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Welcome to the home of Grand Canyon hiking. The Grand Canyon Hiker Dude Show helps hikers plan, train for, and better understand hikes below the rim, from short day hikes to Rim-to-Rim, Rim-to-River, Phantom Ranch, Bright Angel Trail, South Kaibab Trail, North Kaibab Trail, backpacking trips, heat safety, water planning, shuttle logistics, and more.
Host Brian Speciale shares Grand Canyon stories, trail-tested advice, safety lessons, interviews, and community wisdom from first-timers, seasoned hikers, rangers, Canyon insiders, and everyday people who have learned powerful lessons below the rim.
Whether you are planning Rim-to-Rim, dreaming of Phantom Ranch, preparing for your first Grand Canyon hike, or looking for honest stories of triumph, tragedy, mistakes, and trail-won wisdom, this podcast will help you hike your best hike.
Listeners call the show “an invaluable resource,” “the perfect mix of inspiration, realistic caution, and tips for success,” and “a welcoming place and wealth of information.”
New episodes weekly. Join the conversation in the Hike Club Grand Canyon private Facebook group.
Oh, let it all out. Maybe even literally in this case. It's alright. Most of us have made mistakes below the rim, and if you haven't, well, give it another chance or two, and it is bound happen to you as well. This is Canyon Confessions, a bonus series from the Grand Canyon Hiker Dude Show.
Brian:My name is Brian Special, and these are the hard lessons from a place that does not care how good your plan sounded at the rim. These are your confessions submitted through our Hiker Club Grand Canyon Facebook group. I'm gonna read them, sometimes summarize them a bit, and then try to add my own 2¢ because if there is anyone who has come out of the Canyon wondering what in the world was I thinking? Yeah, it's me. More times than I can count and it still happens.
Brian:Okay. Today, are talking about food, fuel, calories, the stuff you thought you were going to eat, the stuff that you actually did eat, and the stuff you carried for 20 plus miles just so it could return to the rim untouched because food in the Grand Canyon is weird. Oh, believe me on that one. What sounds great in your kitchen and on your checklist might sound disgusting in Havasupai Gardens, Phantom Ranch, Cottonwood, wherever the canyon decides your appetite is just gonna disappear or at least change. And what sounds ridiculous at home might become the thing that saves your hike.
Brian:So the theme today is simple. Your food plan is not what looks good in your pack. Your food plan is what your body will actually accept when you're hot, tired, climbing, descending, nauseous, nervous, or just completely over it. All the emotions you go through during a long Grand Canyon hike. Alright.
Brian:Let's start with Laurel Lewis, because Laurel gives us one of the cleanest food lessons in the whole batch. Laurel said her mistake was thinking protein and no carbs would be adequate fuel. She has now been across the canyon more than 40 times, and she says powering out either rim is so much better with high glycemic carbs. Then she says, Hey, any excuse to eat Skittles? Alright.
Brian:Exactly. Yeah. That's the kind of science that I can get behind. Laurel says she saves the higher protein for recovery, and she recently learned that pizza can be great halfway into a Grand Canyon hike. She had two pieces, and then delighted a group of young hikers at Havasupai Gardens with the leftovers.
Brian:So the lesson here is not that protein is bad. Protein is great. Protein matters, and recovery matters as well. But if you are grinding your way out of the canyon, especially if you've been climbing for hours, your body may want fast energy. And, yeah, this is something that I can relate to as well because oftentimes, it's the Mike and Ikes in my front pockets that I I might wanna reach for, or the Sour Patch Kids.
Brian:You might not feel like eating anything else, and the high sugar stuff can give you a little bit of a boost, and at least put something into your body. Maybe not the most recommended thing for nutrition, but what I always will say when it comes to Grand Canyon hiking is we are all different, and the most important thing is packing things that you think you are going to want to eat. Because time and time again, I have found on these hikes that I feel like eating nothing, and especially the deeper I get into the hikes. I know I need to be drinking. I know I need to be eating, but nothing sounds good.
Brian:That protein bar that sounded so good and so smart. Nope. Not really gonna work. That apple. Nope.
Brian:Too much trouble. Not interested. So sometimes it's reaching for the things that you know you'll wanna eat, or that you'll be able to stomach that is the most important thing to give you that boost, because sometimes something is better than nothing. And that's what Laurel has found, and that's what I found too a lot of the times as well. Alright.
Brian:Next up, Joe Glatzbach. Joe said he brought too much food, specifically too much dry food. He did not eat enough on the trip down, and then couldn't eat on the trip back up. Yeah, a lot of people out there, a lot of you probably nodding your heads right now. That is a Canyon classic.
