16. October 2007 by admin.

Today we began the hike. Although we had set the alarms for 5:15 to catch a 6am shuttle to the trail, I believe that each of us was up much earlier with the anticipation of starting. It was cool in the morning and we drove to the Backcountry Office, parked the car, and caught the 5:45am hiker shuttle bus to the South Kaibab trailhead where we started the hike by 6:15. It was an incredible hike and incredible day. A year ago I had started the hike by going to the trailhead with my father and uncle. It was a memory that I cherish and wished that they were with me this morning. Our first rest stop on the hike today was Ohh Ahh Point. In June, when I came out here with my father to get the permit, we hiked to to this point which is .8 miles down into the canyon. I admire my fathers determination and courage. Most people of his age would not consider such a hike. I know that he dreams of going further into the canyon and I hope that one day he does.

The hike into the canyon on the Kaibab is steep, with magnificent panoramic views almost the entire way. In the early morning we were in the shade and by mid morning we were in a warm but pleasant sunshine. Dave asked a man backpacking up how he was doing and he said that he had just spent 7 days in the backcountry. When Dave asked him how it was he said, “magical,” as he continued on up the trail. Although describing the Grand Canyon with words is difficult, I believe that magical is a good word. It is a special place that represents different things to different people. To me, it represents a scale of time that helps me to put my own life into perspective. It is a landscape that is unfamiliar but somehow strangely very familiar. I sometimes wonder if we are genetically coded to remember the ancient landscapes where life on earth began. In the canyon, with every step you pass through time itself. Sometimes, in the sound of the canyon winds, you can almost remember a different world that existed long ago. It is perhaps a fleeting glimpse into the primordial pool of earth and water that formed the beginning elements of God’s creations on this planet.

Today was a warm, cloudless, blue sky day. Each of us is carrying packs that weigh about 50lbs that includes all of our food, clothing and shelter to last for seven days in the backcountry of the canyon. Under the extra weight the heat becomes relentless, and the need to stay properly hydrated in the desert sun is essential. Because the dry desert air keeps you from visibly sweating, we have developed a routine of reminding each other to drink from our Camelbacks on a regular basis. I believe that we are quickly developing a team approach to the hike and that is what we need to accomplish this challenge together.

On the way down we met several National Park Rangers who were interested to hear about our hike and commented on Scott’s resemblance to George Clooney. They also were amused that three of us had on orange UnderAmour shirts. The apparel selection was completely coincidental but humorous.

A year ago, my hike down the South Kaibab was in late October and I only encountered several people on my way into the canyon. Today, we encountered a number of people and were amazed by the diversity of the hikers. While we did not meet anyone attempting a rim to rim to rim hike, we did meet people hiking to different places. Most of them however were going from the South Rim to Phantom Ranch and back, which is in itself a spectacular hike. One woman hiking down was from Spain and spoke no English. We spoke for some time about the courage that it would take to do that.

We arrived at the Bright Angel Campground at around 2:30 p.m. and set up our camp. We hiked to Phantom Ranch which has a small cantina and is the only provider of beer and wine in the canyon. After a few beers we hiked back to our camp, made dinner and spent a great deal of time staring up at the stars. At the bottom of the canyon, the lack of any ambient light provides a magnificently brilliant sky. The stars are so visible that they look like clouds of sparkling lights. We were exhausted and too tired to do anything else but crawl into our tents and sleep. I have kept the outer fly off of the tent so that whenever I wake throughout the night I can look up at the sky.

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15. October 2007 by admin.

Today we were up by 6am and after breakfast checked into the Backcountry Office to let them know we were about to start the hike. It is a chilly and rainy day and we are glad that we are starting the hike tomorrow. The rain let up slightly in the afternoon and we hiked to Shashone Point with our full Backpacks. It was a four mile hike and it felt good to be out. I think everyone is eager for the morning. Our plan is to be headed for the South Kaibab trail head by 6am. We ate in the cafeteria restaurant and have spent much of our time checking our equipment.

One of the amusing aspects of the trip has been that Scott has a striking resemblance to George Clooney and everywhere we go we can notice people doing a doubletake.

One person came up and asked Scott if he was George’s brother.

Jessica in the Believe In Tomorrow office has done a great job getting the GPS system working and on the web site, so everyone can look at our progress.

The altitude is 7000 feet and coming from the sea level it takes a while to acclimate. Hiking can leave you a little breathless until your body acclimates itself and that is what today was for. Tomorrow we start.

