I slept great though probably not long enough. I got up at 6:30, showered, and headed over to the El Tovar for breakfast. I had the Sonoran Eggs, of course, and it was delicious, as usual.

After breakfast I went shopping and picked up the rest of the food I would need for the trip as well as some postcards and stamps. When I got back to the room and went to brush my teeth I noticed that my toothpaste was missing... but the toothbrush was still there. On further examination I noticed that my battery charger was also missing. What's up here? I went to the front desk to find out what was going on. They didn't know and said that housekeeping had not been in the room yet. They called the Park Service to report a theft... Great!!!! I went back to my room.

Well, the battery charger showed up. While I was waiting for someone from NPS, one of the housekeeping women knocked on my door, pulled the charger from her pants pocket and gave it back to me. She was Hispanic and did not speak much English but I think she was trying to say that she thought the room had already been vacated. I still think there was something funny going on there but I did not push the issue... I just called the front desk and said the charger had been returned.

I met Mike and Steve at the Backcountry Office packing lot around 1:30 and Hank showed up a little before 2:00. We packed up Mike and Hank's vehicles with our gear and headed over to Pasture Wash. I went with Hank and Steve went with Mike. After a brutal 1 1/2 hour drive over rocky and deeply rutted dirt roads we arrived at Pasture Wash around 3:30. There was no Indian toll on the way out. Mike thought about camping at Pasture Wash but finally decided against it because it would have complicated the shuttle process in the morning.

We headed for the South Bass trailhead for camp and made a side trip to go and visit Havasupai Point along the way. We also stopped at the old Signal Hill fire tower on the way and climbed to the top - which is not as easy as it sounds since the bottom flight of stairs has been removed. It is an awesome view and I got some nice photos from the top as well as from Havasupai Point. The view from Havasupai Point is awesome! We finally arrived at the South Bass trailhead around 5:00, setup camp, had dinner and talked until it got dark. Mike said that the space station was supposed to be visible and we got to see it sail across the northern sky a little after 8:00. We all turned in around 8:30.