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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.
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I was gonna do Angel's Landing. It's two hours from where I was staying, and I thought, you know what, I'll do that. And the canyon just kept calling me back. I just kept going back and back and back to South Khalabad. I'm like, I have to do this.
Shannon:I can't escape it.
Zeena:You're listening to the Grand Canyon Hiker Dude Show, the voice of Grand Canyon Hiking, presented by Hiken. Hiking packs and gear built to help you hike your best hike. Here's your guide, Brian Special.
Brian:Well, last minute rim to river hikes in the Grand Canyon are typically frowned upon, but hey, if you already got the fitness for it, if you've done the research so you have an idea of what it takes, and especially if you're traveling from the other side of the globe, well, why not? Right? This was the predicament facing Shannon Sterling of Sydney, Australia as he was invited by friends on a trip to Las Vegas with barely a month's notice. For a husband and father of two running his own maintenance business, that kind of spontaneity seemed a bit much. But fortunately for him, his wife, Kersha, happened to be standing right there as he spoke with his mates.
Brian:This is the Grand Canyon Hiker Dude show powered by Hikin'. See our front access hiking packs inspired by and born in Grand Canyon at hiken.club. That's hikin.club.
Shannon:I had a couple of mates come to me about five weeks ago, and they were coming over to Vegas. One of their friends dropped out, and they said, do you wanna come? And I said, look. I don't I don't think I can do that without the family. And my wife overheard me saying that.
Shannon:And she goes, Shannon, what are you talking about? It's a great opportunity. Why don't you go with them? And cut back real short to last year. I hit 40 last year, and we went to Yosemite National Park.
Shannon:And I set myself a goal ten weeks out from that to do an accomplishment, to do something for myself that made me feel worthy and give me a bit of purpose, and that was to sum at Half Dome. I made that happen, and that just gave me this unbelievable drive that we're capable in doing things if we put our mind to it. So fast forward to now, as soon as the boys asked me if I'd come along, my first thing was I didn't really care about Vegas. I thought about how far is the Grand Canyon. I've been there once before.
Shannon:We flew in in a helicopter. That was sort of a honeymoon thing. But I thought, how can I challenge myself in this place? It's a wonder of the world. So what can I do?
Shannon:So, instantly, I hopped online and started looking for information and found yourself. And, mate, the information that I got from your podcast, hands down, not pissing in your pocket, it helped me tenfold. Absolutely tenfold. It was to the point. It wasn't underrated.
Shannon:It wasn't overrated. It was exactly what you need to know. So and it backed up with the research that I was doing. So I straightaway, I booked two nights at Yavapai Lodge and started planning my my map and everything that I'm gonna need to do it and just I had blinkers on, and I was gonna do it. So spoke to coach Arnie, and he I told him what my plan was, what my training had been like, and my my nutrition and things like that.
Shannon:And he just basically set the concrete in my head that, you know, you can do it.
Brian:And you told me he called you back. Right? We always talk about how Arnie will pick up the phone. Well, you're in Australia, so it might not be so easy, but you did speak to him.
Shannon:He he did call me. I'd messaged him the night before, and I had a my phone was ringing at 6AM here. And I looked over, and I thought, holy moly. He's calling me. And I thought, my wife was still asleep.
Shannon:So I called him back about two hours later, and I think, ah, I probably won't get him. And he picked it up, and we spoke for twenty minutes. The guy is a true legend, and he's true to his word, just like yourself. So, I mean, I I messaged you when all this started to happen, and you replied back to me. And I I felt a bit starstruck, to be honest.
Shannon:Oh, please. I just hold you guys in high regard considering I don't really know you guys, but I hold you guys in high regard for what you do. So
Brian:Well, we're here to help everyone all around the world in this case, on the other side of the world in this case. So, you know, this all came together obviously very quickly. You're essentially going for a boys' trip to hang out with the hang out with the fellas, hang out with your mates, I guess you guys would say. Right? Right.
Brian:So what was the the plan? I mean, what did you want to do? I mean, you probably heard about the, you know, the famous Rim To Rim hike that's obviously not available. The classic Rim To River route's not currently available because there's just so much chaos going on in the canyon right now. So how did you decide what you were gonna do when you actually got there?
Shannon:When I was coming back from Half Dome, I pretty much did the hike all the way back with another fella. And he'd done he'd mentioned Rim To Rim To me before. And soon as this trip came up, my mind went straight back to my conversation with him. And I thought rim to rim. Alright.
Shannon:Let's let's do a bit of research. And I knew that the North Rim was shut, so I pretty much just brought up maps on AllTrails, maps on Google, and started just having a look what what is there. What's what's worthy I wanted to see the Colorado River. I wanted to be able to touch that water and say that I've been at the bottom of the canyon.
Brian:Yeah. Now you're talking.
