Saturday

We are now back at Recapture Lodge. It was a long hike out of the canyon, basically straight up and then across three miles of barren desert road. Off on the horizon line we saw the faint glimmer of the car windshields. They never seemed to get closer as we marched forward along the dusty footpath, memorized by the rhythmic pounding of boots in the sand a few yards in front, eyes fixated on the soft sand that curled up around the heel as it thumped down in military style. The weight of the packs gave the feel of being in some army training camp. After a solid hour we arrived at Strayers car, all exhausted from four days of abuse on our joints. We still had an hours drive to get my car at the end of Bullet Canyon. Dave and I took all the packs and left water with the rest as we did the shuttle. The thought of a shower and washing off four days of sunscreen and sand from our bodies back at the hotel was a welcomed anticipation.

We tried for an early start that morning, but our tents were all set up in the shadow of a cliff. Nobody seemed to eager to get up with cold dew still on the ground. I was the first up and boiled some water with the small stove to get things started. This campsite lacked a good water source, in fact for the past mile or so the stream had disappeared underground and wouldn’t reappear until Polly’s Island, where we were to head up. The night before we found two very small puddles at the edge of the gravel riverbed. With mosquito larva floating on top, we made sure the water filter intake was well into the water. Not much was left when we finally had all the water bottles filled for the days hike.

We had Big Man pictograph and one of the canyons only Kokopelli’s to see. The first one was two large figures high up the canyon wall. One could only guess why they were put there?

Richard Boyer