Breakfast was good and I stuffed myself on scrambled eggs and pancakes again. After breakfast we headed back to camp packed up some more gear and loaded up the duffels that would be going out by mule. John and Rob had purchased two duffels to come in by mule and three to go out. They let Michael and I use the third duffel to send some of our gear out by mule which lightened the load of my pack considerably. My pack was 50 pounds for the hike in but with all of the food gone and some gear in the mule duffel it was down to about 25 pounds for the hike out. Not too bad. We had to take the duffels back to Phantom Ranch and label them for the mule wranglers before starting the hike out.

We were out of camp right around 7am and at the Silver Suspension Bridge to cross back to the south side of the Colorado River around 710. It was still cool and shady in the inner gorge and we made good time going along the River Trail to the base of the Bright Angel Trail. We arrived at the river resthouses a little before 8am and after a quick pit stop started up the Bright Angel Trail.

We made good time on the lower portion of the Bright Angel and were already above the Devil's Corkscrew before 9am. We had "second breakfast" at a nice rest spot next to Garden Creek at 915. From there it was a nice easy walk to Indian Garden and we arrived there around 10am or so. The plan was to have lunch at Indian Garden and although it was still quite early for lunch we decided to stick with the plan. We were making very good time but everyone knew the trail would get a lot harder beyond Indian Garden. Indian Garden is the halfway point between Bright Angel Campground and the south rim in terms of mileage but as far as elevation goes you are only one-third of the way up and still have over 3,000 feet to climb in the final 4.5 miles back to the south rim.

We did not linger at lunch and started back up the trail as soon as we could. We did have a deadline of 430pm for picking up the duffels we sent out via mule at the south rim mule barn. We filled up all of our water bottles before leaving Indian Garden as the water was not on yet at the Three-Mile or One-and-a-Half-Mile Resthouses.

We were moving again by 1030 or so and were approaching the Jacob's Ladder section of the trail by 1130. We were at the Three-Mile Resthouse right around noon and stopped there briefly. I don't remember how long it took to get to the One-and-a-Half-Mile Resthouse but I am guessing it was around 115pm. We seemed to be making about 1.5 miles per hour.

The final section of the Bright Angel is what I always find the hardest. There is one very long switchback at the top that I always refer to as "Heartbreak Hill". It just seems to go on forever but once you get to the top of it you are home free with just one final leg to the top of the trail. Heartbreak Hill was a little harder this time as we were back in the snow zone at this time and the trail was very icy. Still we managed to get up and through it rather quickly and were done and at the trailhead at 230pm, with 2 hours to spare.

After taking some photos at the new trailhead marker we hopped on the shuttle bus back to the Backcountry Information Center. From there we headed over to the mule barn to reclaim our duffels and then started the drive back to Flagstaff.

It felt so good to finally get into a nice, hot shower again after six days on the trail. I then had to spend some time unpacking and deciding what stuff had to come home with me and what would stay in Flagstaff. After all that was taken care of we ended up going out to a local pizza joint for pizza and beer to celebrate the adventure.

It was a great trip but I cannot rate it as far as any of the others as they are all special in their own ways. It was very nice to give my nephew, Michael, his first Grand Canyon backpacking trip and I think he has caught the bug. Although he had some knee problems on the downhill sections of the trail I think he will figure that out. I still highly recommend the use of hiking poles, especially for these downhill sections. He also had a couple of blisters on his feet but even I had a couple from this trip and I hardly ever get blisters these days.

It was also very nice to get to do yet another Grand Canyon backpacking trip with my cousin John. I thought it was very cool when we got to do that first one together and now we had just completed number four. His friend Rob was also a very nice addition to this trip and I would not mind doing another trip with him at all. All of us got along very well and it was a very pleasant trip because of this. Thanks guys!