Shannon:And, yeah, if I had the balls jump in, and and I did. I I jumped in. I I had a had a swim at Boat Beach. But, yeah, it was pretty much it was pretty much this guy saying, you know, I've done rim to rim, and it's it's up there with with Yosemite. I don't know if you can compare them.
Shannon:They're two very different type of hikes, but that's where it got me going that these trails are available in the canyon. South Kaibab just it just I was gonna do Angel's Landing. I was gonna go there. It's two hours from where I was staying, and I thought, you know what? I'll do that.
Shannon:And the canyon just kept calling me back. I just kept going back and back and back to South Kaibab. I'm like, I have to do this. I can't escape it. I don't know what it was.
Shannon:Just Zion can be another time, but I just kept going back to the canyon.
Brian:So you decided that you were gonna go down South Kaibab, to the river. So, ultimately, I think you decided to go South Kaibab to Phantom. And then, of course, you can't pick up Bright Angel right now because here in 2026, the Silver Bridge and Bright Angel or the river trail connecting Bright Angel to the bottom are both closed. So you had to go back up South Kaibab, and then I think you went across Tonto and up Bright Angel. So that was the plan right there.
Brian:Right?
Shannon:Correct.
Brian:Had you done a lot of hiking in Australia? Are you you're obviously you did Half Dome, you're are you a regular hiker, so you're typically in shape for something like this? Because five weeks, you didn't have time to specifically prepare for the canyon, so how did you know that you were ready?
Shannon:That that's a really good question. I've always stayed reasonably fit and active. My job can be quite active. But to be active for the right the right application being hiking, it's very specific. So, I mean, I do I try to get out and do hiking in our national parks and rural national parks, probably not as often as what I should be doing when you sorta up the ante with some of these longer distances.
Shannon:But I did I've been doing a few 16 k ones in our national park in miles. I think it's around the 10 mile mark. So I sort of gauge myself off that. And then I've just been my training, I think, is what helped me a lot. I've been doing sort of, like, interval training using, like, assault bikes and rowers.
Shannon:And I do for example, I might do 20 k's on the bike, and I'll do two k's. I'll hop off, and then I'll do three sort of other exercises, x amount of reps, might be 10 reps on back squats, might be some bicep curls, or might be some push ups, some leg raises. And then I'll go back to the bike, and I'll do another two k's. But I'll keep my heart rate between one forty and one fifty for the whole. It's normally about an hour and a half.
Shannon:And I'll try and do that workout, and I'll change it up a little bit. And since speaking to Arnie, I actually changed up those two k intervals on the bike, and I'd do backpedaling for two k's. The next round, I'd forward pedaling. So I think that really helped with with the legs, the joints, and everything. And to be honest, once I finished at the top of Bright Angel, my calves felt used, but they weren't sore.
Shannon:It was a good feeling. The only part that I would say to people is train your triceps up more because my triceps were sore the next day from using the poles. Apart from that, I felt I actually felt really good, and I was surprised. But I was I was very fatigued for the next three days.
Brian:Yeah. So you knew that you had a certain level of fitness. You had a certain foundation that a hike hike like this didn't scare you. It's one of those things that you knew that you were gonna if even if you had to suffer through it, you knew you would you would probably be able to finish. So let's take it to the morning of the hike.
Brian:You get up to Yavapai Lodge, I think you said you stayed at the night before. Correct. When you get up the next morning, what was what was the plan? Because you have to have a plan when you're when you're hiking the Grand Canyon. What was how is it gonna unfold?
Brian:Because it never it never actually unfolds really the way that you think it's going to, you know, the best laid plans, but you have to at least have some idea of what you're gonna do. So what was your plan, and just kind of take us through how that day started?
Shannon:Yeah. So my plan was sort of to get at the lodge at, you know, 10:30, get to bed by eleven, have a good sleep till about 5AM, and then just ease myself down to the Grand Canyon Lodge and get to the Zentura taxi. But stupid me didn't realize there was an hour difference in time. So I ended up getting to the lodge at 11:30. Think I got to bed at about 1AM, and I was up at 5AM.
Shannon:So but soon as I got to the lodge, man, I got all my gear out. I laid it all out. I double checked it, triple checked it, got all my nutrition pouches ready, my everything was ready. So I just had to get up and get dressed, and I knew it was all there. So I preplanned, you know, where did I have to drive to park the car?
Shannon:I actually called NPS up as soon as I woke up and said, you know, what's the deal with the taxi? She goes, no. It's all good. Just get to the get to the Grand Canyon Lodge. Give us a call, and we'll get one there.
Shannon:It was there in two minutes.
Brian:Oh, nice.
Shannon:So, yeah, it was the the process was so easy.
Brian:Now what time was this what time was this at? Because a lot of people like to start early in the morning. Were you were you waiting for sunrise so that you could see the see down South Kaibab, or what was your plan there?
Shannon:A 100%. I I took your word for it. You said don't don't start too early.
Brian:Oh, good.
