While eating breakfast this morning, we crossed paths with Ariana, a solo hiker we’d met on the very first day of the trip. She hiked all the way here from Mexico, covering twice the miles Rose and I did to get here! She works for the Forest Service doing backcountry trail maintenance, which explains her crazy pace. She headed below the rim, and a little while later Rose and I did too. We dropped from layer to layer, admiring the incredible breadth of the canyon, all the way down to a short scramble above the dark green river. We caught up with Ariana on the beach and chatted for a bit before a rafting party stopped and took her across to the trail on the other side. One of the boats was a dory, the legendary wooden craft from back in the ’70s used by Kenton Grua to break the speed record for descending the whole length of the canyon! Rose and I were alone for a bit before another party came up to the beach to camp for the night. They were worried they’d crashed our peaceful spot, but they were so overloaded with extra food and beer that they plied us with dinner all night and breakfast in the morning. We chatted most of the afternoon with them (about 15 folks, mostly from Big Sky, Montana) and they were all friendly and excited to hear about our trip.