Meeting some amazing people.

We slept hard last night and woke up at 5:30am.  The beds were not great but they were BEDS. Both of us got better sleep than we have had for days.  I walked 80 feet to Canteen to get coffee and check to see if we can stay another night. So nice to get coffee and bring a cup back to Shawna.  By 6am, we were boiling water for breakfast.  The Breakfast Skillet was better once I added Tabasco.  We had some tiny 1/8th oz bottles but it was more than enough to spice up breakfast.  The people at the canteen said they would know by 7:30am if we could stay another night.  We had a visitor for breakfast.

There were 23 hikers that had planned to stay at Cottonwood campground that had to share campsites last night at Bright Angel Campground when it was already supposed to be full.  They were tent next to tent. Yes, we are staying at the cabin another night. The luxury of beds, bathroom, electricity, a mirror & sink, showers (Wow, The showers) make the $200 per night worth it.

Below is the Ranger Station.  They have Starlink at both the Ranch and the Ranger Station for internet. 

We will need to find the Ranger to let her know that she does not have to make room for us in the campsites.  We will be moving back to the campground tomorrow so no showers for three hot and sweaty days.

Took a short hike to the Colorado river today. Took lots of pictures.

Talked to Ranger Della again to not worry about fitting us in tonight at the campground.  Della is famous among the Rangers.  She has been a ranger for many years and 25 years of that time at the Grand Canyon.  She is from Florida and specifically Lake City.  From the first time we met her, we thought she was amazing.  When she found out, we were also from Florida from then on she refereed to us as her “Florida People”.  Cute!   I told her about warning off some hikers about trying to continue on to the North Rim.  They were young and determined to get through no matter what.  Della said she had warned several hikers that if they were found at the north rim they would be given a big fine and taken into custody then back to the south rim.  We took pictures of the sign Della posted to warn hikers.

We walked back to the campground to scope out a good site for us to use tomorrow.  Number 19 looked best.  It is closer to the bathrooms, only big enough for a single tent, and had some limited amount of privacy. 

The building below has been around for quite a while.  It was built by the CCC in the 20's. We found out that Tommy/Grandpa hiked down to here in the 60's.  I found some pictures of what things looked like then. Not much has changed.

From the campground, we took a 2 mile hike down to the Colorado, across the White bridge, along the far bank trail and then back to camp.  There is a planned high water release and it should reach this area tomorrow. ​

We took pictures to show the difference in the regular level and the highest amount that is released down the Colorado for the last 30 years.  They plan to release about 40,000 cubic feet per second. WOW!  The reason to do this is to flush silt down to create or build up existing sand bars.  It will also clear the deeper channel of build up.

The trail is very interesting.  This is also one that was made by the CCC.  From the high over the river we could see rafters going down the Colorado.  Something to add to the bucket-list.

Back to the cabin for lunch and some relief from the heat. Today's temperature is in the upper 80’s.  Did I mention that our cabin has AC?  That $200 per night seems better all the time.  From what I can tell, the bathrooms were added to this cabin in the 40’s going by the type of door handle it has.  Sorry, it is so blurry.  It reminded me a lot of my Grandparent's front door handle.

Speaking of rafters, we saw some of the guides walking up with dry bags to send out on the mules and take back dry bags of supplies waiting for them at the Ranch.  That is an interesting way to resupply.  By mule.

Relaxing, we did a bit of people watching.  Rafters coming up to get something to drink at the ranch canteen. AZT hikers with disappointed looks on their faces knowing they will have to turn back. Trail runners made obvious by having little but a camel-back of water and a continuous jogging pace.

Amazing thing happened today about 4:30pm. The ‘Wander Women’, Christy and Annette, and their friend, Mary Poppins walked up to Phantom Ranch while we were sitting there having a drink. We have been following their hiking, backpacking and biking adventures for several years. They are amazingly positive people. We knew they are hiking the AZT this year and wondered when they would be in the Grand Canyon. Surprised and delighted to met them in person. They inspired us to do more hiking and backpacking after watching their videos in 2020.

I immediately asked if we could buy them something to drink. We had an amazing visit. They hike out on Tuesday.  Maybe we will be able to visit more later.

They do a great job of showing what the trail we hiked looks like and how difficult it was to hike.

We show up for a few seconds near the end of their video at 29:08.

After our visit, we headed to the cabin for dinner.  Chili Mac and Beef and Beef Stroganoff with noodles.  Chili was good but the Stroganoff needed something so a bit of salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese helped.  The cheese was from a small packet we got a week ago with some pizza.

We spoke with Ranger Della and an Emergency Med Tech on the Clear Creek Trail.  The Med Tech had just come back from that hike and she told us her experience.  It was a bit more difficult than we needed to try with feet still needing to rest.  As they say here “Down is a choice but back Up is required.”

I will put tonight's GoPro night video here.