Brian:Too much food, not enough eating, and somehow both things can be true at the same time. And the dry food piece of this matters as well, because a lot of easy trail food, or what we think is easy trail food, is dry. Bars are dry, crackers, jerky, tortillas, nuts, all of it dry. A lot of the stuff that packs well can sometimes become very unappealing once your mouth is dry, your stomach is off, and you're breathing hard on the climb. This is where the Canyon can punish a food plan that looked perfect on paper.
Brian:You might have enough calories. You might have enough variety. You might have enough food for three extra days because you're a responsible person who overpacked like the rest of us, but if you just can't make yourself eat it when it matters, it is just weight. And this is a place where I want to talk about judging others, because sometimes when we post about this stuff in the Facebook group, you you get a lot of judgy people in there that you talk about eating sugar or honey buns, which we'll get to later, or not the most healthy things, and people will say, That is ridiculous. You need to be doing this and doing that, because this is what the books say, and this is what science says, and blah blah.
Brian:Listen, again, that stuff all can potentially fall apart when you're right in the midst of a very difficult physical endeavor. Do we wish we could all be like that, and all eat the healthy stuff, and stomach the healthy stuff? Yes, we do. Most of us at least. But again, sometimes it just comes down to eating what you are comfortable with, and you know you will be able to eat, and perhaps will even feel like eating when you are in the middle of a very, very difficult effort.
Brian:So please don't be judgy towards others when it comes to eating, because we would all like to eat healthy at all times, but sometimes that is just not reality, and sometimes it becomes a survival game. So back to the lesson, calories in your pack are not the same thing as calories in your body, and the Canyon only cares about the second one. Okay. Stephanie Higgins gave us a short confession, and honestly, sometimes the short ones are the most memorable. Stephanie said her mistake was thinking she would stomach leftover pizza on the trail.
Brian:So see, there's the two sides of it. What worked for Laurel is not gonna work for Stephanie, and that could be the same for you or me or whatever we decide to pack that day. So she says, Leftover pizza sounded amazing, and it might sound amazing in the hotel room the night before, Standing at the rim, maybe it still sounds pretty good, but a few hours into a Grand Canyon hike, it can be a different story. Now again, to be fair, Laurel just told us pizza worked for her, so this is also a reminder, again, that every stomach is different. One hiker's magic food is another hiker's why did I do this to myself?
Brian:And I've tried the pizza thing several different times, and I think the one thing that I've discovered more than anything else is that plain pizza, cheese pizza, always seems to work for me. I remember on one, I think it was a Yeah. It was a rim to rim to rim. I think it might have been my first one. And I got to the North Rim in the middle of the night sometime, or very early in the morning when it was still pitch black, and I'd been hiking across the canyon all night long in the darkness.
Brian:And I got there, I knew I was gonna have my pizza. And so I had one of those, like, supreme pizza slices from Costco. And when I took that out and unwrapped it out of the tinfoil after just completing a a 21 mile crossing by myself in the middle of the night, I cannot tell you how soggy and absolutely disgusting that piece of pizza was. And I think it was the veggies and the meats on it. It just was not appealing.
Brian:It was nasty. So that was very disappointing, and that changed my plan. I had to figure out something else to eat from the other foods I really didn't feel like eating, and that was before even turning around and having to go back 21 miles to the South Rim. So I had not tested that. I had not tested that style of pizza, and it sounded good.
Brian:I thought it would hold great, and it would stay cold in my rim to rim pack, it did, but it still was just cold and soggy, and it was cold and nasty on the North Rim, and it was just disgusting. And so I regretted that, and from that point on, I've packed cheese pizza, and that always seems to to hold up a little better, at least for me. So again, what works for one might not work for the other. You might have a different story, and the whole point is whether you're Stephanie or Laurel or me, we're all gonna react differently, and I think the most important part is actually practicing with this. What does Coach Arnie say about everything?
Brian:Don't use race day. Don't use game day as the time when you're experimenting with something just because it sounds good, and you think there's no chance that won't work. It's best to practice. It's best to know what you're getting yourself into, a lesson that I still learn over and over and have yet to really apply, I guess, because I still keep making the same mistakes. Practice, test, so race day will not be a surprise.
Brian:Okay. Next up, James Tenelssoff, one of our group experts in the Hiker Club Grand Canyon Facebook group. This one is tremendous because it starts with logic that makes sense in one sport and then completely fails in the canyon. James said his background is competitive cycling, and before a race, he would load up on as much food as possible the night before. So before his first rim to rim, back before the Internet made it easier to research every possible detail, he thought it would be wise to hit the all you can eat buffet at Sizzler in Flagstaff the night before.