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14. October 2007 by admin.

This morning we met at Doug’s house at 5:15 in order to get to the airport for a 6:45 departure to Phoenix. It seems as though this date has arrived suddenly. In two days we will be plunging into the Grand Canyon for a 72 mile, 7 day hike that will take us from the South Rim to the bottom of the canyon, all the way across and up to the top of the North Rim, and back down again to reverse the hike to the South Rim. It is going to be a challenging endeavor to raise funds for Believe In Tomorrow’s Military Housing initiative.

To date, we have raised about $85,000 which I consider to be a huge success. I have learned too, that you can not always put a stationary dollar value on this type of a fund raising endeavor. Raising awareness of the need for Believe In Tomorrow pediatric housing has been a result of our efforts, and that has a very fluid and positive value.

My hiking partners are Doug Widlake, Scott Vogt and Dave Reymann. Last year I hiked the same route as a way to explore the inner workings of a pledge driven extreme adventure effort. It was a solo hike and it became for me much more than I ever imagined. In addition to raising funds to support our housing efforts, I gained a greater insight into my own life and the world around me along the way. It was so meaningful in fact, that I believe it left a lasting impression that I will carry with me for a very long time.

I believe that positive attracts positive and good attracts good. I cannot think of three more compatible people to hike with and share this experience with, than Doug, Scott and Dave. They have trained very hard for this hike and I know that they are as excited as I am to begin the journey. I have been very impressed by the eagerness of each of them to learn and properly prepare for this trip. Unfortunately, Scunny McCusker, a good friend of mine and a great Believe In Tomorrow volunteer, was planning to make the hike but had to drop out due to business reasons. It was Scunny who originated an extreme adventure pledge event to raise funds for Believe In Tomorrow. Scunny has twice kayaked from Baltimore, Maryland to Ocean City, Maryland, which is an unbelievable feat, to support our pediatric housing.

After arriving in Phoenix we drove North on I-17 and stopped to visit several Indian ruins along the way. We arrived at the Grand Canyon around 3:00 p.m. It was the first time that Dave, Scott and Doug had ever seen the Grand Canyon and their reaction was everything I hoped it would be. Seeing the GC for the first time is pretty awe inspiring and I know they were in awe of both the size and the incredible beauty. Although you can see photo’s of it, nothing can do it justice until you see it in person and stand on the rim and look out.

After we checked into the hotel we immediately went on a hike down the Bright Angel Trail for about a mile and came back up. It was a good introduction to the steep terrain. Along the way we looked at some Indian paintings high on a cliff wall. Although the paintings are over a 1,000 years old they are relatively new to the canyon as far as time goes. The Grand Canyon is a visual symbol of time on a grand scale. A thousand years is simply a blink of the eye in the life of the canyon.

After the hike we went to dinner. Dave and Doug wore the Believe In Tomorrow Grand Canyon Adventure t-shirts and were approached by a number of people who wanted to know more about the hike. People seemed genuinely amazed when they heard what we were about to do and why. We brought brochures and several people promised to send pledges.

After dinner we called it an early night and were asleep by 9:30.

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23. October 2006 by admin.

I have been out of the Grand Canyon for almost 48 hours and am sitting between my Dad and my Uncle on a flight from Phoenix to Baltimore. I have spent two nights out of the canyon but have not slept that well. I wake each night and think of the things that I saw and did on my seven day journey. I especially think of how I felt when I would look up at the night sky to see clouds of stars glittering like diamonds. I went in search of big things, and found myself just as often fascinated by the smaller gifts that the canyon offers. The musical sound of the streams and the site of flowers are two of the many things that I remember when I close my eyes. The tremendous sense of peace makes it a natural chapel grander than anything built by man. It is a place to stir one’s slumbering spirituality. A place to re-awaken the child like curiosity that stirs our imaginations.

I remember as a child thinking that everything was possible. I could not imagine anything that was impossible if your will was strong enough. Perhaps the greatest gift I have received from this journey is the strong re-birth of this feeling. In its application to Believe In Tomorrow, it means that we have a great amount of work to do in order to continue to help change the world of very sick children and their families. Believe In Tomorrow has often achieved what was thought to be impossible, and we will continue to reach far in order to fulfill our mission.

In the case of my personal journey I feel as if my goals were achieved. One of the realizations I have come to understand is that my personal journey and the mission of Believe In Tomorrow are bound together as co-travelers in the journey of life. I do believe in tomorrow, and that tomorrow will be a brighter day.

