It was a beautiful morning with the canyon walls surrounding me. It was also much warmer than previous days since I was camped nearly a mile lower in elevation. I may have been my favorite campsite of the trip, and it was hard to leave. But alas, I must get on with this adventure so I packed up, hiked by Phantom Ranch and climbed the 5k’ out to the top of the canyon. I thought pushing myself up the canyon would be a fun test before entering the desert again. I finally left the canyon for good and reentered Kaibab National Forest. For this final section all I have is a basic route I drew up last April and have no idea how water and camping will work out, but it should be an adventure. Just a few hours after leaving the canyon I experienced my first bit of adversity, they were doing prescribed burns for forest mitigation and fire management. My route was closed, so I got creative and walked an arc around the closed area to get back on track. I walked into the night and the temperature really dropped off, my water began to freeze and I knew it would be a cold night, dropping to the low 20s or high teens.
Miles 35
Total miles 6651
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