In George Steck's Grand Canyon Loop Hikes, he describes a hike that begins and ends at Indian Hollow, in the western portion of the main Grand Canyon, astride Kanab Creek.  I had been through various parts of this hike and felt like it would be neat to do the whole loop, except in the reverse order of how Steck describes it.  I hadn't been down Indian Hollow, but I had been down the next canyon to the north - Kwagunt Hollow.  I had also hiked up to the "obstacle pool" in Indian Hollow from Jumpup Canyon.  I had been down Kanab as far as Scotty's Castle and I had been down the Cranberry Canyon route, as part of a hike to Deer Creek.  I had also been along the river between Deer Creek and Fishtail Rapids.  This was one of those hikes where I kept a tape recorded journal, which is a real help seeing as how twenty years had passed between when I did this hike and when I wrote up this blog report (December, 2014)!  FYI, a raw transcript of the recording is included at the bottom of this web page.

Day 1 - Down Indian Hollow to the Esplanade (Monday, Sept. 12) - It takes hours to reach this trailhead from my home in Flagstaff.  So, even though I left a bit before 5 a.m. I wasn't to the end of the Indian Hollow road until just a few minutes past eleven o'clock.  I was carrying a heavy pack - some 60 pounds.  That included a 3-man tent, which I liked to use because it was so roomy.  But, it was still quite warm/hot and I only took a sheet to go with my sleeping pad.  And, I wasn't sure that I would see water until the second day, so I was carrying enough to see me through the night.

     By noon I was on my way.  I just followed the ravine all the way.  Steck mentions three places that must be bypassed on the way down to the Esplanade and I brought along a rope to lower my pack in necessary spots.  I reached the first barrier at 2 p.m. and by 3:15 p.m. I was through the third one.  I lowered my pack in all three places.  The sun gave way to some cloudiness and temperatures were quite pleasant.  Once below the last barrier, the holly bushes got thick and made for tough going.  But, as one continues along a more gentle gradient, the bed becomes clear of bushes and the going is easier.  I could see the ridge that connects the rim with Fishtail Mesa.  From here it is just a walk-up to the top of the ridge, affording easy access back to the Fishtail Canyon area.  Also, the route to the top of Fishtail Mesa is discernable from this side.

     At about ten minutes past six o'clock I found a decent camping spot in the bed, on the Esplanade level, next to a small pool of water - the first decent water I'd seen so far.  Except for the fact that this was a loop hike, and solo at that, I am sure it would have been much faster to come down the trail from Sowats and then cross over on the Esplanade.  Of course, if one is coming down Sowats there isn't really any need to come over to Indian Hollow - just continue on down Sowats to Jumpup!  But, once back on the rim, getting from the Indian Hollow trailhead to the Sowats trailhead would be a chore.

     I ate dinner around 7:30 p.m. and then napped for a couple of hours.  It was an exhausting day and I was quite achy.  I would probably have slept soundly but for the fact that the wind kept kicking up all night long, making quite a racket with the tent.

Day 2 - Down Indian Hollow to Jumpup Canyon (Tuesday, Sept. 13) - Although it was a restless night, I didn't get up until about 6 a.m.  I did get some water from the nearby pool.  [You can see it off to the left of my tent in the photo below.]  I did some rearranging of my pack in hopes that it would feel better than it had the previous day.  There was a lot of cloudiness in the morning that seemed to threaten rain, but it didn't last.  By 9:30 a.m. I was finally on my way.

     Once I left my campsite, I saw water often, either in small pools or actually flowing a bit in the bed.  At 12:30 p.m. I came to a big pool that was much more challenging than it should have been.  I couldn't see an obvious bypass, but I think there is one here.  Instead, since there wasn't too much water in the pool, I thought I could force my way down through it.  I tried to lower my pack in hopes that I could swing it clear of the water.  Having never practiced this at home, it isn't surprising that it went poorly.  All I ended up doing was getting it wet while I was trying to swing it back and forth.  So I hauled it back up, but not having put on gloves, and the pack still weighing in at 60 pounds, I really did a number on my hands.  Once back up, and with my frustration level pretty much maxed out, I decided to heave my pack over the water.  That worked like a charm ... for about 5 seconds.  The pack hit just past the edge of the water, then slowly fell back into the pool - which was more mud than water.  Aargh!!  So, then I jumped, clearing the water and pulled my pack out of the pool - hmm, now it seems heavier!  Since I really wanted to get by the "obstacle pool" before stopping for an extended amount of time, I just put the pack on and trudged on down the creek bed.

     It probably only took ten minutes to reach what Steck called the "obstacle pool."  The canyon had begun to form some narrows and that was cool.  It was not quite 1 p.m. but it would take me the better part of an hour to cross this spot.  I easily saw the ledge on the left side that would allow me to lower my pack down to the bed (or, maybe it was just to a lower ledge - I am a bit fuzzy on this point).  Then I tried to figure out how to pass the pool.  There is large boulder that you can half shimmy down, but then there is a six foot drop into a pile of rocks.  I tried tossing some big rocks down this route in hopes that they would create something of a step that I could lower myself onto, but they just bounced into the pool.  Then, I went back up the bed and found a nice long tree (sans branches) that I dragged back and jammed into that spot.  That worked well and I got down to the pool without incident.  Then I swam across and fetched my pack.

     It was nearly 2 p.m. when I was across the pool and more than ready for lunch.  But, first I needed to empty my pack, dry things out, and pump out about a gallon of water.   Mostly, the items in the pack were okay.  But the pack was muddy, so I did wash it off and let it dry out.  Still, another hour had passed before I could sit down for something to eat.  I was hoping to reach Kanab Creek this evening, but I didn't leave this pool until 5:20 p.m.

     From the pool, it only took about 15 minutes to reach Jumpup Canyon.  By and large the bed was dry.  At about 6:10 p.m. I came to the spot where water collects in a hole off to the right side of the canyon.  When I was here a couple of years earlier, Neil Jacobs and I called this "Frog Holler," since that pool was sure attractive to the local frogs.  At 6:45 p.m. I reached a very big bend in Jumpup where a terrace creates a very nice place to camp and so that is where I decided to settle in for the night.  But, not without some competition - there was another group here.  They were up on some rocky ledges above this site.  Bighorns.  A whole family of them it seemed - two adults with full horns and many younger ones with short horns and some with just the beginnings of their horns showing.  I counted eleven.  I tried to keep my distance and they did eventually come down and head toward Kanab.  Since it was dusky/dark, there was no way to take a picture.  Go figure!! 

Day 3 - Down Jumpup to Kanab Canyon and down to Scotty's Castle (Wednesday, Sept. 14) - It was mostly a very pleasant night.  I got a little cold in the early morning hours and threw my poncho over me.  That helped.  I was up at about 6:30 a.m. as were loads of mosquitoes.  So I ate breakfast in my tent.  While I left the obstacle pool with a gallon of water, when I left my Jumpup campsite, at 9:10 a.m., I had only one liter left.  But I knew I would find water in Kanab and that it wouldn't take me long to get there.

     Indeed, it took me less than twenty minutes to reach Kanab.  Inside these narrow canyons it is very difficult to tell where you are on the map.  For the most part the twists and turns are correctly marked on the map, so if you do a good job of paying attention you can make good guesses about your exact location.  But if you are going along and can't remember if that was the fourth or fifth twist in the bed, you are out of luck in this regard.  The mosquitoes had disappeared on my hike down Jumpup, but once in Kanab, they were all over me again.  At least the temperatures were pleasantly cool.

     About a half hour down Kanab there is a small tributary that comes in from the east.  Harvey Butchart noted a plunge pool up there, so I took off my pack to check it out.  There were many small pools in here and it took me less than ten minutes to reach the end, where the plunge pool is located.  It was quite large - maybe two-thirds as big as the obstacle pool.

     At 10:30 a.m. I came upon the family of bighorn sheep!!  I got a couple of photos of them before they scampered away on a high ledge on the cliffs above me.  That consumed about a half hour of my time.  At 11:45 a.m. I stopped to have lunch and to pump/filter water now that it was flowing regularly down the bed.

     I was on my way by 1:15 p.m.  About an hour later I came to some springs coming in from the left which made for some tough going for a bit.  Then I came to the "Shower Spring."  About fifteen minutes later I had to take a twenty minute stop to repair a busted strap - I was sliding down a rock and my fanny pack (strapped to the bottom of my pack) got hung up.  By 3:15 p.m. I reached Scotty's Hollow and set up my camp.  Later in the afternoon I went down the creek to try and find some ruins that Harvey Butchart mentions but I came up empty-handed.  Although decently cool and very still, there were no bugs pestering me here at this campsite as I settled in for a good night's sleep.

