April time.
Tiffany:So I was planning to do rim to rim. If I'm gonna do anything, I wanna go for it all. I'm gonna do rim to rim.
Brian:Of course.
Tiffany:Unfortunately, the fire happened and we had it. I ended up going this last time to hike the Grand Canyon with my girlfriend of mine. And so we had to pivot and we were gonna do the South Kaibab to Tonto and then up Bright Angel. And I told her, This is such a once in a lifetime. I mean, I'm coming all the way from Michigan.
Tiffany:I would love to come here every year, but will I? I don't know if it's possible. I feel like we can't go all the way there and not attempt to go down to the river. It's just something like we have to do it. So that is what we ended up doing.
Tiffany:We did the South Thai Bab to the Tonto, came out on Bright Angel, went down to the river, ate some lunch, and then came all the way back up.
Zeena:Breaking Canyon news, hike reports, and answers to all your questions. Find it all in our hiking Grand Canyon Facebook group. Inside, you'll have access to Brian, coach Arnie, and just about everyone you've ever heard on this show, all there in a safe, judgment free space, geared to root each other on and help you have your best possible Grand Canyon experience. The Hikin' Grand Canyon Facebook group is the official group of the Grand Canyon Hiker Dude show and is completely free to join. Just search for Hikin', H I K I N, Grand Canyon on Facebook and join the conversation today.
Brian:So you guys pivoted, and I I love that because I think we're seeing a lot of folks doing that now. Yes. We all lost rim to rim. We lost access to the North Rim for for the time being, for the immediate future, but that doesn't mean that there are not incredible hikes that you can do on the South Rim, and I understand the allure of getting all the way to the river. The only way to do that now is it's significant hike, what you guys did.
Brian:I mean, you essentially did just over probably just over 20 miles when all was said and done, which is basically rim to rim distance and elevation change. So it's just like a rim to rim. So if you're trained for it, that is a great, great hike to do. And at end of the day, was it worth it going all the way down to the river?
Tiffany:I think it was. Yeah, 100%. It was beautiful. And then, you know, that's where we sat and we had lunch, it was just mind blowing. Like, I'm sitting here at the Colorado River eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Brian:You're at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
Tiffany:Right, the bottom of the Grand Canyon. And one thing I didn't mention in my story earlier was that after my second round of chemotherapy, I actually lost my ability to walk, and that was from neurological damage. So, I had to relearn how to walk.
Brian:How long ago was that?
Tiffany:Three and a half years ago.
Brian:Oh my God.
Tiffany:Three and a half years ago, yeah. And it's like, Oh wow, here I am three and a half years later, hiking 22 miles, with all this elevation. I'm from Michigan, I'm hiking all this elevation. It was incredible.
Brian:So when you ultimately made the plan, let's just talk about the specifics just a little bit. When you made the plan and you had to pivot away from doing rim to rim, and you thought maybe we'll go down and do South Kaibab Tanto, and then back to the rim. If we wanna go all the way to the river, we can, and you ultimately decided to do that. But how is someone from that's not familiar necessarily with the hiking on the corridor trails and logistics that go with it? How did you plan this?
Tiffany:I just I used the Facebook group from other people. Other people ask questions, and I would just put following. That way, when answers would come in, I would see what other people would say. I really just used the knowledge of everyone else in the Facebook group that has done the hike before. That's how I knew how much water to take, how much food to take, electrolytes.
Tiffany:That's how I planned it all, was basically just through the Facebook app.
Brian:So, did you stay in Grand Canyon Village the night before? Was it planned to get up early? What was the whole plan for that day?
Tiffany:I might pronounce it wrong, but I think it's called Yavapai Live.
Brian:Yavapai, yes.
Tiffany:Yavapai Live.
Brian:Michigander, Michigander. Yavapai, Yavapai, Yavapai, yes.
Tiffany:I honestly, I loved it. Our room was really nice. It was kind of situated right in the middle between Bright Angel and South Kaibab, so that's where we ended up staying. I had stopped by the Bright Angel Lodge the night before to ask them how long the taxi would take in the morning, and they said it takes about fifteen minutes. So in the morning I called, but it was an hour wait.
