July 2 - Grand Canyon

I woke up early, packed my bag using the tent tarp laid on the ground behind my car (as usual) then headed out to park my car and catch the bus to the trail head. I was going down Hermit Trail, which I was told was unmaintained. I was also told it was built originally by Santa Fe at a time before this was a park and the owner of the Bright Angel trail charged for its use.

	The sign at the start of the trail. I was about 45 minutes behind the time I wanted to start, but I didn't think it would be a problem. I was only carrying three liters of water. Everyone recommended four, but all of my campsites were within 2 miles of water so I figured I would be okay as long as I drank a full liter before leaving each water stop so as to carry a liter inside me.
	After a mile or so I stopped at the Santa Maria spring and sat on the rocking chair, drank some water, ate some turkey jerky and wrote in my journal. Descending into the belly of the earth. Like Jonah, swallowed whole by God's creation.
	This a good shot of the destination. Hermit Creek and at the bottom Hermit Rapids.
	The trail had a couple of avalanches and washouts, but nothing that seem out of the ordinary. I think they just say the tail is unmaintained to keep people off of it. Otherwise I thought it was in better shape than Bright Angel Trail which suffers from heavy mule traffic. In the bottom left shot you can see the trail descending. The bottom right shot is a good view of Hermit Creek.
	A good shot of the trail and Hermit Creek. It was HOT. I got my tent setup (no pictures of it), my food stored in an ammo can (to protect from rodents, mosty field mice), ate some lunch, filtered a couple of liters of water from the creek and set out for Hermit Rapids. I was tired, but it was too hot to get any kind of rest. I figure it would be cooler at the bottom?
	When I got to the bottom, which was probably two miles from the camp site, I was feeling over heated. There wasn't much shade. I found some and basically tried to rest for a few hours. I waited until about 5, when the creek canyon would be in shade to head back to camp. I watched a number of rafts, big and small, navigate this rapid. It was fun to watch and it is something I would like to do. Although I would only do it on small unpowered rafts. The big commertial rigs (with motors) didn't have the same appeal to me.
	A couple of shots hiking back up the creek to the camp site. I probably over did it this day. I made it back to camp no problem, had a good dinner and crashed. Hard to sleep it was so hot. There were two other campers at this site. I spoke to them briefly as I left the rapids and they were just getting to the bottom. By the time they got back to camp I was about to fall asleep.

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