grand canyon day two: tonto west

It was chilly that morning and my toes were a bit numb but they warmed up. I led for the first couple of miles and I just kept a song in my head to keep my feet moving. I think I recited every song I EVER played in high school marching band as well as jazz band.

I was so excited to get to our half-way point which was Monument Creek. It was calling me... I'm not sure why considering we were going to load up with water because our night two site didn't have drinkable water. Any way when we got to Monument Creek, we came across an old guy who looked like Santa in the off-season. Jesse recognized him as a guy we saw in October 2008 at Phantom Ranch. He was alone; he asked where we were going and told us his itinerary as well. He was missing one top front tooth, and in the space there was a little peg or something hanging down that I thought looked like the remnants of an implant. Jesse thought it looked like what was left of his tooth. Anyway, he said that thought the water really tasted "salty" at Salt Creek this year. Salt Creek was the night two stop we were headed for, and you are NOT supposed to drink the water there because it's radioactive! And this guy was telling us that it was saltier than in previous years!

After we finished our conversation with radioactive Santa, we plopped down at the edge of the mostly-dry creek bed to have some lunch and start collecting water. You have to pump the water through a filter (which takes time) and then put iodine tablets in it too. After loading up with 6-10 liters of water each, we trudged on. There was no pep in my step with that additional weight. And I had the song Whistle While You Work in my head. Isn't that what the dwarves in Snow White sing? And that hi-ho song... and somehow they turned in to Frosty the Snow Man. It was a tough time for me.

Towards the end of the hike, I let Jesse lead. When I get worn down while backpacking, my emotions become highly dependent on the trail in front of me. If I can see tough trail coming up, it takes a toll on my state of mind. When Jesse leads I just look down at the trail and try to follow in his footsteps. We trudged in to Salt Creek and found our ammo box in which to store our food that night. We picked a flat spot for the tent and pitched it. It was cold so we climbed in and got our stove ready to cook dinner. There was no one else anywhere around us - not a soul.