Day 4 - Day hiking Scotty's Hollow and then down Kanab to Susurrus Canyon (Thursday, Sept. 15) - I was up at six o'clock this morning and started my day by pumping/filtering a gallon of water.  By 8:30 a.m. I was all set to do a day hike up Scotty's.  There is water flowing out of this canyon (unnamed, but "Scotty's Hollow" seems appropriate), punctuated by many waterfalls.  Some you can climb right up and others require bypasses.   After about two hours of slow going I hit a stopper - a waterfall I couldn't get past.  I thought two people with a rope could do it, but I wasn't going to be able to get through by myself.  So, I hung around for a little while and then headed back down the canyon.  Along the way I stopped for a leisurely lunch, and didn't return to my campsite until about 1:00 p.m.

     I had thought that I might spend all day up Scotty's, so getting back early led me to change my plans.  I wanted to visit a place called the "Slide of Susurrus," which is further down Kanab.  I had planned to stop there on my way to camp at Kanab Rapids.  But since I now had the time, I got my gear all packed up and was headed down Kanab in the early afternoon, at 2:15 p.m.  The going was slow and I had to cross the stream a number of times in this section.  I also had to climb over, around and through lots of boulders.  At about 3:45 p.m. I could see another tower that I call the "false Scotty's Castle."  It was nearly 6 p.m. before I reached the Susurrus Canyon and found a place to make my camp for the night.

Day 5 - Day hike Susurrus Canyon and then down to Kanab Rapids (Friday, Sept. 16) - I was headed up Susurrus Canyon by a quarter to eight this morning.  In only a few minutes I reached a pool that I thought might be the right place, but it wasn't.  Still, it only took me about twenty minutes to reach the end of this charming little creek where the water slides down a steep cliff into a big pool that seems to be in shade most, if not all, of the day.  By 9 a.m. I was back at my campsite and a half hour later I was on my way down Kanab.

     At 12:30 p.m. I was on a bluff overlooking Kanab Rapids.  A half hour later I had my camp all set up and had wandered down to the river.  My campsite was in the sun and it was quite warm/hot on this afternoon, so I gathered up some items and headed back up Kanab to hang out for a few hours.  I noted that there were lots of fish in Kanab Creek right here at the Colorado River - trout I guess.  I was lamenting that I didn't have a way to catch one, although being unskilled at preparing one to eat, it was probably just as well!  Lots of clouds started rolling in late in the day and although they seemed to threaten rain, none fell.

Day 6 - Along the Colorado River to Cranberry Rapids (Saturday, Sept. 17) - I wanted to get an early start since I would be hiking along the exposed shore of the river and knew it could get very hot during the day.  I was on my way by 6:30 a.m.  It took about two hours to reach the unnamed canyon that is halfway to Fishtail.  Sometimes I would be near the river, sometimes not.  Sometimes I would be on a faint path, sometimes not.  Sometimes I would be hopping over boulders, sometimes not.  Progress is not very fast along this kind of terrain.  By 11 a.m. I was at Fishtail Canyon and twenty minutes later I was at the mouth of Cranberry.  I thought about trying to get to Deer Creek, but the heat and my exhaustion led me to decide that this would be a fine place to stop for the day and camp for the night.

     From my campsite I could make out the route to the top of the Redwall via Cranberry and it looked very, very steep.  It looked much worse lower down than it did further up, which is the part I had been on.  I was thinking that the only sure way for me to use this route would be to go to Deer Creek and then come up through the dry lake bed and then up the Cranberry route.  But, if that is what I'd need to do, it might just be better to hike out the trail from Deer Creek.  My recollection from many years earlier (1983) was that there was a decent trail from Deer Creek to this beach area at Cranberry and Fishtail.  So, I figured that I could follow a real trail all the rest of the way out to the rim if I wanted to forego the Cranberry route.  Well, these thoughts consumed much of my time the rest of the day.

                                                                                                   
Appendix - Micro-cassette Transcript
Text in brackets [ ] were added to the transcription.
Kanab Creek Hike - Indian Hollow to Cranberry Canyon Loop
Monday, September 12 to Sunday, September 18, 1994    [Tape 4a/4b]

Planned Kanab Creek hike – it is September 12th, 4:45 a.m.  I’m about to leave the house.  The weight of my pack with water is about 60 pounds. 

It’s 11:06, and I am at the trail head at the end of Indian Hollow.  A couple of other cars are here, parked.  So now to get my pack out, have something to eat before I leave.

It is 11:52, and I am just about to head down the trail.  It looks like I could follow the trail a bit of the ways down this ravine before dropping off and just following the ravine down through this route.  It is partly cloudy or maybe even mostly cloudy out here, so temperatures are very nice.

At 12:58, I passed a ravine that went off a little bit to the north, northeast, that shows up on the map and it seems that progress down this ravine is really not as quick as one might expect.  The ravine itself is pretty decent going.  People have probably been through here and certainly the animals have.  [Wind noise] Deer and even the cows, I guess, wander down this way, or used to … [noise] but the ravine is easy to walk down.  There are places where it’s pretty wide and there’s a lot of grass and sage and it’s matted down and easy to get through and the creek bed occasionally is quite gravelly so things are going pretty well. There are some places where the stickers bushes get in the way, but so far that hasn’t really been a problem.  So, onwards.

It’s 1:17, and I’m taking a break.

It’s 2:02, and I’m on my way down Indian Hollow here.

At 2:12, I reached the upper chockstone fall in the Coconino.  So now to start doing this.  I can’t see out into the canyon at all.  Still very closed here in this ravine, but this is the upper barrier.

At 2:30, I’m ready to go again after a passing this little fall.  Getting my pack down on the rope was just a mess.  The rope getting tangled up, the pack not going where I wanted it to go.  Really quite a chore here, but hopefully that teaches me something for these later falls and then for the obstacle pool tomorrow.

It’s 2:48 and I’ve reached the bottom of the second little fall in the, big fall in the ravine.  The bypass was off a little bit to my right and I saw the rock quite, right away.  It’s a steep little chute.  I lowered my pack and worked my way down with the rope tied to me, in case I change my mind and decide to stay up high.  On my way down I did knock over a few rocks and stumbled for a foot or so, but things seemed alright otherwise.  Well, if that’s the case I should be reaching the last barrier here real soon.

At 3:13, I’m down below the last of these bypasses and things went pretty well.  The chute was off to the side a bit and I was able to lower my pack through it without any trouble.  There’s a few drips coming off the rock in the ravine here.  Not enough to really gather any water, but it makes the rock wet.  Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of this further down the ravine here.  So on I go.

3:25, I’m taking a break on a rock. In the middle of the ravine I got some shade from the clouds.  Also I think, though, the sun is behind the Coconino here which causes it to be very pleasant.  The temperatures are just great.  A lot of clouds keeping it very cool.  This last little stretch down below the last fall was just awful.  Forcing my way through these holly bushes has just been tough work.  It’s looks like I’m soon to pop out of this.  I can see Fishtail, part of Fishtail mesa or at least the ridge leading over to it from where I sit and I can I’m well below the Coconino now so I should be hitting that rock field in the Hermit and then work my way down to the Supai.  Anyway I’m going to be here for a few minutes and rest and recuperate.

It’s 3:43, and I’m on way on down this ravine.  Headed for the Esplanade.

It’s 4:15, and I’m taking a little sit down break here.  The bed of the Indian Hollow here has, must have, some water come down it fairly often because it’s pretty free of bushes.  Not too long after my last rest stop it got a lot easier working my way down through it, and we are, I am, pretty close to being able to see around the corner here to the north and seeing the Esplanade, which is essentially where I am now.  I can see Fishtail Mesa and the saddle between the two and as I look at it seems that there would have been no problem at all hiking down the Thunder River trail, across the Esplanade, up and over that saddle to get down into Indian Hollow so that would have been an alternative route.  I don’t know if it would have been faster or not.  Depends on one’s progress across the Esplanade there, but certainly doable.  The route to the top of Fishtail is clear to me from this position and it seems that getting to the top from the other side, the south side of Fishtail, would be a real chore.  One has to come up to the saddle and then contour around and hope that you don’t have to  go down too far to continue that, to find that slide in the Coconino, which I can see quite clearly from here.  So it looks like the kind of thing that would be easily accessible from Kwagunt Hollow or Indian Hollow here on this side. 

It’s 5:13, and I'm taking a short break.  Have some water and dry off a little bit here.  My back has been quite wet and irritated by rubbing against the pack on the way down here this last hour or so.  The bed drops down into the Esplanade before you really get a nice view of that level so my views continue to be a little bit restricted.  There are a lot of trees growing in here.  A lot of big ones, a lot of cottonwoods, but I haven’t yet seen any water.  I am hopeful though that I will be coming to some soon, but it does look a little bit damp and occasionally it looks like some little bits of water trying to force it’s way out underneath the rocky ledges, but I’m going to shoot for a spot like that before I set up camp.

