Have not done Boucher for at least 30 years.  I dragged a unsuspecting novice down with me, too.

This time three of us, not novices,  gathered at Hermit to start down our perilous trek.  Boucher is 8 miles, but that does not count the mile and a half of the Hermit and Dripping Springs one has to traverse first.

Starts out OK.  Then gets narrower.  At one point I tripped head over teakettle and landed in a bush.  One twig went straight through my finger.  Ouch!  It looked bloodier and more painful than it was, but it was hard to hold the trekking pole, particularly since said pole got bent in the process.

The trail follows the top of the Esplanade for like, forever, then cuts down through the cliff.  I had remembered the very top of this as mostly rocks, and I was right.

The Esplanade downclimb

The downclimb back in the day

From there the trail got worse.  It was fairly easy to follow, but narrow and exposed.  It took eight hours to travel 10 miles, mostly because it is so tedious to creep downhill with every step sliding away. 

This is a trail?  In the Redwall.

I found my old gargoyle that I remembered from the very first time I went down the trail.  He was in the Supai just before White Butte. 

Gargoyle

The Tonto was a relief after that downclimb.  We wended in and out of side canyons until Monument, then Indian Garden.  Lots of water, Monument was full, Indian Garden also.

Brad and Scott walked out to the edge to see Horn Rapid where we flipped a boat and lost a boatman when the raft slammed into the rock.  (we got him back)

This big guy was asleep (we hope) at Boucher.