At 6:20 I hit the trail again and immediately started working my way back up into Emerald Canyon. Emerald Canyon has no official name on the USGS topo maps and this name, as well as that of Quartz which is the next canyon to the east, have been given to them and unofficially adopted by river runners who refer to the whole range of side canyons between Serpentine and Slate as "The Gems". There was a little trickle of water flowing in the backside of Emerald and I was through it and back out on the Tonto proper at 7:05. I then covered a fairly easy stretch of trail, below the promontory that comes out from Havasupai Point, before approaching Quartz Canyon. I took a short rest between 7:30 and 7:45 and finally started back into Quartz at 7:55. I was out at 8:25 and did not see any water during the trip through it. I took another rest from 8:30 to 8:45 before heading through Ruby Canyon.

I reached the backside of Ruby at 9:30 and there was a nice healthy flow of water coming down through it. I topped off my water bottles, immediately sucked down about a liter, and then topped them off again. This water tasted good, much better than the stuff in Serpentine, which had a bitter aftertaste similar to but not nearly as bad as Garnet. I stayed back in Ruby until around 10:00 and walked up the canyon a little and took some photos. It was a very pretty canyon and would make an excellent camping location. Before leaving Ruby I took of my T-shirt and gave it a good soaking to keep myself cool for the next leg of the hike. I was out of Ruby at 10:45 and started to head south along the Le Conte Plateau on my way towards Jade and Jasper Canyons (which are also not official names).

Just before reaching Jade Canyon I came across a very strange rock formation on the Tonto Platform. From the back it resembled a hooded figure that had its hands folded in front of it and seemed to be in prayer so I decided to name it "The Druid of the Tonto". I was into Jade Canyon at 11:40 and out at 12:10 and found no water. I started into Jasper Canyon at 12:15 and reached the backside around 12:40 and decided to stop there for lunch. Neither Jade nor Jasper had any water in them and I was really hoping that Turquoise, my camp for the night, would have some. Lunch today was Tuna again, with mayonnaise, tortillas and snack mix. At 1:30 I headed out of Jasper and off towards Turquoise.

At 2:15 I started back into Turquoise Canyon and at 3:15 I crossed the main drainage. There was no water flowing at the trail and none flowing just above it for the short distance that I checked. There was a large pool of water down in the drainage, below some ledges so I went to check that out. There was still some life in it but most of the tadpoles where dead and there were lots of dead insects floating on top. I knew that I would need water between there and Slate Canyon, the next "true" perennial source, and I had one empty two liter bottle, so I decided to fill it. In the meantime it had gotten really dark and I wondered if I was finally in for some rain. The south rim was extremely dark and it made me very nervous. While pumping water from the pool I kept looking at the ledges behind me in search of the quickest escape route in case Turquoise should flash while I was in there. I finished filling the bottle, went to put the cap on and knocked the bottle into the pool. Great! Now I had to dump it, dry it off and start all over again. There must have been a lot of minerals in the water because the filter kept clogging and I had to clean it a couple of times while trying to fill the bottle. A clap of thunder from the storm hanging over the rim really set me on edge and I refused to clean the filter when it started squirting water out the handle again. I slowed my pumping action a little, finally got the bottle filled, got the cap on and scrambled up and out of the drainage. Whew, I never did get any rain where I was but that doesn't mean that the creek you're at can't flash. The water from Turquoise was not great and I would rate it somewhere between Serpentine and Garnet.

I had originally planned to camp in Turquoise but from looking around there didn't seem to be any great sites for tents, just lots of rocky ledges. It was still fairly early so I headed out of Turquoise and back to the Tonto Platform. I arrived back out there at 4:15 and found an excellent campsite. Dinner tonight was Lipton Noodles & Sauce, Chicken flavor. Not bad but towards the end I had to force it down with lots of water.

It was nice and quiet out there that night with just a few crickets for background noise. The clouds continued to break up during the afternoon and by the time the sunset the sky was almost completely clear. There moon was now finally back in the evening sky as well and was approaching its first quarter phase. It was a very pleasant evening and I noted that it had now been almost two days since I had seen another person.