Shannon:So I I think I got to the trailhead at about ten past six. So I descended in a bit of darkness, but as soon as I got to Uwa Point, the light was shining. It was it was it was cracking the back of the the canyon. So I think I got the best of both worlds. I didn't want to I didn't wanna start too late and then finish late just in case something was to go wrong, I had issues, or something like that.
Shannon:So I sort of had to find the happy medium, and I thought a 6AM ish start would be good for sunrise, and it would give me a good finish time to maybe just cracking darkness.
Brian:Well, I'm glad you listened to that because I always say, of course, if you're gonna if you can go down South Kaibab and it's not the summertime and you don't have to worry about the heat, to be able to start down at least at first light so that you can see those views because those are like you just said, you start to see the sun come up around Ooa Point, and between Ooa and Cedar, for my money, is the best views in the entire canyon. And since it's seven one of the seven natural wonders of the world, some of the best views in the entire world. So I'm curious what you were thinking as you saw the canyon just kind of light up in front of you. It's like you came all the way from Australia. You dreamed about this.
Brian:Boom. There it is. Right?
Shannon:It was a feeling of awe. It was I'm I actually had tears in my eyes because I was in a I'd got myself from all the way over here to in a magnificent place like this that I'd put a lot of effort into to be ready to experience it in a comfortable way or as comfortable as I could be. And like you say, nothing compares with videos, photos, or anything like that. It's you can't really put words to it until you see it for yourself, the the the vast size of it. I mean, when I was going back up Bright Angel and you turn around and you have a look back down that little valley down past the Havasupai Gardens, it's just like, I came from there all the way down.
Shannon:It's sort of like you can't believe that your legs have brought you that far. And the sheer enormity of it, it's I don't know. You you to anyone listening, you've just gotta go and experience it because there's nothing you can watch or see will do justice. I was awestruck. Every single turn you make, it's like, oh, I haven't got a photo of that.
Shannon:Everything is different. You know, every 10 meters you walk, there's a different view or a different it's just something. And then you see the mule trains. And, I mean, the the girl the the girls and the men on the on the on the mules are awesome. They're they're always ready to have a chat.
Shannon:I think we passed I think I passed about maybe three three different trains through the day, and, they were just awesome people.
Brian:Yeah. And that's fun to actually see those two. I mean, that's an iconic part of, of the Grand Canyon experience. So you get down past Cedar Ridge. You get to Skeleton Point.
Brian:You go down the red and white switchbacks. Now you're at tip-off and about to dive into the inner gorge. So you got 2.1 miles to the river from tip-off. A good place where they got that shade structure there. I don't know if you went in there or not.
Shannon:Definitely did. But okay.
Brian:You went into the into the structure. So you get in there. Are you kind of assessing where you're at, you know, physically? Because I always like to say that the downhill can take as much out of you as the uphill if you're not prepared for it. So how were you feeling at this point?
Shannon:Not too bad, to be honest.
Zeena:So much of the Grand Canyon advice you'll find online is loud, confusing, and just flat out wrong. That's why Hike Club Grand Canyon exists on Facebook. It's a judgment free hiking community where hikers help hikers and where you can have direct access to Brian, coach Arnie, and guests from this show. You want real answers so you can hike the canyon with confidence. This is where you belong.
Zeena:Search for Hike Club Grand Canyon on Facebook and join our conversation today.
Shannon:I just kept going back to what coach Arnie would say, don't underestimate going down because you can really stuff your hammies up, and you can get to Phantom and go, wow. I'm stuffed. Yeah. The one thing that I took away from Yosemite was so I'd never used hiking poles before I did that. And so Yosemite was the first time I used them.
Shannon:And they were an absolute game changer coming back down. So I used them a lot to save my knees, hammies, and everything going down South Kaibab, basically, all the way to Phantom. And once I got to the tip-off, I sat down. I had something to eat, something to drink, make sure that I was keeping on top of everything regularly. And I just went, I feel really good.
Shannon:Like, my ankles felt good. My knees felt good. It was nice to get the weight off my back from the pack, but I felt really good. And I thought I I must be tracking really well with how I planned to descend. I didn't wanna rush it because you wanna see everything, but I felt good.
Shannon:I I didn't have any issues. All I felt was I need to go back up that back to the tip-off once I hit Phantom. That was the scary part. That was quite daunting. But I just I just had that mindset of, you know, from everything else that happens in life, my mind went, you can do this, man.
Shannon:We're doing it. We're here. Just the adrenaline just flows. And one big thing I I will say is I always kept an eye on my heart rate. I always wanted to keep it quite low because I know if you have a high heart rate for too long, you can start building up that lactic.
Shannon:And that that can cause big issues on a longer trek if you hold a higher heart rate for too long. You start getting your jelly legs. You start using, you know, your energy in different ways, and that was a big thing with me. I tried to keep it low just as I was training.
