Along with Mike, my friends Ed and Ted showed up for this hike. This was Ed's first hike ever, and he did pretty well for a newbie. We started from the end of Chandler Road and made our way to the Gila View West Trail and then hiked back on teh Valley Trail. Ed was pretty spent by the time we got off the ridge from the Gila View West Trail and was ready to go back. His total mileage was 6 for this trip, which was pretty respectable.

Mike, Ted and I then made our way up the Lost Mine Trail to the National Trail and took it west. Ted took the Kebo Trail back to the Valley trail back to his car while Mike and I added an extra 1.3 miles to the end of the National Trail and took an unnamed trail back to the Valley Trail and back to the TH. Our total mileage was 12.3 miles by my track and Ted's was probably around 11 miles. Ted will be hiking down S. Kaibab to Phantom Ranch and up Bright Angel in 2 weeks, so he got a good training hike in for that.

The weather was cool and windy in the morning and got a little warm in the early afternoon, but not too bad. We ran into some mountain bikers from Pittsburgh at the saddle of the Valley Trail on our 2nd go round and I talked some football ( )while Mike waited very patiently.

Very nice area and I look forward to going back throughout the winter and early spring to do more of these trails. the views of the Estrellas were really nice throughout this one, also.