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.