Oct 7: South Rim

The rodent did indeed keep us up much of the night. Luckily he didn't eat our packs or anything else that belongs to us, he just ate the cactus right next to us all night. We woke up 1.5 hours earlier than usual so that we could try and get to the rim before the post office closes and before it got too hot.

Mission accomplished. The Tonto Trail isn't my favorite, never being maintained and slowly getting more and more overgrown with cacti and other sharp or scratchy plants. But at least it's fairly level. (Aside from the one unnamed gully right before you get to Tipoff, the junction with the South Kaibab trail.) We used the facilities at Tipoff by 11, had an odd conversation with a guy telling us we absolutely had to go to Sedona, and we were on the rim by 1:30 or so. I felt great, had drunk coffee, had just enough water left, and charged up the trail. We played name-the-movie-this-quote-comes-from much of the way up. We are both terrible at it.

One of the shuttle loops is still operating during COVID, and thankfully it was the one we needed to get from Kaibab Trailhead to everything else. We spent the rest of the day in the marketplace,  post office, and deli, which are right next to each other. The wifi isn't great, Nano got bad reception with Verizon, I got none with Google Fi. The food at the market is twice a normal store, but it's basically a full grocery store. The gear selection is minimal. (I'd have bought new shorts if anyone along the way sold them.)

The rim campground isn't accepting new reservations, but they do have two hikerbiker spots, and they're only $6, and it's good for a week. Unfortunately the laundry and shower are closed due to COVID, but the bathroom facilities have power, so we charged our stuff and did some sink laundry.

I wrote a bunch of postcards while elk were bugling like crazy in the campground.