Thank you: I have many people to thank for the success of this trip.

• First and foremost, I want to thank each of the donors whose pledges will become the bricks and mortar for future Believe In Tomorrow Children”s Housing.
• I want to thank each of my five sons for the support and constant encouragement (prodding) to get in shape physically and mentally for this adventure. They loaned me their equipment and taught me a great deal about exercise, backpacking and eating right. Without their support I could not have been successful.
• I want to thank my father and uncle for going with me and sharing in this adventure. They are my trail partners from the earliest of my days, and they were with me in spirit and in love every step of the way.
• I want to thank Sharon and Jeff Gustin for sharing their firsthand experience and advice of their GC hike and for sharing their supplies with me.
• I would like to thank Ken McNamara of www.grandcanyonhiker.com, for supplying me with books, maps and video tapes to help me prepare.
• Thank you to Blake Henke of North Star Science & Technology for providing the GPS transponder that I carried on my weeklong adventure.
• I would like to give a special thanks to Jessica Niederberger and Dave Windsor for overseeing the web site updates and the GPS mapping system. Even though the GPS system did not always transpond a signal from the inner canyon, they did a tremendous job of trying to keep track of me!
• And I want to thank everyone whose encouragement made this an adventure of a lifetime.

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21. October 2006 by admin.

Today I woke at dawn. As I stepped out of my tent I found myself staring directly into the eyes of a deer only several feet from me. The deer was as startled as I was and I believe we both jumped several feet into the air. It however bounded off in an instant, leaving me to gather myself and start my morning routine.

I am not used to going to bed at 7:00pm and getting up with the rising sun. My father has always told me that it is the most beautiful part of the day and I believe he is right. I woke with mixed feelings. I did not want to leave the peace and tranquility that I have found in the canyon, but I was also excited to be finishing the last challenging leg of the hike, which was the ascent of the South Rim. I did not know how challenging it would become.

Because I did not want to leave, I decided to hike once more to Plateau Point to watch the effect of the rising sun on the ever changing colors of the canyon. When I arrived I was surprised to see four Asian men walking about the large table rock that hangs at the edge of the inner canyon wall. I asked them to take my photo and one of them told me in broken English that they were all priests. I assumed that they were Buddhist and I noticed them setting up an altar for a service. In fact, they were Catholic priests and they conducted a mass entirely in their native language. Many of the words and phrases of the service were sung, and I was very impressed by the beauty and sincerity of the service and how it seemed to blend in perfectly with the grandness of the canyon views. At the end of the mass a most amazing thing happened. As the very last words were sung, two enormous condors suddenly appeared over our heads and circled the table rock we were standing on. They flew so close that you could here the air rushing through their giant wings. After several minutes they flew off together down into the canyon and as suddenly as they had appeared they were gone. I took that as a special sign. I felt as though I had been blessed by both man and nature.

In the Grand Canyon life takes hold in the most improbable places. Flowers blossom and trees grow from the dirt filled cracks of boulders and sheer rock walls. A wide variety of animals has adapted to this unique environment, making the inner canyon come alive with their presence. One of the amazing aspects of the canyon is the way the colors change throughout the day as the sun moves across the sky. There is a harmony of nature that bursts forth with the rising sun in an array of purples and greens and yellows and reds. Throughout the day these colors seem to dance across the walls and floors of the canyon in a timeless rhythm. It is this rhythm of nature that makes the canyon a vibrant, living display of time and life. It was these colors that were imprinted in my memory as I turned from the table rock and began the climb toward the South Rim.

I felt good and was ahead of schedule climbing toward the rim when I heard the sound of distant thunder. I was approximately half way toward the top and very suddenly it started to rain and hail and the temperature fell dramatically and the wind was gusting strongly. The Bright Angel trail gets many day hikers and many of those people were caught unprepared for the change in weather and were struggling to get back to the top. I helped a group of three nurses from Tucson and I felt good about being able to do that. When I reached the top I saw my uncle and father and we had quite a happy reunion. I greatly enjoyed that they were there to meet me and to listen to my stories about the hike. They took me to their room and I enjoyed perhaps the longest and hottest shower that I have ever taken. We then went to dinner at the Arizona Room at the Bright Angel Lodge and I had the best steak dinner that I have ever tasted. I could not have asked for a better ending to my adventure than to be with two of the people that I admire and respect the most.

