Bob and I kid Tom by facetiously telling him we got bacon this morning from the rafters since our hiking buddy wouldn't give us any. We say goodbye to the rafters and thank them for all their help. They are still displaying some of the costumes from last night's 10-10-10 party.
We discuss our plan for today since we should reach camp early. Tom wants to explore some downstream in Shinumo Creek toward the waterfall, so he leaves early. We agree to meet at the better campsite just west of Bass Camp. Bob and Keith also get away before I do. I miss the trail junction going uphill and go too far to the east before backtracking and finding the correct route. This uphill slog hasn't gotten any easier. I meet up with Bob and Keith right as they reach the bottom on the other side.
Just before pulling into camp, we find a large boulder with a couple of engravings on it. One is: "W. L. Vaughan, Claude, Tex, 7-11-1912." The other resembles a "Y" and appears to be a cattle brand symbol.
We then find another Geological Survey marker on top a large stone. For the life of me, I don't understand why anyone would want to deface one of these. Obviously, this one has had some rough treatment.
We also find a tin can pile that we missed the other day. In the pile is a fairly well preserved bottle that was molded with the words, "Dr. Ira Baker's Family Liniment," on its side.
Tom's hiking gear is at the better campsite, so he must still be out exploring. We are all feeling pretty good, so after lunch we make an impromptu decision to move up stream to the Shinumo Creek campsite at the base of the steep descent. I leave a note for Tom telling him what we've done.
Bob and Keith point out two rock structures just west of Bass Camp that I missed yesterday. One appears to have been a storage room at one time and the other seems to be some kind of retaining wall. We make our way up stream and pass the slick rock section that has one minor obstacle. The water level appears to be almost a foot lower than it was two days ago, which should help out immensely with the creek crossings that are still to come.
About fifteen minutes before reaching camp, Tom catches up to us. He says there are a lot of monitoring or meteorological instruments near Shinumo Falls. By our calculation, there are four creek crossings between Bass Camp and our camp tonight.
We pull into camp around 2:00. Bob seems to be doing pretty well today, but does spend some time lounging in the creek this afternoon. Actually, all of us spend time at the creek as this is a very pretty spot. Later Tom decides to hike uphill to a small rock outcropping and see if he can climb on top of it. None of us volunteer to accompany him.
The views from camp are really nice in all directions. We study our maps and my GPS topo software to try and figure out the vertical elevation we have facing us tomorrow morning. It appears to be about 500' up to the Geological Survey marker at the point and then another few hundred feet up to the Tonto section. This is a very nice campsite with numerous tent spots and quite a few rocks arranged for seats.
Our plan tomorrow is to leave early and try to beat the heat. We will camp at the J.B. campsite just down stream from the base of the Redwall. MAIN INDEX | HIKING INDEX | BACK TO DAY 3 | FORWARD TO DAY 5
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