Nice sunrise on the South Kaibab.  Lenticular clouds over the North Rim, and for once I am not up there, in the storm. organizing a group for a rim to rim.

Passed Condor number 113.  He is a six year old, raised by a puppet.  Next on Oprah: raised by puppets.  Are condors who are puppet raised more likely to shoot up a nest site with an AK-47?

Very few hikers on the trail until we started back up.  One runner almost pushed me off, and I was close enough to give him a sharp elbow to the chest, but I resisted.  Barely.  I would have had to administer first aid after I knocked him off the cliff. 

I could have elbowed him and then run, but I don't think I can hide.  A few weeks ago I was called into Ranger Operations.  I wondered, "What did I do now?  That I was caught at?"  The ranger asked if I had been on the BA on August 1, and I said yes, and did I see the mule that went off Cinch Up Corner?  Again, yes. 

I was doing a short hike before meeting a group, and as I stepped off the trail for the Trail Crew Mules, one of them stepped on a rock on the outside of the corner and went off.  I watched for a while to see if they could lure it back onto the trail, which they could not.  It wanted no part of that loose scree right under the edge of the trail.  I finally had to leave to meet my people.

Then I was asked, "Did you wave anything at the mules?"  Absolutely not!  I guess their story is that the mule didn't slip: a hiker scared it.  I didn't notice anyone at the corner, which doesn't mean there wasn't someone there, but it sounded like the mule just stepped off.  So I wrote up an incident report, and asked, "How did you find me?"

Well, someone had mentioned a hiker in a skirt, and Della said, "Oh, I bet that was Slim".  So Della dimed me out, and I guess I can't pull anything in the Canyon now without it getting back to the Authorities.  Which I suppose means I can't accidentally trip up a rude runner.