We just reached the junction with the Bill Hall trail and from here we start to head up.

We were up at 5 but did not break camp and start hiking until 6:30. I don't know why it takes so long to break camp sometimes. The night was cold and that chill was still there in the morning air as well. All of the clouds from the prior evening are gone, however, and the morning dawned nice and clear. It is a good morning to be hiking. It's just too bad we are leaving the Canyon behind.

08:45 - Bill Hall Trail, Coconino formation

Coming up the lower portion of the Bill Hall was slow going but we still made pretty good time. Sue and Tom are doing very well and are never very far behind. I bet they've got some good muscle tone in those leg muscles by now.

We are just above the little cliff at the top of the Coconino right now and after a little more climbing we will be in the Toroweap traverse. After that all that's left is the final climb through the Kaibab to the rim and then the "walk" back to the car. Its almost over.

We are taking our first real break of the morning and having a little snack. We stopped briefly at the Thunder River / Bill Hall junction to let Sue and Tom catch up, but that hardly counts. We had to stop here briefly anyway as another party was coming down just as we were coming up. I went up with my backpack on and then dropped it above the cliff. Everyone else made it up with their packs on as well.

10:15 - Bill Hall Trail, rim

We are finally back on top. There is lots of loose rock in that final climb up through the Kaibab and it is pretty much just one big scramble back up to the rim. Sue and Tom must have thought we were completely nuts when they came down through that stuff on the first day. It was probably one of the most slippery sections of trail on the entire trip.

Robin and I are just hanging out here, waiting for Sue and Tom to rim out. I can hear their hiking poles banging on the rocks below even though I cannot see them yet. They are not far behind and will be here shortly. We made pretty good time getting here I think and I probably would not have done it much faster myself. From here we just have a ¾-mile walk back to the car and were done. Everything looks pretty dry up here and hopefully the roads back to Jacob Lake will be the same.

11:00 - Monument Point

We're back at the parking lot and the SUV looks like crap. The mud that was on it at the start of the trip has now hardened to stone and I don't know how I am going to get it clean. Were all still dreaming about showers and cheeseburgers at Jacob Lake. I still don't know what the order will be for those, it depends on whether we can check-in and get rooms when we get there. Its still at least an hour away which would get us there a little after noon.

14:30 - Jacob Lake Lodge

We took several wrong turns on the way back to Jacob Lake and as a result the trip probably took about a half hour longer than it should have. At one point we found ourselves climbing higher and higher and all of a sudden the road was covered with a fair amount of snow. I knew this could not be right and finally determined that we had taken a wrong turn and were heading south instead of north on this road, away from Jacob Lake and down towards the north rim village area. Once we turned around from that final mistake we did not have any other problems and we arrived at Jacob Lake around 1 pm.

We checked into our rooms and then Robin and I headed over to the restaurant for some lunch. I had a burger with all the fixins and it was fabulous. Robin had a sort of a grilled cheese with bacon which the waitress screwed up the order for. The waitress did not seem to be on top of things and made several little blunders that had me annoyed.

20:10 - Jacob Lake Lodge

After lunch we showered, cleaned up, repacked some things and generally just relaxed. I cleaned some up of the rock hard mud off of the Blazer and that made me feel a little better. We did a little souvenir shopping as did Sue and Tom and then we all headed into Kanab for dinner. On the way we stopped at a self service car wash and I cleaned up the vehicle some more, at least to the point where I would feel comfortable returning it.

We had a nice dinner and Sue treated us. Now we are back at Jacob Lake getting ready to settle down for our most comfortable nights sleep in a week. I am so looking forward to sleeping in a real bed tonight.