We have been spending Winter Solstice at Phantom Ranch ever since the boy was 4 and a half. I conned him into that trip by telling him he could sleep on an "up and down" bed (bunk bed). Every year we try to lure one of his friends into going, but this year we couldn't get a taker, so it was just us and him. In fact, all of his friends have broken up with him once I dragged them to Phantom. Hmm... like, don't hang around with him: you won't believe what his mother makes you do.

The weather was lousy all week, but it cleared when we headed down. Very deep snow, and not very trampled. They had, in fact, canceled mule trips for several days during this storm. So it was a little dicey heading down. Robert fell once and bent his hiking stick. Snow all the way past Skeleton Point, then mud, then snow again just above the tip off.

When we got to Phantom, the men's shower house was closed. They were staggering men and women on the women's side. The next morning, the power went out. It had been out the week before, and I guess they needed to put a good fix on their patch. But the men's shower house was open, so I guess there are trade offs. Electricity came on again in the afternoon.

Both evenings we got to sit with someone who knows all about hiking and all about Phantom. He was most disdainful of those of us who were staying in the cabin, for he was backpacking, and that's harder. Though he doesn't seem to have brought any of his food, since he ate all meals with us...

How does one tell a blowhard? When he asks, "where are you from?" and you say, "from here," he doesn't want to talk to you anymore. A normal person would say, "Oh? Where do you work, what do you do, etc.". The BH immediately turns to someone he can impress, which is obviously not you.

Hiked out in four hours, even with the nasty snow. It had sublimated a little, and a few mules had been through and trampled a path. Robert did OK for not having worked out much, which of course led him to suggest that he doesn't need to work out again until next December.

The true Leave No Trace person never forgets. The casual LNTer will pick up a piece of trash in the path, but the fanatic remembers things that have to be left for another day. Friday we noticed a bandanna hidden at Two Mile Corner. Ranger Smilin' Todd informs us that these are used as butt wipes and then abandoned (for good reason, I guess) so we do not want to tackle it without biohazard protective gear.

So today we waited for it to get above freezing, which it never did,but we went anyway and trotted back down armed with rubber gloves and a BIG trash bag and cleaned up Two Mile Corner. I also impaled myself trying to get a water bottle out of a current bush, until I finally remembered that I could extend the hiking pole and therefore my reach and snagged same.

So the Bright Angel Trail is pristine once again: at least until the next time someone can't make it all the way to the facilities at mile and a half and messes up Two Mile again.

The trail crew has been hard at work, and the section between Three Mile and Two Mile is pretty nice. The air has that between-storms clarity, and the Canyon looks very deep and very wide today.

I have been checking for rock-throwing persons whenever I have to walk under the "you're gonna die sign" and the Hermit Shuttle interchange, those being the two spots I have almost been nailed more than once. Too bad gravity works against me, or I could grab the rock and throw it back. Too bad I am never right on the spot, so the rock thrower could follow his rock on down...

Finally got to do our Kaibab-Bright Angel loop. Only three people coming out the SK in the morning, and no one along the Tonto until we got almost to Indian Garden. Then we met a man carrying a plastic bag. That's a long way in and a long hike for someone with no pack. Picked up his granola bar wrapper, too. Behind him was a lady runner, but she had a pack, so we figured that if they were friends or together, he would also own a pack. It's so much more intriguing to make up these stories about people we meet as opposed to actually stopping to ask them about themselves.

When I reached Indian Garden, the mules were saddling up, so I thought: oops! Don't want to get caught behind them! So I took off.

Brad asked if they were heading out, and they said, nope: hadn't even been to Plateau Point yet, so he hung around long enough to get a drink and use the outhouse. Sissy.

Kept ahead of Brad by dint of never stopping except for a quick drink, and we did the whole loop, about 14 miles, in five hours and 15 minutes,not that we are competitive or anything.

I really wanted to hike the South Kaibab-Tonto-BA loop this weekend, but I was fighting off a low level infection Saturday, so spent the day grousing about how I hate being sick, and why does it have to be on the weekend?

So today we just went to Skeleton Point and back: six miles and 2000+ feet. Only two small grafittis in the coconino. Right next to one another, which supports the "broken window" theory. If there is a broken window in an abandoned home, vandals are more likely to break another. If there is writing on a rock, vandals are more likely to also write onthe rock.

Passed a Brit who bemoaned the fact that HE hadn't worn HIS hiking skirt. His daughter told him that no one wore them here, at least not males. I suppose in the country where they invented the kilt it is more acceptable.

Passed four teenage boys in the Chimney. They were cutting switchbacks, so Brad passed them at a run, informing them that cutting the trail doesn't save them any time. I caught them on the last switchback, and one of them turned a vido camera my way and asked: "anything to say?" I wanted to say, "Yeah, you've just been passed by a pair of geezers, one of whom is wearing a skirt," but I smiled and said, "Almost out!".

A very grey day, but it brought out the colors on the North Rim. Sometimes the Canyon looks so much deeper and wider than others. Today it looked very large indeed...

Got up at 0 dark thirty to hike to mile and a half before going in to meetings at school. Very nice being on the trail all alone. Needed a flashlight until mile and a half, then there was just enough light to see, and getting stronger all the way out. Lovely light on the Kaibab cliffs as the sun rose through the penumbra.

No big horns: since we spotted three last week further down on the South kaibab, one must assume that they have hied themselves into warmer climes for the nonce.