Hiked to the Tipoff today. The South Kaibab is almost completely free of ice. Just a couple of patches that are a bit slick but very short.

Quite a few people on the trail. I guess spring has sprung. A number of hapless persons with no water and no food, waving their little flimsy "Grand Canyon Guide" newsletters as a map. We passed one gentleman on the way down, who we then passed again on the way out. He asked, "Couldn't stay at the bottom?" and I said, "Nah, it was boring". So he will probably tell all the sundry that he met someone who thought it was boring. KIDDING, JUST KIDDING.

Met the pack mules in the Bright Angel Shale, and the wrangler told me to keep my skirt from flapping in the wind. Then he told Brad to keep his pants legs from flapping. Then he asked us to lean way back against the wall so nothing was moving. That must have been one nervous mule. Next they'll be approving hikers' clothing before they let us on the trail.

Last time we went through the Redwall we tried vinegar on the graffiti in the limestone. It seems to have worked, because the rocks by the halfway sign were clear of everything we erased. Which is not so say there wasn't new stuff. In fact, MLK wrote right over a spot I had just cleaned off.

Yuki, Miki, Aki and I forget the other name, may your black souls burn in the deepest depths of hell for writing all over the rocks at Poison Point. Your pitiful scribbles, moreover, were no match for the GRAFFITINATOR and her SQUIRT BOTTLE OF DOOM! And you had the wrong date. If you are going to deface a 300 million year old rock, at least get it right.

It was windy as all heck, too. I had to put my hat inside the pack because it kept catching the wind and blowing me off balance.

Was sick all last week and couldn't work out at all, then spent all weekend in meetings, so I didn't get on the trail until Sunday afternoon. Met a number of hikers coming out, the trail was in pretty lousy shape. One young woman in open-toed sandals was literally crawling out because she could not get traction with her leather-soled shoes. Although one does wonder how she got down as far as she did...

Note to group of young men: PLEASE do not stand at the trail head and scream at your friends at the top of your lungs OVER AND OVER AND OVER. If you must yell, once your compatriots have registered their recognition of your concern about their welfare or your gloating that you are out and they are not, SHUT UP.

At the top a woman asked how the trail was and I told her: sloppy, slippery, muddy, icy, and full of melted mule s**t. She asked, "Then is it still open?"

"It's open all year,unless there is a rock slide".

"Do you really need crampons?"

"I wouldn't go down without them on a bet".

I then advised her to wait until morning and let it freeze. However this morning it was in the 40's so I guess it never did freeze. Maybe it will evaporate?

Went down to Phoenix to see the Renaissance Faire with the boy. Monday afternoon ran down to Mile and a half. Lots of hikers coming out: the three day weekend, I guess. The trail went from being frozen mud back to packed ice and snow. My instep crampons were just slipping enough to put me off stride. I should have had the yaktracks on under them. Supposed to get another 10 inches tonight. we shall see...

Monday: got a lousy two inches. No snow day.

Skeleton point on Saturday. Really nice day and almost no one on the trail. HOP, I took your name off the rock. Tough tonails, honey.

To whoever built the illegal fire at Skeleton Point: I hope your house burns down. I lot of people get cold and say they build a fire to survive. This fire was in a windy, exposed location. Whoever built it would have been better off to move into the shelter of a rock. And having personally spent a night around a survival fire (10,000 feet, mid winter, Colorado, 40 feet of snow) I would have been a lot better off with a down jacket, which I never went skiing without after that.

Spent the night at La Posada in Winslow. Very nice hotel, of course it IS a Mary Jane Colter. And a nice State Park at Homolovi ruins. The state wants to close it down. Way to go, guys. Let the locals trash the new visitor center and drive a backhoe right up to the ruins.

Hiked down to mile and a half before a meeting. The meeting was at 10, so we could actually walk down in the daylight. Nasty glare ice until Kolb seep and little patches beyond down the fault switchbacks. I stopped and put on my crampons at the first tunnel, but Brad had to be stubborn and made it all the way down without. He did put them on to start back up, though.

Met no one. Heard a Canyon Wren. I have only started hearing them in the last couple of weeks. On the way out met one hiker and two groups of mules. Very nice sunrise, though the subtle color doesn't show up in the pictures.

CH is still carved in the Coconino. I've reported it to the Ranger, but I guess they can't find it. I filled it in with some mud.

I remember when I took my Leave No Trace trainer class, I asked my instructor if anyone ever gives him a hard time in class. He said a Boy Scout leader from Utah demanded, "If I don't carve my name on an Indian ruin, how will people know I was there?" What makes him think anyone gives a bleep if he has been there? Wetherill carved his name on ruins he "discovered", even though he was guided to most of them. Rangers won't show these to you unless you insist, and then they make sure no one else sees it. They don't want anyone else thinking that because they drove into the area and walked a whole half mile with a ranger they, too, can carve their name into a 1,000 year old roof beam.

Walked to the post office via the rim trail. I met a guy walking my way from Yavapai, and he asked, "Is there a viewpoint this way?" I said, "There are 200 miles of viewpoints that way".