The alarm went off at 5:15 AM and we got up a couple of minutes later. We took a shower, got dressed, packed our things and had breakfast, half a 'Dutch Roll' (nothing familiar, in spite of the name) each. We had to leave the unopened bag of potato chips we had bought at the general store in Supai behind, it didn't fit in our backpacks.

We 'hit the trail' again at 6:18 AM, when it was still dark. It started getting light quite quickly and as we walked out of the village we felt the sun's warmth getting stronger. This trip was definately going to be harder. Of course my knee hadn't had enough rest and started to be a real pain after only an hour, so that didn't make things any easier. Igor and I each walked at our own pace and from time to time he waited for me so I didn't get behind too much. We also had more breaks than the day before.

After about 3 - 3.5 hours we came at the point where the path started to climb to the hilltop. This was the hardest part of the hike, most of the time right out in the sun as well. It was the sight of Hualupai Hilltop that kept us going and although it seemed like our journey would never come to an end, it did, we arrived around 10:40. And it felt good! Reaching the hilltop was like triumph, pure victory, and the reward was getting back to our car (which was there waiting for us in the same shape we had left it, no problem), luggage, water and sneakers. This was a trip we're never going to forget and most likely will make again some day.

We left Hualupai Hilltop at 11:00 and drove straight to the Kingman KOA, where we reunited with Marco and Wendy 2.5 hours later. Want to see more? Check out our vacation page and go to USA, September 2000.