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Here in Benson as I have been working with the Boy Scouts, I have been working with a Mr. Randy Barney.  He was the scout master when we moved here and I was put into help him out.  First in the Bishopric then as an assistant Scout Master.  Finally I replaced him as the scout master.  When we moved here, he did a really good job with the boys. He did many camping trips with them, but I suggested that we start hiking on those trips.

Over the course of a few years I showed him where a number of air plane wrecks were around the area and took him and the scouts to many of them. As this has happened, we did our normal Grand Canyon hiking to Thunder River.  As he saw the photos and heard about the trips, he wanted to eventually go and see it for himself.

I agreed that I would take him and we stared making plans for the trip.  The plan was to hike it at the end of May 2018.  In January we stared our usual preparations for this hike by running. As the hike neared, we picked the Saturday before the hike to do a 10 mile hike in the Chiricahua Mountains.  This was a pretty neat hike as it starts in pine trees and descends down into Oaks and Manzinata.  On this trail there is a large rock (weighing 1,000 tons according to the placard) balancing on a point seen here in the background. This hike consisted of Randy, his wife Debbie, their daughter, Briefly, Terra, Nathen, Kyle, and another scout, Scott Lutz.

For the Thunder River hike, we were to leave on Friday, May 18th and drive to the Kiabab National Forest.  Once there we ventured out to Crazy Jug Point to look out and gaze on the adventure before us.  Nathen, Terra, Ethen & Kyle were all going to be doing the hiking this time around.  Randy and Briefly accompanied us on the trip.

Hiking was to last all of Saturday (May 19, 2018) and we planned to be out by about dark.  Then on Sunday May 20 we would drive back home. According to the vehicle odometer, the trip was 550 miles each way.  And as luck would have it we were caught in about a 2-hour delay on I-17 as we headed back into Phoenix.

We left Landen, Janelle & Rachel with AJ and Brittany in Phoenix. When we returned to pick them up, they had enjoyed themselves so much that they really didn't want to leave and come home with us.

We were a little late arriving at the trail head, and started hiking at 6:10.  We arrived at the Thunder River Spring at 11:55.  We stayed at the spring until 1:00, and then journeyed out.  We arrived at the top of the red wall at 4:30 and were at the top of the white wall at 8:00.  This was when we needed to take out our lights to see to head back to the cars.  We arrived back at the cars at 8:30.  The moon was almost a 1st quarter.  If it had been full or close to it, we wouldn't have needed any lights for this trip.

The weather turned out to be perfect.  We started hiking at 46 degrees and it was probably low 90's near the spring. As we started our assent up the red wall clouds obscured the sun on and off for the better part of 1.5 hours.  After we topped the red wall, we didn't see any more cloud induced shade the rest of the day.

After reaching the spring, Randy made the comment that he had hiked to many different water falls, but after seeing this one, the others paled in comparison.

The spring was, as always, refreshing. This time I hiked with a retired church shirt.  We did laundry with some of the kids clothes and a blue crayon ended up in the dryer.  This had the effect to speed up the process of retiring many of our clothes, and this shirt was one of the victims. It did, however, turn out to be a superb hiking shirt.

I also acquired a new hiking hat for the trip.  I have found that I am rather fond of hats.  And a trip to the Canyon is as good of an excuse as any to acquire another hat.  This trip broke in this one.  It preformed admirably.

Terra purchased a new pair of shoes just before the hike.  As it happened her new shoes were perhaps a 1/2 size too small and as we ventured down the trail her pain level grew.  We even stopped once or twice to apply some tape to her toes to prevent blisters.

The blisters were prevented, but her nail didn't escape the trip without some acute memories of it. It looks like her shoe was applying a lifting force to here right big toe nail. After we were home for almost 1.5 weeks, she was able to pop a blister located underneath her toe nail.  This relieved significant pressure, but the dust has yet to settle. Perhaps she may loose her toe nail, or perhaps the nail bed is damaged.  Time will tell.  Currently she has a red nail bed and a very sore toe.

The right was just after the hike, and the left is 1.5 weeks later. This one will probably leave a mark.

Needless to say, Terra has volunteered to be the driver when we look to hike from rim to rim next year.

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