Click on photos to see larger image.

Today's route stats: 

We decided to hike at least to the Esplanade today, and depending on how things went, maybe all the way to the rim.  We split up much of Susan's gear.  She managed to do pretty well with a light pack.  We reached the Esplanade before noon, where we took a long break.
 

We decided to continue hiking out today, reasoning that if Susan wasn't going to make it, she could return to the Esplanade with one or two others.  The rest of us could hike to the cars, drive to Kanab, and summon a helicopter.  But Susan did remarkably well.  We were all at our cars by mid afternoon.  We packed up the cars and headed back to the pavement.

When we got back to our cars, Susan received a text message about the death of a good friend of hers.  It was awful for everyone -- a very bad ending to an otherwise great hike.

Susan, Jane, Bruce, and Skip drove to Kanab for the night, while Ben, Bert and I drove to Las Vegas.  We all had early flights the next morning.