Grand Canyon National Park! Finally I'm here at my last major obstacle and possibly most impressive section. I hiked in to Mather Campground on a rather relaxed and delayed schedule. I met two Swiss cyclists on the greenbelt that had hit their turn around time and I saw a herd of elk. Several miles later I turned into the campground. I'm in the $6 hiker/biker site with two Germans and an Aussie with another German. All very cool guys. It's like an outdoor hostel here. Best of luck on all your travels and thanks for making site #25 so memorable.

I resupplied to the tune of ~$125. I bought a bunch of dehydrated backpacking meals because I'm so tired of the crap Knorr noodles/rice and sauce meals. I needed the break. this is a remarkably good resupply and likely my last before the Utah border. While I was outside the store drinking a Mountain Dew and eating some chicken, I heard "Hardcore!". It was Baja! What a surprise. I haven't seen him since Oracle and wonder what became of him. To make a long story short, switching to a mountain bike didn't work out to his liking and he ended up leaving the trail to kayak in Baja California for three weeks. Then later he returned to hike the AZT from Flagstaff to here. We hung out over a couple beers and caught up. He's a really cool dude and I'm proud to hold up my end of the conversation with such a world adventure traveler.

There's tons more I could write but it's late, late, late and cold, cold, cold.