Friday, October 23, 2009

April 29, 2001 and June 16, 2005



More river journal:

Sunday, April 29, 2001, a.m.

Sitting alongside Havasu Creek Sunday morning.  We got up early this morning and got to Havasu at 8 am.  We camped about 5 miles from here at Upper Ledges.  It was wonderful being on the water so early, floating in the morning light.

The Upper Ledges camp is my favorite so far.  We tucked the boats in parallel to the ledge and had a calm eddy so we slept on the boat.  There was no beach so no sand.  It was cool stepping off the ledge right into the boat.

Yesterday, we hiked Kanab and Matkat.  Matkat is a gorgeous small curvy canyon but getting up and down it required some climbing and was a bit stressful.  Steve says I did well but it didn't feel like it.  We did Upset Rapid yesterday too.  It had a strong current pulling right into a large hole and although Steve worked as hard as he could, we went right into it.  Everything turned out fine and it actually made for a fun, exciting ride but Steve wasn't pleased.

Friday night we camped river left just below Deer Creek.  The beach had a rough eddy but really soft sand.  We had a bit of a party night so we slept in the tent.  Steve and Rick built cliff dwellings in the sand.

Friday morning, Rick, Linda and Barb got up early to hike Thunder River.  We picked up their boat at Tapeats and Paula and I rowed from just below Tapeats Rapid to just above Deer Creek Rapid.  We rowed 135 Mile Rapid.  At Deer Creek, we hiked all the way to the Upper Falls and the "hiker manipulated" Throne Room.  Steve built three new thrones.  We also had our first thunderstorm on the day they hiked Thunder River.

Thursday night, we camped at Stone, river right.  The eddy was a little rough so Steve ended up sleeping on the ledge.

During the day on Thursday, we hiked up Bedrock.  What an unexpected treat!  My favorite hike so far, largely because it was so unexpected.  It had 3 waterfalls, the last one hight enought to totally get under, the first one just like a slide.

We ran Dubendorff on Thursday too.  Had a great fun ride.  Ended up going right down the middle of the gnarly wave train.  Linda, who was down below us, said there would be yellow boat, then there would be no yellow boat, just foam.

Bedrock Rapid was exciting.  First the current almost pulled us left of the rock, then we had a roller coaster ride through the rapid.

Trying to fill in holes:  Kanab Canyon was beautiful with sheer high walls, dropping down almost to the water but with cut-outs or setbacks just at the water level.

The warm breezes at night have been like gentle caresses brushing across my face.

At Kanab, I watched a fish squeeze through a tiny break in the underwater rocks.

The water at Havasu is turquoise and the fish are huge.

Sunday, April 29, 2001, p.m.

Sitting on the boat at Fern Glen.  The rest of the day went well.  We all swam at Havasu, first just Linda and me (I guess Paula too but I didn't see her) at a small pool/ fall by the rock we were lounging on, then all of us at the bigger, deeper pool on the way back to the river.

Then Tom and Rick decided to swim down to the boats so we talked Steve into it (it was surprisingly easy to talk him into).  I carried our Camelbaks so he could swim.

The rest of our float was hot, sunny and peaceful.  Beautiful stretches where it seemed like it was just Steve and me.

Hopefully another early morning tomorrow.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Layover day at Lower National.  Very hot but some cloud cover.  The EZ Up is quite the crowd pleaser as it was at Tapeats.

I took a bath and did laundry.  Anything to stay near the water.  Everyone else except for Steve, Tom and Tai went for a hike.  I still have blisters from Surprise Valley so didn't much feel like walking.

Steve got his kayak out and did a few rolls (with a little encouragement from Jason).  That gave him enough confidence to go out and play in the rapid.  He was quite jazzed.

The eddy was rough so I did not get a peaceful night's sleep but it wasn't bad enough to drive me off the boat and onto the sand.

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