My hike across the Grand Canyon exceeded my expectations. It has reached the goals that I was hoping to meet as a fund and awareness raising event, and on a personal level I have gone beyond what I had hoped to accomplish. The ultimate goal I believe, is to help more children and families through the expansion of our unique housing services. If anything, my adventure has helped me to believe more than ever in our programs and the power within each of us to change the world one step at a time.

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20. October 2006 by admin.

Today was the first cloudy day and it is currently raining lightly. I was on the trail early this morning headed for Indian Gardens. It was a pretty hike on the Bright Angel trail as I climbed out of the Inner Canyon to the base of the South Rim. Indian Gardens is pretty, with a number of cottonwoods and aspens. You usually do not think of the Grand Canyon as having lush vegetation but where there is water, it is very green. And where it is green, there are generally Indian ruins, thus the name of this camping area. I arrived here around 1:00pm and soon took off on a hike along the Tonto trail, which I had read about. The Tonto trail follows the Tonto Platform, which is part of the broad expanse between the inner canyon and the outer canyon walls. It is a beautiful trail with great big dramatic views. I hiked 3 miles to a place called Pipe Springs on the Tonto Trail and I was completely alone, as one of the park rangers had told me I would be. I do not believe that there was another person within a several mile radius. I sat on a large rock and could look behind me to see the spot high on the South Rim canyon wall where I had begun my hike 6 days ago, before me I could see the North Rim far in the horizon, and in between was the deep gorge of the Inner Canyon. As I sat there I could imagine each of my footprints along the way that had left an imprint in the soft red desert sand. Each of them had been filled with a special memory, and now they were slowly disappearing in the canyon wind and the inevitable passing of time. In my mind, however, I know that I will retrace those steps over and over again, and in doing so I will keep those memories alive.

Today I also saw my first condor. It was high overhead but still looked huge. It also was very graceful, which surprised me due to their enormous wing span.

It’s funny, but after walking for six days I am feeling better than ever. I have not had any blisters and my legs are no longer sore. My only use of the extensive medical kit I have been carrying has been to place a bandage over a spot on my lower hip where the backpack belt has been rubbing.

I have now developed a good routine of setting up and taking down the tent, packing the backpack and putting it on and off. I have also developed “trail legs,” as I rarely slip on the loose trail rocks anymore and I can move pretty briskly up or down hill. There are things though that I will admit, I baffle myself by my slowness. I am wearing zip off pants, and every morning I start with the whole leg zipped, and as soon as I warm up I stop and take my boots off to unzip the lower half and turn them into shorts. Just today I noticed that there are zippers running up the lower leg so that they can be unzipped and pulled over your boots. How did it take six days for me to see that? Another moment of brilliance was after having spent a day wondering what kind of animal made the little holes on the side of the trails. After a great deal of thought about it, I looked at the trekking poles that I and every other hiker was carrying and realized that the animal was human.

My meals generally have been limited but good. The very best meals have been the packets of instant flavored mashed potatoes. After dinner tonight I hiked a mile and a half to a place called Plateau Point, which overlooks the Colorado River, and has an incredible 360 degree panoramic view of this part of the canyon. I returned in the dark and am now laying in the tent with the rain falling softly on the shell. The sound of the rain is comforting and I am tired.

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19. October 2006 by admin.

I again slept like a child, I fell asleep around 7:30p.m. I woke a number of times to look at the stars and tried to stay awake but never could. I finally awoke at 6:30 and because I had nothing to eat but two freeze dried dinners that I did not want for breakfast, I was on the trail by 7:00. I did have some power gels and such to drink, which I did. It was a great day to walk through the inner canyon. Along the way, I met a group of six pediatricians from Salt Lake City. They were doing a rim to rim hike and one of them was having a very difficult time. I again hiked to Ribbon Falls and took one short walk up a side canyon. I learned once again that sometimes the simple pleasures in life are the best. I had a roll of cinnamon certs, and I greatly enjoyed each one as I hiked today. When I reached Phantom Ranch, I went immediately to the canteen and bought about every candy bar and bag of peanuts they had in stock. Actually, I was not really that hungry. After an apple, peanuts and a candy bar, I felt uncomfortably full. I was lucky enough to get the same campsite. At 8:00pm the canteen bar opened and that is where I am now. I have had three Tecata beers and am sitting by myself working on this journal. Most of the people here rode mules down and are staying overnight at Phantom Ranch. After being by myself all week in the more secluded parts of the canyon this seems a little odd. Not bad odd…..just different and a little out of place. It is around 9:15 and I am headed off to bed. Tomorrow I leave for Indian Gardens.

