Dixon man, 68, hikes the Grand Canyon, rim to rim, in one very hot day

DIXON – There are trips to the Grand Canyon to see one of the world’s wonders of nature, and then there are trips to the Grand Canyon like the one Mark Jordan took about 6 weeks ago.

A Dixon resident and a tutor at Sauk Valley Community College since 2011, Jordan pushed himself to the limit by tackling a hiking trip through the canyon back on May 30, from the north rim to the south rim. The 23½-mile venture lasted 16 hours and left the 68-year-old spent.

“It’s a force of will to keep going sometimes,” Jordan said. “There’s a line from a Rudyard Kipling poem called ‘If.’ ‘If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them: Hold on.’ It was willpower more than anything.”

Jordan visited the Grand Canyon on multiple occasions, and hiked 14 miles down to the Colorado River, at the bottom of the canyon, eight times. He also did one rim-to-rim trip, but that was with 3 days of camping and 4 days of walking. This would be the first rim-to-rim hike in 1 day.

The idea for such a trip was hatched back around Christmas, when Jordan was in Loveland, Colorado visiting his son, Ben, and daughter-in-law Lauren.

Lauren’s grandfather, Mark Ruhlman, has a friend named Chris Kelly. They both live in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Kelly often leads hiking excursions through the Grand Canyon. In January, Jordan sent Kelly an email to see if he, his son and daughter-in-law could be included in one of those treks.

“Usually people who have done it with him before get the priority,” Jordan said, “but last year they didn’t do it because of COVID and some people didn’t come back.”

An avid walker, Jordan began preparing by going on longer hikes in the area. He walked a 12-mile trail from Polo to Dixon. He walked the 17-mile Jane Addams Trail near Freeport. He walked up and down steps and hills at Starved Rock State Park in Oglesby.

It all paled in comparison to the challenge ahead of him.

“Walking around here is not the same as waking the Grand Canyon,” Jordan said.

He, Ben and Lauren arrived at the trail head around 3 a.m. to prepare for a 3:45 a.m. departure. They were met by Kelly and another group of hikers, about 10 people in all. As it got time to leave, however, there was an issue.

“My expectation, and I think Ben and Lauren’s expectation, and it was an assumption, was that we all stay together,” Jordan said. “We took some pictures, then tightened this up and tightened that up, looked up, and they were gone. We did not see them again the entire trip.”

For Jordan, the challenges started right away on the initial descent into the canyon.

“In the early part of the trip I had some equilibrium issues. I would stop and I would lose my balance. I did fall three or four times, but luckily, I knew which direction to fall.”

Jordan forged on, but it continued to be a struggle.

“We got down the first 5 miles or so, and I’m not feeling very good at all,” Jordan said. “Ben goes, ‘You know, you don’t have to go all the way across.’ I said, ‘Yes I do, because I’m not going 6 miles straight back up this way.’ After that initial descent, it was a slower descent, more level, and I felt much better after that.”

It was about 14 miles down to get to the Colorado River. They walked along the river for about about 1½ miles, then a mile in deep sand along Pipe Creek. By then, the temperature had reached triple digits, and that was followed by one of the toughest parts of the trek.

“It’s called the Devil’s Corkscrew, and it’s a bunch of switchbacks going back and forth,” Jordan said. “The sun now is directly overhead, and there’s no shade. It over 100 and some degrees through there. Physically, I wasn’t hurting. My legs didn’t hurt. My back and arms didn’t hurt, but I was just so exhausted. I was drained totally of energy. It was an effort to keep moving.

“I probably couldn’t have done it if Ben hadn’t been there with me to encourage me. He actually carried my pack for a little bit of the time through there.”

Things began to improve upon reaching the next stretch of trail called Indian Garden. There are some cottonwood trees there to provide shade, and they took about a half-hour break, to drink water and have a little something to eat.

“You just don’t feel much like eating,” Jordan said. “I brought 12 energy bars and ate two of them. And the water you bring gets so hot, you don’t feel like drinking that. There are spots that have natural springs and streams, so there is water to drink.”

The afternoon break served the Jordan party well, and they were able to cover the last 5 miles or so without incident. In all, they descended about 6,000 feet, then climbed about 4,500 feet – and finishing it was not a given.

“That weekend I read later that there were at least 20 ranger-assisted rescues along the trails of the canyon,” Jordan said. “There were 14 helicopter missions that day for people that got in trouble hiking. It was kind of brutal. It’s gotten hotter there since then.

“They do recommend you don’t hike between 10 and 4 because of the intense heat. Other hikes I’ve done that. I’ve gone until about 9:30, then kind of just lounged around until it got cooler. We didn’t have that luxury for this hike.”

It wasn’t that long ago a trek like this for Jordan would have been out of the question. Eight years ago, he weighed more than 300 pounds and had high blood pressure, high blood sugar, diabetes and sleep apnea. In 2013, he had triple bypass heart surgery, changed his diet, started exercising, and is now fit. He has walked or jogged in about 230 races since then, and is doing a virtual walk of the Pacific Coast Trail that will have him walking about 2,000 miles.

“I look for challenges like this just to stay physically active.”

As for another 1-day rim-to-rim hike across the Grand Canyon, Jordan said that is unlikely. He would gladly do it over 4 days again, with camping in between.

“The Grand Canyon is one of the seven wonders of the world and a great destination for everybody,” Jordan said. “I’m walking through but not really experiencing it. When you camp for 3 days and walk for 4, you can take the side trails and see waterfalls or different viewpoints. You can stop and look at the cactus and the lizards, and visit with people that are hiking back and forth.

“It was a different type of experience, and I’m glad I did it.”