Grand Canyon

We left at 3:00 and arrived at Jacob's Lake at around 9:00. I didn't sleep well and probably only slept 4 hours. Everyone was up by 5:00 and went down for breakfast at 6:00. We left by 7:00 but Joel got a flat tire on the dirt road. We finally started the hike around 9:00, but wanted to start at 7:30. We hiked down 8 miles to Thunder River and got water. It was a hard hike down and we were all sore. We hiked the remaining 2 miles and split up into our 2 camp groups. We had about 8 kids with us and they all did great. We caught some fish, made dinner and went to bed. I was so sore in the morning I didn't know how I would do the day hike to the Colorado. I took some Advil and was fine. Sammi and I caught some fish for breakfast and had oatmeal. The hike was great and we had to hike high above the water on some narrow trails. We swam in the Colorado river and it felt good but it was really cold. We took some naps and headed back in the afternoon. I had hung my backpack in a tree, but somehow the rats got into the pack and ate one of my dinners. The birds ate all of Jared's crackers that were sealed in his backpack also hanging in a tree.

The next day I woke up really sore, but took some Advil and was fine. We hiked over to the other camp and started a hike to Tapeats Cave. It was a cool hike and we had to cross the creek a dozen times, such pretty terrain and the creek made some beautiful waterfalls. It was really pretty but the 5 mile hike took all day as it was slow going. The kids did well but we always had to make a chain across the creek to help them across. When we got to the cave it had a tunnell of water that felt good to wade in as we were hot, but then it got cold quick. Paul and Ricky jumped in and swam down the cave. I followed and we found an opening that we climbed into. It was the neatest cave I've been in the Stalagtites hanging all over and the rooms being very large. We had to swim a number of times and only stopped when we got to the underground lake and got too cold to go on. We made it back to camp before dark. Sammi ran ahead of me and was only 1 minute ahead when I came upon a rattlesnake in the middle of the trail. I can only assume that Sammi ran right over it. It slithered into our camp so we ended up smashing it with a rock. We caught more fish and had dinner.

The next day I felt the best I had the whole time and packed up. One group headed out early and the rest of us left a couple hours later. We were going to camp on the Esplanade but we all got out before dark. Joel drove home and got home at 4:00 AM, the rest of us camped on the top which was cold and we didn't sleep well. In the morning we had breakfast at Jacob's Lake and came home. Sammi did great on this trip and never complained. She did great on the 10 mile hike in and the 10 mile hike out.