Brian:I'm curious what you thought as you started to go below tip-off. And for so long, you know, you get your first look at the Black Bridge down there, and you know that's that's where you're going. Right? What are you thinking when you start to see the river? Was it running green?
Brian:Was it running brown?
Shannon:She she was running green. And the first thing was I I turned around and got a photo of myself up the top so you could see the the river in the background, and I just went, I can jump in here. And then I went, I've gotta get down there. And I'm not over exaggerating or anything like that. I literally thought, that's still a long way to go down to that bridge.
Shannon:But I was just
Brian:This is.
Shannon:I was just is. I was just dumbstruck in the fact that I'm seeing this bridge for the first time because I've I'd, you know, I'd seen it online. I'd seen it on I'd heard about it so much on podcasts. And it's sort of like when, you know, you follow a certain sports star for so long, and then you finally get to you get the signature or you meet them. It's like, wow.
Shannon:It was a it was a bit like, wow. There's the bridge. That that's the bridge across the river. I don't know. I was I was in awe, to be honest.
Shannon:And then the other half of me was going, I can get down there, but this the the hard yards will start coming coming back up.
Brian:Yeah. You already were telling yourself, I've gotta get back up here at some point, man. But, hey, you were in shape. You knew that you could that you could do it. So you get you get yourself down there.
Brian:You come to the tunnel. And now what was that like crossing that bridge and realizing that you had made it to the bottom of the Grand Canyon?
Shannon:It was the noise. It was the when I could see the bridge for the first time, I could hear the river. And when I got to it, you sort of get to the tunnel. And I don't know. It's it's a weird quietness.
Shannon:And then you come out of the tunnel, and you just hear this I don't know. It's just an enormous it's almost you can feel the flow. And it was it's hard to put into words. I couldn't believe I'd done it. I couldn't believe I'd gotten from the top to the bottom.
Shannon:And I think it was at that very point that I went, I can finish this. I can complete the map that I did that that I made up, which was the you know, to Phantom across Tonto. I I could do this. It probably wasn't until I got to the bottom where I thought this is this is achievable. I just kept telling myself, look.
Shannon:If if if something goes wrong here, I can always go back up South South Kaibab. I know it's the hardest slog in terms of steepness, but it's it's always an option. But when I got to the bottom at the bridge, I went, no. Now we're doing this. So and then, yeah, to get to Phantom and actually see Phantom, I actually partnered up with another solo hiker at that point.
Shannon:And so we went to we got to Phantom together, and I walked in there. And straight away, I went, okay. Where's the shirts? Because I need something from here. So I've got myself a little fridge magnet and a pin, and I got the long sleeve shirt on.
Shannon:And then I sat down. I got a lemonade because everybody says you gotta have one. And I had a bagel. I had a peanut butter and jelly bagel. I didn't really want it, but I just I needed something sort of something solid, if that makes sense.
Shannon:And then I just sat there and spoke to the girl at the counter for a little while, and I thought, you know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna mail a postcard. Before I knew it, I'd I'd already left, and I just had my mindset on getting at the getting the water at this boat beach. So I'd actually forgotten about the the meal postcard, to be honest. And it wasn't until probably halfway up South Cobre I began or getting towards the tip-off there.
Shannon:I thought, I forgot. That'd be so cool to be getting home, and then, you know, you get this post postcard that, was mailed from the bottom of the Grand Canyon
Brian:side. Well, I mean, I guess you could have gone right back down from tip-off and and still done at Shannon if you wanted.
Shannon:Right? Maybe maybe next time. But, anybody that goes down there, make sure make sure you do it. I think an international postcard, I think it costs about a dollar 50. Yeah.
Shannon:It was tow would have been totally worth it.
Brian:You were back up a tip-off when you realized that, but I wanna hear what happened when you got back to Boat Beach because you got in the water, you said.
Shannon:I did. Actually didn't realize where the little turn off was, and I'd actually walked past it. And I got back to the I think it was, like, the the the Indian ruins that were there. Mhmm. And so I hopped on the map and had a look, and I thought, oh, hang on.
Shannon:So I'm pretty sure I backtracked a little bit and found the little offshoot that takes you down. It's quite a narrow little trail, and I sort of thought, am going the right way here? And then all of a sudden, you get the little beach that opens up. So I promised my son, Nixon, that I would make a video for him. So I had a little tripod, so I set my phone up and stripped down and got in the water.
Shannon:It was it was cold. It was it it was like a it was like an it was like an ice bath, and that's not an exaggeration. It was the best feeling for my feet and and body, to be honest. I just I just hopped in there, and I laid in there for about, I don't know, two minutes. Oh, wow.
Shannon:And, yeah, the energy rush that I got from that was just so recharging. But you you do need I did notice you you do have to be very careful because, you know, five metres further out, that water is flowing. So don't think that you can go and swim around in there because you can't. Well, you probably shouldn't.
