After my 5 day trip into the Grand Canyon I can give my hiking poles an enthusiastic two thumbs up!

27 hard rocky miles.

Boucher Trail was 10 very hard miles on the first day. Horizontal parts of the trail were on often on the edge of the yawning abyss on a rocky off-camber narrow trail. Vertical parts were straight down on loose rocky barely switchbacks. Oy. Had to get down there to water though. My top pack weight with 5L of water was ~38lbs. I only weigh 110.

Day 2, 6 miles mostly flat on the Tonto Trail. I had very stiff and sore legs and the hiking poles really helped. Day 3 and 4 were very short days, 2 miles to the river and back up again, still very sore legs. Day 5, 8 miles, Hermit Trail back up to the top. Legs better, but still a rocky trail.

I did this hike in trail running shoes. A pair of New Balance 804s, 1/2 size larger than I normally wear. A new pair of Smartwool socks. I was a bit footsore after Day 1, but NO blisters at all on the trip. I thought I was badazz in trail shoes, but two folks on the trip did the whole thing in sandals! One guy had homemade "jesus sandals," the other in Chacos. Hardcore!

Another cool thing that worked out for me was to use an Esbit tablet stove instead of an MSR liquid fuel stove. I only needed to heat a bit of water for Mountain House meals and tea. It worked out perfect. Tiny and easy to use.