It was a cold night; definitely my coldest night on this trail.  I awoke to a good coating of frost inside my tent, probably because I was camped next to the river.  Due to the cold, I was a little more hesitant to get going this morning since I would have to immediately plunge into the river.  I fueled myself with leftover steak and potatoes from last night and an egg from Kristi.  So much better than my oatmeal, even my homemade oatmeal.

I packed up and even considered wearing my down puffy, which I never do as a rule while hiking.  However, since this is the last day of my trip, I can throw some caution to the wind since I do not need to manage my gear for future days.  I ultimately decided to just use an upper thermal layer, my shirt, and my hard shell.  I could put on the puffy if I needed it.

I hiked over to the river and stood next to it for about a minute, steeling my resolve before and wondering what I was doing out here ready to walk miles down a river in 20 degrees.  I worked up the courage to step out into the river.  The water was obviously cold but warmer than the air, and I quickly crossed to the other side.

I finally got my timing right and was ready to hit the trail as soon as it was light enough.  I still kept my headlamp on briefly to peer into the dark water, but it wasn’t really needed.  I got my shoes and pants and everything dry last night, so I could get them wet again within one minute of starting to hike, crossing Kanab Creek yet again.

I continued upstream for a couple of miles before the creek disappeared on me.  I got eight liters of water at the last point it was flowing since I’ve got to go about 40 miles before I next see water.  My pack was considerably heavier after that.  Since I’ve been walking next to so much water the last couple of days, I have carried very little.  However, I’ve been working on my food load, so it’s still not as bad as my first stretch out of the North Rim.  It seemed like I had passed most of the big boulder obstacles yesterday by the time I got to Shower Bath, so it was much easier going today.  Sometimes it was small rocks that I could just walk over, and sometimes it was bigger, and I had to rock hop, but still way quicker and easier than yesterday.

I slept great last night and was up for the hike slightly before the sun was.  Since I had already been through the narrows and seen Deer Creek Falls yesterday, I decided just to hike through the narrows with my headlamp to get going.  After the narrows, I headed off on what looked like an old trail that I had noticed yesterday.  It didn’t go straight along the river; this trail went in the same direction at a higher elevation.  It worked out for the most part, aside from a couple washed-out parts and a couple of slips.

I didn’t set an alarm since I had another shorter day today, but I was still up unusually early.  It’s so much better than waking up to the alarm clock, though.

I continued down Saddle Canyon, which now had flow from Crazy Jug.  However, the flow wasn’t very much, so it didn’t make travel difficult.  It was the typical weave back and forth across the stream, but I mostly just followed the stream bed as the footprints of the others ahead of me had.  Travel went pretty well, and I made good time.  The canyon walls closed in and opened up, alternating back and forth.  There was one section which was really scenic with tighter canyon walls but still enough room for a bunch of cottonwoods to grow.  The cottonwoods still had half-green leaves on them while the other half were just starting to change.  Surprisingly, not everything is changing down here yet.

I was awake when my alarm went off at quarter to five.  I wanted to hit the trailhead at first light, and I had about an hour to get there, so I got up and started packing accordingly.  It was a clear, cold night, and I’m sure it was below freezing, but I had the motivation to get this day started so I could tackle its challenge.

I don’t really like night hikes, but it was just necessary here.  At least I was just going along the enclosed 4×4 track, not through some exposed scenic vistas.  I was constrained to the muted glow of my headlamp but made good time marching along the road.  I got to the trailhead just as the sun was starting to color the sky oranges and pinks.  I snapped a couple of quick shots and headed down the trail, which would switch back down to Muav Saddle, where I took a brief stop at Theodore Roosevelt cabin.  It’s not actually his cabin, but he was rumored to camp at the spot when he was hunting mountain lions in the when he was president.  I took off my extra layers and prepared for the hard part of the day.

I didn’t sleep well last night at all.  I was on a slight slant, but I don’t think that had anything to do with it.  I was up and at it as soon as it was light enough once again.  The other people in the area were still in their tents, stirring a little bit.

I had just a little bit more trail on the Tonto Trail before I hooked up with the main hiker highway between the North and South Rim.  The trail went quick and easy, and I enjoyed a nice sunrise along the way.  I got to the hiker highway, and it was a very wide dusty path filled with mule droppings and debris.  The Park service uses mules to get supplies in and out of Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon.  After being on the small trails for a while, I didn’t really like this huge multi-use thoroughfare.

It stayed surprisingly warm considering the elevation last night; it was also amazingly still.  This might be why I didn’t sleep too well.  I did wake up to my alarm today, and once again, I got packed up so quickly it was still dark.  I successfully killed some time reading on my Kindle without getting attacked by birds, which is amazing.  I really wanted to wait until it was light before I started hiking today since I was on top of Horseshoe Mesa, and I wanted to see the surrounding terrain from this vantage point.

I took a slight alternate from the Tonto Trail by crossing the Mesa and going down the other side.  My mileage was pretty similar, but I figured this would let me see more.  Unfortunately, I read that a big cave in the Mesa was closed by the park service to protect bats, so I couldn’t visit that.  However, the view from the Mesa was great during the sunrise, with portions of the Canyon gradually getting lit by the sun.  The pink tint of the canyon is just amazing.

For the first time ever in my life, I slept through my alarm clock.  I think the river rapids were too loud, and they drowned it out.  I woke up, and it was getting light out, so I checked my clock, and I realized I overslept almost an hour!  I hastily packed up camp so I could do as much hiking as possible before the sun started beating down on me.

The trail started off next to the Colorado for some pleasant and easy walking.  It then climbed up into some hills to avoid cliffs at the water’s edge.  There was a weird structure built on top of one of the hills using mud for mortar, and I was curious who built it.  That style is typically Indian, but I doubt it would have lasted so long exposed to the elements on top of a hill like that.

It was one of the warmer nights that I’ve had out here last night.  I didn’t even have my hat on for the whole night, which is a first since very early on the trip.  Also, my socks and insoles dried overnight, though my shoes were still damp.  I guess an advantage of the dry desert air.  That never would have dried in other places I frequent overnight.

I put my feet into my dry socks and dry-ish shoes and proceeded to immediately cross the Paria River and get them wet again.  At least they weren’t wet when I put my feet in them, which is the hard part.

Where I was, the Paria River did a bunch of tight switchbacks.  Early on, I found myself looking around and appreciating the canyon a lot more than I was late in the day yesterday, which validates my decision to stop a little bit early since I wasn’t enjoying it too much being tired.  The cliff walls were sheer, and as I progressed into the canyon, they got taller and taller.  There were some big alcoves like in some other canyons I have seen, and in general, just great rock and views along with a relatively easy “trail”.

The wind performed an audible early last night, coming from the complete opposite direction for the rest of the night from when I set up camp.  It was early enough that I reversed my gear inside my tent to shield me better from the wind.  It didn’t actually get too cold, though.  Since I was close to the border with Arizona and daylight savings time will be ending this weekend, I preemptively set my devices to Arizona time which will effectively give me back to West Coast time with no time zone shift.  I’m just going by the sun anyways; that’s all that matters, but I needed my alarm to go off at the correct time so I didn’t miss an hour of hiking time.

I was ready to hit the trail when the sun rose.  That was about the time that others started arriving in the trailhead parking lot for the Wave.  I was the first one at the gate.  I repeated a bit of trail that I did yesterday since I couldn’t camp in the wilderness, and it was pretty easy for the most part.  There was a little bit on the Wire Pass Trail that I had not done yesterday, and it involved one spot with down climbing on a rope and a sketchy log.  But plenty of people do that every day, so I was more than capable.