The wind was again quite strong all night long.  It is cool this morning, but fortunately the temperature last night was no where near the 23 degrees the weatherman was forecasting.  After breakfast, Richard and I walk down to the lower campsites and around the corner where a family is camped.  I find a glove on the ground and ask if it belongs to them.  A little girl around twelve years old is elated that I found her lost glove.  These people have some large tents, one of the benefits of car camping.  They also have a Coleman gasoline stove, something I have not seen in many years.  The two guys in the center picture below indicate they are going to hike part way down the Lava Falls Trail later today.

A family camping at the lower sites 10-11-2019 @ 9:25	A family camping at the lower sites 10-11-2019 @ 9:25	A family camping at the lower sites 10-11-2019 @ 9:25

     We go back to camp and relax a while.  We decide to hike some on the Tuckup Trail after lunch.  The Park Service indicates that the trail is 60 miles long.  The trail begins just a mile or so north of our campsite and then proceeds east, so we decide to just walk there.  On the way, a bunch of cars come by after visiting the Toroweap Overlook.  All over the road surface on the way to Tuckup we see lots of evidence of dripping transmission fluid from that girl's stalled car.  We also expected to see her car at the side of the road again, but she must have finally gotten a tow truck to come for it.  The older volunteer at the Ranger station told us it costs $1,000 for a tow truck to come out here.

Cars coming from the Overlook 10-11-2019 @ 12:01	Beginning of the Tuckup Trail 10-11-2019 @ 12:12

     The beginning of the Tuckup Trail is well defined and very easy walking.  I understand that the trail becomes more faint the farther east you go. 

The Tuckup Trail 10-11-2019 @ 12:20	The Tuckup Trail 10-11-2019 @ 12:20	The Tuckup Trail 10-11-2019 @ 12:29

     We pass some cairns and an interesting rock along the way.  The cairns in the first picture below show another way back to camp.  We agree to go that way on our return.  After walking a couple of miles, we rest a while at the far end of the canyon before turning around and heading back.

Cairns along the trail 10-11-2019 @ 12:29	An interesting rock 10-11-2019 @ 1:03

     After turning onto the cairned route shown above, we come across a drilling stem and a galvanized bolt, both embedded in the rock.  We have not seen any mining activity in the area and have no idea what these things are doing here.

Drilling stem embedded in the rock 10-11-2019 @ 1:10	Galvanized bolt in the rock 10-11-2019 @ 1:11

     Richard is fixing pizza for supper.  He learned that trick from one of our mutual hiking friends, Adrian Jantzi, also known as the "Pizza Man."  I am heating water for my freeze dried meal on the $19 camping stove with piezo starter I bought on Amazon.  I'm impressed with this stove, but its large size probably only makes it suitable for car camping.  I use a very small Brunton Raptor with piezo starter for my hiking stove.  It is no longer made.  My Yeti cooler has held ice for three days, just as they advertised it would.

Richard Erbe cooking pizza 10-11-2019 @ 5:27	Richard Erbe cooking pizza 10-11-2019 @ 5:28	My stove heating water 10-11-2019 @ 5:27

     This has been a very nice three days.  This is the first trip of this length I have taken to the Canyon that was entirely car camping.  The moon is nearly full and is out early tonight.

	A nearly full moon 10-11-2019 @ 6:16

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