117 | Nine Women, One Canyon: The Hiking Tribe’s 32-Mile Grand Canyon Gauntlet (Live at Service World Expo 2025)

All right, guys, this episode is going to be pretty awesome. This is, uh, this is an opportunity that I got to interview. Um, I don't know, I'll keep calling the hiking tribe. And so basically there was nine women, most of which are from the trades that all decided to go on this amazing hike in and through the Grand Canyon. Uh, and this is really the opportunity for me to be able to, so, all right, so back up a little bit. There was nine of them that went on this trip.

three of them happen to be at Service World. So I got to interview the three of them. This interview is pretty cool, pretty impactful. I will tell you at the end, I think something like maybe a bug flew in my mouth. So I couldn't really say what all I wanted to say.

so once the interview was over, I'm actually going to say what I wanted to say, to, the ladies who, who did this. So enjoy this episode. Again, this was filmed and recorded live in service world, 20, 25, whether you're listening to this on the podcast or watching it on YouTube, I appreciate you coming and hanging out, but let's go. Hey, so welcome to another episode of freedom blueprint podcast.

In you don't know me, my name is Kristin Dease. I'm married to Justin and the guest co-host, but we already knew that.

I know guys do the trades and Kim as well and so we've all met that way.

My name is Kim Martin and we've just met the last couple years and we've really become close friends through the trades.

Y'all got real close. So we were at Service World Expo last year. Yes, And we were, I don't know, standing by the stage and somehow these ladies came up with this crazy idea. So I'm let you guys tell us what the crazy idea was.

Well, so we were wrapping the show and we were sitting in the big room at the big round table just chit chatting and I had mentioned to Lisa that I wanted to, she was talking about I think going to Machu Picchu. Yes. And I was asking if that was a challenge, like if that was a physically challenging hike and you're like, yeah, yes and no and I'm like, okay cool. I'm looking for some sort of really hard adventure to do in the next year.

And then we started talking about the Grand Canyon and she was like, well I mean, I would do that. And I was like, okay. We started talking about doing room to room. And so it kind of started from there and then five minutes later we had Gina roped in.

And I think too it was we were talking about like bucket list things that we all wanted to do and things that my husband and come to find out your husband like no I don't want to do that. Good for you, way to go. So we're like okay we have partners now that we can go and do that with. Yeah and it so it started blooming from there.

Buford had wanted to do it.

No, he loves to be in the woods deer hunting, but he would feel like there's no reason to hike unless you're going to go hike for you're running from something. Yes.

or camp on hard ground.

Why would you sleep on the ground? essentially what happened is we ended up over a really short period of time gathering up eight other there's there's nine women all together most of which were in the trades who were all were like absolutely let's go sounds amazing and so we had originally planned to do a rim-to-rim hike you have to apply for permits in advance all kinds of things turns out we did not get the permits that we wanted to do the rim-to-rim had to shift gears a little bit and actually I think when it

than what probably the room. I think yes.

I think so. mean, we don't know, but I think it worked out perfectly, what we were expecting, what we wanted to experience.

So tell us about distance, give us all those details.

Either one.

So we ended up doing the Grand Canyon Hermit Trail. That was the final name of it. 32 miles. My word right now to say is it was not a hike. It was rock climbing. I feel 40 pounds on my back and we were supposed to be prepared for 30 to 35.

32 miles over four days.

How much does that? Like, then you take it off and you go to walk and you feel like, I left something, like I forgot something.

Yeah, it's a small body, you know, we're all moms. So I mean, yeah, it was like, oh, we're not carrying a full-size child with us any longer and it really it really did mess with your Your balance. Yeah, know certainly because you are kind of bouldering at times with a 35-pound pack on your back You know six or seven miles in and you're you're kind of tired and so, you know and not sheer cliff But a pretty pretty big drop off on one side at all times. Yeah, so it was

If you turn just wrong, you're like this.

Right, or sliding. Like there was times where the path was like barely wider than the width of your foot, like one foot in front of the other and it's way up on this side and way down on that side and a little bit loose and I think that had I really thought of.

what we're.

The idea was to keep your head down. Don't look. I do think one time I really did freak out when I saw someone else freak out and they got kind of stuck on a rock. Remember Gina kind of panicked and got stuck going around a rock. And so I was I was really scared going into that turn that one time for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but otherwise you just keep your head down, right?

