Today was a bitch of a day - well, parts of it anyway. Other parts were OK.

We broke camp around 7:30 and immediately started climbing up the ridge that would take us out of Vishnu and over to Asbestos Canyon. I didnt have any trouble with that part of the day. My foot was still sore this morning but I still couldn't see anything there, and it gave me trouble for most of the day.

The view from the saddle to the east of Vishnu was awesome. We stopped for our first rest there and took lots of photos. The descent from the saddle and the traverse along the Tonto Platform was not too bad either and we stopped for two or three rest breaks along there. We stopped pretty much anytime we found a good patch of shade - reason enough for me.

The final descent to Asbestos Canyon was the worst part of the day. It was loose and rocky and just plain nasty. The bottom section was a little better but not too much so. I was very glad when we finally got to camp and we go there early today, just a little after noon.

After lunch Chuck and Dave took off for a day hike to look for the Asbestos mines and Mike and I stayed back and filtered water from the creek and also looked for someplace where we could camp for the evening. There is very little flowing water in Asbestos, just a trickle really, but we managed to get all of our various containers filled up.

I also walked up to the site of John Hances old camp and took some photos of the various artifacts that remain up there. There is still quite a bit of wood left from the cabins, an old cast iron stove, and a few other items. After Chuck and Dave returned we moved all of our gear up to the camping area that Mike and I had chosen and hung out and talked in the shade while waiting for the sun to set.

When the sun finally did go down we had dinner and cleaned up and now we are ready for bed. These early evenings are a trip! I love just laying around at night and watching the stars come out. It was a full moon last night and probably will be tonight as well. Once the moon hits the side canyon it is incredibly bright. When the moon set early this morning I got a really good view of the winter constellations.

Before going to bed I lanced he blister that had finally formed on my right foot. I'm hoping it will be a little better tomorrow now. I will it drain over night and cover it with moleskin before we head out in the morning.

Today I slipped and caught myself with my left hand but ended up landing on a cactus. Ouch! I got most of the spines out but a few broke off before skin level and I cant do anything about those.

I didn't bother with the tent again tonight. We are all just camped in the creek bed. I hope it doesn't rain!