8:05 - Phantom Overlook

I was awake at 520. I slept pretty good and it was already pretty bright when I got up. I had hoped to be up a little earlier but I know I needed the sleep. I was going to just sleep on the picnic table last night but it was getting very windy around sunset so I decided to setup the tent. I was afraid if I had to get up in the middle of the night that my sleeping bag and mattress might just blow away if the wind kept up. So the first order of business was to pack up everything inside the tent. I then made a quick trip to Phantom Ranch to use the facilities there since the campground facilities are disgusting. Another good reason for having this campsite. I had a bagel with cream cheese, that I bought from Phantom Ranch yesterday, for breakfast.

I was out of camp at 700 which was about an hour later than I had hoped for. I made another stop at Phantom Ranch to fill my water bottles and I also chugged down a quart of water to get me started. I was at the start of the Clear Creek Trail around 740. There has not been any sun yet so that's pretty good. The night and morning has been warmer than expected and I know I have clothes with me that I probably won't need if this pattern holds. I will be at a slightly higher elevation for the next few days though so hopefully it will be a little cooler.

It seems I managed to forget some things. I realized on the drive up yesterday that I forgot the new, larger memory card for the camera that I purposely bought for this trip. It was too late to go back for it though. I also forgot the iodine tablets that I bought to use in the event of a filter failure. I had extra batteries for the headlamp too. None of these is critical however. I have photos in the camera from the previous week's travels that are also on my laptop so I can delete those if needed. I have another set of batteries for the headlamp and the other set was just an additional backup for the backup. Hopefully the water filter does not malfunction or I am screwed there.

10:00 - Big shade on the east side of Sumner Wash

I have a new plan if I don't find water up in Brahma-Deva: I will stay there tonight and make do with what I have left which should be at least a quart or maybe a little more. I will take my rest day tomorrow and spend it down at Clear Creek and come back with 2 gallons. That should be plenty to do the Deva day hike on Tuesday and then get back to Bright Angel campground on Wednesday.

I am not sure I need that option as I did see some water in a small pothole in Sumner. It was green and not great looking though. The potholes in Brahma-Deva are much deeper and should be in shade for at least part of the day so I am crossing my fingers.

Taking a rest day at Clear Creek tomorrow could still be a better idea though and would have me well rested for the Deva day hike on Tuesday. So right now anyway I am in no rush to get to Brahma-Deva as I will not be going down to Clear Creek today regardless.

I don't think I have ever been in the Canyon this early in the spring. There is lots of stuff in bloom and it is very pretty up on the Tonto Platform. The banana yucca is just crazy all over the place. There is also some beavertail cactus, blackbush, brittlebush, Mariposa lilies, aster, daisies and lots of small stuff I cannot identify. It's s strange seeing the blackbush with little leaves and flowers since most of the time it looks dead. I have not seen any phlox yet but I think I need to be higher up and someplace a little cooler for that. The prickly pear cactus has lots of buds and will probably bloom soon. Many of the agave have huge stalks with buds but no flowers. Some of those are already being guarded by the black bees that are just waiting for them to bloom.

There is also lots of bird activity from my shade rock.

12:30 - Zoroaster Canyon

Lunch break. I have only used a half quart of water coming this far and will probably finish off this bottle with lunch. That still leaves me with two quarts. From here to where I leave the trail is 1.2 miles as the raven flies but probably closer to 1.5 miles by trail. From here to where I think the potholes should be is 1.34 miles, again, as the raven flies. Maybe 2 miles total left to where camp will be for tonight. This is going to be the hottest part of the day for hiking though. At least most of it will be on good trail. That last half mile though?

I met a trail crew over here working on the trail and the ranger with them said it was the first time ever for the Clear Creek Trail. Part of me believes that as there are some serious rough spots on the eastern portion of this trail and it is in desperate need of some work.

3:45 - Camp Not-So-Sweet Camp

No water here! The big potholes are bone dry. I did pass a smaller pothole about a half mile down the creek bed that has maybe 15-20 gallons in it. At least 2 of those are mine!

The trail/route coming over here from the Clear Creek Trail? Not so much. I don't know what that is showing on Google Earth. I found patches resembling trail in places but they did not last long. There was something very obvious as seen from above but at ground level it's hard to make anything out. Maybe it's just because there is so much stuff growing right now and some of it is obscuring the "trail". Anyway it's a good thing I came down that way or I would never have seen that little pool of water. The route I have taken on previous trips would have dropped me into the drainage further up and closer to the big potholes.

So I am not going down to Clear Creek tomorrow and I am not climbing Deva either. Tomorrow I am going to filter water, drink as much as I can, and sit tight. I am exhausted and very thirsty right now but otherwise feel fine. I rationed water coming over here and only drank one quart so I still have two completely full which will be enough for tonight and tomorrow morning. If I get down to that pool tomorrow morning and it is empty I am screwed. Hopefully that will not be the case unless something comes down tonight and drinks it all. I have absolutely no energy to go down there right now and I am just trying to conserve energy and re-hydrate myself a little.

6:00 - Camp A-Little-Sweeter Camp

I had a bad feeling about water for this trip going into it so I guess I got lucky with the one pothole that is here. It's not even really a pothole and more just like a shallow depression. Why there is water there when there isn't any place else is beyond me. Someone (or something) seems to be looking out for me... again.

After sitting a while I got some energy back and decided to see if there were any other potholes upstream. There were not. I went as far as the spring and while it is not as dry as a bone the water that is running there is just the barest trickle. There is no standing water except for one small puddle a fraction of an inch deep with some tadpoles in it.

When I got back to camp I decided to go down to the pothole and fill everything up. It took a while but right now I have 2 gallons of water. I also drank the first quart I filtered right off. My mouth still feels very dry though. I will be drinking about 2 quarts tonight and hope to run another gallon through my system tomorrow on my rest day. Tomorrow I will fill everything up again (hopefully) and that will give me enough for Deva on Tuesday and then back to Bright Angel campground on Wednesday.

Time to make some dinner.