Because she was ahead of you.

I mean a lot of times we just watched each other. Our foot placement and so if you just stayed with the person in front of you and you kind of did that. But yeah, when there was like a double step or a sidestep, you're like, oh wait, you know and so yeah, you had to remind yourself wait. We came to hike the Grand Canyon. So you want to stop and look up and look at the beauty of it, you know, but if you're walking and and looking.

football.

for you.

Stop and look.

Wait, okay. Here we go again. Yeah, you know you're back on track. So So I am a picture-taker it was all I could do not to Carry the extra weight of a real camera. I wanted to bring my 35 millimeter so bad I know in hindsight those two guys would have been like no that's not going Yeah, I mean the day before we left and even the morning of they're like that's not going that's not going there We're still pulling stuff out of our backpacks the morning

have been too hard.

They knew what they were talking about.

I'm at the end of the day grateful for.

Okay, so four days and you guys stayed in a resort, right? Yeah.

I'm just slipping and re-zoning.

our own little personal tent resort.

a six by two resort and had to pack up and put up every single day. Yeah so yeah it was but I mean we we found flat ground obviously our the guides who took us they knew where we were gonna be staying and all that so I mean we knew all that but the first day we all started to put up those tents we were all like

my god. Where this go? I was like, where are the instructions? don't know how to do this.

No instructions. And we all kind of faked it until we could help each other put our tents together.

Yeah.

A lot of teamwork though. love that everybody's like hey, where are you now? Let me help you put your stuff up and got people going. Especially if you're retired, you could see some step in and help somebody so that part was beautiful.

By the time we get down to the bottom on the first day, think we are all like, my god, what did we do? What did we get ourselves into?

I thought every day was going be more of that.

Yeah, yeah, I didn't know how I was gonna get out.

helicopter.

Yeah, and it took us. The whole time there are helicopters flying over us.

on one these things.

We right, so we were asking the guys, how much is it to get helicoptered out of here? And then we're like, that's $10,000 a person. I think we could chip in and make it happen.

But it's not that easy. You don't just dial in and say, come get me. I mean, has to be early.

like home we can make this happen.

But it took us in for to do that it took us eight hours to go down. Yeah. So if it gives you any idea what downhill was like it took us only seven and a half to get out uphill. So meaning it was easier for us to go the seven and a half miles up than it was the seven and a half miles down.

exhausting.

Yeah, so what they were explaining to me with that is because by going up, number one, when we train, think about all the times you train, they say you're training going forward and up, like treadmills and all that stuff. You don't really ever have capability unless I guess you're really in the mountains or something to go down. And and our wonderful gods said we're using our big muscles now. Yeah. And compared to going down, we're not using the muscles. I think, did y'all feel like you used them with arms? Yes. More going down.

So they gave us trekking poles to use and we were like, it's for old people. And they were like, no, no, no, you really, really want the trekking poles because it takes like 30 % off the weight of your feet or something like that. And so he's like, you're using them right if at the end of the day your arms and shoulders are sore.

I mean I really did feel it in my triceps because you're pulling and you know that kind of thing quite a bit.

My palms and my hands were hurting too from going down, taking that first.

So food, what was food like?

it was awesome. We didn't have to prepare it.

food was so good. was. Yes, that that. So that was a little bit of luxury in our adventure. I was picturing we were going to have MREs the whole time. Because I was like, that's going to be really heavy to be carrying all that food. So we had to carry all of our stuff plus a rationing of the food.

And a baggie of snacks. They gave us all, I mean you got to pick out your snacks before we left. And so we had a baggie of snacks. We had another bag full of various foods which we dropped every day and picked up something different every day. So, I would run. would like, as soon as everything was ready, I would like go and I would only let myself pick up two and I would pick the lighter bag.

the lightest one possible.

They told me the last day, next morning, and I was like, when the last one's going in, and someone picked my bag up and they're like, Kim, yours is so heavy. And I'm like, I'm one of the oldest ones here. And you guys made me carry the heaviest food bag. And so yeah, the next morning, I'm like, she's yeah, I'm like carrying all these onions. I felt like I was carrying all the onions this big.

you

Where's the chips? need the lightest.

