I finally got up around 05:30 and started up pack things up, first inside, and then out. I had a quick breakfast of a bagel, a couple of Slim Jims, and a package of Peanut M&Ms and was on the trail at 06:50. It was probably more than two miles to Clear Creek but not more than three. I encountered a smiley face on the trail, that someone had made out of pebbles, at the first view of Clear Creek - my sentiments exactly. I started down the switchbacks at the eastern end of the Clear Creek Trail at around 07:40 and arrived at the camping area at 08:20.

At the camping area I was greeting by a pair of Canyon Wrens. They were obviously in the process of constructing a nest someplace as one of them had a mounthful of Cottonwood cotton, which blowing everywhere in the camping area. One of the Wrens was obviously not pleased with my intrusion on their morning activities and was very vocal about this. They both continued to hang around my campsite throughout the morning so I suspect they may have been nesting not too far away. This was my first good close-up view of these charming little critters and I was glad of their company.

I had my camp setup, took a little rest and was ready for a day hike around 11:00. I headed up towards the route through the swampy area that leads to upper Clear Creek, Obi Canyon and Cheyava Falls and met three guys who were on their way out. They were all either present or ex-Phantom Ranch employees and had been enjoying some time off from the Ranch over at Clear Creek. They asked if I was heading up towards Cheyava Falls and I said "no" as I already knew that it was not running this year. We chatted for a while and I asked them about climbing Deva Temple as a day hike and they said that it was not doable from Clear Creek but that it was doable from Cottonwood Camp on the North Kaibab Trail. I had not yet given up on the idea but this confirmed other information that I got at the Ranch and I was now having serious doubts about this attempt.

I headed up Clear Creek towards Obi Canyon, just to see what it was like. I had been past Obi Canyon on a number of other visits to the area but had never gone up into it and I was very curious. I did not get very far, maybe a half mile, before the Tapeats cliffs closed in on me and I was dead-ended at a high, dry waterfall about 60-70 feet high, with no apparent way around. I was glad that I decided to check this out before attempting the Deva hike as I had planned to come back down Obi Canyon as a shortcut back to the camping area. Getting dead-ended at the top of this thing late in the day would not have been my idea of a good time. When I was planning the Deva hike and looking at Harvey Butchart's hiking map I did not understand why he went all the way up the northern branch of Clear Creek and then contoured back above the Tapeats to get to Obi Canyon - know I knew. I had planned to go up to Deva using Harvey's route and return through Obi Canyon and now that this would prove to me impossible. I gave up on the idea of Deva all together at this point as I knew that going up and down using the Clear Creek route would take too long and even using the shortcut would have been iffy. C'est la vie. It was close to noon and there was shade near the cliffs so I ate my lunch below the falls and took some photos.

After lunch I decided to visit the Obi Canyon ruins since I was in the area anyway. I arrived there about 12:30 and it took a while to locate them again. I was extrememly disturbed to find the "surface collection" of artifacts completely missing. The rocks that had been used to display the collection were still there as was the "surface collection" tag but the artifacts themselves were no where to be found. My only guess was that someone had made off with them. The metates were still there but no one in their right mind would try to carry out one of those things. I looked around briefly but became very depressed by the situation and decided to leave. I made a note to check on this when I got back to the rim.

Next I decided to explore up the nameless drainage that branches off from Clear Creek to the north, just past Obi Canyon. This is the route that Harvey Butchart used to get to upper Obi Canyon and on to Deva Temple and was the one that I had planned to use on the way up. I followed the creek, which easily has just as much, if not more, water than Clear Creek itself until it broke out above the Tapeats and forked into two more creeks. There was water flowing down both branches but the one that continued northeast had a considerably stronger flow than the one that went northwest. The amount of time that it took to get to the fork confirmed my belief that it would take too long to use this route for a dayhike of Deva from the Clear Creek camping area. Next time I would have to plan to camp up in Obi Canyon someplace or else attempt the climb from Cottonwood as suggested.

It was now about 14:00 and I headed back to camp. On the way back I started thinking about backup plans for Sunday and came up with a few, one being to attempt the Deva hike anyway and just set a turn around time to see how far I could get. This was the most likely option. I arrived back at camp around 15:30, washed off some of the grundge that had collected on my body over the past two days and cooled off my feet in the creek.

I started dinner early, around 4:30, as I was very hungry. This was probably because I really didn't have any dinner to speak of the night before. For dinner tonight I had Natural High's Chili Mac (chili and macaroni) and it was very good compared with the previous night's meal. After dinner I cleaned up, filtered some water to refill my water bottles and was ready for the night by 18:00. It was a nice evening and I still had some daylight left so I got out my book and read for a time, while I waited for the sun to set.