Acknowledgements

There are a number of people I need to thank for making this traverse possible.

Stacy on a cache hike.

First, my wife Stacy. She was THE support team. She dropped me off and picked me up for each section hike (1000's of miles of driving). She carried water into caches with me, monitored my progress, and maintained communication nightly. She provided real time beta searches to help get me out of Parashant Canyon after I changed my exit route. She also provided remote internet searches on knees and gear. She was in contact with Tom Martin and Clay Wadman while I was en route. She dealt with muddy roads and camped in the snow and rain waiting for me to complete the hike. Finally, she supported me in doing the hike even though she perceived some risk and was burdened with some stress because I was going solo.

Tom Martin was my key contact. Tom not only spent hours discussing route and water source options with me but he also put me in contact with several other experienced Canyon hikers to provide more details. Stacy also consulted with Tom during the hike to brainstorm options on how to rest my knee in the Canyon.

Rich Rudow provided a through hikers perspective and feedback on my plan. For my through hike attempt, he recommended flipping my itinerary so that I would travel through the hottest parts of the Canyon before it got too hot. He also provided more information on water sources on the Esplanade. He offered to place a cache for me from the river on his river trip if I could not gain access to the North Rim. Rich also provided rerouting beta to avoid possible flooding issues on my final section hike.

Ned Bryant shared detailed trip reports for several areas in the Canyon that I would be hiking through.

Barry Morenz helped with routing and water sources.

Brady Black at Moenkopi Riverworks outfitted me with the gear I needed to cross the river and get a cache on river right upstream of Diamond Creek.

Lorenzo Bergamin gave me his approach shoes at a camp along the river so that I had a better chance of making it to my new pair of shoes at a cache 11 days away. He also picked up my food cache buckets near Diamond Creek and took them out of the Canyon for me.

Clay Wadman provided real time water beta as I hiked because he had just been on the Esplanade before me. He provided waypoint data for getting through Flint-Tuna saddle. I navigated to one of his pothole waypoints on the Esplanade and pretty much took the last of that water.

There are also my friends and family that took the time to follow my progress and even message me to see how I was doing. That was always good for the morale!

I also benefited from the works of authors Harvey Butchart, George Steck, and Todd Martin whose books I used to establish my general route plan. Also thanks to Nick Smolinske for some routing beta he published in his blog.