And then Mr. Bee showed up. He was a big, old Honeybee and seemed to be very annoyed at something. He kept buzzing around the front of my tent and would not go away. I needed to get moving and finally started to bring my gear outside in spite of him. The bee would hover around the outside of the tent and then follow me whenever I would go to get something from it and then hover around me for a while. After a while another bee showed up and started going through the same routine and I was starting to get scared, was there a hive nearby? Eventually one of them went away but the other still would not leave me alone. I couldn't understand why he just didn't sting me and get it over with. After I got all of the stuff I needed outside and packed up I gave up on the idea of eating breakfast and just left. It was already close to 6 am and if I was lucky Mr. Bee would be gone when I returned later that afternoon.

The route to Elves Chasm turned out to be pretty well cairned, with some touchy spots going through the drainages, and becoming somewhat less distinct the closer that you get to Elves Chasm. There was one tricky spot along a cliff edge and a hairy descent into one of the drainages that would make it unsuitable for people with a fear of heights, though it's possible you could find alternate routes around these problem spots.

Another problem along this route is all of the sharply eroded limestone that you encounter for a good portion of the hike. I was warned in advance about this and advised to take a pair of gloves to protect my hands. I picked up a cheap pair of cloth work gloves before the trip and brought them along just for this and was glad that I did. With out gloves you stand the chance of ripping you hands to shreds on this stuff.

I finally got to Elves Chasm at 9:05, about an hour longer than I had planned. The route is not a quick one because of all of rock that you have to climb around and over and there is very little actual trail. The trail was mostly in shade for the first half of the trip and no sun at all came over the cliffs. The second part of the hike was mixed sun and shade, but mostly sunny. There was no sun at all in Elves when I arrived and it was quite cool. I was very pleased that there was no one there yet and that I had the whole place to myself. I wondered how long it would be before a river party showed up. I knew it would happen, it was just a matter of time. The first thing I did was to fill all of my water bottles. This water was like ambrosia compared to the stuff I had been drinking over in Garnet and I dumped the remainder of that swill. I promptly consumed about a liter of the Elves Chasm brew and it tasted delightful.

After filling the water bottles I walked up to the waterfall and big pool in the back of the chasm, stripped down and took the plunge. The water was ice and it was all I could do to stay in long enough to clean myself off. Despite the coldness, it felt wonderful to wash off the three days of sweat and grime that I had accumulated. When I emerged from the pool I felt great but since there was no sun back there I was also quite cold and could not stop shivering. I had to walk back up to the front part of the chasm and find some sun to sit in until I dried off, which did not take very long.

It felt very different being at Elves all by myself. After being here on a river trip with about 20 other people it was now very lonely and I think I prefer being in a place like this with someone else to share the experience with. It was still very nice to have the place to myself, it just felt strange. I felt like a lizard basking there in the sun and the longer I stayed there the more I liked having the place to myself. I did absolutely nothing while I was there. I wandered about and took some photos under different lighting conditions as the sun began to climb over the canyon walls and illuminate the chasm. I lounged in the sun and read a few more chapters in my book.

It was just before noon and I was starting to think about eating lunch when the first river party finally arrived. It was a small group, a private river trip, with maybe a dozen people. They didn't stay long and I had the place to myself for a little while again after they left. Shortly though, another party arrived, another private trip and even smaller. This one only had 9 people and they appeared to be all from one raft. One of the guys from this trip walked up to the upper pool in nothing but his birthday suit. After bathing in the upper pools, the entire party was naked and they spread themselves out on the sun drenched rocks to dry. I had had enough of the sun at this point and was hold up under a cliff in the shade. I read some more in my book and found the whole scene mildly amusing. I was tempted to take some photos, just to record the event for posterity, but I didn't know how they would feel about that. After being at Elves for about an hour they all packed up and left and I again had the place to myself.

I still hadn't eaten by lunch so I did that. Lunch today was canned chicken with mayonnaise and tortillas, along with some more snack mix. After lunch I went for another plunge in the pool myself and it felt a lot better now that the sun had warmed the place up. It was now getting close to 2:00 and I needed to start thinking about leaving myself. I still had a three hour hike to get back to my campsite. I packed up my gear and finally left around 1:45.

I was back at camp just before 5:00 and there were no bees to be seen. I decided to horde the water from Elves and got some water from the pools at Garnet to make dinner with. Dinner was Lipton Noodles & Sauce, Parmesan flavor. Boy, was I getting tired of this stuff, and I still had four more days to go! I got to have coffee after dinner again, because I never got to make any for breakfast. That made the meal a little better at least.

Just as I had finished cleaning up after dinner, Mr. Bee returned. Oh, great! He doesn't like me and he doesn't like my tent and won't not even let me take a pee. I retreated to the tent and he continued to buzz around outside until it started to get dark. Now I definitely wanted to get an early start in the morning, I wanted to be packed up and well away from here before Mr. Bee woke up.

It was another noisy and star-filled night in Garnet Canyon.