Brian:Yeah. There's just a nice little eddy there at Boat Beach in case anyone's wondering where the water is calm, you can kinda wade out into it. And I'm telling you, that water year round is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Did you have any idea that the water was gonna be that cold? Because you would not expect it in a desert environment like the Grand Canyon.
Shannon:I knew it was gonna be cold just from things that I'd heard, but I I had a swim at Lake Tahoe last year, and that water was cold. This was colder. And I I didn't expect that. I put my foot in. I went, oh, damn.
Shannon:I didn't think it was gonna be that cold. I'm thinking maybe I've got a thinking Fahrenheit here. Maybe sixty, sixty five maybe if I was lucky. But, no, it was it was, well, five degrees Celsius. So what's that?
Shannon:Yeah. Mid forties to fifties.
Brian:Yeah. It's freezing.
Shannon:Always. Yeah. Yeah. It was a it was a shock. And I took my time.
Shannon:I just put my feet in there and just I mean, I'd done cold water plunges before, so I sorta know the feeling of doing it. But I didn't expect the river to be like that.
Brian:But at the same time, it's just something you've gotta do, especially when you wanna sit tell everyone that you've been to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and tell yourself that, hey, when you get up to the rim, no one can take away from the fact that you've had your feet in the Colorado that day. Pretty cool.
Shannon:Definitely. Nothing compares to that. Being on the summit of Half Dome, I think I think this outweighs it, to be honest. You know? The bottom of the Grand Canyon, it's it takes a lot of effort to get there.
Shannon:But like the sign says, anyone can get there, You know? But you have to get out. It's it's mandatory.
Brian:Yep. Down is optional. Up is mandatory. So tell us what the what the climb out was like. Because when you start going up South Kaibab, what you have to realize is that the second you cross a bridge and you go through the tunnel, the second you come out of that tunnel, you are going straight up, and it really does not stop for with with only a few minor exceptions.
Brian:And between there and the tip-off where you were going, it doesn't stop at all. So, I mean, we're talking steep right from the beginning. Right?
Shannon:Yeah. It is. And it's pretty daunting. Soon as you see it I I I actually instantly had that, you know, that feeling you get in your gut before you have a race or before you you're gonna do something that you know is gonna be hard. I had instantly that feeling.
Shannon:It was sort of those butterflies in your stomach going, ah, it's now now is when it starts. You know, the going down, the whole thing, if you manage it well, it's it's quite pleasant, I thought. But as soon as you hit that through that bridge and go I actually had to stop for a bit. I set my music up, and I just had to get into a mindset because I thought, no. This is the start of the hard.
Shannon:So it it was hard, but I found found it really rewarding because you see you start to see things you didn't see going down. You you sort of you'd go up for fifteen minutes or something. Like, you turn around, and you you can see your progress from that bridge. And it's just it's quite it's quite amazing, really, when you turn around and have a look and go, oh, wow. I've just travelled that much further up.
Shannon:And it sort of gives you an extra wind to see your progress. A lot of trails that you do, you don't get that perspective of progress when you turn around. In the canyon, I found every time you turned around to have a look at how you'd gone, you can see your progress markers as a viewpoint. And I thought that that was really encouraging for me.
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Shannon:Soon as I seen that hill to go back up, that's when the first feeling of the enormity of what I was trying to undertake hit me. Literally, that moment was, alright. What have I got myself into here?
Brian:But Shannon, you're in you're in great shape. I mean, I can tell that you're in great shape, that you were ready for this. So what is there a voice in your head or something that's just telling you that this is something to be concerned about? What was it with you?
Shannon:Pretty much my whole life, I've I've always felt that I was mediocre. I wasn't I wasn't wasn't good enough. I've come across people before in training, and, you know, they might say, how are going, mate? I'm like, yeah. Not too bad.
Shannon:And you sort of elaborate. And when you do that, they'll go, Shannon, you you come in here. You you smash the workout. You do this. You do that.
Shannon:You leave with all this confidence. And I said, yeah. But that's not what's going on inside my head. And when I've when I've seen the first hill coming out of that bridge, I sort of went back to them those moments, and I went, you've got yourself here on your own, and you've already done you've already gone this far. You've already made a massive accomplishment regardless.
Shannon:So I sort of drew on I drew on the not being good enough to I am good enough. And I promised my kids that that I'd that I'd complete this because I wanna show them that anything's possible if you put your mind to it. Now it doesn't have to be hiking. It it can be anything. And if you put your mind to it, you can achieve it.
Shannon:So that that's what was going through my mind. And especially the my mate that that was killed a few years prior, I balanced off his his energy. I guess you could put it to not let any negative thoughts go through my head and go, you know what? I'm just gonna go straight back up and cut the track halfway. It made it all all the better when I finished to use those driving forces.
Brian:Well, it sounds like you were thinking about your about your friend. Can you tell us about him and about what happened and and why he was on your on your mind so much?
