I arrived at the south rim a little before 8:30, spent some time wandering around the rim and then settled in at a comfortable spot in the El Tovar lobby to read for a while. I also called my wife to check in with her and keep her updated on plans.

Around 9:30 I header over to the Kolb Studio check out the new exhibit over there. It was a story about the Kolb Brothers and there explorations along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. There were many nice photographs, paintings and artifacts associated with their expeditions. After that I went back to the El Tovar for a while to kill some more time.

Around 11:30 I headed out to the East Rim drive and looked for a spot there where I could sit down and eat my lunch. All of the parking spots at the turnouts where packed and there were many cars parked along the side of the road. There were not that many people at the lookouts so I assume most of the cars were people dayhiking the South Kaibab Trail. I eventually found a spot on the side of the road and walked along the rim trail until I found a spot I liked to have my lunch.

The spot I found was perfect and afforded a nice view of some of the upper portions of the South Kaibab Trail down to Cedar Ridge, and also a nice view up Bright Angel Canyon on the other side of the Canyon. I had made myself a pizza for dinner the night before and half of that for my lunch, and also a can of beer of course. You just can't beat pizza and beer and again the location was perfect and the views astounding. It was a little hard to believe that I would be hiking through all that lay before me, down into the Canyon, and then all the way up the other side to the north rim. I had done a fair amount of walking already this today and still no problems with the foot. Hopefully it would hold up.

After lunch I went over to the Visitor Center to park my car and then took the shuttle bus over to Yaki Point to check out some more of the route that I would be taking. There were nice views of the middle portions of the South Kaibab Trail, from Cedar Ridge out to Skeleton Point and then the switchbacks down through the Redwall. I also spent some time looking for the remains of "the tree" but could not find anything that looked right.

Around 4:00pm I went back to the Visitor Center to change into my hiking clothes, get my gear, and then took the shuttle back to the South Kaibab trailhead to start my hike. The backpack was heavy but did not seem to be causing the foot any trouble. I started down the trail around 5:15 and did not have any problems with the upper switchbacks. But then I starting feeling trouble with the foot during the last part of the more level section of trail that to a descent over a nice cobbled section of trail down to Ooh Aay Point. The more I walked the worse it got and by the time I got to Ooh Aay Point it felt like the ball of that foot was on fire. This was not something I had experienced in a long time and it was not a good sign. I hoped that I would be able to make to at least Cedar Ridge for the first rest break which would definitely help the foot.

I took off my boot and massaged the foot and that spot between the third and fourth toes was definitely sore. I had by NeuropAway salve with me and tried massaging that into the area that had been burning. The burning had stopped as soon as I had stopped walking and I was optimistic that this work get me to Cedar Ridge. After I had massaged in all of the salve I put the socks and boot back on, crossed my fingers, and started down the trail again. I did not get very far. It felt okay going down that first section of switchback below Ooh Aay Point but by the time I got to the end of the next section the foot was burning again. What the F was the problem here? It had to be the weight, that was the only difference between the day hikes and what I had with me now. The two day hikes were 5 and 7 miles each with no real problem. There was a little problem on the hike to Dripping Springs but that was manageable. I was hoping to be able to do at least 1½ miles at a time for this trip but that wasn't working. I could be stopping to rest after every switchback. I had to call it quits.

I turned around and headed back up to Ooh Aah Point. Oddly, the burning sensation was not as bad going uphill, probably less stress on putting down the foot. At Ooh Ahh Point I applied more of the salve and hoped that would be enough to get me back to the rim. On the way back up I noticed that it was a lot colder than when I had started down, the temperature must be dropping.

I waited for the shuttle at the trailhead but ended up getting off at the next stop, Yaki Point, to watch the sunset which was glorious. When I finally got back to the Visitor Center and my car, I called my wife to inform her of the change in plans. Now I had 3 or 4 days free with no plans and needed to figure out something to do with that time.