ALL HIKERS

POSTSCRIPT

     My Thermorest Neoair sleeping pad had a pin hole in it.  I'm not sure how that happened as I always use a ground cloth under my tent and I always put a foam pad under the Neoair.  I had a hard time locating the hole and eventually had to put it into the bathtub to find the leak.  There's no way I could have found the hole out in the field.  The Neoair repair kit I used at home also failed to seal the hole.  I eventually had to repair it like a bicycle inner tube by sanding the surface, letting one layer of glue dry over the hole, putting a second layer of glue on the hole and a patch, and then clamping the patch over the hole.  Although not what Neoair recommends, my repair procedure did work and I have since used the sleeping pad successfully on another hike.

     Keith and I enjoyed the easier hike down to Horseshoe Mesa.  He got to pick up that section of trail around the mesa that he hadn't done before and I got to see all the historic name inscriptions at Hance Creek. 

     Numerous critters such as mice, ravens, squirrels, and ringtails are a threat to attack your food in the inner Canyon.  For many years, there were two widely used defenses against critter attack: the Ratsack Cache bag, a mesh, stainless steel bag, which came in three sizes, and the Ursack, a bag made with a Spectra material.  I bought both, but preferred the Ratsack because it was larger, cheaper, and had a superior Velcro closure system.  Even though the Ratsack company website is still active and will accept your money, most people now indicate they never received their order, their money was never returned, and they could not get the company to return a phone call.  Due to the widely reported difficulties and lack of response from the Ratsack company, that product is no longer carried by the General Store in Grand Canyon Village.  Two new products have recently come forward to fill the void:  the Outsak and the Foodsack.  Both are similar in design to the Ratsack and utilize a mesh stainless steel bag with a Velcro closure system.  The Outsak is a lighter duty version and some people report that animals were able to penetrate it.  The Foodsack is the heavy duty version and appears to be bullet-proof, so it is the product that I recommend.  I have and use the Foodsack.

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