It’s 5:29, and I’m off to continue on down this ravine.

It’s 6:11, and I have stopped at a spot that I will camp at for the evening.  I have passed a couple sets of pools on the way down.  They didn’t look that enticing and I kept thinking that there certainly must be something better further down the creek and I have come quite a ways and it is just dry.  There’s a lot of ground that is moist, but all these places where you would expect to find pools, or even running water, are just, hasn’t been any.  Anyway I’ve reached the spot where there is a pool and so I’m going to take advantage of that and stop by it for the evening.

A note on this campsite.  I have recently passed a major drainage coming out of the right-hand side and on the map it appears to be the drainage that leads to the water source that Harvey has noted near the “I” in the word Indian Hollow and I have come a ways down from that but have not reached the major drainage coming off from the left-hand side that’s marked on the map.

It’s now 10 p.m. and I’ve been wiped out this evening.  I’m very tired.  Just dragging myself around, fix dinner and eat dinner.  I ate between 7:30 and 8 and have been napping since then and have gotten up to take an aspirin.  The wind kicks up periodically.  Causes a lot of noise and keeps me from really getting any restful sleep.  Actually (I’m beginning ?) to wonder about bringing some earplugs.  Well, I will, hopefully, get some sleep before tomorrow morning.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Tuesday, September 13^th.  It is 9:25 in the morning and I am all ready to go.  My pack is all done.  All I have to do is put it on and start going.  It was a windy night off and on and it kept me restless throughout the evening.  But I feel pretty decent this morning.  I was awakened by my alarm at 5:15, but didn’t really get out of bed until about six and proceeded to make some breakfast and do my chores, clean up the dishes from last night, and get some water out of the pool.  I had thought to use my collapsible plastic bucket to retrieve some water and then use the pump.  However, I decided to pump the water directly out of the pool.  It was pretty deep in one spot.  I think that the logistics are a little bit such that it is probably going to be easier to put it into a bucket and then find a decent spot to then go and pump it out.  Since the intake hose is not very long.  I packed up everything inside the tent and rearranged my pack so that now the tent and the ground cloth are in the fanny bag attached to the bottom of the pack and I have put some of the heavier things towards the bottom of the pack as well.  Yesterday the pack was riding very uncomfortably, very top heavy and I’m hoping that this will make things a little easier for today.  Well, the destination today is at least the obstacle pool down here in lower Indian Hollow.  Depending on how long it take to get down there I may continue on with hopes of reaching water in Kanab before stopping for the evening. 

It has been windy this morning and, it for a while, it looked like it might be going to rain, with fairly heavy cloud cover, but a lot of that has dissipated by now.  There are still a few clouds around, but the threat of rain is certainly not imminent as of right now.

It’s 10:55, and I’m stopped at a junction between Indian Hollow and some unnamed ravine that is clearly marked on the map.  It is coming off of the Kwagunt Hollow area and runs in from due east, traveling west into Indian Hollow and things are going pretty well.  I’m going to take a little break here, have some water, try to fix my pack to ride a little bit better.  It seems to be riding a little too low.  A postscript on this morning’s log.  First there was a quite a bit of a suspended sand particles in the water pools so that was one of the outcomes of the constant wind that I had last night.  Secondly, I did pull out three liters of water so I want to keep track of how much water I get with the filter and that’s the first water that I’ve filtered and then lastly, something else that eludes me at the moment.  On the way down I have passed the numerous pools ever since I left my campsite so I haven’t been very far from water all the way down.  In a couple places it was actually running a little bit from pool to pool to pool.  I had some little detours to maneuver, but otherwise things went pretty well.  I did have one spot where I got half way down a little narrow spot, found I couldn’t go any further and had to climb back out, and had to take my pack off and push it up to get it back on the higher ledge there and then scramble back up without the pack.

It’s 11:30, and my break is over.  I heard something on the slopes up this other ravine here, knocking some rocks around, but I couldn’t spy what it was.  Likely it was some deer unless it was just rocks rolling around on their own.  I must be getting close to doing some obstacles here because I can see across Jumpup to  the other side – the cliffs up in the Coconino and Kanab – so clearly we must be coming near some spots here to start descending.

It’s 12:32, and I am down below what appears to be the big pool that Steck mentions with the bypass, but it there doesn’t seem to be as much water as normal and I managed to work my way down through the pool area though not without incident.  I got down past the first barrier falls pretty easily, coming in underneath that really huge chockstone on my left-hand side, and then I encountered two relatively small pools that had to be passed or one on either side of a rock here and both of them were just a little bit too much to get through.  On the right-hand side I eventually decided that I could try that pool.  It looked like I might be able to walk around this pool on the left and wade through the water.  It didn’t look too deep close to the edge and so I took off my boots and rolled up my pants and got down there and I found that I would have to step too far away and into a big hole in order to get around the rock on that side of the pool.  So I went back and dried off my feet and put on my boots and came back to the other side – the right hand side of this pool – and had been thinking about jumping it – probably about four, five feet here to jump – but it’s at a bad angle and I tried to lower my pack and see if I could swing it out beyond the pool and I was not successful.  The pack started to dip down into the pool and then I had a heck of a time trying to pull it back up, and without gloves and with this rope, was just searing my hands.  Not to mention the sixty pounds of pack at a precarious angle trying to pull it over the edge of a rock, and I spent quite a few minutes fooling with that until finally with one all out lunge I managed to pull it up on top of the ledge I was sitting on, tearing off some skin on one of my fingers in the process.  I then decided to just toss the pack and then jump without the pack. I didn’t feel like jumping with the pack on.  It just seemed like too much and the pack landed alright but then fell into the pool of water.  So the best laid plans certainly have gone astray here.  So I jumped easily this little distance and dragged the pack out of the mud, really, and set it down and took a brief perusal around the area here.  So anyway I’ve been here for a little while messing with this dang bypass and I’m going to try to continue on and see if I can’t reach that plunge pool and have lunch down there.

It’s 12:52, and I’ve reached the obstacle pool, and so I’m going to put down my pack and scout out what’s going on here.

It’s now 1:15.  I am ready to lower my pack and change into my aqua shoes and swimming suit for the climb down by the chockstone.  The drop here is not as far as it otherwise would seem.  There’s a big ledge about half way down that one can get to pretty easily, so all I really need to do is get the pack dropped down to there.  Anyway so hopefully this won’t take but just a few minutes.

At 1:52, I’m down below the obstacle pool and I have fetched my pack off the ledge.  In fact, I ended up lowering the pack down the rest of the way from where it landed on the ledge since the route down was not as easy as I had thought.  There is about a six foot steep part right at the very bottom.  I made it through the obstacle pool okay.  I sat for quite a while trying to think of how to get down.  There’s a very steep slick rock that’s probably about ten feet long there that drops into a rock pile and I had thought to try slide down it and use my pole to break myself, but I just had visions of all kinds of problems as a consequence.  So I rolled a few big rocks down it and they didn’t do anything.  They bounced out of the way and didn’t help form the little pile at all.  So I went back up the ravine and I found a real nice twelve foot pole, tree trunk.  Probably four inches, three or four inches in diameter at one end and four inches at the other end and I dragged it down the creek bed and jabbed it into that spot and came down in nothing flat.  I was able to stand up in the water at this spot.  It was about four feet deep, something like that, four and a half?  And then swam across the pool until I could walk out.  Well this is going to be a long break.  I’m going to have lunch and try to dry some things out, see what damage I’ve done to my pack.  Before heading down I had thought about using this spot as a camping site, but it really is quite narrow.  Not right here at the obstacle pool it’s a good thirty yards across or so.  Fifty yards maybe, but it’s all rocky and a little bit of a slope and certainly is narrow and would catch a lot of water should it rain.  I figure it probably, I guess it’s about an hour and a half down to Kanab and Harvey talks about some water about half an hour beyond that so I think that’s probably what I’ll shoot for, for a campsite tonight.

It’s now 3:01, and I have hung things up to dry.  I’ve washed out my pack, my fanny bag.  I’ve got the ground cloth and the tent sitting out although they’re already dry by now.  I washed my shirt.  Got some water in the bucket that I will get a little bit later and I’m just now sitting down to have lunch.  It appears that, although a few things were wet, not too much was wet inside the pack.  The mud on the outside was enough to make me wash it and the only real damage that I have seen so far is the plastic shoe box has cracked and apparently poked a hole in a bag of sugar or cream or something and it has spilled out.  Although not much of it spilled out, but enough to make it kind of a mess inside.  I have yet to take that apart and see what’s going on and my bag of nuts popped open, or tore open, in the upper compartment spilling a few of those.  And my apples, I think one of them must have gotten mushed, although I got them sitting on the side and we’ll take a look at them in a few minutes.  But now I’m going to finally have some lunch.

