I wanted to do Clear Creek for spring break, but I was on the river November first when the permit apps were due, so I got second choice: Grandview to South Kaibab.

I don't like the top of the Grandview in the best of times, so I packed my ice grippers just in case.  And sure enough, there was ice at the most exposed areas.  Only for about a half mile.  Then I got to schlep the pound of gripper for the next four days. At least I wasn't in a squashed heap just below the Toroweap.

One of the scary parts, sans ice.

Lots of water at Cottonwood, and lots of campers.  One group, but lots of campers.  One group of eleven people, and they all camped out of sight of one another.  We walked downstream almost as far as one can without cliffing out, and there was still someone camped close by.  Too bad, Charlie.  If you want to camp alone, don't come down with eleven other people.

The second day of this trip is awkward: there is water at Grapevine, but it is only six miles from Cottonwood.  There is sometimes water at Boulder, which is just right distance wise, but no water during dry weather.  It had just snowed, so we figured there would be water at Boulder.  We pulled into a little side canyon, named it Boulder, it was dry, and we decided that we needed to hike to the edge of the use area and hike into Lonetree to fetch water back.  We came around the corner, and there was Boulder.  Hike in the Canyon much? Rule of thumb for the Tonto: if the hike seemed easy, you are probably in the wrong place.  The little canyon shall henceforth be known as Not Boulder.   But there was indeed water about five minutes upstream from the trail crossing in Yes This Is Boulder.

Trilobite Tracks in Tonto

Lots of water in Lonetree, so we sat around there until lunch, loaded up two gallons of water, and dragged ourselves over to the edge of the use area. Which has moved.  It turns out there are archaeological sites in the old use area, so they moved the boundary about a half mile east to make sure no one camps in the little overhangs which were used by Those Who Came Before.  To the uninitiated an overhang just looks like a rock but they are important to the records, so they closed it off.

The hike into the middle arm of Cremation is marked double black diamond on the map, and it is.  The third arm is also double black, but our route was triple black.  Because the cairns were in the wrong place.  I hiked back up taking down markers and found the real trail, which is a bit downhill from the triple black.  The party right behind us took the trail I had just unmarked, so I guess it will stay there for a while.

New sign so one cannot claim to not know that the use area boundary moved.

I can sure tell it was spring break.  I spent a good fifteen minutes erasing stuff on the rocks in one quarter mile section.  Here are the two who signed their last names, in case anyone knows them: 

There was so much, and I was out of water, so I'll have to make a special trip to get everything properly erased.  And by the time I go back down, there will be more...