At some point during those last 5 miles, I caught up to Neil on the trail. I know it was before Supai tunnel because when we passed through the tunnel, I breifly thought about stopping and taking a picture. It really is a great picture opportunity. However, I was too fatigued to actually stop, get out my phone and snap a picture. Sorry Neil, no cool picture of you passing through the tunnel - maybe next time.
We stopped and refilled our water. It had been 5.2 miles since the last water stop and I had consumed 3 liters.
There was a rain cloud that had moved in and a nice soft rain that helped cool our abused bodies and recover just a little. After the hike was complete, Tommy made the statement that the rain was one of the uncontrolled factors that helped make his R3 achievable.
The last few miles out of the Canyon are the longest. Everytime you ascend and get a little closer to the top you think that around the next corner you will be at the trailhead. Instead, it is one more piece of uphill. It is like the movie "Groundhog Day" - it continues to happen over and over and over and over again.
The advantage of hiking the Canyon previously is that you know you are no where close to the top until you get out of the the layers of red rock. Only at that point, can you start to imagine the trailhead being around the next switchback.
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