7:55 pm - Side canyon between Deer Creek and Cranberry Canyon

Here we are in camp again. Not exactly the camp I expected to be in tonight but it is a pretty nice camp none-the-less.

We got a later start than I expected today and did not hit the trail until 8:30. We had another brief rain shower early this morning that came just as I was getting ready to take down my tent. Luckily I felt the first drops before I got started and I ended up crawling back inside and lying down for a while as I waited for it to pass. It was a short one and only lasted 15-20 minutes so it wasn't so bad. Once it was over and I was pretty sure it wasn't going to start up again I got up and quickly packed everything up, had some breakfast, and waited for everyone else to get ready. I think it was the rain that finally got people motivated to get up and break camp as the people who did not have tents didn't have much of a choice. I was probably packed up and ready to go by 6:30 or 7:00.

The morning's hike down the top portion of the Thunder River Trail and then down to and across the Esplanade was very nice. It was quite chilly at camp and I kept a sweatshirt on while waiting for people to get ready. There was no sun at camp and that was a big part of the problem. The sky started to clear up after that last shower but a ridge to the east prevented any of the Sun's warming rays from reaching us. Once we started down the trail with the sun beating down on us it warmed up rather quickly.

The hike across the Esplanade toward the head of Cranberry Canyon was exceptionally nice. The hike down upper Cranberry itself was not so bad and the section above the Redwall as the route heads out towards the Colorado River and the inner gorge was wonderfully scenic. We took a short rest break at Ghost Rock and another at a shady spot behind a very big rock in Cranberry Canyon, close to the river, and waited a while for Bolek to catch up with us.

The bad stuff started at the Redwall descent, as bad stuff is frequently want to do on Grand Canyon backpacking trips - it was absolutely nasty. We had to climb down a 30 foot section with a rope and also lower packs there. We had to lower packs again at another steep section just below that but everyone managed to climb down that section without the need for a rope.

The descent through the rest of the Redwall was on a heavily eroded talus slope that afforded no good footing whatsoever and it was more like a controlled slide than anything else. It was nasty and probably the worst section of terrain I have encountered anywhere in the Grand Canyon so far I think. Of course the fact that we hit this late in the day with dusk quickly approaching and still a good distance from camp didn't help matters.

I was feeling very tired after that and it was starting to get late so I gave up on the idea of heading over to Deer Creek with Jasek and Bolek. It was likely going to be dark by the time I would have got over there anyway and I would not have been able to take photos, which was the whole reason for going in the first place, so it just made sense to me to skip the extra miles. Jasek's friend Bolek was having some problem as well so he also bailed out at the suggestion by Mike and Chuck that he stay with the main group. The end result was that Jasek headed over to Deer Creek alone.

After a short rest we had some more rather nasty descent down towards the river in search of Siesta Spring a campsite nearby. We found a nice spot on some ledges in a drainage and that's where we are tonight. As soon as we got here one guy took off in each direction along the trail above the river in search of Siesta Spring and as luck would have it, it is located only about 5 minutes away, in the next drainage downstream. We filled up on water there just after dark and also made camp and ate dinner in the dark.

There are lots of stars out and it looks like it will be a nice night, and a lot warmer than up on the rim. There is no room to pitch my tent though so I am sleeping out.