Tiffany:So I was like, I don't want to wait an hour. I ended up just going out into the parking lot and just walking the parking lot in the dark until I ran into some people that were leaving. I said, this is really strange, but do you mind if I just catch a ride with you to the South Kuybeh Trailhead? Are you starting there? And they're like, Yeah, we are.
Tiffany:Because I didn't want to leave the car there if I could get a taxi ride or ride with someone else. It was easier that way. So I rode with this father and son, my friend Amy and I, rode with this father and son that we'd never met before, and we actually got lost in the dark. We parked, and then he said, The trailhead's over here. Well, we were talking and we came across a big snake, and there was just a lot of stuff going on, and finally the dad was like, I don't know where we are.
Tiffany:This is not the trailhead. So we cut through the woods, and by the time we found the trailhead, we had walked two miles, he was like, I'm so sorry, I added two miles onto your hike, and I said, You know what? It's just a part of the adventure.
Brian:Yeah.
Tiffany:It's okay. In hindsight, I would've made it there at the same time had I just waited for the taxi, but I feel like it just adds to the story. I met these two awesome people, and I got to see this snake, and it got my adrenaline pumping and even more ready for the hike.
Brian:Hey, a lesson there for everyone. If you park on Highway 64 and walk into South Kaibab Trailhead, take the road in. Don't try to walk through the forest or cut through or anything like that. Just take the same road the shuttle bus would take in, and it'll be easier to find, and you will not add an extra two miles onto your hike. Yeah.
Brian:Don't do it. But it does add to the story. You got the right attitude there for sure. So, you guys start down South Kaibab, which we always recommend because of the incredible views. What time did you start?
Brian:Was it still dark? And when ultimately the canyon revealed itself to you, what was that like?
Tiffany:We ended up starting around six, and it was very dark. I was hoping to get to the Ooah Lookout.
Brian:Ooah Point?
Tiffany:It's what it's called Ooah Lookout. Yes, for sunrise, but we ended up getting to What is the next stop?
Brian:Cedar Ridge?
Tiffany:Cedar Ridge. Yeah. We hit Cedar Ridge at sunrise, and it was the most incredible view I've ever seen. There were mules coming down at the same time, and the sun was just bursting. It felt like the canyon was coming alive.
Tiffany:It was like fiery orange, and it was just incredible. I snapped some pictures there and I shared them, and previous hikers that have hiked before in the group were like, Wow, that's the best picture I've ever seen of Cedar Ridge. Man, I'm so glad I got to see it. So we started early, about six. We had planned to start at five.
Brian:I'm glad you guys started later because then you would have missed that. Those views down South Kaibach from Ua to Cedar especially are the best views that I've seen anywhere in the country.
Tiffany:Oh, it was stunning. Stunning. And then when we made it to Tonto, you know, the only thing I really knew about Tonto, because that wasn't in our original plan, was that it's kind of the road less traveled. It can be pretty brutal in the summer. I think Tonto Trail was one of my favorite parts of the whole hike.
Tiffany:Yeah. Just because it felt so special. It felt, just like I said, the road less traveled. How many people have seen this? It's just incredible.
Tiffany:I love the Tonto Trail. We had good weather that day too, so that was helpful.
Brian:Good. So no heat out there.
Tiffany:I mean, I think at the very hottest of the day, we were mid-90s, but I yeah, it was hot, but I got my friend and I those frog tug cooling towels.
Brian:Oh, yeah.
Tiffany:And we were golden with those.
Brian:Yeah. Those make a huge difference. So I'm curious what your perspective was standing on on Tonto. Just what that what was that feeling like? Because it's different than any of the other corridor trails.
Brian:What was the feeling that you had when you were out there and you just kind of looked around?
Tiffany:It just felt very special. It felt very special, and when you look off, you can see caves and just different things like that, and I thought, I would just picture that, I wonder what this looked like a 100 years ago, 200 ago. It's just such a very special place to be.
Brian:Yeah. I always say that the feeling that I get when I'm on Tonto is that you're standing all alone in the middle of the Grand Canyon because it's just it's just so open, and the canyon walls are just way off in in every direction. And for some reason, the North Rim feels farther away when you're standing on on Tonto. So just the expanse of it, and the silence, and the solitude is just it's it's it's something else. Did you run into a lot of other hikers out there?
Brian:I would assume not, because you said road less traveled, and I've always found the found the same.