But the first time you got down there they had fixed this chicken fajitas It was yeah, it was wonderful and our guides. mean they had two cook pots You know and then they kept the dry ice and any meat inside those cook pots to keep everything cool Okay, so we complained about our 35 our two guys carried a lot

It was excellent.

easily twice as big.

about that is a guide like you guys went on this adventure of four days and then you come out of there and you're like

I am wiped out. need a vacay. Those guys probably went right back in. They say they're like they don't like to come out like it's she's Danny was saying that she doesn't like to be at the house very often and was glad that it was going to be raining because that would make her not feel so bad about being inside and in the house because the couple days it was going be which by the way did you guys watch the weather?

The weather, I was curious what happened. was bad.

We had fantastic weather and literally the next day it was awful.

because we were in Phoenix and it rained the whole time we were in Phoenix.

So when you're talking about what her feeling was, I found when I got home that...

the background noise of the TV. I didn't really care to turn the radio on in my car. I mean, I had my headphones on like if I worked out to listen to kind of like my morning routine thing. And then I just want to quiet. didn't. don't think we naturally just kind of turned background noise in our house a lot. And I'm know for two weeks I didn't I didn't want to hear anything. It just felt so good to have that calm. Yeah. And so come into this again. Yeah. Thank you.

you have here guys.

So what was, I mean that was four days, obviously the phones didn't work. Right? No music, you're not allowed to even, one of the girls actually brought a speaker and started to play music at one, and they were like, you can't do that. That's like a, it's part of the leave no trace is music, sound. Can you believe that? Yeah. And so, you know, four days without, which I was like, this is great. I didn't mind at all either.

Thank

It was nice.

It was cute because so well going into it. I think the guide, at least the male guide was like this is nine women. Not quite sure how this is going to go on the first day.

I no idea how bad ass y'all were. They didn't. didn't. What's interesting is, and I don't know all the husbands for everybody who went, but...

the husbands would have been great partners for you guys.

He's looking at a pile of them sitting over there.

Yeah, so that guy has no idea how badass y'all are. You're like, we're in trades, boys.

They figured it out by, I guess the second, end of the first day I think is when they figured it out.

He said once we made it past a certain point on the downhill, said when everyone made it past a certain point, I knew, okay, we're gonna be okay the rest of the trip.

I wish they had told us that early though. He didn't tell us that till like the third day and I'm like I was still nervous. The emotions of anxiety, scared, excitement. I mean how many other emotions did you guys go through? tears, you know, because I'm glad I made it through. Tears because I'm scared to come out. I mean and the anxiety too. The heart rate like was constant.

on the for the way out. Yeah, all really nervous.

wanted it to be over because I was exhausted but didn't want it to be over at the same time.

Yeah.

favorite things is the second night of course you know we're camping kind of in canyons with walls on both sides but the second night we had the supermoon and you know we went we woke and went to sleep with the Sun so we go to sleep and sometime in the middle of the night I wake up and I'm like it's time to get up because it's light outside but boy that supermoon had come over that canyon top and

It was so amazing. look up and Renee right next to me is sitting up and we're just both looking at it. We're not talking to each other. mean it really was, I mean I get teary just thinking about it. Just the serene, the beauty of where we were at and the fact that we had gotten there day after day. By then we've done some day hikes in and out and it was just, it was so beautiful. to know the whisperings of people sleeping around you and just the solid.

and that we were all suffering through the same things together. We'd all left our families to come and do something like this, you know, and again, you're not connected like we're so used to anymore. So you kind of think in your mind, okay, everyone is okay at home. You have to convince yourself of that. We did a lot of having conversations, but not a lot about our families, because I think all of us were like...

Every time you hurt, move, hurt.

But if something were to happen, then we don't know. So there was peace in that and I think just being with strong women. We knew we could, by third day, we knew no matter how bad that next day, because we had to get up at 3 a.m. Great campus.

would not.

and be on the trail by 4 a.m. after breakfast and everything.

And Danny, our female guide, she stayed behind. She had taken care of everyone's feet. The first aid on the entire trip was amazing. So she had taken care of everyone's feet so we could head out. She probably was like, I don't know, 20 minutes and a half an hour behind us. But she caught some of the best pictures.

