By 8:45 I was back on the trail and was making excellent time. At 10:10 I ran into some day-hikers from Phantom Ranch who were apparently heading for Clear Creek and asked me if they were getting close. They seemed rather shocked to discover that I had been travelling from there since 6:00 as they were under the impression that it was only 3 miles from Phantom Ranch. I set them straight and told them that they should probably not go much further than where they were for a day-hike. It was starting to get very hot and I noticed that they were a very light on water, each of them was only carrying about a quart and most of that was gone. I had plenty with me and knew that I had more than enough to get to Phantom so I gave them a two liter bottle to share between them. That also meant that I now had 4 less pounds to carry.

At 11:05 I reached the Phantom Overlook and 15 minutes later I was at the junction of the North Kaibab Trail. I skipped the usual stop at the Phantom Ranch cantina and headed directly for Bright Angel Campground arriving there at 11:30. My preferred site, the first one on the left after crossing the footbridge, was taken but I found one that would suite me and proceeded to setup camp. I then headed back to the cantina for a beer, or two, and some chocolate. Civilization has its moments. I also met some nice people to talk to while I was there. I left around 1 pm, took some photos of some of the structures at the "ranch" and headed back to the campground were I had some lunch.

After lunch I found a shady spot next to Bright Angel Creek, got out my book and just sat in the creek for a while and read. It was very hot in the sun down there and it felt very good to relax in the coolness of the shaded creek. Later in the afternoon I took a stroll down to the river and wandered around down there for a time. There were very few people about and I could almost feel like I was the only one around. Most of the people down here were already settled in at the campground or at Phantom Ranch and it was very quiet.

I made myself a huge dinner that evening in an effort to finish up as much food as possible. The more I ate the less I would have to carry out. My pack tomorrow should be noticably lighter as a result of this and the fact that I would only be carrying about half of the normal water supply. After dinner I headed over to Phantom Ranch to wait for the evening program to start. The talk was a very nice one and the ranger talked about some of the different forces that created the Canyon and also talked about some of the different theories that people had regarding its formation. After the talk I headed over to the cantina for a beer. The places was way too crowded for my liking and I did not stay long before heading back to camp to go to sleep. I wanted to get a very early start tomorrow, even earlier than today, and tried to get as much ready before-hand as possible.