Tiffany:Yeah, so we had started with this father and son that we hitched a ride with. When we were near the Oo Ah Lookout, a mule train came through, and they were a little bit ahead of us, so we ended up getting separated because we had to wait about ten minutes. The mules were actually dropping off workers to work on the trail, so they would drop off workers and supplies. So eventually, we kind of got our pace going again, and when we got I didn't really see hardly anyone, really, until we got to Tonto. And about halfway through Tonto, said, Hey, that's the father and son.
Tiffany:I could see them up there. My girlfriend that I went with, she's a pretty fast hiker, and so I was making sure that I kept up with her. So we ended up passing them. So it was kind of like we kept going back and forth with them all the way down to the Colorado. When we got to the Colorado, there was a handful of people.
Tiffany:A boat had come up with some tourists on it, they stopped to get out and have lunch, too. There wasn't too many people. I think the busiest part of the whole hike was Havasupai Garden. There were a lot of people hanging out there.
Brian:Yeah, when you guys got to Havasupai Gardens, because if you just want to kind of follow along here, everyone, you go four and a half miles down South Kaibab to tip-off, and then you've got just over four miles to the Tonto Junction with the Bright Angel Trail. And at that point, you're basically in Havasupai Gardens. However, to get to the water spigot and the toilets, you've gotta go up Bright Angel for three tenths of a mile, where you can refill your water and use the facilities if you need to. And then what Tiffany was doing, you've gotta backtrack back down to the Tonneau Junction another three tenths of a mile, and then continue on down 3.2 miles to Colorado River. So did you guys, when you got to the Tonto Junction and you got to Bright Angel Trail, did you go up to Havasupai Gardens to refill water and all that, or did you just continue straight on down to the river?
Tiffany:That wasn't our original plan, was to just go up, get some water, and then go down, but we had carried so much water that we kind of pulled out our bags and realized we had plenty to make it down to the river and back up, so we did go all the way down to the river, and then on the way back up is when we stopped and refilled.
Brian:Yeah, perfect. So, that saved you six tenths of a mile right there, and honestly, if you've done that hike a lot, man, I'm telling you, I'm speaking from experience here. If I got to that point and had to go all the way up to Havasupai Gardens, even though it's only three tenths of a mile, it would take a lot of mental fortitude to retrace my steps and go all the way down to the river, down Devil's Corkscrew, all the way down to Pipe Creek, and then back up again. But man, I have so much respect for those of you who are doing it because that is a that's a significant, significant day. So how was it when you you know, you don't really see the river until you're essentially at the river rest house, and you're at Pipe Creek.
Brian:So all of a sudden, just kind of it's like, woah. Well, there it is. You don't see it the entire way down. So well, I I take that back. You do see it when you get to Skeleton Point, in between Skeleton Point, and tip-off when you're on South Kaibab.
Brian:Yep. But down Bright Angel, you never see it. So what was that like when it's like, Woah, there it is!
Tiffany:It was incredible. You know, the river just brings so much life to the canyon. So you're hiking and it's hot and it's dry, and then you see the river and you're like, Wow, this is just so special. Perfect place if you're going all the way down to the river to sit and have some lunch and soak it in. I honestly, I could have stayed there for hours.
Tiffany:I didn't want to leave. My girlfriend that I was hiking with was like, she's used to dry heat. She's from California. I'm in Michigan where it's just always so humid here. She's like, Trust me, honey.
Tiffany:You don't want to be out here. If this gets any hotter, we need to get heading up. So we weren't there very long, long enough to eat and then get back on the trail and get into Homosupe Gardens. But honestly, I don't feel like it was that bad that day. We were blessed to have quite a bit of shade.
Tiffany:There were sections on Tonto that were pretty sunny, but for the most part, I feel like the weather was on our side.
Brian:Okay, so how are you feeling at this point? Because that downhill can get you, and you guys have gone downhill and flat to rolling terrain on Tonto for essentially, what are we at now, four, nine, basically 12 miles, just over 12 miles to get to the river. That's a lot of downhill. That can be very hard on the legs and the psyche if you haven't trained for it or aren't mentally prepared for it. But how were you feeling at that point when you guys were at the bottom?
Tiffany:I thought the downhill was great. So my girlfriend did tweak her knee going down South Kaibab. I think she was a little overconfident because she lives in California. She can hike elevation gains and loss all the time, so she was like, Oh, this is nothing, right? We're about four miles down South Kaibab and her knee was just killing her.
