Attendees: Robert Buhrman, Rita Buhrman, Larry Lee, Marty Pietz, Larry Walker

May 29, 1999 – Saturday, Day One: Drove up last night to Sunset Crater area. Pick any spot to camp. Not too cold. Got there around 00:00. Sunrise approximately 05:15. Nice night and day. Stopped at Wukoki Indian ruins in Sunset Crater Nat’l Park. Neat ruins. Should take family. Drove up through Navajo Nation. Drove to Cameron and visited trading post for breakfast. Nice, expensive place – food not too expensive, but gifts were. Drove to Navajo Bridge near Lee’s Ferry. Stopped for a look. Drove on to Jacob Lake and then to trail head. Book description to trail head was very accurate. Got started on trail around 15:00: later than I would have liked. What a beautiful place. We rolled into top of redwall on Esplanade around 19:30. Very good views of Surprise Valley, was very impressed. Looks like a bowl with a valley entrance to the west. Shrimp alfredo for dinner. It was awful. Need to work on recipe – no more shrimp on trail. Noodles in recipe need to be cooked well; boil-in-bag was no good for them. Left cache here.

May 30, 1999 – Sunday, Day Two: Normally, I say Wow or Whew here, but in this case those words just aren’t strong enough. We started around 07:30 down the redwall. It took 3 hours to get to Thunder River. What a great place – so beautiful. We hung around Thunder River for about 1.5 hours. We left TR and finally rolled into the Lower Tapeats campground at 18:30! 11 hours on the trail; 8 hours hiking. Whew! Everybody was beat. To get here… there are "two paths you can go on," but in the end there’s no chance to change the road your on. There are two paths, true enough, one tries to stay near Tapeats Creek, the other goes up and over. In the future, we will try to stay near the stream as much as possible. To get from the top to Lower Tapeats, there are 4 switchbacks (steep by description – and they are right) over a 12 mile jaunt. The north rim has 1000 feet more elevation that must be managed. Buhrman (Robert) almost sat on a rattle snake which was hunkered down in a nice crack down by the creek. Couldn’t make out the type of rattler, just a good ole tan (not pink like the canyon rattler), about 1 inch diameter, 2 feet long rattler. Spaghetti and sausage and pistachio pudding for dinner – very good. Sleep came easy… the sleep of the just… just tired.

May 31, 1999 – Monday, Day Three: Memorial Day. Caught 5 fish this morning, but only managed to land 2 – hooks must be dull. Then… both the one’s I landed got off my unattended stringer; I guess the Lord didn’t want me to have fish for breakfast. Boy, was I heart-broken. Rafters showed up about lunch time. Other hikers showed up later in the afternoon. Rafters were real nice. One Maryland-old-guy (Dan) sure liked to talk: nice fellow. Rafters gave us pop and beer as a peace offering – for crowding our campsite. Marty and I explored up Tapeats in the granite gorges. Found some excellent swimming holes. We then scouted up the beach west down the Colorado to see how rough it would be. Found good campsite. Talked others into moving. Good choice too. Everybody was beat and wanted to stay put. Saw a garter snake (about an inch in diameter, 3 feet long) eat a lizard. Saw 3 chuckawallas today – one had a black and orange tail like a king snake.

June 1, 1999 – Tuesday, Day Four: Didn’t even realize it was June 1st – time and dates starting to become meaningless. Good day. Up around 05:00 so we could hike up in shade. On trail by 07:00. Over to Deer Creek by 10:00 with plenty of resting. Nice walk. Set up camp on the creek just beyond Deer Creek spring (that is further up the canyon than the spring), basically at the point where the trail goes away from Deer Creek and starts heading up toward Surprise Valley. Went on day hike down to Deer Creek falls and Colorado River – very short walk. Before leaving 139 Mile Rapids this morning, saw 3 bighorn sheep on other side (south) of Colorado enjoying their breakfast and morning drink from the river. Deer Creek is outstandingly beautiful. Went fishing in Colorado at Deer Creek Falls. Caught 6 fish (hooked 8 – 2 escaped – threw away that lure), 2 were fishsticks, 4 were excellent – and tasted great. Also ate chicken with rice – great. Also had broccoli rice stuff, and it was the kind that wouldn't boil in the bag just like the fettuccine alfredo the other night: had to boil it. Great God-given day. Maybe 95 – 100 degF. Lots of rafters at Deer Creek. Looks like one of their stopping points. Not too many hikers. Rafters do 7 hour hike (that’s what they are told) from Deer Creek across Surprise Valley to Thunder River and back. 25 of the varmints came by us on our way out of Deer Creek Falls area. Deer Creek was wonderful. Swam right at the falls. Saw raft wrecker show up. Evidently, some rafter up stream (75 mile?) was fishing, fell in and drowned while we were there. Good thing the wife didn’t see that on the news.

June 2, 1999 – Wednesday, Day Five: Well, it rained (sprinkled) most of the night. Slept under poncho. I think I got wetter from respiration than the rain. We managed – no flash floods. This morning we rolled out about 08:30 and got to a nice stopping place in Surprise Valley around 11:30. We stopped and checked out Deer Creek Spring (Deer Spring?) – beautiful place. It rained hard on us most of the walk out, but quit when we got on top. We set up camp expecting more rain. It rained on us while we set up. At about 16:00, we walked over to Thunder River for water. We camped at the bottom left (south-west) vertex of the Deer Creek/Thunder River/Surprise Valley trail triangle split. It took less than an hour to walk to TR from there. Bob and I ran back in about 30 minutes. Turkey and stuffing for dinner were excellent – hunger is the best sauce. No more rain. So, how’s it said "Tapeats?" Tah - petes or Ta - pee - ets?

June 3, 1999 – Thursday, Day Six: No rain last night – slept ok. Marty and I had a contest of dueling chainsaws with our snoring. We combined resources and made a water resistant shelter. Broke camp around 09:00 and headed for the redwall. Oatmeal is still oatmeal. Topped the redwall around 10:30. Real windy on the Esplanade. Cache intact. Headed over to find some over hangs and get out of the wind. Esplanade is surreal in its wind carved structures. Everything looks like some kind of baked good: bread, rolls, muffins, etc. We stayed near the 2nd drainage, but we couldn’t get out of the wind; and it never stopped. Good napping though. Good picture taking too. Good beef stew and chili. Big pack mouse got Bob’s stuff sack (so he claimed until he found it after he got home). No trouble with mice and food. Very cold after awhile with wind blowing. Easy day. Pretty much just goofed around enjoying last full day in canyon.

June 4, 1999 – Friday, Day Seven: Up and going by 07:30. On top by 10:30 – "horses going to stable" mode. Started snowing on us about half way up. Not a bad climb. Boy, the snow really came down on top after we got up. Not much accumulation though, except at the Park. Bob’s car battery was dead. 40 miles of muddy road looked good on Buhrman’s white car. Went to North Rim GC Park. What a nice place. Lots of snow here. Ate, showered, relaxed, bought. Would have liked to spend more time here. Long drive home. Left around 16:00, got home around 00:00. Stopped in Cameron again. What a great trip this was. We saw every kind of weather, creature, and trail. Nice vacation.