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18. October 2006 by admin.

Yesterday I made it to the top of the North Rim!!! The scenery was spectacular and the hike was pretty difficult both mentally and physically. The North Rim is much higher than the South Rim and actually in a different vegetation zone. It is a beautiful alpine environment with lodge pole pines and aspen trees. It was also very cold and all of the facilities were shut down for the winter.

When I reached the top of the trail, I had to hike another mile to the campground. I do not think I have ever been more physically exhausted in my life. For me the difficult part of the hike was that there were at least three times when I thought I was close to the end, only to realize each time that I had much further to go. When I finally reached the campground I was completely alone and I picked a spot to set up the tent. While doing so, a van pulled up and dropped off two hikers that were also camping. There names are Jim and Jack, and they are from Denton, Texas and they are doing a rim to rim hike with their starting point at the North Rim. When I asked them where Denton was they said, “that’s funny, we were just about to ask you where Maryland is.” Jim works for WalMart Trucking and Jack is retired. Their hobby is hiking the GC together.

I had heard that I could possibly get cell phone reception if I stood on the front porch of the North Rim Lodge which was located another mile and a half further along the rim. I hiked there with Jim and Jack and when we arrived, even though the lodge had been shut down, they happened to notice that a door had been left unlocked. We went in and walked around and took some photos. Unfortunately, the only thing we found, in the bar, was a bottle of lime juice.

I did get cell reception on the patio and while I made a call Jack and Jim hiked back to the campground. I was so excited to be there, and to be watching the sun set over the North Rim of the canyon, that I never thought about the fact that I did not have a flashlight with me. This was the worst situation I could have been in. It got dark very suddenly, and there was no moon, making it pitch black within minutes. It also became very cold. We had followed a trail to the lodge and I knew trying to hike through the woods along the edge of the canyon would be a disaster. I found the road leading to the lodge and followed it knowing that eventually I would have to pass the campground area. I was becoming pretty concerned and then I heard something big moving in the woods next to me. I assume it was a deer or an elk but really do not know except that it was crashing through the woods about 20 to 30 feet from where I was on the road. At that point I became even more concerned, if that was possible. I did have a knife with me and I walked as rapidly as I could with it open. There was one car that passed me, perhaps a maintenance worker, and I tried to flag them down but they kept on going. I then remembered the open knife in my hand and understood. I finally found the campground area but could not see my tent or Jack and Jim’s tent. I was not sure that I was even in the right campground. I started calling their names and too my great relief they answered from nearby. Getting back to my tent had taken over an hour. I boiled some water and made one of the freeze dried meals and went to bed. I am not sure that I really slept last night because I was so cold. I shivered all night and slept for what seemed to be only minutes at a time. At 5 am I packed everything up and at the first sign of light headed for the trailhead. I believe I half ran the first mile trying to get out of the shade of the forest and into the canyon.

As soon as I came out of the forested section at the rim and started the descent, the most beautifully warm day started to unfold. The sun has never felt so good as it has today. For some reason I felt very energized and was so happy to be going back to the bottom of the canyon. I was completely alone almost the entire way and stopped several times just to sit and enjoy the view and the sun. It’s funny that sometimes it takes something extreme to really amplify your senses. Today, everything looked, smelled, sounded and tasted so good! That is, perhaps, except me. I realized that after four days I needed a bath. I found a stream flowing from a side canyon and walked upstream to an area that was very remote. The water was freezing but the sun was very warm and the bath felt great. I imagined that I was being baptized by nature into the inner sanctity of the canyon.

I am now back at Cottonwood at the same campsite that I left two days ago. Jim and Jack have arrived and said they could not believe that I had left the North Rim so early. The sky is again filled with stars. There are so many stars that can be seen from the floor of the canyon that they almost look like clouds of twinkling lights. If you look up for only a minute you are guaranteed to see a shooting star. I guess that the complete lack of artificial light and pollution are what makes the sky so clear.

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17. October 2006 by admin.

I did something extraordinary last night. I slept like I have not slept since I was a child. I fell asleep as soon as I finished my second journal entry at 7pm and with the exception of waking at 4am, I did not wake again until about 6:30a.m. When I woke at 4, I looked up through the screen roof of the tent to see a number of shooting stars within several minutes, but I could not stay awake to watch longer.