Tiffany:But for me, I didn't have any problem with it. It was more of the uphill that I struggled with. I just kept telling myself It was past Havasupai Gardens. I was like, Man, this is really hard. I just kept telling myself, One foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other.
Tiffany:And I just kept pushing. Didn't let myself really I felt like if I were to stop, then it'd be too hard to get going again, so I just pushed through it. I did get elevation fitness medicine from my doctor before I went just because I wasn't sure that my body would be able to adjust to it. I ended up not needing it at all, so that was great.
Brian:Okay. So you guys get back to Havasupai Gardens. You've gone uphill now for 3.2 miles, about 1,500 vertical feet gained on the way back to Havasupai Gardens. So do you stop at Havasupai Gardens and refill water and do all the stuff that we talked about earlier at that point, when now you're looking at four and a half miles from Havasupai Gardens to the finish line?
Tiffany:Yeah. So we stopped, and that's a great place to fill up your water because there's shade. There's plenty of places to sit. It kind of felt like a little canyon party going on in there. I felt like there was just a group of people.
Tiffany:I think they might've been campers too. It was just a really good vibe. We filled up there. Some people shared, they were sharing electrolytes, like, Who needs electrolytes? I'm like, Man, this is awesome.
Tiffany:Everyone was there. Like I said, it was like a canyon party. They were all supporting each other. They gave my friend Amy some electrolyte tab. It was just really nice.
Tiffany:So, we didn't stay there very long, but enough to chitchat for a second, refill our water, and get going again.
Brian:Okay, so coming out of Havasupai Gardens, and what time of the afternoon is this?
Tiffany:I'm not sure. I know we ended up finishing around the whole hike at around three p. M.
Brian:Okay, so it's noon ish, eleven ish, something like that, sometime midday. So you guys are gonna face the was it a cloudy day or was it a clear day?
Tiffany:It was a little cloudy, yeah. So we did have some cloud cover that day, which was very helpful, yeah.
Brian:So you're gonna face some direct sun on the way up, which is you know, if you if you can ever time it, folks who are listening, if you ever can time it to use our Grand Canyon shade tracker and try to hit that uphill from Havasupai Gardens to the top especially, because that is the most difficult part of the hike, and if you can hike that in shade, that is what makes all the difference. This time of year, probably 03:30, 04:00 is when Bright Angel shades in from Havasupai Gardens to the top. That's the advantage of Bright Angel is that it does shade in from basically the entirety of the of the trail at some point late in the afternoon, early in the evening, depending on the time of year, whereas South Kaibab stays exposed basically the entire day. So it makes Bright Angel that much more appealing if you can time it to go up in the shade. It makes all the difference.
Brian:So about a mile, you meander out of Havasupai Gardens where it's just kind of gradual, and then you get essentially to Jacob's Ladder, which is the set of switchbacks leading up to the three mile rest house. I I assume since you never hiked Bright Angel, you didn't know that was coming, but all of a sudden, right, you're meandering out of Havasupai Gardens, and then the trail starts to get steep, doesn't it?
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Tiffany:Yeah. That way, in my opinion, that was the hardest part of the whole trail. I mean, it's pretty steep coming up from the Colorado to Havasupai Gardens, and I don't know what it is, but that section was where I I struggled the most. But again, I didn't let
Brian:myself Before Havasupai Gardens or after Havasupai Gardens?
Tiffany:After Havasupai Gardens.
Brian:Okay, sure.
Tiffany:I didn't let myself stop because I was like, Tiffany, if you stop, you might not get started again. Just keep going, but I did struggle.
Brian:Struggled as in how? Just tired, just sore, just, Oh my gosh, get me out of here? What was the feeling?
Tiffany:I wasn't sore, but I felt winded. The incline was just so steep. I did my best to prepare for it, but once you're there hiking it, and I hike every single day now, was a challenge. The trail is definitely not to be underestimated. It's a seriously difficult hike.
Brian:How were you doing, you and Amy? You were hiking together. Were you encouraging each other? Was one going ahead? Were you taking turns?
Brian:How did that work hiking with someone?
