On the first day we went down the Bill Hall Trail to the Thunder River Trail and then a couple miles along that to our first night's camp on the Esplanade.

20:00 - Esplanade camp

The trip out on Saturday was uneventful. There was a strong headwind so we ended up getting into Phoenix a little late but only about 15-20 minutes. We met Maggi at the rental car center and made great time up to Flagstaff.

Packing up the gear took a lot longer than expected and for a while thee I didn't think we were going to be able to do it. There was just so much... stuff. We still needed to add lots of water and a few other things the next day I was having anxiety all night worrying about how we were going to fit everything in the packs so did not sleep well at all. I ended up deciding not to bring my large camera lens, my Pocket PC and the headlamps simply because there was no room.

We did get everything else packed but I am still worried about not having enough water. I carried in about nine liters myself and only have about one left for tomorrow. We cached a total of five liters near our camp for the last night to use that night and for the hike out. Assuming we need a liter each for the hike out that only leaves two liters for the last night. I am likely going to have to haul some water from Deer Creek to supplement what we have cached.

We were awake a little after 7:00 this morning and had breakfast around 8:00. We were only road a little before 9:00 and arrived at the trailhead right at 10:00. We did not make very good time on the trail however. We didn't get to the cairns that mark the initial descent through the Kaibab until 10:45 and we took at lunch break from about 13:00 to 13:30 below the short cliff in the Coconino. Maggi started having problems right off with that initial descent and Robin's feet started bothering her right after as well. We arrived at the junction with the Thunder River Trail about 15:00 and then made camp around 16:30. By the time we setup the tent and made dinner the Sun was already going down.

It is a beautiful evening and both Robin and Maggi are already asleep. I was just outside to try and take some photos of the stars and very soon I am going to shut my eyes and let the sound of the crickets lull me to sleep. The stars are gorgeous tonight and the Moon is not up yet so the sky is very dark. The Milky Way is running from horizon to horizon and passing almost directly overhead.

It is also a little windy here tonight and we expected it to be cold so we put the rain fly on the tent to try and keep the wind out and some of the heat in.