See

pictures of us coming through here.

And we had red, not white, red lights on. And so she has these pictures of us off in the distance going up the side of, just the pictures that they've got for us were so great. And we didn't know that till we were already out.

Someone had asked us early when we were talking about it like what kind of drama because you know nine females some not know each other and then you're emotional and like when you touch somebody and it was really neat because I feel like everybody kind of recognized when someone else was going through a struggle. Yeah, it's like supporting each other in different moments and this story is so funny because I told my daughter and she said well I'm gonna make sure I tell my grandson when he grows up so he's a year and a half and he's the best little boy like still would like to rock at night.

and just a second, know, he's so good about it. And so I got real struggled one time and I was taisantly like, someone sing me a song and Jen was behind me and she said, well, what do you want to sing? And I said, honestly, the only thing I can think of right now is blah, blah, blah.

She just started singing it with me. By then I was like laughing and felt loose. And so it's like, my God, it helped me just get through that next little struggle. So everybody had those moments, like what made them loosen up? And I just saw that through the whole trip. Who needed it at that time and like what was their trigger to kind of help them through that? So that to me was just a blessing to have that come out of that, those emotions. yeah, for sure.

but support.

So biggest takeaway, like what was that thing that you got out of it that you were not expecting? Like you just went, I didn't expect that.

I didn't expect everybody to be like, heck yeah, when are we, what's the next?

We're not listening to Kristen anymore. Somebody else is playing in the next trip.

We all still love her. You thought you were surprised about that?

You I continually just think of, I mean, personal strength. You know, it's not every day. We live in a world where things are pretty easy for the most part, especially physically. Unless you push, you choose to push yourself. You don't realize, you know, gosh. And also, I'm 61. At my age, I can still walk nine miles downhill with a 35 pound pack.

I can make it back out too. You know, I mean, that was big for me. I was like, okay, I can do hard things. You kind of reach an age where you're like, okay, I don't have to do those things anymore, but I love the challenge. To know that we possibly are thinking about another challenge together is amazing. And I think we've already talked about it once. It's really gonna be hard to kind of keep it small group. They've seen the pictures and they've seen our...

Yeah.

more people want to join.

They're gonna see the podcast.

Maybe we'll just have to run multiple groups throughout the year. Yeah. Have to do a spring and a fall.

I mean, think when I think about it, I think about you're the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. You guys have like this amazing connection now. Whether you do it every year or not, which I'm pretty sure you guys are going to do every year.

to disconnect. how often do we get to just do that? Did you got, were you guys excited to turn on your phone when you came out of the gate?

No. In fact, somebody did turn it on and kept going beep beep beep beep and I was like, god please.

The guy she goes yeah turn them off turn them to silent do whatever you have to do because this is not this is You don't need this yet. Yeah, she's really trying to enjoy what we just accomplished Yeah, but as soon as we crested that hill and we got to the top Because everyone wanted either step, you know, we had our phones still on or to take pictures with right So when we were when we were coming out, they started digging and she was like no

Yeah, put him on airplane.

definitely didn't contact even my family until we got way back to the hotel. Because I did just want to kind of take in what we've done.

was such an amazing accomplishment that we had done over the it deserved the time to reflect on it. So yeah.

Well, that's exciting. Thank you guys. Thank you guys for letting her have that opportunity. You wouldn't have got it with me.

you

Yeah.

We look back. Oh, thank you. It was great to have that bonding. We still wonder why we...

a completely different way.

This is your net worth.

Yeah, thank you.

That was a pretty awesome interview, pretty impactful. and it really makes you kind of think like, what am I doing to push myself? you know, one of the things, what I was trying to say when I was getting a little bit choked up is the bug. It flew right in my mouth. what I was trying to say is how incredibly proud I am of them for doing this. This was a big thing. This was outside of everybody's comfort zone. and to be honest with you, when I say I'm proud of them, I can assure you every one of the husbands and the significant others were just

as proud as I am, was a, it was a really cool moment. and I think it's amazing for, for the nine of them to be able to collaborate and come together and do this amazing journey. my hope and what I'm guessing is this will be an annual trip for them. But anyways, I just appreciate everybody hanging out and checking it out. And thank you.