Hardest day of hiking - More near vertical climbs and rock slide to climb up, along a lot of vertical exposure. LEft Boucher Creek at dawn and arrived at spot that was to be camp site by 10:30a. Rested a bit, dropped back in shade of tree at Yuma Pt. and ran trail run - 25:30. GPS messed up again, so distance unclear - call it 2 mi. Waiting on rest of group for a while and could see them tryiong to make the climb from bottom of difficult portion of trail. Hiking mate and I (Shawn) grab some water bottels and jog back down trail to help rest of group. 7 minutes of jogging back and we reach first of group - a little frazzled from vertical exposure spots - he wasn't a happy camper even as he sat on a shaded rock overhang with the pack off. The rest of the group makes it up the hard parts and Shawn carries Sherrie's pack the rest of the way to Yuma Pt. IT was about 1p at this pt. and hot and sunny. A couple of the group are low on water and Yuma Pt. turns out to be a dry camp spot, though with a spectacular near 360 degree view. Group decides to move on to dripping springs, where there is a strong possibility for water. Shawn and I decide to push and hike to the Rim tonight. It was a hard hike up and up ... and up, but we both made it an hour before sundown. 9.6 mi. on what my dad deemed one of the hardest trails in the Canyon, and Shawn and I chug some bottled water and scarf several trail mix type snacks from car, hop in car and head to the closest bar :)
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