It is 7am and I am about to leave to start the hike to the top of the North Rim. It is seven and a half very steep uphill miles, and the temperature will be much colder at the top. It is another beautiful sunny day with temperatures already in the upper 70’s.

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16. October 2006 by admin.

While yesterday was a day of wonderment, today has been more a day of wonderful reflection. I did make an error today that may prove to be a bit of a challenge. I camped beside Bright Angel Stream and did not sleep all that well considering how tired I was. It was my first night in the tent and the stream, which was about 10 feet away, was a little loud throughout the night. It was also a little cold, and I did not remember until later in the day, my son Ryan’s instructions to wear a wool hat at night. I woke at about 6, took down the tent and packed the backpack. Before I left I gave Megan and Kate, the two young women I had met on the way down the Kaibab trail, two of my Carrot Cake Cliff bars. They had commented the day before how much they liked them but could not afford such luxuries (at $1.50 a piece). I had ordered a sack lunch from Phantom Ranch to be picked up on the way out, and thought that would more that make up for giving away the Cliff Bars. About three miles into the hike I realized that I had forgotten to pick up the sack lunch. What made it worse, before leaving the South Rim, I ditched some of the planned meals to try and reduce the weight of the pack. I had planned it out, or so I thought, that I would eat less but still have just enough to get by on. A big lesson learned but I have decided to just have fun and not worry about it.

Today I walked across the canyon floor following the Bright Angel Creek. It was beautiful to see the creek, which is an average of about 15 feet wide and fast flowing, winding along the base of the sheer cliffs of the canyon. For most of the 7 mile hike to Cottonwood Campground I was completely alone, giving me a great deal of time to just enjoy the moment and decompress from the day before. Along the way I saw a family of mule deer standing in a smaller side creek that I later learned was Phantom Creek. I watched them for some time as they slowly walked up the stream into a side canyon, completely out of reach of any form of human existence. It seemed like life must be pretty good for them up there. It seemed as if every step I took sent small lizards scurrying for cover. The braver ones would jump onto rocks and watch me pass by. I went off the trail briefly to climb up and explore what looked to be the remains of an ancient waterfall. The rock had been warn as smooth as glass and there were giant bowls with markings that looked as if they once carried swirling water into the canyon. I also explored a beautiful waterfall named Ribbon Falls and was able to hike to a place behind the falls to see the water cascade into the canyon.

I chose this particular adventure because I have been fascinated with the GC since I was a teenager and I have long dreamed of hiking it. Not just a brief excursion down a trail and back, but a hike that would immerse every sense and allow myself to literally walk through a representation of time itself. It seems somehow easier to evaluate our time here on earth when surrounded by a land that was sculptured by time over the period of millions of years.

Sometimes, we are presented with certain opportunities that may only come along once in a persons life. Our lives are so brief, and we move through it so quickly, that these life changing opportunities sometimes pass us right by and we do not even notice them. Or, if we do notice these opportunities, we are often too afraid to disrupt the flow of our lives to explore the pathways that they may create. If I had not taken this trip now, I very well may never have. As a teenager I could not have comprehended my lifetime. Now, 30 years later, I hope that I do not delay other opportunities. The human lifespan is simply not that abundant. I feel a greater sense of urgency now for many things in life. Building more Believe In Tomorrow housing is one of them. The families that stay in our BIT houses are having struggles against time far greater than I have ever experienced.

I guess that a full and satisfying life is knowing at the end that you have followed the path of your hopes and dreams to the best of your ability, and that you have along the way taken more right paths than wrong ones.

I am quite certain that today I heard a rattlesnake. As I walked along the trail I heard what sounded like a baby rattle moving away from me. It frightened me so that I did not know what to do and I wondered later if just standing there was the right thing or not. Maybe it was just a cricket and my imagination…..

At Cottonwood I found a perfect campsite about 50 feet from the creek with a very sandy base to set the tent up on. It has been much warmer at the bottom of the canyon. Today was in the upper 80’s or low 90’s. The weather forecast posted on the Rangers bulletin board here shows temperatures going into the high 90’s in several days. My dinner was instant mashed potatoes and I have rarely tasted anything as good. My tent is in an open area with views of canyon walls on all sides. I have kept the rain fly off as it is a clear and rather warm night and there are a zillion stars in the sky. As I am laying here I have already seen several shooting stars. It is 7p.m. and I am going to bed.

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