Restless Night

Last night was a bit restless.  The wind picked up for much of the night and some of the old windows started tapping or rattling. We could always hear the creek and rocks rolling along with the water but the tapping was new.

Breakfast was “Breakfast Skillet”.  It is OK but Sausage and Biscuits is better.  Coffee from the canteen was great as always and is only a short walk from the cabin.

We did have a visitor. 

Time to leave the cabin.  I am still a bit surprised that this was also the cabin the Teddy Roosevelt stayed in many times when he visited the Ranch.

The buildings at the Ranch were designed by the Architect Mary Colter.  I am SO impressed with her designs.  All the buildings fit into the surrounding environment and functionality. She utilized local natural sources when possible.  The canteen building has a couple of interesting elements.  A grain grinding stone found near the ranch and a strange wood/rock combination that she thought looked like a catchers mitt and ball.

Time to head out but as we walk out we will pass several more of the ranch buildings.  One is now the bunkhouse for the employees.  Originally, this was a rec room and changing area for the POOL.  Yes, there use to be a pool directly in front of the building.  It was filled in when laws changed that required treating the water with chemicals.

Today, we move back to Bright Angel campground.

Packed and out by 7:30am we got to our selected campsite #19 and it was empty. It is small but it is further off the creek so a bit quieter. We also have a bit more shade,  closer to the bathrooms and to the fresh water spigot. We emptied our packs, hung them up, moved food to the food box, and then filled water bottles.  The water from the fresh water spigot is, to say it nicely, “mineral rich”.  Starting out orange and after filtering it is clear and clean.  These Sawyer filters are fantastic.  I back-flushed several times to clear the sediment out of the filter.

The mules are packing out again.  This never gets old.

We decided to hike the river trail between the silver bridge and the black bridge. This is a short hike so we just grabbed a couple of bottles of water for the hike.

We walked down to the Colorado and then across the silver bridge to the south.

The river trail passes high on the cliff above the river on the south side.  We got wonderful views of the river, canyon, and the canyon where we are camping on the north side of the river.

There were a few flowers along the way.

Next we walked back across the black bridge and then back to the campsite.

Time for lunch.  The far bank of the creek was in shadow so we found some grass there to sit.  We still have lots of “trail snacks” so that becomes lunch.  Beef sticks, peanut butter & crackers, trail mix,…  they are heavy compared to the freeze dried meals so it will reduce our weight when we hike out.

The whole water system at Bright Angel campground has failed. We have to get buckets of water from Bright Angel Creek to flush toilets. That is dangerous because you could get pulled into creek. ​

After lunch, we walked back up to the Ranch to fill our bottles there.   The Ranch water system is still working and is filtered by them so much cleaner.

When we got to the canteen Kristie, Annette, and Mary Poppins were there relaxing. They had just returned from a hike up as far as they could go up toward the North Rim. We had another great conversation sharing our love of nature.  Shawna and I learned a lot about them and what was planned for their next adventure.

We have a scheduled meal tonight at Phantom Ranch.  We ate stew dinner again tonight and the food was delicious.

When we got back to camp, it was dusk and we could see small bats flying overhead eating their dinner.

Tonight was warm and we kept our sides up on the tent for the night.  No chance of rain and clear skies so we looked out at the milky way.