Day 05

Day 5 - Very warm last night. Cooked in my sleeping bag. Storm blew through about 2:30, a lot of wind and a little rain. Beautiful when I got up (late again). Got a really late start. Headed down Lost Canyon, tons of water until just past the second campsite (LC2 - didn't investigate, but looks really nice), then dry and sandy down to the intersection. Ate lunch at LC1 (pretty lame, hidden back in the scrub oak), then up and across a lot of slickrock. Nice views. Met a cute ranger, the only person I saw all day (and the last person I would see on the trip). One part of the trail still had snow and ice, a little sketchy but not tooo bad. Finally started to drop into Salt Creek. Stopped to have a cigarette and looked up and saw a ruin - actually 3 granaries, 2 still in good shape. Dropped the rest of the way down, had to go down a long ladder in a narrow crack; ladder not so bad, but couldn't turn around at the bottom (because of pack) so I had to keep climbing down backwards. Finally in Salt Creek. Checked out the pictographs at Peek-a-boo Arch, then continued up the canyon. Tons of water, hard time crossing in spots. Was looking for a place to camp when the clouds that had been chasing me all day finally caught up and started raining. Hid under a giant boulder and found a little granary. Started looking around in rocks for more after the rain quit (only lasted about 20 minutes) and found a beautiful campsite on the other side of the rocks in a big, grassy meadow. While setting up tent spotted a rock art panel (mud colored pictographs). Went and took some pictures. Got hot again after storm blew through. Nice night. Got water, ate read, went to bed. Lots of owls around here too