We finally got a break from the wind, which was calm last night.  Richard and I get up a little early the next morning, have breakfast, pack our gear, and get away around 8:15.  After driving the forty miles to where my car is parked by the gate leading to Hack Canyon, we find it is fine.  It takes a little shuffling to get everyone's gear back into their own car.  Then we're both off for the highway.  I go by Pipe Spring National Monument to visit it.  Then it's on to Oklahoma for me and Louisiana for Richard.

     The Toroweap area, the Tuweep campground, and the Toroweap Overlook are in a VERY remote area of the Canyon.  It is 61 miles there on a dirt road.  The first 55 miles of the road are very smooth.  The last few miles are very rough and require a high clearance vehicle.  There is a Ranger station about five miles before the Tuweep campground.  You must bring everything you will need for your stay, including water, as there are NO facilities of any kind out there.  We were surprised that each campsite had its own picnic table and that the bathrooms were very nice and well cared for.  While all the bathrooms had toilet paper when we were there, prudence dictates that you bring your own.  All the campsites are first come, first served.

     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, many people now indicate they never received their order, their money was not 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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