Brian:Oh, man. Then he woke up early and hit the South Kaibab thinking he was ready. Oh, James. Then about a mile from the tip-off, he discovered what he described very clearly. What goes in must come out, and hiking downhill is like a blender for the food in your system.
Brian:That's a sentence right there that is also a warning label. This is another Big Canyon food truth. The descent is not passive. You are not just strolling peacefully down while your giant dinner peacefully waits its turn. Your body is getting jostled.
Brian:Your legs are breaking. Your core is working. Your stomach is along for the ride, wondering what in the world is happening. And boy, am I gonna get back to you later in this hike. Just wait.
Brian:And on South Kaibab, there is not exactly a long list of private convenient places to deal with a digestive emergency. So James found out the hard way, and we're appreciative of him being so candid in sharing. So I I think the bottom line is do not make your stomach solve a problem your training should have solved. Fuel the hike. Don't punish your digestive system before the hike even starts, and especially not knowing what you are in for.
Brian:So the downhill, we always talk about the descent and how it can ruin a Grand Canyon hike. I've never really thought of it that way, ruining it digestively, but apparently it can do that as well. So, man, we always talk about the unique nature of Canyon hiking, downfall and that is in the downhill, and the downhill can ruin hikes. And now we know that it can do it in more ways than one. So again, practice, practice, practice.
Brian:Okay. We talked about honey buns a while back, so let's talk about Caleb Metzger, the godfather of honey buns. Caleb had a food a few food adjacent confessions, and one of them was very clear. The biggest mistake a person can make is not packing enough honey buns. Honestly, after trying it, I'm not so sure I can argue with that.
Brian:But the more serious part is what he said about Phantom Ranch lemonade on an r three. Back to the honey buns real quick. I have tried that ever since Caleb had brought it up, and that has become like a mid hike treat that I have discovered. So as much as it pains me to say it, because I know Caleb, I've met him before, I've hiked with him before, You're right, dude. The buns are a thing.
Brian:And again, it comes back to something that is not healthy, that you might not eat in day to day life, but it is something you feel like eating and look forward to. And I have shared it with my hiking partners, most notably Tom Myers, Doctor. Tom, and Joe Adlock. And it's one of those things where like, hey, you guys wanna try this? And they're like, I don't know.
Brian:And you give them a piece of it, and you see them light up halfway through a hike. And guys like that who are Canyon vets who love it, it just goes to show you, again, that not everything's for everyone, but even for guys like that who are so experienced in the Canyon, something like a honey bun, it's okay. It's okay. Don't beat yourself up overeating junk food in the Canyon because sometimes, again, having something that you're going to want to eat is more important than something that you're gonna leave in your pack. So back to the lemonade.
Brian:Caleb said he drank phantom ranch lemonade during an r three when he obviously had not practiced with it. Oh, man. Trouble coming. It made him, he said, not hungry, which was likely part of why he passed out with three and a half miles to go. Okay.
Brian:That's a big one, because Phantom Ranch lemonade has almost mythical status now. You hear about it before you get there. You think about it on the way down. You imagine that cold drink at the bottom of the canyon, and it can feel like a big part of the reward, but your stomach does not care about the mythology. If you dump something sugary, or acidic, or unfamiliar into your system in the middle of a huge effort, man, like an r three, I can't even imagine.
Brian:Maybe it'll work for you, but maybe it won't. And if it kills your appetite during something like an r three, now you have a bigger problem. And having done three one day r threes myself, I cannot even imagine drinking lemonade halfway through a hike. But again, I'm gonna keep saying it to each each his own, and Caleb did survive and had a story to tell and a lesson to to share with all of us. So enjoy that lemonade if it works for you, just did not make your first experiment happen in the middle of the hardest hike you have ever done.
Brian:Man. And I wonder how much lemonade has later been left at the side of the trail in the box, or going up Bright Angel, or South Kaibab. Yeah. Boy, that sounds rough. Not for me, but again, it might be for you.
Brian:Now let's bring in Daniel Patrick because Daniel's confession is not just about what he packed, it's about what happened to the food after he packed it. Daniel said he backpacked in winter without enough food. Actually, he did have enough food at the start, but his hiking partner left a backpack with waist straps hanging down. So the squirrels, they are so resourceful, climbed up the pack, and they ate much of Daniel's food. Guys, those squirrels, they look so cute.
