11:00 am - Hance Rapid/Red Canyon

It has been a beautiful morning along the river and I got around all of the obstacles with no difficulty at all.

I got up at 5 and made myself some oatmeal and coffee for breakfast and then went over a sat on a rock by the river to eat it, while waiting for the sky to brighten. I had camp all packed up and ready to go by just a little after 7. The hike from Escalante beach to Seventy-five Mile Canyon was shorter than I remembered and I was at the down climb at 7:45 and was down in the bed of Seventy-five at 8. I did have to lower the pack in a few places, even once in the top section where I had managed to climb up with the pack on coming in. I got to Papago Canyon at 9:15 and managed to climb the wall there with my pack on. The descent on the rock slide at Papago Wall was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It looked pretty nasty viewing it from the side, at the end of the ravine, but once I was on it and heading down it just did not seem nearly as bad. It was still harder going down than it was coming up though.

I could have been here about 20-30 minutes sooner but I got side-tracked just a short distance up river from here by some friendly hikers who wanted to talk. They were day hiking the Escalante over to Papago. They seem very nice and are also planning to hike out on the New Hance this afternoon to above the Redwall so we may end up hiking together.

I think I am going to have my dinner for lunch here at the river so I won't have to haul as much water out of here. I can have the cold lunch stuff for dinner tonight at the dry camp.

07:30 pm - Red Canyon Redwall camp

Well, I didn't make it to the top of the Redwall but at least I an in it. I ended up hiking out with the people I met at Hance Rapid and ended up starting out a little later than I originally planned. I was hoping to start up by 1 but did not get on the trail until 1:40.

I met up with the other group about a mile or so up the creek and ended up staying with them. They stopped for more breaks than I normally would have but they are all really interesting people and it has been a real pleasure tagging along with them.

One gal actually lives at Grand Canyon and works at the kennels there. The other two both live in Flagstaff and the woman is an archaeologist and the man is retired. Lisa, the archaeologist, just finished working on a dig over in Furnace Flats on the Unkar Creek delta which is just opposite the Unkar Creek overlook. She has been telling of the fascinating finds they uncovered there. Normally the Park Service does not excavate sites but this site was at risk of being lost to erosion.

We got up here around 430 or so, made camp, ate our dinners and just sat around talking for a good portion of the early evening. It has been a very pleasant day.