SUN CITY- Grant Jahr of N. 24 recently completed the journey of a lifetime. At 65 he descended to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and lived to tell about it.
“I saw people on their way down into the canyon, and I said [to myself] that someday I have to come back [here] and do that,” said Jahr.
Hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon was on Sun City resident Grant Jahr’s bucket list. Early this month, Jahr hiked the 4800-foot descent and crossed the challenge off his list. (Photos provided)
He first saw the Grand Canyon at age 50 and remarked that “You just see something that pictures can’t catch.”
Jahr and his wife winter down in Arizona and found out that hiking is a rather popular activity down there.
“Here in Sun City, biking is my usual activity [so] going out there and trying hiking [seemed like it] was a good pastime [and would be] good exercise,” said Jahr.
A former co-worker of Jahr’s was Marv Fogel, a former professor at Northern Illinois University, who happened to also live in Arizona.
“I turned to Marv and said, ‘Have you ever thought about hiking down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon?’, and he said, ‘Yeah, that’s on my bucket list.’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s on mine too,’” said Jahr.
Jahr and Fogel planned to take Ty Fogel, Marv Fogel’s son, and AJ Moses, a longtime friend of Jahr’s. Jahr was about to turn 65, Ty Fogel was approximately 31, Marv Fogel was about to turn 70, and AJ Moses was approximately 62.
Mr. Fogel began to look into what was required to be able to stay at Phantom Ranch, the campground located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Phantom Ranch consists of four bunk houses and a couple of cabins. Cabins are for the people who take the mule trains, and the bunk houses are for the hikers. There are also campgrounds available for reservation. The reservation process is organized into a telephone lottery system.
“It takes place the very first day of the month. The phones open up at the park service office in Denver at 7 a.m. mountain time,” said Jahr.
The plan was to try to go down in April 2012. Reservations are for a year in advance of the month that you call.
Unfortunately, Mr. Fogel found out that there are approximately eighty thousand people calling to try to reserve approximately eight thousand spots. After receiving nothing but a busy signal for about two-and-a-half hours, he finally got an answer.
“The answer, of course, was that all of April’s reservations were taken. While he was talking, the reservation agent suddenly got word that there was a cancellation for four people on March fourth. He said, ‘Do you want them or not?’ Fogel had to say yes or no right then and there,” said Jahr.
It was earlier than the plan had called for, so Jahr and Fogel were worried about what kind of weather they might face.
“As luck would have it, we had absolutely perfect weather. There was a big snow storm about a week before we went, so we had to walk through some snow and ice, but after a mile down, we were past that,” said Jahr.
They took the South Kaibab Trail down, which was about a thirty-minute ride away from Grand Canyon village. It took about five-and-a-half hours to descend 4800 feet in what amounts to seven-and-a-half miles.
“Going down, you’d think it [would be] pretty easy, but it’s really hard on your knees. I found out later that my calves were not in as good of shape as they should have been,” said Jahr.
Once at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, the group just had to check how cold the water of the Colorado River was. “It’s cold,” said Jahr.
The group took the Bright Angel Trail back.
“It goes right into Grand Canyon village, so we were right by our car when we got to the top. It is 9.5 miles [because] it has a lot more switch backs. The most difficult part was the last three miles…. [We] started to get into some pretty thin air. We were climbing roughly 1000 feet per mile. It took us [about] eight hours to reach the top,” said Jahr.
Jahr is normally a very active man and doesn’t dismiss another trip to the Grand Canyon. “I always enjoyed outdoor activities of some type. I used to be an [avid] skier. I got into biking about twenty years ago, and I continue to do that,” said Jahr. “If somebody challenged me [to go back to the Grand Canyon], I probably would. I did a 100-mile bike ride [when we first moved to Sun City]. I had never done 100 miles before. I’ve never done it since, but it’s probably because no one has challenged me yet. As long as I’ve got my health, I’d consider going back.”
