The second day was supposed to be an easy day, only about 6 miles, and with only the last mile being any real challenge. I really should have started earlier though as things went downhill as soon as I left the Clear Creek Trail and by the time I finally did get to camp for the night it was already starting to get dark.

8:45 - Still in camp

Everything is packed and ready to go and I am just taking a break in the shade on the other side of the wash. I am in no hurry today as I only have about 5 miles to cover and about 4 of those miles are on trail. That last mile or so to the camp is going to be tough though. Hopefully I can find a couple of shady spots this morning to rest as it is already very warm in the Sun and I worked up a sweat just packing up camp. It is very pleasant here in the shade though and there is not a sound except for the occasional fly buzzing by. There was a mosquito earlier but I think I chased it off. Canyon mosquitoes don't seem to be very persistent and give up easily.

I slept ok. I was awake a lot but the night passed very quickly so I must have slept a lot too. I had to get up around 4:00 to relieve myself and the stars were absolutely stunning. They were the stars of winter: Onion, Auriga, Gemini, Canis Major---simply beautiful. The sky is cloudless this morning.

I am a little worried about the tor and don't know what to do. It is a little sore to the touch and there is a little blood blister right next to and probably under the nail. I've debated trying to drain it but I don't really have anything I could do that with except my pocket knife. I will just see how it goes once I start hiking. There isn't much downhill today and it is a short day so... I haven't even put my boots on yet and have just been packing things up in my tevas. I am so glad I decided to bring those to wear around camp. I am sure the toe appreciates it.

I found two scorpions under my tarp when I went to fold that up this morning, the first that I have ever seen on my own. It made me very nervous when putting things back into the backpack and I was shaking everything out to make sure there were no hitchhikers. There was a lot of rain last week and I was camped in a wash so I should expect to see some.

The pack should not be as heavy today as I probably ate over a pound of food yesterday and I drank the 3 quarts of water that I brought from Phantom Ranch---that's 7 pounds at least.

I really did not have much of an appetite last night and even this morning and had to force myself to eat. The four jumbo hot dogs were a bit too much for last night's meal but I had to eat them.

Well, it's already 9:00 and I should put on my boots and get going.

9:40 - Shade

I left camp at 9:15 or so and this is the first good shady spot I have seen so I am taking a short break. There isn't much shade along this trail and I am going to take advantage of every spot I find.

The trail has been good so far, a little climbing coming out at the wash where I was camped and then fairly level to here. I am just in front of Demaray Point now and as soon as I go around this I will be in the Ottoman Amphitheatre. The trail has been warm with some gentle cooler breezes. The next good shade may not be until Zoroaster Canyon/ I think I may have covered about a mile and that is probably a little more than a mile from here. The toe is not feeling so bad but there is the occasional twinge of pain, mostly on the downhill sections.

It feels so nice here in the shade. There is not a sound except for the pen on the paper.

10:55 - Zoroaster Canyon

I found some nice hard shade here just a little way down from where the trail crosses. I don't know how long this spot will last but there should be more down canyon if I wan to stay longer. I have even taken my boots off to give the feet a rest. I was getting pretty sweaty and hopefully I will dry off here. I am going to eat some trail mix and also have some water since I have not had any since I left camp. I have about 1.5 quarts left to get me to camp and I would like to save that last quart for the final stretch to camp. I just hope there is water at the spring or I am screwed. There should be.

11:35 - Still in Zoroaster

Well this has been a nice long break. I even managed to lay down on some of the shelves here and shut my eyes for a while. The rock has not felt the warmth of the Sun yet today and is nice and cool. There is also a nice cool breeze blowing down the canyon and it felt heavenly to just have that wash over me. There was no sound here until just a minute ago and now there are some squirrels making a racket. I need to put my boots back on and get moving.

12:20 - More shade

I know it hasn't been very long but it is hard shade and I am using it. Short break, 10 minutes. Getting close to Clear Creek.

13:20 - Lunch break

I was going to wait untilI get down to the creek bed for lunch but there is little wisdom in that. It is still over an hour away and a late lunch will make eating dinner that much more difficult so I am taking my lunch break here, in a nice spot of shade just a short distance away from where the Brahma-Deva Route starts.

I just checked my GPS and my Grand Canyon maps did not get downloaded to it? I could have sworn I checked this before I left home and saw them on there. This truly SUCKS!

I didn't really feel like eating but I will force myself
- - - - -
Problem with GPS maps solved---memory card become unseated. Now I have a battery problem though and only one extra set has a partial (25%) charge. The set in there now is about the same so I need to limit use. I was going to try to trace the route to camp today and to Deva tomorrow but I don't think that is a good idea now. Maybe Deva tomorrow?
- - - - -
Lunch was totally unappealing and I had to force myself to swallow. There beef nuggets are awful---chewy and flavorless. And the Chex Mix wasn't much better. I had a Clif bar left over from yesterday and I am eating that too. I just started on my last quart of water too and that's all I have to get to camp.

16:13 - In the bed

Well, that took a longer than it should have. I was totally off route this time and forgot about how high I needed to stay to avoid crossing the worst parts of some of the side drainages. I am still about a quarter mile from camp. There are potholes here with enough water to get me out of here should the spring be dry. But the spring should not be dry. I am finishing off my water and will have to filter a bunch as soon as I get to camp.

19:00 - Camp

This is not good. I got up to where the spring is and there is still a spring, sort of, but there is no standing or even flowing water to be seen. Great! So I high-tailed it back to the potholes and made camp here for the night. There is plenty of water in the big pothole here, enough for me and the frogs and their kids.

Then I took off my boots and socks so I could switch into my tevas and my little toe is looking very bad. It doesn't hurt so much but it looks nasty. These boots are obviously not wide enough and on any kind of downhill the little toes are getting mashed into the toes next to them. The right one is the worst. It is very red and it's got a normal blister below the toenail in addition to the blood blister which has also grown in size.

I can still do the Deva hike from here as it would only add about a quarter mile each way. But I am worried about coming back down and this freaking toe. I am just going to sit here tomorrow and rest and hope that the toe looks better by the end of the day and maybe I can still do Deva on Wednesday. I called Robin, filled her in on the gory details, and told her I would not be doing Deva tomorrow. I will call her again tomorrow and let her know what I decide for Wednesday.