We were to have five people on this trip: myself, my cousin John, John's wife, Susan, my nephew, Michael, and my friend Max. Originally the rim-to-rim-to-rim had been chosen as a trip for Susan as it was something on her bucket list but they were still up for the trip that we ended up with. It would be her first trip into the Canyon. This was going to be trip number five for cousin John after doing Deer Creek and Thunder River with me twice, followed by a Nankoweap and then a Clear Creek trip. This was going to be trip number three for my friend Max after doing a Bright Angel and Phantom Ranch trip with me and then a Deer Creek and Thunder River trip and also Nankoweap trip. This was going to be trip number two for Michael having done Clear Creek with me just a couple of years prior. John and Max had done both the Deer Creek/Thunder River and Nankoweap/Marion Seiber trips together, and John and Michael had done the Clear Creek trip together.

We all watched the weather conditions in the Canyon as the start date for the trip approached and became very nervous about the heat that the inner canyon had been experiencing over the summer, and how that did not seem to be dissipating even as we headed into late summer and early autumn. The heat did finally look like it was going to break as we headed into just one week before the start date but then rainy conditions started showing up in the forecast. If it's not one thing it is something else. This was going to be the second trip into the Canyon for Michael and his first trip, over to Clear Creek in March of 2019, had been quite a damp experience. We did not have tents for that one and ended up rolling ourselves up in tarps at night. My cousin had already decided that he was bringing a tent for him and his wife on this trip and I finally decided I would bring one as well. I had a four-person tent that was very comfortable for three people. It was a little on the heavy side but I had carried it on a multi-day backpack to Deer Creek and Thunder River many years ago and this trip was going to be a lot easier than that one.

Then with just a few days to go cousin John ended up cancelling because of an employee with Covid and some scheduling problems that created for him, he just could not get away. So that took two people out of the mix and now we were down to just Michael, Max and myself. The heat finally did break and the forecast was now calling for temperatures in the inner canyon in the mid to upper 80s instead of the mid to upper 90s. Still very warm but a little more manageable. There was still rain in one form or another in the forecast for every day. We would manage somehow and I was sure we would probably have a good time in spite of the weather.

We all met up in Phoenix the day before the hike was supposed to start. We did some final shopping when we arrived in Flagstaff and then had a nice dinner at the Lumberyard Brewing Company before retiring back to the house to finish packing for the trip and getting to bed early.