Still cloudy and windy. Because we dropped 1500 feet of elevation, the occasional precipitation today came as rain instead of snow. Not enough rain to get wet, but enough to feel frustrated that we aren't getting weather that makes you want to sit outside and enjoy a meal. We ate dinner in the tent again, this time due to wind and cool temps and threat of rain. The rain held off until we finished eating, but there's pitter-patter now.
Took a 5 mile RT side trip to Jacob Lake Inn for a hot breakfast and a telephone call to Stephanie and Kjeld , who will kindly retrieve us at the end of the trail tomorrow. I was disappointed that 20 cars on highway 89A passed 2 stinky hitchhikers without slowing down, Jim took it in stride. We ended up walking both ways, much to my surprise.
Good looks at several Kaibab Squirrels, a treat.
First Sagebrush of the trip, which is surprising to us.
First Red Crossbills of the trip. Jim keeps detailed notes about what species we see each day (photo).
Jim's Nature Note: we saw Summer Tanager near Phantom Ranch eating a small fish. Tanagers are not known to catch or eat fish, so this was a really interesting observation to us. The bird seemed to be quite happy with his meal and probably doesn't read the bird guidebooks.
We are healthy, happy, and wishing we'd had nicer weather recently. Not bad by Scottish standards, but not what we expect in May in this part of the world.
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