Tiffany:Yeah, I feel like we definitely just kept encouraging each other and just chitchatting. I knew going into it, no one's leaving the other one, no matter what. Someone gets hurt, someone's struggling, we stick together. Listening to the stories of past hikers, I feel like that's when people run into trouble, is when they leave their group or they leave whoever they're hiking with. We stuck together the whole time and we just joked and laughed the whole way, we're like, you know, talked about what we were going to eat, where we were going to go after the hike, and we kept each other accountable and kept each other going.
Brian:So I don't know if you did it or not, but breaking the hike up into those mile and a half chunks is one of the most beautiful parts of Bright Angel. The fact that Havasupai Gardens to three mile rest houses a mile and a half, from three mile rest house to mile and a half rest house is a mile and a half, and then of course, a mile and a half from the mile and a half rest house to the to the South Rim. That can make it mentally a little easier when you are just breaking it up and having little victories along the way. But as things get tougher, as you keep climbing Bright Angel, because Bright Angel's relentless, that last three miles especially.
Tiffany:Oh,
Brian:yeah. You've got a lot of miles on your legs already. The incline never lets up. If you make the mistake of looking up and seeing how far you have to go, it can be kind of soul crushing. But did it ever occur to you, as you're going through this incredibly difficult physical challenge, does it ever pop into your head why you're doing it and how much you have overcome in your everyday life, and this is going to be nothing?
Brian:I got this.
Tiffany:Yeah, every step. Honestly, every step I was like, I can do this. I can do this. And then even sometimes my friend Amy was like, Carly, you plan to do so much worse. You're going to be just fine.
Tiffany:Just keep going. Keep going one foot in front of the other. It was just, these are the kinds of things that make you feel alive, especially when you've gone through something like I've gone through. You need that challenge just to keep pushing yourself to do better, to be stronger, to keep going. Yeah.
Brian:Well, what was that feeling like when you finally, all of a sudden, on Bright Angel, all of a sudden, you're walking on the dirt, and next thing you know, you're on blacktop, and you have made it to the rim. What was that feeling like when you and Amy finished?
Tiffany:It was beautiful. I mean, I was just so proud of us, so proud that I actually made it there, planned the hike, went ahead and pivoted instead of just canceling when the rim to rim wasn't a possibility. I felt just as accomplished doing rim to ribber to rim, and I was so proud of myself. I feel like we were riding a high for I'm still riding the high, honestly. It was a very special moment.
Brian:So much of this is about you, obviously, and what you've overcome. But I have to imagine that your daughters seeing this at such a young age, that has to mean a lot to you as well because of what you're showing them. Not only the challenges that you've had with your health, but doing bucket list things that's not like, Oh, we're going go on a cruise. No, you're doing something physically, mentally, emotionally challenging like this. So what do you hope your daughters take away from seeing their mom overcome her health challenges and do something like this?
Tiffany:I hope that I'm an example to them, that they see the things I've gone through and it inspires them to know that if mom can do it, they can do it too. They're just as strong as me. I don't let challenges stop me, you know, and I hope that they feel the same way. They can do absolutely anything that they set their minds to, absolutely anything.
Brian:Tiffany Jaeger. As you might expect, she's already planning her next canyon adventure. Next up, she's hoping for a third trip to Havasu Falls and then ultimately rim to rim when it is possible yet again. But before all of that, Yosemite and a climb of Half Dome. Yeah, she is certainly something else.
Brian:Well, I thought that you might also want to learn a little bit more from Tiffany before we let her go about what went into her and Amy's successful hike, especially when it comes to training for a Flatlander.
Tiffany:I just did a lot of treadmill work. I also would hike the trails by my house because they're pretty rugged, but they're not inclined, that's where the treadmill came in. And then coach Arnie's backwards walking tips, I did that every day. I used my sauna every day to help me get it adjusted to the heat. And then as far as what did I bring in my bathtub, I actually wrote it down so that I could remember everything that was in my list.
Tiffany:I had ChapStick, I had a buff, trekking poles. I have no shame in using trekking poles. I've come across so many hikers. I know they're like, I'm not using a trekking pole. And I'll tell you what, if you're going in on that incline, no matter how fit you are, if you use a trekking pole, you are saving your needs.
Tiffany:So I invested in some better tracking poles than what I had before. I took three and a half liters of water originally. I did some Honey Stingers, some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I did three sandwiches. These jerky sticks, Nerd Clusters, a Life Straw, frog tog towel.
