We got up at 5am and drove from the house in Flagstaff to Grand Canyon Village, arriving there just a little after 6. The morning was cold but not bitterly so with temperatures in the mid 20s for the most part. We all had nice, hearty breakfasts at the Maswik Lodge cafeteria before driving over to the trailhead for the South Kaibab Trail. I was very pleased that we could drive to the trailhead as I had expected the road to be closed and that we would have to use the park shuttle bus to get there. When we were up at the park the prior day to drop off our duffel at the mule barn I noticed the road was open so I changed plans and decided to leave the van at the South Kaibab trailhead instead of at Bright Angel. This gave us a slightly earlier start on the first day even if it would complicate matters a little on the last.

We arrived at the trailhead around 7:15 and started down shortly after that, after taking a few photos at the top. The newbies made good time and we arrived at Cedar Ridge around 8:30. We got to see a glorious sunrise light up the temples and buttes in the inner canyon on the way down. We had a brief pit stop at Cedar Ridge to use the restrooms and take some more photos before continuing down the trail.

We arrived at Skeleton Point around 9:45 and took another short break there, for "second breakfast" and some more photos, before starting down through the Redwall. We met a mule party coming up through the Redwall, near the bottom, as we were going down and I think Max, Jess and Ben really enjoyed seeing the mules, and the riders.

We arrived at the Tonto Trail junction, just above The TipOff, just a little before 11:30 and took an extended break there for lunch. The day had warmed up nicely already by that time and the temperature was probably in the low 50s already. I knew it was going to be very nice down along the river at the bottom of the Canyon.

We started heading down again just before noon and that's where things started to slow down, as they typically do. My wife, Robin, started having problems with her feet and the others were having various other mostly leg and foot related trouble. The only exception (aside from me) was probably Ben who was still in a big hurry to reach the botton. My feet and legs were a little tired at this point but there was no "pain" of any kind. Well, there is that right knee but I've gotten so used to it at this point that it's barely a concern most times.

We reached the Colorado River just after 1pm and were at Bright Angel Campground around 1:30. After selecting a nice camp site next to Bright Angel Creek Max, Ben and I headed over to Phantom Ranch to collect our duffel and the tents inside. We returned to the camp site and had the tents up and camp established by just a little after 2:30 at which point we all headed back up to Phantom Ranch to partake in some well deserved beer and pretzels. I think Ben had a hot chocolate.

We had dinner back at camp right around 5 which was a little too early. After that it got dark and we had a difficult time staying awake. I was hoping we could make it long enough to go up to the Beer Hall that night but we just didn't make it. We did have a good time watching the day fade away into darkness and the stars come out but then some cloud cover came in and put an end to that show.