Shannon:Yeah. So three years ago, there was a there was a training exercise over here in Australia, and their helicopter basically crashed into the ocean and killed four of them. He was one of the pilots on this helicopter, and it was sort of you spoke to him a week before it happened, and then you never hear from this person ever again. You know, he's left two kids behind and a and a lovely wife. It's just you don't realize like, it's very cliche when you say, you know, live today, not tomorrow.
Shannon:Live to the second. But when catastrophic things like that happen and you lose you lose a friend, not from sickness, just from an an just an instant catastrophic event, it sort of puts things into perspective a little bit. Oh, a lot, actually. Yeah. I I I pull from his energy to to get through things that I would normally procrastinate about or not do.
Shannon:So, I mean, I've only been hiking properly for about eighteen months, and I lean on him as a spirit sort of thing to to go, Shannon, wake up. Let's do this. And that's how I got into hiking. I literally went, you know what? Life's too short to be worrying about what other people think.
Shannon:Let's get out of here and do this. And it's since since changing my mindset like that, I've gone from I did Yosemite, and now I've done the Grand Canyon, and who knows what's next?
Brian:Yeah. I love it, man. I love it. Never know where you're gonna draw that inspiration from, so you make your way back up to tip-off. Probably, ultimately, the well, at least the steepest part of the ascent, and now you're about to take tanto.
Brian:So what are you feeling when you get yourself back up to tip-off the place where you'd stopped on the way down to have something to eat in the shade structure there? What's going through your mind at this point?
Shannon:The first thought I remember sitting down there, I sat down. I took my pack off, and I went actually got back here. I actually made it up. Mate, I was just there was about three or four other people sitting down in there, and I was just having a chat with them. And I was just so proud of myself.
Shannon:I thought I felt my my gas tank was still 80% full. Then that lady finally came came back, and she said because she wasn't sure what she was gonna do.
Brian:And this is the solo hiker that you had met somewhere along the way. Is that right?
Shannon:Yeah. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. I sort of met her at at the tip-off to start with.
Shannon:And then we sort of met up again at the bottom once we crossed the bridge. And she goes, oh, what what's your plan? And I said, well, my originally plan was go down to Phantom, come back up to here, and cross at Tonto, Upright Angel. And she was sort of she didn't know what to do. And I said, look.
Shannon:I'll put it this way. If you wanna hike it on your own, go for it. If you wanna go back up South Kyobab, go for it. But if you want some somebody to go with you along Tonto, I'll go with you the whole way, and then you don't need to worry. And from as soon as I said that, she goes, alright.
Shannon:I'm doing it. So we crossed Tonto together, and we went, I don't know, we went probably a quarter of the way on Bright Angel. And then she just said to me, alright. You go. I'm gonna go.
Shannon:I'm gonna slow up a bit here. Yeah. It was a it was a really good moment where I thought I was able to help somebody without pressuring them because there was no pressure in it. It was just I knew she wanted to do it, and I and I just said, look, I'm happy to, you know, to go with you on this, and it'll be all the worthwhile once you finish and go, I'm so glad I did it.
Brian:You ultimately crossed and went over to Havasupai Gardens on on Tonto. And and I assume you're glad you did because that's a that's a totally different experience being out there on Tonto.
Shannon:Yeah. It I totally got the concept of if you were to do this in summer, you're gonna be a fried egg pretty much. There is very, very there's pretty much no shade there. And the day I did it, I think the temperatures are around 80. It was I was okay because I'd trained recently over here in around 40 degrees cent Celsius here, and our humidity is so much higher.
Shannon:So the dry heat in the canyon was actually I was okay only because I've been training in high humidity. But I couldn't imagine what it would be like down there in 40 degree heat in summer. I absolutely loved it. I love the feeling of aloneness, especially when you're on a trail. You can you can be very one with yourself.
Shannon:Your mind just I don't know. It's calming. I I feel I found it very calming, and you tend to when you're on a sort of an easier, flatter trail compared to what you'd been doing, you can take in the surroundings a lot more without concentrating so hard on the downhill or the uphill or, you know, how hard it currently is. So I found it I found it quite recharging, to be honest. You definitely do feel the extra miles by the time you get to have a sup eye.
Brian:Sometimes it feels like it's never gonna get there, but you get to Havasupai Gardens, and probably have something to drink. And then you just look up that canyon and realize that you've got that much farther to go, four and a half miles from Havasupai Gardens to the top. What are you thinking at that point? Because now is when it's really about to get serious for you.
Shannon:So I'm pretty sure it was one of your podcasts where I think at Payday, I think is the is the chocolate bar. Yes. I'm sure I heard you say that. And when I got to Phantom Ranch, I seen them there. And I'm like, I was I'm sure I remember Brian saying this, so I bought one.
Shannon:And I sat down at Havasupai Gardens next to the the water fountain, and I smashed that.
Brian:Nice.
