07:45 am - Nankoweap granaries

I am at the river granaries, about 50 feet below them on the trail. The sun has not crested the eastern wall yet and sunlight is just now tingeing the upper cliff of the west side above me. It's moving quick and sunlight should be on the granaries soon. There are two river parties camped down on the beaches below me and I hope they stay there for a while.

I was up at 515 this morning and out of camp at 545. I reached the cut-off for the granary trail at 710---made excellent time. I decided to wear my boots after all because I figured creek crossing would not require their removal. They didn't. I didn't even have breakfast at camp and I am having it here now.

01:20 pm - I'm late!

I am running a little behind schedule again. I'm starting to feel like the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland---"I'm late. I'm late!?" :)

I didn't leave the granaries until 9 and got side-tracked by a couple of conversations with people from the river trips on the way down. I didn't get back to Nankoweap Creek until 10 and then dilly-dallied coming back: stopped for second breakfast and to take some photos. I got back to camp at 1215, broke it all down, packed it all up, had lunch and am just about ready to head out. I only have 3 miles or so to go up creek and I need to look for some ruins along the way, about mid-way up. Hopefully I will be at the new camp by 5 at the latest.

08:15 pm - Camp #2

Long day!

I did not end up making it to my intended campsite and fell short by a little less than half a mile. Now I don't wonder why we didn't make it to Kolb Arch and back in a day from last year's campsite. Upper Nankoweap Creek is total nastiness even at low water and it takes forever to make any progress. Crossing the creek is easy enough but it seems like you're doing that every few steps or so. Overland travel is impossible because of dense brush so the creek is the easiest choice but it's slow.

Hmmm, I take that back. I just checked my topo map and it seems I am actually camped about a tenth of a mile beyond where I wanted to camp. I was shooting for the arm that splits off to Kolb Arch not knowing (remembering) I had decided to camp further back. So now instead of 0.4 more miles tomorrow, I actually have 0.1 less. Times 2. w00t!

I did find some of the ruins I was looking for but somehow I was expecting more. I don't know... you could tell they were man-made structures but there really isn't much left, just foundations, or portions of foundations. It's still pretty cool thinking there was a little village there way back when but definitely there's nothing picturesque about them at all. What a view from up there though. These people sure knew how to pick a home site.

So anyway, when 6pm rolled around I just looked for a place to camp and stopped at the first good site. It's a nice site up a big slope away from the creek. I can still here the creek but it's somewhat muted. There are crickets and bullfrogs too. It's dark now and the sky is clear and the stars are coming out. I should sleep good tonight. This was the most tiring day so far. When I got to camp it was a mad rush to get everything done before dark. I had to take a sponge bath in the creek first, then rinse out the sweaty clothes, eat dinner, and finally filter water for tomorrow. I'm going to try and read a chapter in my book and then crash.