07:45 am - Breakfast

I am above the Redwall and perhaps halfway across the Supai traverse. I got up at 5:45 and was packed up and ready to go just as my camp mates were waking up. I was on the trail heading up the remainder of the Redwall at 6:45. I figure they will be about an hour behind me. I think they were shooting for an 8:00 departure. I think I am just a little more than 2 miles from the rim and hope to be out between 10 and 11.

It was a nice night but the ground was hard and not nearly so nice for sleeping as on beach sand. I slept but not as well.

I am looking forward to lunch on the rim---taco salad, onion rings and a beer at the Maswik cafeteria. I will probably have pizza and more beer for dinner tonight.

01:20 pm - I am out

I actually got out just before 11:30, a little later than expected. I walked back to the car, cleaned up a little with some water I had stashed there and now I just finished my lunch at the Maswik cafeteria. I swear this place make the best taco salads anywhere. What a treat to have real food again.

I don't know exactly how many miles I covered this morning but I was obviously not as close to the rim as I thought.

I need to finish writing out some postcards and then get those into the mail before I head back to Flagstaff. I called to check in with Robin and she was surprised. I don't think she expected to hear from me until I got back to Flagstaff but the phone had a signal here so I called her. Getting a cell signal up here on a Verizon phone is normally hit or miss.

04:18 pm - Home Sweet Home

May it be beautiful before me.
May it be beautiful behind me.
May it be beautiful below me.
May it be beautiful above me.
May it be beautiful all around me.
In beauty it is finished.
In beauty it is finished.

from the Navajo Night Chant