Tiffany:I did end up buying one of those umbrellas that a lot of people in the group used, but in the end I decided I just didn't look like, according to online, it didn't look like it was going to be too super sunny, so I didn't want the extra weight. I didn't end up taking it down on the hike. I took more food than I would normally eat if I wasn't hiking, and I took extra electrolytes just in case we were to come across somebody that was struggling and they might need them. All that stuff, I used it all. I didn't feel like there was anything that I was missing out, like anything that I needed.
Brian:How were you with soreness and everything afterwards? How'd you feel? So
Tiffany:the next day we did some shopping at the Bright Angel Lodge, just in their gift store. I went to bend down to look at a pair of socks and I was like, Oh! I didn't realize how sore I was. And people kept commenting, Oh, it's called the Canyon Shuffle. I never heard of that before, so I had a case of the Canyon Shuffle for about the next twenty four, forty eight hours after that.
Brian:Hard earned. Wobble with pride.
Tiffany:Yeah, exactly. But I didn't have any injuries. Amy tweaked her knee, but she got a knee brace and that ended up helping. I I feel overall we did pretty well.
Brian:Well, you heard her. Tiffany is the latest to sing the praises of Coach Arnie and his walking backwards movement. So, I thought it would be nice to go back with Coach to where his backwards thinking began.
Coach Arnie:Walking backwards is a secret weapon. Another one, it is the cornerstone of what my Canyon training program is all about. I first came across it many years ago because as an exercise physiologist, I'm in the rehab business, and we would use walking backwards as a rehab exercise for improving ACL or hamstring injuries, and it just worked. I thought, well, wait a minute. I, who was just getting into ultra running, wanted to get better at running downhill.
Coach Arnie:And I thought to myself, well, wait a minute. Walking backwards works the hamstrings, works the hips, which would protect my knees. I thought, well, here we go. Because I was dealing with my my own knee issues, my own hamstring issues. And could I shorten up the learning curve to get better at downhills besides just running a bunch of downhills as I was being told by walking backwards?
Coach Arnie:And you know what? I thought about it. I broke it down. The muscles were the same. I thought, well, why not?
Coach Arnie:So by just starting off by walking flat, literally flat on the ground for ten minutes, you could get going. And then if you had a treadmill, you could literally turn the power off on the treadmill, what I call a deadmill, and walk on it with no power pushing along. You could change the angle if you wanted to. If you had access to a weighted sled, you could add weight and resistance. You could add time.
Coach Arnie:You can add distance. Whatever you wanted to do, you had all these variables that allowed you to work the same muscles that you would be doing on a downhill, and you could do it at your convenience at your facility where you're at. It worked, and it will work for you. I promise you. Just give it a try.
Coach Arnie:Just start with ten minutes. You'll be surprised. I love you guys. And remember, if you have any questions, you can always message me Pain Free Arnie on Instagram, or you can call or text me at (602) 390-9144. Love you.
Coach Arnie:Talk to you later.
Brian:Well, if you missed it there and want to give coach Arnie a call or a text, his phone number and contact information are in the show notes of every episode. Coach Arne, Arne Fonseca Jr, our Canyon coach and exercise physiologist. Hey, for those asking, I promise you that our new Canyon Elite Daypack with its much anticipated hip belt and multiple sizes will be here soon. The rim to rim pack will be back in stock at about the same time. All of our packs feature six pockets and pouches on the shoulder straps so you can keep the essentials within reach on your hike, and also our signature insulated hydration pocket.
Brian:You have just got to try it so you can keep your water and your food chilled. It makes a huge difference unless, of course, you enjoy drinking blood warm water. And who does? The Canyon Elite and rim to rim packs, they'll be available soon only at hiking.club. That's hikin.club.
Brian:You find Grand Canyon Shade Tracker there as well, so lots of stuff to check out at hiking.club. Alright. That's it for now. My name is Brian Special, encouraging you as always to go hike the canyon. Take that first step.
Brian:Embrace the journey. And when you get there, whether it's for time goals or taking your time, just hike your own hike and savor every step in the magnificent Grand Canyon. We'll see you next time on the Grand Canyon Hiker Dude show presented by Hiken. Hiking plus kinship, that's hiking. Together, we roam.