Shannon:Yeah. Filled up water, and I'm like I couldn't move for about ten minutes because it's it's a pretty it's a pretty big peanut peanut bar. But I was very glad I had it because it it gave me what I sort of needed. I just kept thinking once I started heading out of Haba Supai, I thought, this trail is not too bad. Like, the start of it, I had in my mind, oh, people keep saying, oh, yeah.
Shannon:The start's nice and easy. It's not until you sort of get a bit higher up. And then it would have been probably, I don't know, half an hour in. And I kept looking at my watch going, there's there's still six kilometres to go. It was a grind.
Shannon:I I've actually stopped a couple of times, and I got quite emotional a few times. I turned around and had a had a look through the valley. The realisation was hitting me that I was completing this. Something I actually thought I was overshooting for. When I was at home looking at this map and looking at the distance and the elevations and all that sort of stuff, there was many times I thought, I've overshot here.
Shannon:I I don't I don't know if I'll be able to do this. And I had a couple of people say to me, oh, that's a long way. You know, maybe you shouldn't do that. Blah blah blah. And it was at that moment where I went, you know what?
Shannon:I'm never doubting myself again. I know the effort that I put in to get here, and and I was and I was doing it. But by no means are those switchbacks easy. Not after you've already done, I don't know what it is in miles, 18 miles, 17 miles maybe.
Brian:Yeah. The thing about coming out of Havasupai Gardens is that it's about a mile that you kinda just meander and wander for a while before you hit Jacob's Ladder and the switchbacks that that take you up through the Red Wall to the three mile rest house. And then the the climb's pretty steep the the rest of the way. So how did you feel the rest of the way? And then ultimately, what was that like when you finally stepped foot on the South Rim?
Shannon:So when I got to the first when I finally got to the first little tunnel that you go through, I had in my mind that that was it, and I was just going around the corner. And I had a little little bit of a bit of a breakdown there, and I'm like, I'm there. I'm almost there. And then I looked at my watch, and it had 1.5 k's to go. And I just I'm pretty sure I screamed out, you know, a couple of choice words.
Shannon:And I had to regain myself because I I don't know why. I just thought, oh, as soon as I hit the first tunnel, I'm almost there.
Brian:You were nine tenths of a mile still from from the top with a lot of steep climbing still to go.
Shannon:Exactly right.
Brian:So Surprise.
Shannon:I think it was just fatigue and just emotion and everything playing playing the game. But once I got to the top, I I was tempted to put the spikes back on actually because it was sort of icy and snowy, but using the poles I found going up was achievable. If I was coming back down there, I'd probably put them back on. But funny thing is I got to the top, and there was these two ladies standing there. And the first things they said to me was, oh, is it muddy down there?
Shannon:And I just went, can you guys give me a minute? I've just done 21 miles. And they sort of stepped back, and they just apologised. And they go, oh, we're so sorry. We just bought these pizzas.
Shannon:Here, take them. So they gave me their pizzas. I didn't want to take it. And they go, no, no, no, no. We know the trails around here.
Shannon:We're we're thinking of doing it tomorrow, but sorry. We didn't realise what you've done. So they took photos for me and gave me their dinner and
Brian:Wow. Couldn't believe it.
Shannon:It was a I think I stood there in the dark at the bright angel at the at the sign there. Would have been for maybe twenty five minutes just to gather my thoughts and feelings of what I'd sort of done. There was nobody around. The sun had just set, so it was about 06:30 something. And I made a call to my mom.
Shannon:And, yeah, got got pretty emotional, to be honest, to have accomplished something like that. It's a it's a pretty big it's a pretty big deal. For me, it was.
Brian:Well, yeah. I mean, it's a big deal for for anyone. I mean, you just hike all the way down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. You were in the Colorado River. You went to Phantom Ranch.
Brian:You got yourself out of there. You had challenges along the way, mental, physical. I mean, it's there there's just something about it, but I can't imagine that there's much greater feeling of satisfaction than what you were feeling when you were sitting there and talking to your mom and and thinking about your family and thinking about your friend who had passed away and thinking about all that self doubt that you had going through your your mind, and you just had to feel, I mean, so much such a sense of accomplishment, I'm thinking, as you just sat there. Take us through what you were you were thinking as you sat there all alone with the the famous iconic Bright Angel Trailhead sign right there in front of you and and nobody else around.
Shannon:It was a feeling of I guess I'd never ever felt that type of feeling in my life before apart from when I did Yosemite. That was the first time where I I went to myself, you're more than what you think you are. I've got a I've got a very strong willpower or drive when I put my mind towards things. It's just that, you know, that lack of confidence and self esteem that always bring you down brings you down a step or two. And when I got to the top of there, I felt like I'd won a gold medal.
Shannon:Whatever that feeling would be like, I felt I can't wait to to show the kids these photos and these videos. And as they get older, look what dad did. And that that's not to put me on a pedestal to them. It's to show them that they're capable of doing it. Anybody's capable of doing this.
