April 30, 2012

Slept so well in that little cabin at 8000 or so feet. It was about the perfect temperature, 50’s, and my Z-rest felt great on top of the old metal cot. The morning came, and we had to start hiking. Down the canyon we went. This section had some crazy amounts of thorns. We took turns cutting our way through the nasty tangle of thorns that was well over our heads.
  My arms quickly became scratched by the thorns, and every hit made them more sensitive. We moved at less than one mile an hour through the hellish terrain. Finally it cleared up, and the walls of the canyon rose high on both sides of us. We ended up climbing down one pouroff that lead us to another one that we could not get down. So we climbed out of the first one, and climbed up the ridge a ways to avoid the pouroff, before climbing back down to the canyon. It was slow going, about an hour for 100 yards of progress.
  The best part of this canyon was the slip and slide. It was an area with several pools lined up in the canyon. There was no way to avoid them, so we slid down into the pools and walked to the next one. They were only waist deep, but the water that rarely sees the sun, was ice cold! Still so much fun that this canyon was one of me and D=rt’s favorites!
  The going down Tapeats Canyon was really slow too. Partly because we started fishing for trout with our hands. We were both successful, but released them as we wanted to hike more. Tapeats got much larger at one point too. Its now a raging river! The trail had us walking right through it for about a mile. Its knee deep and very swift, but not hard to keep upright.
  I left the South rim with 2 beers the other day. One must have gotten jammed on a rock today, as I felt liquid running down my butt. I stopped quickly, but had no choice but to drink the rest of the beer mid-day. It was such a good IPA, but oh well. I wanted to save them for the end, but ended up drinking the second one tonight. Not worth the risk of losing another!
  We spotted 2 garder snakes today, as well as our first rattler of the whole trip. The bats are going crazy tonight, its beautiful. The sound of the creek will be a great way to fall asleep.