It’s 5:23, and I am all set to leave this obstacle pool in Indian Hollow.  I have been here a very long time and part of that is just the time it took to repack everything after cleaning it up and letting it dry and all that.  So my decision making at the previous big pool cost me in terms of the time I spent here fooling around with getting my pack back in order, but everything is cleaned up, dried out.  I had lunch and I have filled up with four liters of water and expect that I shall gat least go to the Kanab-Jumpup junction and camp there or perhaps continue on.  I might hike here until it gets dark and make alternative arrangements about dinner.  Although I can’t see the whole sky, I can see a pretty wide band from east to west above me and there are no clouds at all.  So it may be that it’s going to be another clear evening with no threat of rain at all.

It’s 5:39, and I’ve reached the Indian Hollow-Jumpup junction and now heading down Jumpup Canyon.  Indian Hollow was kind of an interesting route.  I was surprised that there wasn’t more water than there was.  I somehow thought that there was more water, comparable to Kwagunt Hollow, but really the water at Kwagunt Hollow is much more substantial than I found here in Indian Hollow.  There was a spot to camp perhaps a little below the obstacle pool where a ledge that was covered in sand under a very large overhang stood a good five or six feet above the floor of the canyon.  It’s a very narrow canyon, but still that would be a place where one could pitch a tent and perhaps ride out any inclement weather.  There are bushes and things growing up just a couple feet off the bed so flooding seems to be an irregular, usually sort of thing.  Although cliffs do look pretty well washed, about, up to about 6 feet, 8 feet off the ground so there’s something to be said for that.  Well I’m going to continue on down the Jumpup.

At 5:46, I spotted a little rock cairn off to the side under a largish sort of overhang and there was a little seep spring there.  it wasn’t seeping out very much.  I think one would be hard-pressed to try to accumulate any water there, but it was wet and there were a few little ferns growing at the base of the wall.

It’s 6:11, and I’m at “Frog Holler”[1] water and there’s quite a bit of water in here.  Very damp leading into it, muddy, and there’s frogs here.  A lot of debris on the water, leaves and things, but still here.  I will continue on down Jumpup.

It’s 6:24, and I’ve reached another seep here on the, this time, the left-hand side as I’m walking down and it seems suspiciously like the spot where Neil and I had camped, although that doesn’t seem to be a nice big spot to put out a tent.  But I don’t remember camping near a seep either.  Well, continuing on down.

It’s 6:46.  I’ve reached the big curving overhang here where there’s a little bit of a seep here and I have stumbled upon a whole family of bighorn sheep I would guess.  Based on the antlers, there’s a couple of adults, a younger one and then three smaller ones.  I thought that there might be some deer out ahead of me based on some dropping I saw on the creek bed and also the reasonably fresh tracks and it seems that I’ve run into them right here.  I don’t know what they plan to do but I’m thinking of reconnoitering on the high bank here.  Probably about eight or nine feet above the creek bed.  And looking for a spot to camp.

Well they definitely are bighorns.  There’s eight.  Two with real big horns curving all around and it looks like a couple three maybe that have a good set of horns starting, making their first sort of bend.  And then another three that seem a little younger with just very small horns starting.  They’re all here on the rocks up above me.  Sort of waiting for me to do something I guess.  Clearly they can’t go too much further up before having to come back down here so I suspect that I will hear them tonight.

Well it seems that the sheep have decided, some of them anyway, to come back and down and bypass me.  And now I’m thinking maybe there’s eleven out here.  And making a little noise as they come down.  One of them though is still cliffed up? A young one.  All the adults and other ones are now a lot closer to me.  Wish it was light enough to take a picture.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It’s Wednesday, September 14, and it’s about 7:25.  I’ve been up for about an hour and am eating breakfast.  The night was nice.  It fact it got a little cool towards the earlier hours of the morning and I threw my poncho on over my sheet.  I slept a lot better than the night before.  Although when I got up there was a ton of mosquitoes hanging around.  So I have been forced to eat my breakfast in the tent.  Yesterday at the obstacle pool I should have noted that I filtered three and a half liters of water.

Last night I pretty much went to bed after getting all set up.  I did walk back up the creek a little bit and make some noise to try to encourage the sheep to come back down and exit off of their precarious cliff.  As I had seen at least a couple of them stumble and knock others over I didn’t want to be responsible for any accidents that way.  And so it seems that some or all actually did come back down and leave out the other side.  And that was between 7:30 and 8 o’clock and I was so tired that I just pretty much laid down and was resting for the next couple of hours.  And, about 9:30, I pulled out the Irish soda bread and had a bunch of that.

It’s 9:11, and I’m all set to go.  All I have to do is put on my pack and then head on down.  The sun comes up here pretty late and in fact just catches a corner of this little area that sticks out.  Looks like a nice day.  Probably be a little bit warmer.  Last night was very still which was nice.  When I got here there was still a little bit of wind occasionally that blew a little bit on sand in the tent, but that stopped pretty much after I got here.  I’m going to wear my Croakies again today.  Yesterday it made for a much more comfortable fit for my glasses and so I will continue doing that.  So, on down to Kanab and eventually Scotty’s Hollow today.

A note on my water situation as I’m leaving the camp.  I had four liters as I left the obstacle pool and didn’t have any until I got down here, although I was getting a little bit thirsty.  But I knew I wasn’t going to be hiking for too long before I was going to have to stop.  But I wasn’t too concerned about the water.  I thought I had plenty and didn’t hesitate to drink whatever I wanted to once I got here.  I did use a little for kind of a sponge bath last night.  Had a little extra this morning to wash dishes and I have about a liter left that should be easy enough to see me through till I get to some water down in Kanab.

It’s 9:27.  I’ve reached the junction of Jumpup with Kanab.  I thought I was pretty close based on my hiking time yesterday.  Although I couldn’t quite tell because on the map it was unclear exactly where I might have been.  Although the bend seemed to be rather dramatic, on the map – it was – I was less certain.  So the sun is shining in here.  It’s a beautiful day.  Blue sky, deep blue sky.  Lots of camping spots here that are high off the bed.  And so I’ll head on down and take a look for that plunge pool that Harvey mentions is maybe about a half an hour down below here as I travel down Kanab. 

Since reaching Kanab, I have been continuously buzzed by some mosquitoes.  I had not really seen much of them at camp after I was up for a while as I mentioned many were waiting for me when I got out.  But they seem to disappear.  Since I’ve come to Kanab they have been buzzing around me and landing on me left and right.  That could be because it’s cool – it hasn’t yet warmed up at all, so it’s really pleasant in that way and very still.

It’s 9:53, and I’ve reached the little tributary that comes in off of the east side.  Coming down it’s really easy to spot because the creek makes a big bend here and this tributary continues on in a straight line.  Coming back however, I think it might be kind of easy for someone to miss it.  Although there is a little rocky debris that has washed out from that ravine into Kanab.  Anyway I'm going to take off my pack and explore up this little ravine and see if I can't find Harvey's pool.

It’s 10:09, and I’m back ready to continue on down Kanab.  Pack’s on my back all ready to go.  I got back a couple minutes ago from investigating this little ravine and there were pools all up and down it.  The closest one even in site of the junction here with Kanab when the ravine makes a bend and turns out of view.  The plunge pool at the end was very large.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s as much water as in the obstacle pool or maybe two–thirds of it.  It was murky, but certainly there was quite a bit of water in there.  And it doesn’t appear that the sun shines on it very long if at all during the day.  Well, continuing on down the creek.

Mosquitoes are still voracious.

By the little ravine I saw quite a few animal tracks and some droppings which seem to me to be the same as the sheep – perhaps the little herd I saw yesterday.  And they didn’t look that old.  I had noticed some droppings on the way down to Kanab and then down Kanab this morning so it may well be that this herd is still out in front of me somewhere.  And I may yet get to see them and maybe get a picture of them.

It’s 10:35, and I have caught up with the sheep.  So I’m going to try to see if I can’t get a good picture of them before I continue on.

It’s 10:52, and I’m back at my pack.  I gave them a good chase and got one decent shot I think of them before they climbed up higher than I could go and rounded a corner.  On the way back I got a picture of them all just standing there.  I don’t know how well it will turn out with them against the cliffs high above me.  But they’re all just sitting there looking at me.  So I think I’ll have a little bit of water and then push on.

11:01, I’m continuing on down the creek.

11:04, I passed the first pool here in Kanab.  It’s really not very big.  Maybe kind of a task to get some water – you can get a cup in there and pull out some water, but very muddy.  And it looks like it could be a lot fuller than what it is right now.  So that may be a good sign anyway that I’m going to be encountering some water here.

