Blessing Hospital Information Systems supervisor Jessica Dalheim did something this summer that few people ever attempt, let alone accomplish. She hiked the Grand Canyon from one side to the other, known as a rim-to-rim hike.
Most people hike about three miles down and back up the popular South Rim of the Canyon, known as a day hike. A rim-to-rim hike is a 24-mile trek through sometimes very punishing conditions and can take 24 hours or more.
The website rimtorim.org calls the hike “extremely difficult” and reports that less than 1% of the six million annual visitors to the Canyon try it.
“I’m not the typical athlete and I’m not the size of these super, ultra-fit people,” Jessica said. “But I knew that I could do it.”
Why?
Jessica’s motivation began 20 years ago when she visited the Grand Canyon for the first time and completed a day hike. She promised herself someday she would return to attempt a rim-to-rim hike.
Then something happened that caused the fire inside her to intensify. In 2020 her husband, Joe, was diagnosed with lung cancer. While it was touch-and-go for a while, Joe is winning his cancer fight.
“You have a ‘Life is short moment,’ when you deal with something like that,” Jessica said. “We’ve been doing a lot more things. We’re not waiting anymore.”
The situation also prompted Jessica to pay even closer attention to her own health, including training for her return to hike the Grand Canyon.
“I kept thinking, ‘This is why I’m going to the Blessing Wellness Center. This is why I eat healthy. When this opportunity comes, I’m taking it.”
Surprise!
Rimtorim.org says those who attempt a Grand Canyon rim-to-rim hike prepare for months and sometimes years.
Jessica had six weeks.
Rim-to-rim hikers need to stay at a place called Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It has 9 cabins and getting a reservation can take years, if at all.
Jessica tried for a year with no success. Then, on June 1, 2023, she found out a cabin had become available due to a cancellation.
Phantom Ranch reservations are made 14 months in advance. Hikers use that time to complete their physical and mental training. The cabin available to Jessica was available in six weeks.
“I had about 30 seconds to make a decision on whether or not I was going to take the reservation, she said. “I decided that I had been trying for a year, I was going to jump on it.”
“Then we started planning.”
Ready, set, go
Already a Blessing Wellness Center member, Jessica cranked up her training. She was on a treadmill at maximum incline each day - wearing all the gear she would be on the trail – in addition to walking 5-10 miles daily.
Six weeks later, Jessica and Joe hit the road to Arizona.
While Joe could not attempt the hike because of his health, he supported his wife. Joe dropped Jessica off at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon at 2 am on July 16. Jessica would be the only solo female hiker during the time of her visit, and she would be five hours into her hike before she saw another hiker.
Meanwhile, Joe drove 220 miles to the South Rim where he was scheduled to pick up Jessica on July 17. He had to wait patiently and sometimes nervously longer than expected. During Jessica’s hike, the Grand Canyon experienced record-breaking heat – reaching 120 degrees at times - leading the National Park Service to stop all hiking for seven hours. Jessica finally appeared above the South Rim and united with her husband the morning of July 18, some 40 hours after her exceptional accomplishment began.
Was it all worth it?
“It was way harder than I thought it would be,” Jessica admitted.
She described the descent down the much more difficult-to-navigate North Rim as sometimes scary. Its hiking trail follows cliffs that are only 16 inches wide in some sections. On the other side, ascending the South Rim felt like climbing stairs for 8 of the 10 miles.
Then there are the bugs and bats.
“At night with your headlamp on there are a lot of bugs, they fly in your face. That attracts bats and they start swooping in front of your face. I had to wear a gator over my face when I had my headlamp on because I was inhaling the bugs.”
But for Jessica, the answer to the question, ‘Was it worth it?’ is yes. Because of what is called “Trail Magic.”
“I got to sit and watch the sunrise over the Grand Canyon. It was just gorgeous. I saw a deer with two fawns drinking out of a creek. It’s just so peaceful.”
Then there were the people Jessica met along the trail, including the three teen-age boys who were hiking to honor the memory of their recently-departed father. They could not find water and did not have enough food. Fortunately, they met Jessica. She led them to water and shared her food with them.
“There are all kinds of stories like that. And I have my own story about Joe and I and this journey.”
“It’s just something about the trail. I would do it again,” Jessica concluded.
