I had a big breakfast again at the Bright Angel Lodge, the Country Breakfast this time, was on the Bright Angel Trail at 7 am, and was at Indian Gardens at 8:30. The trail was wonderfully cool and there was very little sun until the last mile or so before Indian Gardens. Doing the 4.5 miles and 3,000 descent in only 1.5 hours is definitely a record for me. But then again all I was carrying now was a little day pack with my camera, some food and water, and some other essentials. After hiking out on the Tonto West for 8 days with a full pack this was just "a walk in the park".

The ranger station at Indian Gardens looked to me like an awesome place to live. The view from the front porch was incredible. Maybe that changes if you have to look at it every day but to me it was spectacular and I don't think I could ever get used to it, or tire of it. Chuck gave me a quick tour of his house, which he shares with the other ranger stationed there, and also of some of the other buildings down there: the dispensary, the bunk house used by the trail crew, and a little workshop that they have. After that I made the rounds with him as we walked down to the campground to check up on things.

After finishing his rounds, and picking up some of the trash that careless hikers leave behind, we sat down next to the mule hitching posts and just talked for a while. Chuck does a lot more than just watch the campground, he also has a good deal of medical training and it's his responsibility to help the people who end up in trouble on the trail. He normally hikes up the Bright Angel Trail as far as the Three-Mile Resthouse or beyond at least once a day to help someone with something, whether it's heat stroke, dehydration or just plain fatigue. A lot of people attempt the hike into the Canyon without a clue of what they are getting themselves in for and it's the rangers like Chuck who are their saviors. I could never understand how people could attempt a trip like that and simply ignore all of the warnings that the Park Service has put in place to stop them. Some people are just plain stupid and nothing works with them I guess. Chuck was lucky today as it was not very hot and there was a pretty cool breeze blowing down from the rim. There were a great deal of clouds in the sky and thundershowers had been predicted for the late afternoon, so the afternoon should be pretty cool as well.

After a while we headed back up to the ranger residence and Chuck whipped up an awesome salad for us for lunch. It has all kinds of great stuff in it that you just would not expect to find in such a remote location. Luckily Chuck gets pack service via the mules from the rim but some of the stuff he just doesn't trust them with (like tomatoes and eggs) and packs them in himself. The salad had lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, chicken and lots of other stuff that escapes my mind right now. It was quite tasty and I had two servings.

After lunch we just hung out and talked some more and Chuck showed me the computer that they have down there and gave me some revised info to put up on the web site. I thought it strange to be hiking into a place like Indian Gardens and then hiking out with a floppy disk.

I headed back to the rim at around 2:00 and was back on the top by 4:30. Not too bad, but certainly no record. I probably could have done the hike out in 2 hours or less but I had snack food with me so I took about a 20 minute rest at the Three-Mile Resthouse and a 10 minute rest at the One-and-a-Half-Mile Resthouse. The little breaks felt good and I walked pretty much non-stop between these points.

Once back on the rim I headed over to Yavapai Point. Chuck had told me that Cheyava Falls was running pretty good and that it was visible from out there. I managed to find it but was disappointed at how small it looked. I also expected to be able to see it flowing down from the rim but the angle was all wrong and I could only see the lower portion. I tried to take a photo but all I had with me for a lens was my wide-angle telephoto and even with that zoomed in as far as it could get Cheyava Falls was barely visible. Too bad, because it looked pretty good through my binoculars. Then something triggered in my brain and I decided to try using the binoculars as a telephoto. I really didn't think there was a shot in hell of getting this picture but what the heck, I had some film left. I was amazed when I got the photos back and the picture actually came out. I was only shooting with an ISO-200 speed film, with my telephoto at full zoom, with one hand holding the camera and the other hand holding one side of the binoculars in front of the camera lens. I think that the shuttle speed for the photo was 1/60 second. Will miracles never cease.