It’s 11:23, and I’ve just come around the big 360 degree bend in the creek that is marked on the map.  It’s between the M in Mojave and the C in Coconino dividing the two counties.  And I have got some water here.  And, it looks this may be the beginning of the springs that flow on down here.  I can see it stretching on ahead of me.  And a lot of trees here along the banks.  So, that’s a pretty good sign.  I think I’ll go down just a little while and find a nice spot and rest for a bit.

It’s 11:44, and I’m going to break for lunch.  Also get some water.  I’m in a nice shady spot here.  Pretty close to the next major ravine that comes in off of the left, or the east, that’s marked on the map.  It’s probably only just a matter of a couple of minutes to walk down that far.  And the area I’m in is still in the morning shade.  So it should last for at least lunch.  I scared up a few more mountain sheep just a couple minutes ago and they went heading up the slope.  And one ran across the thin ledge at breakneck speed.  It was just amazing to see. 

It’s 1:16, and I am just about to leave.  All I have to do is pick up my walking stick.  The sun has just reached my little spot about five or six minutes ago while I was packing up to leave, so that was very accommodating.  It is quite warm in the sun so if a breeze blows that feels pretty nice.  Well, I think things are going along pretty well.  This little stream has been full of little minnows, little fingerlings, and before I leave I think I’ll just let the stream make a few noises.  [Stream noise]

[Water noises] It’s 2:10, and I’ve just crossed a couple springs that come in from my left side.  I was forced to cross the creek here stay on that side and fight my way through the real dense brush.  And they must be just about where the Shower Springs should be – just about where the K is in Kanab.  I’ve just come around this big long point and so I would expect then pretty soon here to run into that.

It’s 2:13, and there’s the Shower Spring right in front of me so I was really close.

It’s 2:27, and I’m going to take a little break here by the creek.  I have busted one of the straps that was holding on, or holding on the fanny bag when I hopped over the big rocks below the Shower Spring.  There’s some deep pools there.  In order to bypass them I had to sit on the edge of this rock and then try to lower myself down and the fanny bag just got caught and hung up there and when I was able to pull it free I must have torn loose one of the pack straps.  So I’m going to fix that and have a little water before leaving.

It’s 2:47, and so I continue on down the creek.

It’s 3:16, and I’ve reached the campsite here at Scotty’s Hollow and Kanab – the same one used by Neil and me some years ago.  There’s an awful lot of some kind of a vine growing in some of these areas.  This one ledge that we had cached all our stuff in preparation of a little morning trip up Scotty’s Hollow has vines running all over the sandy area there.  I don’t know what kind it is but they seem quite prolific.  Anyway I’m right opposite of Scotty’s Hollow and this spot looks like it catches the shade almost all day if not entirely all day.  Near the beginning of an “S” turn leading to the straightway that heads down here to Scotty’s Castle there is a bypass that I’ve forgotten about that goes well above some cliffs around that first bend.  So that was a bit of an unexpected or forgotten detour.  And along much of the last fifty/seventy-five yards here I walked close to the edge of the cliff and not close to the creek.  Well, now to unpack, set up the tent, and think about how to lounge around this afternoon.

It’s now 7:09 and twilight is beginning; it has set in.  I can still see where I’m going and so on, but I couldn’t read anything.  After arriving and setting up camp I took a trip down the creek to see if I could find the ruins that Harvey mentions.  I was doing that from about from 4 o’clock till about 4:45, when I returned.  I didn’t find any.  I got almost all around Scotty’s Castle and checked two real obvious overhangs, but didn’t see anything and didn’t see anything further down the creek.  So when I go down in a couple of days I may try to keep my eyes peeled, see if there’s something further than where I went.  And then I, when I returned to camp I took a shower and washed my clothes and hung them up to dry and fixed myself some dinner and have just been lounging around since then.  I have my tent full of stuff.  I was thinking about inventorying it, trying to see what’s going on here with future meals and then tomorrow I will take a day trip up Scotty’s Hollow.  So I’ll probably be up for a little while and then hit the sack.  It’s been a real nice night.  It’s real still.  It’s not windy at all.  The skies are still very clear, no clouds at all.  And I haven’t been bothered with the bugs and the mosquitoes here even though it has been still this evening.  So that’s been real nice as well.

This evening for dinner I used the TVP[2] for the first time.  And that worked out pretty well.  It absorbed some of the water so I got to be careful to add some more, but it may be just the thing to go with for dinners anyway.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It is Thursday, September 15^th, and 6:45, right now.  I’ve been up since right around 6 o’clock and filtered out four liters of water, plus a little bit more to drink.  And if I hadn’t noticed it yesterday at lunch I filtered three liters of water.  And I am all set to start eating some breakfast and start thinking about how I’m going to start pack up things for a day trip up Scotty’s Hollow.  It is a clear day; very still again which has been very nice.  It was a little cool last night, and I once again threw my poncho over my sheet to stay comfortable.  That should be a good sign at least for temperatures during the day.  They hopefully won’t be too scorching.  Things will be well.

It is now 8:30, and I am all set to go.   I got my stuff all packed up in hopefully good order here at the camp.  Everything’s all cleaned up.  I’m taking two liters of water.  Hopefully that will see me through my little adventure up here although I brought along my tablets to use if I need to do that.  I had thought about bringing just one liter and my water pump, but I’m able to fit my lunch things into my front pouch so I decided that the space wasn’t as critical as I had thought and so I’m going to leave that behind.  Anyway everything is going along pretty well.  The sun is creeping down to the bottom of this canyon here right next to Scotty’s Castle and it’s still a very clear beautiful looking day.

Well before leaving I downed a liter of water and I’ll will take the other liter and set it in the stream so it stays cool.

It’s 8:46, and I’m up past the falls.  Which take a listen to for a moment. [Falls noise] 

It’s 9:09, and a couple of reflections on Scotty’s Hollow.  The water certainly looks great and there’s quite a bit of it considering.  I have come through some areas that are just amazing.  Some narrow stretches where the creek sort of spreads out over most of the entire width of the canyon.  In fact I took a picture at one such place.  And there was a 180 degree turn and some other sharp turns but none of them are marked on the map which is kind of ironic when you think of the map as being an accurate representation of these canyons and yet certainly the surveyors had to make some guesstimates on some places and Scotty’s Hollow is probably one of those.  There’s a neat stretch where I’m at right now with kind of a conglomerate sort of rock is.  There’s some kind of limestone I believe imbedded in some kind of slushy material that solidified so it looks almost like cobble stones. And in this particular section the creek has worn away some channels, a channel in this cobblestone-like block layer, very fascinating, very interesting looking kind of canyon. 

It’s 9:22, and I’ve hit some sunshine here for the first time.  And the creek is cutting out really smooth beautiful channels in this gray mauve limestone.  Just looks fabulous.  There’s some narrow stretches here of the creek bed.  In fact one spot where I was without a place to walk and so I straddled the creek, a foot on each side and was able to sort of baby step my way through a stretch of about ten feet twelve feet something like that.  It wasn’t very deep there.  It was maybe a couple of feet but I was able to stay dry through that.

There is some kind of a plant here that is most interesting.  It has real fuzzy leaves that are just like Velcro and stick to one pretty easily sticking to my boots and the bottom of my pants.  And the stems are fuzzy as well but they are more spiny and little bit tough to grab a hold of.  But I noticed them all the way up this little creek and they have continued to stick to my pants and my shoes.

It’s 9:27, I’m at the end of this stretch.  I took a picture of the smooth mauve walls.  I’ve got a pool I’ve got to cross and I am going to have to take off some clothes in order to do that.  There’s no way to walk around it and it looks pretty deep.  Probably about four feet.

It’s 9:53, and passing that pool was an adventure and a half.  It was probably about five feet deep at the deepest, maybe a little less.  And the up creek side, it was really hard to get up.  There wasn’t really any place to climb out easily and so I had to come up right where the water flows and the rock was very slippery.  And I slipped back down into the pool a couple of times and had to use my hands to grab where I could until I got out.  Which means hauling my stuff through was going to be something of a problem.  I decided I could get close enough in the pool where I could toss things up past the little fall here, although I had visions of them rolling right down into the stream or maybe back into the pool.  But I thought I could prevent that with my stick if I was able to keep aware of it.  So it took me three trips, four including the practice trip to get all my things across.  I did slip and got the bottom of my fanny bag wet and also my camera a little damp.  Luckily I didn’t get too much water on them.  And I also slipped when I was bringing my clothes across.  Although they didn’t get wet.  And the third trip I brought across my boots and that worked out fine.  Going back it shouldn’t be any problem at all.  I can just slide right down the water and hold onto things walking out the other side.  Well there’s a waterfall up ahead of me.  I haven’t gone all the way to it, but looks like I should be able to cross through that.  We’re getting pretty close to the top of (the) Muav.

