Day 4 - Wednesday, September 29 - Flagstaff, Arizona - 7pm

We were up at dark o' clock. The plan was for 4am but I was awake about 330. I stayed in the sack until about 345 and then started to get restless, wanted to get as early a start as possible, and set to the business at hand. Max and Michael soon followed.

Michael and Max said it had been very windy last night but I did not remember and and must have slept through it.

I made myself a blueberry granola meal, which was another one of my favorites, for breakfast. And also some coffee. I actually had been making myself a mocha drink for breakfasts using a mix of Folgers instant coffee and Coffeemate chocolate creamer. I mix it together in a plastic jar before the trip.

We were all packed up and out of camp by 520. It was still quite dark and all of the eating and packing was done by headlamp. I spotted a tarantula starting to cross the trail shortly after we left camp and stopped for a photo. Michael was very excited to see it and aside from some birds and lizards it was the only other wildlife we had seen on the trip. I was always hopeful that we would see come Grand Canyon bighorn as I had seen them along that section of the Tonto in the past but it was not to be for this trip.

There was one slight problem on our way to the Tonto/Hermit Trail junction where we missed a turn in the trail and started up a wash instead. Things look a lot different in the dark. It did not take too long to figure this out however and we were quickly back on track. The sky started to brighten just as we were passing the more exposed section of trail on the way to the little saddle that we had to go over. There were lots of clouds and but also plenty of clear sky where sunlight was starting to come through and light up the clouds and the east facing cliffs. There was low cloud cover on the south rim and some of that was spilling over into the Canyon.

We took a very short break at the junction with the Hermit Trail and then started up the lower switchbacks on the Hermit and up through the Cathedral Stairs. We were through all of that by about three hours into the hike and took a short break at the top of the Cathedral Stairs.

We still had some more switchback to contend with after the break and then we just had the long traverses, a few rockfalls and a couple of shorter climbs to deal with on the way to Santa Maria Spring. We arrived at the spring around 1130 and took another, longer, break.

The morning had been mostly sunny and it was starting to get warm as the day progressed. After an hour or so back on the trail we noticed it was starting to cloud up to the west and in the distance we could see rain coming down, and it was headed in our direction. We made it back to the top just a little after 2pm and the rain was only a few minutes behind us. We just managed to get the packs off and into the jeep before it started. It was just light showers though, not any serious rain.

We made a little excursion over to the shop at Hermit's Rest for some snacks and souvenier shopping. I picked up one of those chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches and it never tasted so good. I was looking forward to a good meal coming soon. When we left the park I headed straight for "We Cook Pizza and Pasta" in Tusayan. There is no better way to end a backpacking trip than pizza and beer.

Once back in Flagstaff we unpacked and showered and then headed over to the Dara Thai Restaurant in downtown Flagstaff for dinner.