I was up again at 05:30 and had another pretty good nights sleep. There were lots of stars out after the moon finally set and I enjoyed looking at them during the final hours before sunrise. The moon was getting closer to full and I knew that very shortly I would not be seeing much in the way of stars for entire evenings at a time so I might as well take advantage of seeing those I could, while I could. After I got up, I packed up, ate breakfast and was out of camp at 06:55.

It was very easy going all the way down to East Clear Creek and I arrived there at 07:20. This being my fourth visit to Clear Creek the route was starting to become very familiar in places and at times I did't even have to think about where I was going. When I did get to East Clear Creek, however, I ended up being too high up on north bank with no easy way down to the creek bed. I had to backtrack along the bank to Clear Creek before I could descend to the creek bed and finally head up East Clear Creek. I reached First Trib. at 07:35 and immediately started up that as well. There are about 4 or 5 places along First Trib. where you need to do some climbing to get around some pretty big rock falls, a couple of which completely block passage. At 08:05 I reached the upper end of First Trib. and saw the steep slope that leads up to the Tonto. At least it was a slope and not a cliff.

I did not see any cairns near the bottom though the route up seemed pretty obvious to me. I did encounter 2 or 3 cairns along the way which made me feel good about choosing the correct route. At 08:25 I was up on top of the Tonto! The route had been very steep and a little tricky in places but much easier than I thought it would be when looking up at it from the bottom. It was very similar to some of climbs that I have done in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The view from the top was INCREDIBLE and I felt a major sense of accomplishment at getting up there. I decided to pass on the trip up to the Angels Gate / Howlands Butte saddle because it didn't seem like this view could be beat and I wanted to make sure I had enough time for the rest of the the things I had planned for the day. After a brief rest and some picture taking I started to head over to the Redwall ravine between Wotans Throne and Angels Gate.

The views to the north and west from the Tonto were awesome. I stopped a couple of times along the way to rest and take more photos but there were some mosquitos up on the Tonto here and whenever I stopped them seemed to home in on me. As long as I kept moving they left me alone. Spring seems to be the season for mosquitos in the Canyon as I had some problems with them last year when I did my South Bass trip as well. I tried to stay as high up as I could coming around Angels Gate but the limestone slopes were treacherous and finally forced me to go lower.

At 10:00 I started into the drainage that leads up to the Redwall ravine, climbed down into it and started following it upwards. I passed by a White Fir well below the Redwall which I thought was a little odd. It was considerably out of place where it was growing but it seemed to be doing very well there. Just beyond the tree I discovered the first fossil I had ever found on my own in the Redwall formation. At about 10:30, or so, I started up the ravine itself. I was not sure about route at all and didn't see any obvious way up. I could see that there were numerous cliffs up there but there was really no way to judge the scale of them until they were right in front of you. There were no cairns to mark any route and I just had to pick the path of least resistance all the way to the top. It really didn't take as long as I thought it would and at 11:30 I was on top of the saddle. There were a couple of tricky cliffs that I started up and then had to go back down because I just ran out of options. There was always another way up that would take me higher.

The most difficult part was near the very top, just below the saddle. At one point I had a choice of climing a very steep cliff to the left of the main drainage or going out on a ledge and climbing over some rocks that were sticking out between the cliff and the drainage so that I could stay in the drainage itself. I tried the cliff a couple of times but did not like the look of it and so came back down. I was too close to the top to be stopped here but I didn't like climbing out on the ledge either. Finally, I just decided to go for it and hoped that the rocks that were sticking out from the cliff would be strong enough to hold me. Limestone is a really fragile rock and I don't really like to trust it for support, at least not in a life threatening situation. I tested the rocks a couple of times before I put my full weight on them and they seemed sturdy enough. Once above that I was stuck below a small fall and had to go out on a ledge on the other side to get up above it. Once above that it was just a short climb up a slope to the top.

The view from the top was glorious and well worth the climb! It had been a very steep climb and I knew that going down would be even more interesting. I gave up on the idea of contouring around Angels Gate and over to Hawkins Butte as soon as I reached the saddle and got a good look at things. Looking at something on a topo map and looking at it for real are definitely not the same thing. The sheer size of Angels Gate was mind boggling and I knew I could not do this as part of a day hike, not and get back to camp at a reasonable time, and I did not want to be going down these cliffs by flashlight. It was very windy on top with some very strong gusts coming down from the north rim. I rested on the top until noon, had a little something to eat and then started down. I decided to have lunch somewhere on the way, below the Redwall.

I left the top at 12:10, was through Redwall by 12:45 and took a break for lunch until 13:00. Going down was not as bad as I had expected. I had a rope with me because Jim Ohlman said it might be useful in one place but I never saw any place where I thought it was really necessary. The tricky ledges at the top seemed easier going down than up and there were only one or two spots where I had difficulty locating foot holds, simply because I could not see my feet. I knew where my feet had to go it was just tricky feeling around and getting them where they needed to be.

Once below the ravine I kept to east side of the drainage to head for upper East Clear Creek which I would follow back to camp. At 14:00 I was out on the Tonto and could see the floor of East Clear Creek very far below. I continued east but it looked a lot further than I remembered. The slope got steeper and steeper as I worked my way eastward but the creek bed continued to rise as well and it was getting closer. At 14:30 I finally spotted the location that I had dayhiked to last time. The slope was now very steep and the few side drainages all ended in falls. I thought I could see a way down a slope just ahead so I contoured over to it and started down. The slope was very steep and very loose. One rock gave way beneath me and I start to slide. While I was sliding I reached out to grab for a piece of ledge and it came off in my hand. This is fun, I really don't like limestone! Finally I stopped sliding after maybe 20-25 feet. I had some scratches (and a tear in my new pants!) but luckily nothing worse. I got up, brushed myself off and continued down - very slowly and very carefully.

At 14:45 I was in the bed of East Clear Creek. It was nice and cool and there was lots of shade. Now all I had to do was follow this back to Clear Creek and then follow that "home". It was a very leisurely hike (walk) back to camp, and I enjoyed being in East Clear Creek again. I passed First Trib. at 16:30 and was back in camp at 17:00.

I had some company tonight, 8 college students plus guide on a Spring Break trip. I went over to talk with them for a while before coming back to camp to start dinner.

Dinner tonight was Mountainair Kernal's Corn Chowder and it was positively yummy! After dinner was done and everything was cleaned up, I purified some more water and then crawled into the tent to relax and read for a while. It had been a perfect day even though it had been considerably scaled back from the original plan.