Part of the crossing was really my feet stepping across the rocky bottom to fetch my clothes was not very comforting.  The bottom of the pool was covered in a nice small gravel so that felt fine, but on both sides, well actually on the downstream side the rocks certainly were a pain.

10:02, I’ve climbed up past that waterfall, though I wasn’t really too thrilled about the prospect of climbing back down there.  A little bit steep there.  But there are some foot holds that I should be able to work my way back down.

In fact it was almost a bypass a little bit before that.  It looked like the lowest five or six feet was the worst, but I may come back that way and lower my stuff and then climb back down the waterfall.  Well, as I continue on up here looks like I might have to take advantage of another kind of bypass here.  There’s another pool that looks to be something that I can’t climb around so I’m going to climb up here.  There’s some steps that lead up to about twelve-fifteen feet above me and follow along with the almost the top of the Muav.

It’s 10:20, and I’ve reached a stopper.  It’s not, well, it’s a couple of waterfalls that are choked off by the sides of the canyon here.  I had taken off my boots to wade up through one spot and then this waterfall was right around the corner.  And it looks like its next to an impossible to get through without getting wet, without getting my stuff all wet or it might actually be impossible to get through.  There’s a it seems that I could probably climb up the lower one and if I could throw up stuff up on a big boulder, that might work.  Although that’s a little bit questionable.  And from there on the left side it looks like I could perhaps throw things up to a couple of rocks that are jammed in between the big boulder in the side.  But that climbing out of here means it looks like you have to climb up where the water is flowing down on the right.  And it certainly doesn’t look all that easy.  Especially with just bare feet.  If I had my aqua shoes then it might be a little bit easier to get some purchase on the rocks there, but still looks like there’s about a four or five foot jump there that, or gap that is going to be kind of tough to get by.  So this is it.  I will turn around and walk down a bit here and dry off my feet and put my boots back on and just lounge around a little bit I guess.

10:40, and I’m just now ready to go.  I had decided to strip down and try to see if I could actually get up through this spot without my pack and without trying to carry it around.  And I just couldn’t even get up the first little fall.  The water is about waist deep and there just isn’t really anything to grab a hold of and use as a foothold or handhold or anything.  The rocks that form the water fall there might, maybe some people could use to hoist themselves up but I just couldn’t figure it out at all.  I could grab the top of the big boulder …

Well the tape stops and I don’t really notice it.  It is now 3:10, and I am down Kanab Creek a bit.  I would say on my map I made that slow long westward bend after Scotty’s Castle.  And I am coming up on the sharp rightward bend which will lead me in a long route over to the false Scotty’s Castle.  My thoughts when I was recording before seem to be that two people with a rope might be able to get up if one boosted the other up over the first fall and then up to the rocks in the crack in the second fall.  And if then one person could pull up the packs with a rope.  No small feat trying to keep them dry.  On the way back down I stopped at just past the pool, the wading pool, to have lunch.  I managed everything into one bundle in that wading pool and slid down and crossed without incident.  The bottom of my boots got a little wet and so did the seat of my pants, bundled up with my pack.  But that worked out pretty well.  I stopped for lunch from around 11 til 12, something like that.  Somewhere after twelve I left and continued on down the creek.  I stopped at a spot to take a look at a cave.  And it was full of the sheep droppings so sheep go up there a lot.  But nothing else going on there.  That was high above the real sharp 180 degree turn in Scotty’s Hollow Creek.  I got back to the campsite at just about 1 o’clock and decided to pack up and head down Kanab. I was mostly packed up by 1:50, but my foot was hurting and I took my boot off a couple of times to investigate.  And I noticed that I had a little bleediness torn skin there underneath the my foot near my little toe.  Then I think I might have hit a cactus whip.  When I was in that pool, the last pool up Scotty’s Hollow I was searching for a place to put my feet and I hit something sharp under the water there.  And I thought it might be cactus but I didn’t feel anything after that.  It didn’t irritate me until I was getting ready to go.  But I had my pack all packed up and I had to half unpack it to get the first aid kit.  I didn’t really find anything in there.  I dug at it for a while, put some ointment on, bandage and moleskin.  And it has been riding all right – a little sore but seems fine.  And I had to pack my bag up a couple of times there because I kept forgetting to put things in, but I finally got away at 2:15.  This stretch from Scotty’s Hollow down to where I am now has just been really slow going.  A lot of climbing over big rocks; looking for routes to avoid the water and the waterfalls and the deep pools.  And it’s not an easy thing at all.  I’ve crossed the creek a number of times, but this stretch has been very slow going.  And the rocks continue as I can see here around the corner but hopefully that will be it for this part of the trail.  Anyway I’m going to stop here for a couple minutes, take some, have some water and then go.

3:18, and I’m on my way.

3:32, I rounded the bend and have finished with these big boulders.  Things look a lot more decent from here on down as far as I can see.  So that was really quite a mess getting through that stretch of the creek.

It’s 3:41, and I got to a spot where I can see this false Scotty Castle, as it were.  Pretty impressive tower nonetheless.  And I can see right through the neck here.  The ridge that leads from the tower over to the Esplanade area.  I can see right through it to the other side.  And I can see the wall on the other side and I can see some further walls that are down a canyon that are in a straight line with me here that take off on that side.  So, a few big boulders right in here.  One that is huge, as big as a house, a small house.  And on top of it is a huge tree.  Perched there many, many years ago I would suspect in a big flood, probably thirty feet off the ground.  Anyway continuing on. 

It’s 4:10, and I am right opposite that canyon I mentioned that I could see from the other side of this false Scotty’s Castle.  On the map it’s got the 3200 foot contour mark for it.  And you certainly couldn’t go up the last little bit here.  It’s a quite a dramatic dry fall right now.  Although it looks like a little bit up the creek here you could follow a ramp that would contour you into the valley up above this fall.  I’m going to take a little water break here before continuing.

It’s 4:18, and I’m back on my way.

It’s 4:59, and I’ve reached the end of what I call, “stage three” of little zigzags and am sitting opposite a well-defined canyon that continues on the same line as I’ve been traveling and then you can walk up from here at least a little ways.  That runs off of an area that is marked a boundary between the monument and the national forest on the old quad map.  And it’s the beginning of kind of a long straightaway.  I think I will keep pushing on; at this rate I’m thinking it’s possible I could make the “Slide of Susurrus” area for a campsite tonight.  So I’ll go on for another hour anyway and see how I feel then.

On the bend between stages two and three at this little zigzag, I was able to follow a game trail up high that cut across the little peninsula there.  Although it lead through a field of beaver tails that I ran into a couple them, and I ran into a couple of them.  The latter time which was a little more painful – one needle got stuck to my pants before I was able to get at it.

It’s 5:20, and I’ve just passed the canyon at the end of this straightaway that heads off to my right.  And you couldn’t get up there I don’t think.  It might barely be possible  to go in a little slope here down creek of it and contour in.  But pretty wild going.  Anyway I’ve made the bend and I’m looking pretty good for catching the Susurrus area for a campsite.

It’s 5:49, and I’ve reached Susurrus.  I crossed the creek to be on the Susurrus side thinking there might be more opportunities for campsites, but there are none.  But it looks like I might be able to catch something right across the creek here.  So now it’s just the matter of finding a campsite.

Well I took a couple seconds to get over on top of a little hill here and get a spot.  A really nice spot.  And I have seen my first footprints right over on this area.  So, somebody’s been up.  I suppose one could come up from the river.  Anyway time to pitch tent, make dinner, clean up, get something to drink.

It’s 6:58, and things are going really well.  It’s getting dark.  It’s getting to dusk right now.  I cannot read my watch very well without turning on the light.  But I can still see well enough to do anything around here.  And I’ve been very efficient since I’ve arrived here.  I jumped in the water to cool off and wash off.  That felt great.  And cooked dinner, just about to start eating it.  I even made some pudding which I’ve just finished mixing up and let sit for a minute.  I have pumped four, filtered four liters of water since I was down to absolutely nothing when I had poured out some to cook with.  And the tent is just full of stuff but at least I’m here and tomorrow should be a real good day.  I found that I was able to keep track of where I was in the canyon through all these twists and turns from Scotty’s Hollow was very easy.  After looking at the map and studying what was going on so that was kind of nice.  The boots have worked out well.  Especially the waterproofing part, since I was ankle deep in water a few times.  It was nice that my feet and socks stayed dry.

