Car camping last night was fun. We were on Forest Service land and were able to have a fire so we stopped along the way to pick up some firewood. We had nice fires both last night and this morning for breakfast. We managed to toast our bagels on the fire and then slathered them with peanut butter. They were very good. I slept pretty well last night but it was a bit on the cold side. My face was the only problem, especially my nose. John and I slept outside in sleeping bags and I also used my bivy sack. Janice slept in John's truck and Mary and Robert used their tent. I had intended to bring a tent for the three of us but forgot to throw it in the truck.

We arrived at camp here about 3:30 this afternoon after starting out from the trailhead around 9:15. We took a couple of short breaks along the way and a longer break at the junction of the Thunder River and Bill Hall trails. Everyone did very well and there were no complaints and no injuries. Even my feet feel fine, which is a very welcome surprise. The top of the Bill Hall Trail is still nasty but everyone had been warned about that. We just finished our dinner of hot dogs, pita bread & Pringles potato chips and we are waiting for the sun to go down.

I took a stroll over to look at the Redwall rim shortly after we arrived here and discovered a California condor (#22) sitting on top of one of the large sculpted rocks next to the edge. I took a few photos and then went back to camp to get John and Janice, hoping they would be able to see it as well. When we returned I was pretty sure it was gone but then realized that I was looking at the wrong rock and it was on top of one further back behind that one so they did get to see it. It did not seem the slightest bit concerned about us and we watched for about 45 minutes before returning to camp. At one point it stood up and stretched its wings out and that was very cool. John spent some time trying to identify some animal bones on one of the cliffs.