Thanks everyone. I did it! 16.1 miles and 5,000 feet of elevation in one day. It was A LOT.
We left at sunrise with temps in the 50's, and reached the canyon floor just after 10, with temps in the 90's.
I packed:
- fruit strips (fruit leather)
- clementines
- an apple
- dried cranberries
- Cava hummus
- baby carrots
- 365 woven wheat crackers
- breakfast potatoes (not WFPB)
- roughly 4 liters of water
- powdered Gatorade mix
For the most part, this was perfect. I had just the right amount of food to eat, and never felt dragged down after eating. I drank at least 3 liters of water, some plain, some with Gatorade mixed in.
In the future I will pack some boiled potatoes, but had to do the best I could with the circumstances and resources I had at the time. I would also like to have a nicer lunch, like chickpea tuna salad on Ezekiel bread, with grainy mustard, avocado, romaine and sliced tomato.
Due to the high altitude and extreme heat, I ended up needing to take salt tablets (which was a total game changer!). I had thought that Gatorade or some sort of electrolyte drink would be sufficient, but I started getting light headed about 3 miles from the end, and popped a salt pill to get relief very quickly. I'm so used to intentionally avoiding excess salt that it was a little surprising to find out that I really needed salt. I ended up using 3 salt tablets in total, and probably should have used them earlier in the day.
Added bonus, I am the only one in my group that isn't sore today (except for where my backpack was on my shoulders). It's probably more do to training than diet, bit it feels good to not be worn out.
I knew the Grand Canyon was big, but to experience it in this way really put it in perspective. Even just seeing it from the rim, you can't fully grasp the magnitude of it.