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It’s 7:42 in the morning, Friday, September 16^th, and I am on my way up the “Slide of Susurrus” Canyon.  I have packed up my bag and it is sitting in my tent.  All I’ve got to do it put some things out of my fanny pack back in my bag and pack up the tent and I’ll be ready to leave from here.  So, that may be just a couple hours.

It’s 8 o’clock and I’ve reached the slide area at least as far as I can go up this canyon.  I can see the water trickling and cascading down over these numerous little Muav-type ledges until it reaches this final pool.  There was another little slide area, had a pool that was only about 8 minutes up the canyon which confused me for a bit, but this is certainly the area he’s [Steck] talking about.  So, I think I probably will take a dip, see if I can’t go up here a bit and catch a picture.

It’s 8:23, and I’m back from the “cruise slide” of Susurrus.  This pool leads to some ledges that you can climb up and then there’s a couple little pools and a few more ledges until you reach another big pool and the true slide.  I can see it from here.  It’s coming down at sort of a right angle to where the flow is coming into this pool.  And then from that pool you can see that it’s really a long slide as the water cascades down the rock and then the last foot, foot and a half, splashing into the water.  And then there’s some seep springs up above an overhanging ledge that drip water down into the pool.  The pool is in a really dark recessed area.  It’s very interesting.  In fact a bat just flew over me even at this time of day.  And so I went up there and thought that I couldn’t get a picture because I swam across the lower pool, but on the way back I found that I could walk across this pool - the water was up to about my neck.  So, I grabbed my camera and went back up and took a couple pictures.  I hope they turn out.  I have been a little bit concerned about this roll of film, but I’m back and this trip turned out to be a lot shorter than I had thought it was going to be.  And I’ll just dry off and head on back down to the campsite.

8:36.  I’m on my way back down this little Susurrus Canyon.

At 8:53 I’m back at my campsite.

It’s 9:29 and all I have to do is put on my pack and start heading on down Kanab.

It’s 10:15, and I’m just opposite the lower canyon here where the Kanab sort of bumps out a bit and continues on for another straightaway and it’s right opposite the “ek” in creek on the map.  And there’s a little spring sliding out of that.  It’s probably about forty feet tall and, fifty feet tall maybe, and water dribbling out of that and covered with ferns.

It’s 10:39, and I’ve reached the end of the S sort of route here that comes out near a canyon that runs off of almost directly off of Fishtail Point and the 3600 contour is marked to the south of the canyon.  I haven’t quite reached that spot as of yet, but I’m pretty close.  Through the end of sort of stage two all the way around the bend and through most of stage three, I was on these Muav ledges.  So, this may be where Steck was talking about.  And it looks like we’re just about to end and the sun is just about to begin as well, so an ideal time to stop.

I’ve been following footprints ever since Susurrus.  It seems that maybe three or four people had to come up here, I presume, for the day and back.  And so there’s a well-worn trail here to follow which is kind of nice and I still see some occasional sheep tracks as well.

11 o’clock and I’m back on my way.

From 11:35 to 11:38, I’ve been sitting here in a nice shady spot at the end of what I would call stage two of this S loop that I have been going through.  I am at the end of the southern sort of flow and ready to turn a little bit to the west.  Just below the 2400 contour line that’s marked on the map.  At the end of the first stage I found a(n) old tire mangled up, buried in the sand and debris, pretty high off the creek bed so carried down during some much large flood.  There’s Bright Angel shale ledges here that have made for nice walking.  And I’ve also been on a trail up above the creek bed in many spots here so the going has been very nice and very pleasant.

It’s 12:21, and I’m on a bluff overlooking Kanab Rapids.  River is very muddy today.  I found a trail around the hump or bump as it were and back tracked a little bit on Kanab to find, to hook up, with another trail I saw on the right hand side that lead to the top of this big dune.  Now it’s just a matter of finding a really decent place to camp.  This is all very sandy and hot right here.

4 o’clock [No, this must be 1 o’clock.] and I located a suitable site pretty soon and have set up my camp.  I took a stroll down to the rapids.  It is very cool down there.  The river looks like it gets a lot of shade all day long as it’s in shade right now.  But it’s very hot right here at this campsite so I’ve loaded up some things and I’m going to head back up Kanab here and find a nice shady spot and crash out for a couple hours before coming back.

It’s 4:07, and I’m going to leave my little afternoon break spot here by Kanab Creek.  I took a dip, cleaned up my boots, had a leisurely lunch, and just generally lounged around.  It may still be sunny down at the campsite but I got to go down and check out the crossing of this creek.  I also filtered out three liters of water.

It’s 7:06, and I am in the tent and packing things up for tomorrow.  My walk down the creek bed was rather interesting as I startled a number of fish.  I guess trout, seem pretty big.  Wish I had a fishing rod.  And then I saw them just a short while ago when I went back over to the water near the Colorado.  I guess that’s a favorite area for them.  I saw, I counted at least eight that I could see swimming there recently.  And I walked down the beach, the rocky shore to a small little beach towards the end of Kanab Rapid.  Later on, the clouds starting to roll in around sunset and got me worried a bit and I made a dash back down the creek and filtered four liters of water.  Two that I had already filtered I put into my water bag for emergency use.  And am trying to pack up and hope that we don’t get any rain.  It’s too hard to tell what’s going on now since it’s that time of night when you can’t see anything anyway, but hopefully later on I’ll be seeing stars.

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Saturday, September 17th, 6:27 a.m., and I’m leaving later than I wanted to by about half an hour.  Things were going pretty well by about quarter to five but somehow things just take longer than it seems like they should.  But I’m all ready to go.  I got my swimming suit on – I got to wade through water and change into my pants on the other side so there’s going to be a little more delay there, but hopefully I’ll be getting on my way here before it gets warm.

285 [I have no idea what that should be – maybe 6:45?], and I’m through wading across the creek and cleaning up and all ready to go.  There’s a little bit of a trail here at that the start.  That will be nice if that continues.

Its 8:15 and I’m stopping at the mouth of a canyon that looks to be half way to Fishtail.  I think I gotten the right one here.  So, things going pretty well.  Along this route sometimes I’ve been close to the river, sometimes up above a little cliff, sometimes on a trail, sometimes hopping rocks.  It has it all.  The sun has just hit me about fifteen minutes ago, but there’s some scattered cloudiness which is keeping things nice and cool.  And a boat party just went by me – at least one boat.  So, I’m going to stop here and rest for a while.

8:38, I’m on my way.  More boats heading my way too.

It’s 8:56, and I’ve passed the real canyon I was thinking of here that would be about halfway.  On the map, the canyon that I stopped at was just to the right of the 2000 foot contour that’s marked.  And this canyon it just to the, excuse me, that was just to the left and this right is just to the right of it.  So, I’m just passing that now.

From 9:45 to 9:57, a little water break.  Take off my pack, but I’m back on the trail.

It’s 10:12, and I’m right opposite 140 Mile Rapids.  The canyon itself opens up a little further up the river.  Not too far, maybe ten minutes, but I’m getting close.

It’s 10:56, and I’ve reached Fishtail.  Now I’m wondering if this is really where I cached my food those many years ago[3] or instead I had cached it in Cranberry Canyon.  Well it’s certainly been a long morning.  The clouds are still out which is keeping things really decent here.  So, I may go on or I may stay here for a bit.

It’s 11:19, and I’m at Cranberry Canyon.  And now I think maybe I was right about caching stuff at Fishtail.  It’s just that it seemed that the area didn’t look quite so familiar.  [I think that means I decided that my cache had been at Cranberry.]  I’m going to wander around look for a spot to sit down and relax a while.

It’s 12:30, and I have decided to stay here at Cranberry Canyon for the evening.  Which is pretty much what I was planning to do anyway, but now I’m thinking about trying to get out tomorrow.  It looks like the route up the break is pretty treacherous from down on this side.  It’s possible, I guess, but it sure looks pretty loose, pretty steep.  Steeper than the rest of the climb.  I have a very good view of that hill leading down towards the dry lake bed.  I remember how steep that was.  It appears that some of this is steeper.  So, to get to that break with some degree of certainty, it seems that you have to go through Deer Creek.  And so I figure if I’m going to go through Deer Creek I’m going to go ahead and hike out the trail from there.  I thought about trying to do that this afternoon but the heat is just too much and I was really quite exhausted when I arrived here.  And felt that I might get to Deer Creek okay, but I would have some serious problems trying to get out the end of the day, especially if I wasn’t drinking as much as I should, eating as much as I should.  So I’ve found a nice little tamarisk here that’s providing some shade as well as the partly cloudy conditions which are aiding in that.  And I’ve pulled some water out of the river and filtered about four liters and it tastes great. The fact that it’s cold it just means all the difference in the world.  So I’m just going to lounge around for the afternoon.  Not do much of anything.  Probably won’t set up my tent until very late in the day, if at all.  There’s not a whole lot of spots around here where you can do that.  I might end up just sleeping out tonight so anyway that’s what’s going on right now.

