Father’s Day 2024

Father’s Day 2024.

Hard to get any better.

On Father’s Day, my son and I completed our 7 day trek across the Grand Canyon and back.

Within minutes of marching across the finish line we were enjoying scoops of the best ice cream ever.

Before 8 in the morning; my son and I had climbed up and out of “The” Grand Canyon AND were enjoying ice cream steps away from incredible views of the canyon – what a great start to Father’s Day.

7 days before; with headlamps on, Zachary and I were making our way into the canyon down the infamous South Kaibab Trail.

I say “infamous” because the trail is brutally steep in places, offers hikers very little shade, and has even claimed the lives of several hikers.

Hiking from one rim of the Grand Canyon to the other rim involves crossing one of the two footbridges that are suspended over the Colorado River.

Descending from the North Rim more than 5700 feet over the course of 14 miles is the North Kaibab Trail. According to the National Park System, “hikers on the North Kaibab
Trail pass through every ecosystem to be found between Canada and Mexico”. After our 2018 rim to rim trek, I had said that the North Kaibab Trail was the most incredible trail I had experienced. This year we went both up and down the North Kaibab Trail. I again enjoyed the rich, varied landscapes and environs of the North Kaibab Trail. On this year’s visit to the Grand Canyon; however, I experienced a trail that rivals the North Kaibab Trail: the South Kaibab Trail.

There are 2 trails that you can hike from the South Rim to the river to cross one of the 2 foot bridges spanning the Colorado river. The Bright Angel Trail is 10 miles long with a campground situated about halfway down. The South Kaibab Trail is only 7 miles in length but steeper. The trailhead of the South Kaibab Trail is about 400 feet higher in elevation than the Bright Angel Trail. We went down the South Kaibab Trail on our first day of hiking and back up the Bright Angel Trail on days 6 and 7.

The South Kaibab Trail starts along a ridge. We were well into our hike before the sun came up.

As we descended into the canyon and the sun started peeking up over the canyon walls – the canyon just opened up in front and all around us – the whole expanse of it all was almost overwhelming. We had hiked to the bottom of the canyon once before and had trekked from rim to rim; but this was the first time we had experienced the South Kaibab Trail.

I fell in love with the Grand Canyon in 2015. I took my father to the Grand Canyon that summer. A few months before he was diagnosed with lymphoma again and was not going to pursue any more treatments. The night my mom called me to tell me the news – I somehow knew that taking my dad to the Grand Canyon before he died was something we had to do – even though I had never been to the Grand Canyon.

We both had profound experiences. In my article “The Grand Canyon and Goals”; I tell the story of how on my first brief hike into the canyon I decided I had to come back and hike rim to rim.

Committing to going back to the Grand Canyon to hike rim to rim is part of what has motivated me to become more deliberate in my physical fitness efforts. Since 2015; I have learned a lot about training not just for hiking but for life, building on what I had learned in college about exercise physiology. I have also delved more into some of the nuances of nutrition, using a good background in science to help sort through all of the information that is out there.

I am not a dietician, a personal trainer or an exercise physiologist – but I have devoted much time into learning what I can from the experts. Sharing this information is in part what has motivated me in creating my website/blog “healthmatters.fitness”. I want to share nutritional, fitness and medical concepts with my patients and whoever will listen.

The healthmatters.fitness website is a work in progress. I eventually will include more pages that provide specific medical education pieces and resources. Currently the website serves mostly as a “blog”. I have another website I had previously created to serve as a supplement for newspaper and social media articles. This wix based website has many of my newspaper articles archived as well as additional pages of information. At times I may link back to resources in my older website.

For those who are new to the healthmatters.fitness website/blog you may want to go back to the article posted on February 22nd my 57th birthday.

I will be continuing my series on protein soon with an article on protein digestion and absorption. At the same time I plan on starting a series of articles on physical fitness – I want this series to provide information for those just getting started as well as for those who are already exercising regularly.

I plan on having the article on protein digestion and absorption out soon but in the meantime check out my previous articles in this series:

“Protein” (introduction to protein)

“Do higher protein diets harm our bones?”

“Protein, Muscle and Quality of Life”

“What is the largest organ in the body?”

“Protein: What is it?”

“Amino Acids: Building Blocks of Proteins”

“Essential, Nonessential and Conditionally Essential Amino Acids”

In addition to the nutritional, fitness and medical information I plan on injecting fun information about history, the arts, and the world around us.

Click here for a list of “A Few of My Favorite Hikes”.

Russ Coash, PA-C
healthmatters.fitness