Brian:You wanna get close to them. You wanna take a picture of them. That's part of their con. They are evil. Trust me on that, and they are also the number one reason for visits to Grand Canyon Clinic.
Brian:Squirrel bites. They're not nice. They're after your food. It's all they care about. Don't fall for it.
Brian:So Daniel ended up backpacking for two days with very little food. Day one he said was fine. Day two was not. He ran out of steam, he said, about two miles below the top of Bright Angel, and was moving maybe maybe half a mile per hour. His hiking partner had gone ahead at three mile rest house, got to the top, and then came back and carried Daniel's pack, which helped him move faster and get on out of there.
Brian:So this one has a lot in it. Food storage, partner dynamics, winter cold, backpacking effort, the climb out, and that terrible feeling when the tank is just empty. But hey, at least he made it out. The lesson your food plan is not complete until the food is protected and still available when you actually need it. Because if the squirrel eats your calories, they are not your calories anymore.
Brian:Okay. Let's use Heather Guscott for the final confession because she widens this out beyond one snack, one meal, or one bad stomach decision. Heather said, drink and eat. Do not make the canyon hike a weight loss experiment. Do not do a cleanse while hiking Grand Canyon, and she said those are the things she and her husband have had to deal with in groups.
Brian:And that is worth saying plainly. The Grand Canyon is not the place to experiment with deprivation. It's not the place to prove you can go without. It's not the place to combine a big physical effort with a cleanse, a diet stunt, or a plan to under fuel yourself because you think lighter is better. The canyon is already enough stress.
Brian:Heat is stress. Descent is stress. Climbing is stress. Elevation can be stress. Travel can be stress.
Brian:Fear can be stress. Group dynamics can be stress. Do not add, I intentionally did not give my body enough energy to that list. So the bottom line to all this, the Canyon is not impressed by under fueling. It will simply make you pay for it.
Brian:So what did we learn here? Food below the rim has to be practical, tested, and honest. Not aspirational, not theoretical, not what sounds good in the grocery store, not what worked for somebody else on YouTube. Your food plan needs to answer a very simple question. Will I actually eat this when I'm tired, hot, climbing, breathing hard, and maybe a little sick of everything?
Brian:If the answer is no, then it is probably not your food plan. It's just cargo. The big takeaways, practice your food before the hike. Practice, practice, practice. Bring carbs that work for effort, not just protein that sounds responsible.
Brian:Think about texture. Dry food can become hard to eat. Do not introduce new drinks, huge meals, or a weird experiment on the big day. Protect your food from animals, Dan, and never turn a Grand Canyon hike into a cleanse, a diet test, or a contest to see how little you can get by with. The encouraging part is this though, food mistakes are fixable.
Brian:You can test this stuff. There's nothing stopping any of us from doing that. You can learn what works. You can train with it. You can pick variety.
Brian:You can pack variety as well. You can bring the boring thing that always goes down. You can give yourself options for when your appetite changes when you do that. You are not just making the hike more comfortable, you are making it safer. Food.
Brian:It's a big one. If you wanna know more, if you wanna ask more, get into our Hike Club Grand Canyon Facebook group. There is an army of people in there who have made mistakes and would love to share them with you and you probably pick up some good advice along the way because that is what Canyon Confessions is all about. It's about the mistakes that we've made, so hopefully we can help others not make them. And the mistakes, it's a bottomless well to draw from.
Brian:I can I can tell you that? Alright. Guys, if you haven't checked out Grand Canyon Central yet, please go to grandcanyoncentral.net. We don't have much to help you with food just yet, but we do have a lot to help you with just about every other part of your hike. You will not believe what we have there now.
Brian:Weather. Live weather. You can find out the temperatures live at Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon Village, many, many Canyon locations. You can plan for the day of your hike. What will the weather be?
Brian:When will the sun come up? When will the sun go down? What's the average temperature? How much daylight do I have? Will there be a full moon?
Brian:You can find out all of that for the day of your hike. Use our shade tracker, live water conditions, live webcams. It is without a doubt the website that I always dreamed of creating and giving to the Grand Canyon hiking community. Grandcanyoncentral.net. Trust me when I say, I am selling it short right now.
Brian:Get in there, grandcanyoncentral.net, and find out what Grand Canyon hiking is all about, and it will help you hike your best hike. That I can promise you. Get on in there. Grandcanyoncentral.net. Alright.
Brian:That's it for now. My name is Brian Special. This has been Canyon Confessions brought to you by the Grand Canyon Hiker Dude Show. Hey. Go plan that big canyon hike.
Brian:Get after it. Go get yours, and we will see you next time. Be safe out there, everybody.