We got up at 5:20, had breakfast and finished packing. Breakfast consisted of the bagel and cream cheese left over from yesterday's sack lunch. Robin had peanut butter on hers. Pat and Lynn said they wanted to get an early start as well but they were not up yet.

My toe still hurt pretty bad when I put pressure on the nail and I was worried about putting my boots back on after spending two days in my Tevas. I decided to try and trim the nail back a little more first and when I did this I must have broke the blister as blood and puss started ozing out. It looked nasty but the toe actually felt much better after this and the small blisters that I got from the Tevas felt worse now.

Mike was just getting up as we were about ready to leave. We were out and on the trail at 6:30.

We reached the Clear Creek Trail at 6:45 and were at the Phantom Overlook at 7:15 where we stopped for a rest. The toe was a little sore but doing OK. Robin was not complaining but her feet had numerous blisters and she had them all padded and taped up.

We got going again at 7:35, reached the bottom of Tapeats at 8:05 and were up on the Tonto at 8:30. We rested in the shade of a large boulder from 8:35 to 9:00. I looked but there was no sign of anyone else behind us yet. We crossed the main drainage of Sumner Wash at 9:30. I had been keeping an eye out for good camping locstions as we would have to spend one night here onour way out.

We stopped again to rest from 10:10 to 10:30 on west side of Demaray Point. We passed below Demaray Point at 11:15 and start heading north up Zoroaster Canyon. We broke for lunch from 12:00 - 12:35 on the east side of Zoroaster drainage.

Mike finally caught up with and passed us shortly after lunch, only a couple of miles from Clear Creek. We tailed behind him for the rest of the way and got to Clear Creek around 3:00.

The creek bed had been devasted by some flash flooding that occured in September 1999, and the creek now has a couple of waterfalls just above the camping area and is running through a 10-12 foot gorge next to the camping area.

We setup camp and wait for the Pat and Lynn to show up. It was a very pleasant afternoon and we all took showers in the waterfall closest to the camping area.

Lynn finally got to camp around 5:00 and Pat showed up about half an hour later. Mike Coltrin uttered his usual refrain of "Here we are in camp again".

I made ham and mashed potatoes for dinner and sliced the ham before cooking. It kept sticking to pan and making a mess of it. I didn't have any oil so I just kept trying to keep moving the ham around to prevent it from sticking. The meal was very good but messy to clean-up as well. I decide that I needed some better cookware - Mike suggested titanium.

We talked for a while as first dusk and then dark settled in over the Canyon and went to bed shortly after dark.