Shannon:If you can focus and put your mind to it, any anything's possible. So that's what was going through my mind, that the feeling of accomplishment and showing that you know, showing to mom, showing to my wife, showing to my kids, showing to, you know, my friends that are on that are on my social media that, hey, guys. Check this out. I actually did this. I'll tell you what.
Shannon:It's it's changed the way I am, the way I look at life forever.
Brian:That's Shannon Sterling, no doubt inspiring his four year old daughter Phoenix and nine year old son Nixon just as he had hoped to do. And Shannon took the memory of his experience one step further before he'd even left Vegas. You see, he's had a map of the route he took in the canyon tattooed above his left ankle.
Shannon:I thought, what can I do to celebrate and have some sort of a milestone imprinted on me? And I just kept going back to the map, and I thought a trail that I took, it's to sort of show the start of something big or what's to come. It's sort of a bit of like a trophy for me, you know, when I'm 50, 60, 70 years old and, you know, I eventually have grandkids and they go, what's that? I can tell them that's when I hiked the Grand Canyon.
Brian:Yeah. What a memory. And we will post pictures of Shannon's tattoo in our hike club Grand Canyon Facebook group. That's hike club Grand Canyon on Facebook. Just go look for it and become a member today.
Brian:Totally free. Well, you heard Shannon talk about speaking with coach Arnie, and coach wants to talk about that meeting as well.
Arnie:Hey, guys. This is coach Arnie with another Grand Canyon tip of the week, and I wanna thank Brian for trusting me with you guys and hoping to add some value to your upcoming adventures in 2026 and beyond. Today's tip is a little different. We're gonna talk about encouragement. We're gonna talk about inspiration, and we're gonna talk about trust.
Arnie:This podcast that you're gonna listen to or have listened to about a young man from Australia. His name is Shannon, and he reached out to me a while back after listening to a Grand Canyon Hiker Dude show and was blown away and was inspired to do the Canyon. So he reached out to me on Facebook, wrote me a long note, and I got back to him. And we just talked about what he wanted to do. He was inspired, and I just I I never tell anybody no.
Arnie:First, I listen to him. I wanna listen to what you wanna do, and then I wanna help you figure it out. And that was all I wanted to do with Shannon. I didn't know Shannon. I didn't know how fit he was.
Arnie:I didn't know anything about him, but he was inspired. All I did was encourage him to put together a good plan, be thoughtful of where where he was going and what he wanted to do on trails he had never been on before. Be thoughtful of the timing, the everything, all of it. And we talked about his training and all the things that he'd been doing, and I thought he could do it. He had the he had the right mindset.
Arnie:He sounded fit. He could do it. Now would he trust me to stay with the plan? Would he trust me? Would he trust coach Arnie to stick to the plan and not start doing weird things and go off on side adventures and get himself on all kind of problem?
Arnie:Well, guess what? He did it. And whether you hear this tip before or after the show, I believe you're gonna hear it with the show. You will understand that coach Arnie will pick up the phone. He will help you at least go over your plan and give you some encouragement and love.
Arnie:And if if he has to, he'll give you some tough love as well. But at the same time, I'm not gonna tell you no until I listen to you and hear you. And I just want everybody to understand that because I take this very, very seriously. You know, I am a I'm a risk taker, but the risk I take are very calculated. I thoroughly train.
Arnie:I thoroughly go through every tiny little piece of my plan before I execute it. And that's so important. So it may sound like I'm just a cowboy out there just going going at it, but I'm not. And I want you to think the same way and take the Grand Canyon very seriously because it's a serious place. But if you're like Shannon and you take a shot, all of a sudden, you get you get bit by the bug, and now he is wanting more of the canyon.
Arnie:So what a great story. And thank you, Shannon, for reaching out to me, and thank you, Brian, for having the podcast where a guy like Shannon from around the from in Australia can come to the canyon and have a great adventure. I love you guys. And as usual, if you need anything, just reach out. I love you.
Brian:Coach Arnie, Arnie Foncica junior, our exercise physiologist and Canyon coach, you heard him. Reach out. He will either pick up or he will get back to you. That is pretty much a guarantee. His contact information is in the show notes.
Brian:Hey. Stay safe out there. It was a warm winter, and it's already been a hot spring with records shattered all over the West. Take heat mitigation very seriously. And if you're hiking the canyon, use our Grand Canyon shade tracker at gcshadetracker.com to see when and where you'll have shade anywhere in the canyon.
Brian:Doesn't matter what the route is, what the trail is. You can find out where the shade will be at any time of any day of the year. Hiking in shade is just better. So be a shade hunter. It can be a lifesaver.
Brian:Gcshadetracker.com. That's gcshadetracker.com. Alright. That's it for now. My name is Brian Special, encouraging you as always to go hike the canyon.
Brian:Take that first step. 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 majestic Grand Canyon. We'll see you next time on the Grand Canyon Hiker Dude Show powered by Hikin'. Support the brand that supports this show at hikin.club.
Brian:That's hikin.club.