It’s 7:30, and I am all set to go to sleep.  I did reconnoiter a bit and found a semi decent spot to camp at.  At least big enough for the tent and level enough for me to sleep on, but a second person would be sliding off the side, so there weren’t very many choices here at this little delta.  I did find a big overhanging ledge that somehow escaped my attention on the way in.  It was, it’s just massive.  That is indicated by Steck as a shelter.  Indeed you could camp a whole bunch of people out in that ledge and keep away from the elements as long as you didn’t need a tent.  I filtered another two and a half liters this evening, and am going to try to repeat yesterday’s early morning performance, or today’s early morning activities and try to get out a.s.a.p.  I have scouted out the beginning of the trail.  That was pretty easy to find.  At least to the top of the cliffs and heads over to Deer Creek and hopefully only a little bit there towards Deer Creek itself will be the only hard part tomorrow morning. 

It’s a pretty much full moon and that is likely to shine on me all night long.  The sun was on this place until very late in the day.  It’s a tremendous amount of the sunshine.  Thank Goodness for the clouds out mitigating that, but it is a nice and cool spot.  As you can probably hear the rapids in the background are barely noticeable.  I’m pretty close to the river.  And a slight breeze that blows this way just cools things down tremendously.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It’s Sunday, September 18^th, 6:17 in the morning, and I’m all set to leave camp.  Got my pack on my back.  All I got to do is start on the trail.  The evening was a little cool.  I ended up using my poncho again and that was okay.  The, I woke up at 4:45 this morning and was surprised to see some flashes of lightning, which made me more focused on packing up.  But nothing came of it.  I saw some stars and then it cleared off a little bit.  And this morning there’s still some clouds and some clouds in the east which looks nice, but also a lot of blue sky right above me.  So things are looking pretty good.  On to Deer Creek.

It’s 6:51, and I’ve just crossed over the Siesta Spring, which is flowing pretty heavily here, considering.  The trail passes through a real thick layer of brush.  I got cut up on my finger on one of these sharp sided leaves or blades or whatever.  And wanted to get through it.  I couldn’t tell where the ledge was.  I climbed up and crossed at an easier spot and now I got to climb down.  But it’s an interesting spot nonetheless.

It’s 7:07, and I’ve changed my mind about the Cranberry Canyon route.  I got to a big bay just east of the Siesta Spring and I had a pretty good view up towards the sloping part that leads into the break and it seemed very possible to climb up the ravine I was in and get up there without any undue trouble.  The idea that it would take another couple of hours to get to Deer Creek also prompted me to go ahead and make this dash.  I’ve just climbed up above the first little cliff.  There’s a lot of brush, probably some water down in there.  It sure looked like it.  It was damp anyway.  I came up around it, sort of contoured behind it, but I’ve just started not more than five or six minutes ago.  So onwards and upwards to the top of this break here at Cranberry.  It looks pretty good.

It is 7:35, and I’m just about even with the big rock I could see from down below that I was using as a target.  And I’m going to stop and have a little water.

7:42, and I’m pushing on.

It’s 8:49, and I’m above the Redwall.  I was going to take a break before making the last climb but I figured I was going to take a long break anyway might as well go ahead and do that.  So it worked out okay.  And now I’m at the top of the Redwall.  Sun is behind the rocks a little bit but still some clouds in the sky.  And now I’m going to have mucho water and take a little rest break here.

It’s 9:30, and I’m all set to go.  A nice little break here.  The sun came out briefly but the clouds have since hidden it.  And most of my things got a little dryer so I feel a little more comfortable that way.  I can see a boat party camped at a beach across from Deer Creek, in the Deer Creek area.  Very tiny little boats and actually just a little further downstream, at another real marginal looking beach there’s another couple of boats and it looks like maybe something smaller like kayaks or something.  So on to the spring, Ghost Rock and out the top.

It’s 9:54, and I’m passing our old campsite[4].  Pretty hard to miss.  It’s the first one from the bridge and aren’t really too many choices.  It looks like after this either unless you go out further out towards the point.

It’s 10:32, and I’m at the petroglyph rock.  It is a big almost round, roundish Supai rock, like the top layer of these Esplanade, these round smooth rocks.  And there’s a couple others nearby that look like they crash-landed into the ground.  In fact, like they rolled here.  Anyway this one has got a somewhat smooth east-facing side and then a, sort of a hollowed out flat side facing north, where the petroglyphs are.  If the eagle rock can be described as the third big ravine coming off of the east, then from the spring I would say this is between the first and second ravines as you look at the Supai level and determine the ravines from that.  Well onto the spring.

10:55, and I’m at the seep spring.  There were a few pools about, oh twenty, thirty yards down the bed here.  It’s still pretty nice.  Quite cloudy.  Kind of a light high cloudiness.  I’ve been following a set of tracks coming back from towards the point there overlooking the river.  So, I’m going to take a break here.

It’s 11:22, and I’m on my way.  All I did here really was have some water, rest a bit and fill up an emergency liter with the spring water.  I have about a liter and a quarter left of filter water and if need be I can use this either with a tablet or it’s a seep spring, maybe I can even trust it.  So, hopefully it won’t even come to that. Now I’ve decided to go up the easterly ravine here on my way to the Esplanade.

It’s 11:55, and I’ve reached the top of the ravine.  The very top which is a little saddle which empties out to the Deer Creek area.  Now I have to find a break here somewhere to the west and scamper on up to the real top here of the Supai.  Although it may be that I should go down and contour around, whose name I’m afraid I just don’t remember.  Anyway so here I am.

12:52, and I’m finally to the top of the Esplanade.  It was one hell of a trip.  I started coming down off the saddle, rounded a corner, had to come down further and I just didn’t like it.  So, I backtracked, tried to climb up through the cliffs, got cliffed out, decided to go back the way I was going, re-read Harvey’s description which was accurate.  And so back down and across and up the draw here that leads to Ghost Rock.  I can see Ghost Rock, but I don’t think I’m going to head for it. I don’t know how to, I’m still got some levels here to maneuver through but I’m going to angle more towards the trail.

It’s 1:06 and I’m taking a little break under a shady ledge, and I can see the route pretty straightforwardly here.  See where the trail comes up to the top, the rim, the long contour over to the break in the Coconino and down the hill, down the slope, past a couple of, at this point, prominent little hills.  And so that’s my target.  Looks like I’m going to have to climb back down a little bit and cross over and then climb back out to get to the red hill that I’m looking at.  But this should be alright.  It has been hot and sunny, although there’s clouds all around and I hear thunder so a storm is, I guess, rolling in which wouldn’t be too bad.

1:44, and I’m all set to leave.  The clouds have rolled in a little bit here, although I still see some blue sky.  Mostly to the east although it is still kind of bright out this way.  I can see the sun shining on the tops of some clouds.  But it is cool anyway.  And now off to the trail and up to the top.

It’s 2:14, and I’ve reached the trail.  And I’ve actually reached it where this two and a half foot tall sign says “Trail 23”.  So on up.

It’s been raining a little bit here.  It lasted a while.  It was coming down pretty good for briefly.  Now it’s just sporadic.

It’s 2:44, and I’m going to stop for a little water break.  I am just at the beginning of the switchbacks through the cliffs here in the upper Coconino, so things are going well.

2:51, and I’m pushing on.

3:23, and I’ve reached the top.  Now down to the trail head.

3:28, and I’m back at the truck.  Man am I tired.  There’s three other vehicles here.  Someone else from Arizona, someone from Colorado and someone from New Mexico.  On the way up after my rest break, I ran into a guy coming back down the trail.  He had been ahead of me and apparently he’s headed over to Bill Hall or Thunder River and dropped his tripod off at a spot or forgot to take it with him and hiked back to pick it up and had retrieved it and was heading back.  Pretty late in the day for doing all that kind of stuff.  I didn’t think about till later, but I could’ve offered him a liter of water.  Anyway, it’s good to be back.

It’s 4:21 and I’m on my way.  I’ve just left the trail head.  I made a little mistake with the water.  It was deliciously cool and great for drinking, but I thought I had two and a half gallons, that I took my two gallon jugs and although I drank a bunch right away I wasn’t paying close attention to it and used it all up and found out that in my little canteen there was no water so what I have drunken there is all I got.  I have written down Steck’s instructions backwards for getting to Jacob Lake and we’ll see how it works.

It’s 5:23, I’ve been at the Jacob Lake Visitor Center for about a minute or two and the mileage reads 34.9 from Indian Hollow. 

Post hike weight of pack forty pounds which includes one liter of water.

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