So, on Thursday, we ran down the 5 miles of the lower Hackberry--which I understand is the prettiest section anyway--to our car stationed at the Junction with Cottonwood Canyon. After undoing the car shuttle and driving the short distance to Bryce, we were soon enjoying the intellectual atmosphere of the Visitor Center and, shortly afterward, the culinary arts of a local restaurant. At this Juncture, Abe, who had earlier declared that his new bride at home held more attraction for him than the Bryce's premier trail, bid us ado. Rod Murray somehow developed the notion that horseback riding would provide a welcome change from backpacking, and so opted to spend his money that way. These defections, on the other hand, reduced our party size to the legal permit limit of 6 for the designated camps along the Under-the-Rim Trail. Friday morning we set up the car shuttle for the Under-the-Rim Trail traverse and were on our way down from Bryce Point by 9:30 AM. Each of us gathered a gallon or more of water from Yellow Creek, which is about 3 miles from and 1500 feet below Bryce Point, and we carried that water an additional 7 miles over a number of intervening ridges to our campsite at Swamp Creek. In this very dry year at Bryce Canyon, there was no water between Yellow Creek and Sheep Creek, a distance of about 12 miles. By 11:30 AM Saturday we had already covered the 7 miles to our appointed night camp at Ponderosa Creek, which was then conveying more than its share of mud to the Colorado River. Thereupon, during the lunch break, we unanimously voted to backpack the remaining 5 miles to our car at Rainbow Point, which we reached by mid-afternoon. The Under-the-Rim Trail is Bryce's most notable trail, developed years ago to show off its grand, colorful cliffs and spires to those willing and fit enough to negotiate either its full length or any of the shorter segments made possible by connecting trails running down from the Paunsaugunt Plateau. We saw only three other backpackers in the entire 23 miles. The Trail does not traverse along a level platforms weaving in and out of great amphitheaters, like that along the Tonto Plateau in the Grand Canyon, but instead goes up and, down over a number of ridges that jut out from the Paunsaugunt Plateau, while weaving in and out of great amphitheaters set off by these ridges. As a result, the Trail is much more strenuous than the Grand Canyon analogy would suggest, but worth the effort. After the usual car un-shuttling, we were on our way home by 4 PM, in time to drive through Zion National Park for dinner at the Driftwood Inn in Springdale. We arrived in L.A. early Sunday evening. My odometer indicated a roundtrip distance to Erick Schumacher's home in Sepulveda of just under 1300 miles. We had backpacked a total of nearly 70 miles, with 17 miles devoted to the Buckskin/Paria traverse, 30 miles for the Upper Paria/Hackberry traverse and 23 miles for the Under-the-Rim Trail. There were three newcomers to such canyon trekking---Chris Collord, Rod Murray and Paul Ackman. This was about Chris's first backpack--but he came well equipped--everything was borrowed from Dick Agnos (his step-father)--except his boots, which were new, of course. Like the guy who's got the proverbial bull by the tail, he was learning at twice the rate of us on-lookers! Rod and Paul both also had foot problems, but not so us veterans--Barbara Reber, Abe Siemans, Erick Schumacher, Ron Leach and myself. On the other hand Chris--a young athlete--wondered on a couple of occasions why we (i.e., the veterans) faded on the up-hills--indeed a young whippersnapper!

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