Now I Know Why They Call It "The Grind"...

    I was having a few beers with Steverino on Friday night when he casually asked me if I wanted to do the Grouse Grind tomorrow (Sat. morning obviously). Without hesitation I said, "Sure, what time?" I may not have answered so quickly if I had known what I was in for.

     

     All the years I've lived in North Van I've heard about people doing the Grouse Grind and how grueling it is. I've never attempted it but always wanted to and I just thought, "I walk a lot and I'm in pretty good shape for the shape I'm in, how hard can it be?" One word-- hard. It's 1.8 miles of an almost vertical trail (if that's what you call it) up the front of Grouse Mtn. A perilous mix of rocks, roots, stairs-- (some man made, some natural) and stumps that wind through a proverbial rain forest (at least on this day) to an elevation of 2800 ft.

  

    

    It's funny because a buddy of mine who would like to lose a few pounds had just attempted it on that Thursday for the first time and only lasted 15 minutes before turning tail and heading for home (I googled it and the average time to complete is 1.5 hrs, the record is 24 min. 18 sec., which seems unbelievable, and a decent time for an average hiker would be around an hour).

   It started out simple enough but by the time I reached the 15 minute mark I could see why my buddy quit, I was already so winded that any form of conversation with Steve had gone out the window and I had broken a pretty decent sweat... the beer I drank the night before was stinging my eyes. 

 

    I won't go into a step by step story of the trip but like I said, it's hard. By the time we reached the halfway marker I wanted to turn around, it was almost impossible to believe we had another half to go. I was so winded I could hardly breath and my legs were getting a little heavy and a lot rubbery. By the three quarter mark I could barely pick up my left leg because my calf muscle hurt so much but I had to press on (what a hero, it was too far to turn back). At this point I could look almost straight up to the hikers above and wondered how the heck I was going to make it up there... and where was that second wind I used to get?

    At this point Steve had gone ahead and I plodded along thinking, "What was I thinking? I will never, ever do this again." Once I realized there was no way I was going to make this journey without stopping to rest occasionally I was OK. It's was fairly congested, so the camaraderie and joking with fellow hikers helped to keep me motivated. It was actually quite a United Nations along the trail, I must have seen virtually every race, colour and creed over the course of the hike. Many of the people were tourists that were on the Grind for the first time... had probably read about it in some "What to do in Vancouver" brochure... ouch.

     

    At one point as I was nearing the summit a few keeners blew by me, some running, some simply keeping a good, steady pace. One guy had to be close to 80 years old and he went by me like I was standing still (that's because I was). I got a kick out of this Japanese family- husband, wife and about a nine year old daughter, a real trooper. She asked her Mom how long they had to go until the end to which the mother replied, "15 minutes." To which the daughter replied, "Was that one- five or five- O?" It was one- five, thank God. 

   As I broke through the trees at the top, Steve was standing there in the clouds laughing because he had done it quite a few times before so he knew what I had experienced. We had completed the trip in 65 and 70 minutes respectively but the time really didn't matter much, it was the exhilaration in having done it "because it was there."

    Reveling in our sense of accomplishment with Steve on the tram ride down I said," Maybe doing the Grouse Grind is kind of like a when a woman has a baby... you forget how much it hurts at the time and want to do it again... but not right away."

      Pics. taken apres-hike...