This morning we start the day with a little light cloud cover, and a great breakfast of ‘fill your own” omelets, expertly cooked by Trey. I thoroughly enjoyed my first, and attempted a second, but was unable to do it true justice. I am back on Trey’s raft this morning and the rapids came big and frequent. It was good riding all morning and I was really getting into this rapids stuff. I even rode one, I believe it was Serpentine, laying flat on my belly on the top of the duffle pile. The view is fantastic from there, as you seem to head face first into the standing waves at the bottom of the rapid. It is also rather wet. An exhilarating ride, and I believe I have lost my fear of rapids! Above Bass Rapids we saw the ‘Ross Wheeler’, built by Bert Loper stranded high on the rocks. Shortly after Bass Rapid the rafts pulled in at Shinumo Creek for a short walk up the creek to Shinumo Falls where we all played in and under the falls to cool off.
Somewhere around Garnet creek we stopped for lunch on another very hot beach. Lunch was the ever popular and good sandwich bar, made even better with the addition of soft and slightly melted chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious, but rather hard to prevent from crumbing! The landing point here had a rock ledge about a foot below the water level at the beach. This made a perfect place for cooling and splashing after lunch, and very quickly a water fight broke out between the kids (and some of the not so small kids too!) After lunch we visited Elves Chasm where everyone again had a good splash around in the waterfall; this time jumping down into the pool below the falls. Great activity on a hot afternoon.
After cooling off at Elves Chasm we continued downriver through Conquistador Aisle and into the Middle Granite Gorge. As we entered Middle Granite Gorge and were back into the harder rock and the stronger rapids the campgrounds also became fewer, and they all seemed to be full. I’m sure we passed both the Hatch and GCE rafts we had been traveling downriver with, and a couple of other groups too. We had some exciting rides down Specter, Bedrock and Deubendorf rapids. I think it was at Bedrock that TJ’s motor lost or bent a propeller ( I was on the other raft). It was quickly fixed, and we continued to move down river looking for a place to spend the night. It had been a long day of around 40 river miles. We also passed several oar trips who were also seeking night stops.
At Tapeats Creek we pulled into the upriver campground only to find a single tent with 2 hikers camping. Lucky for us they were happy to share their beach in exchange for a proper cooked meal and a cold beer. We quickly moved in with them and started campsite hunting. The creek has two good size camping areas, one on either side of the fast flowing and cold creek. The upriver side really only had 3 or 4 suitable areas that were not either already taken up by the hikers, or involve cutting through their camp to get to. Our group ended splitting up with some wading through the creek to find their spot for the night. MaryBeth and I preferred to be on the dry side with the kitchen and toilet. A couple of other tenters also chose the dry side rather than have to cross the fast flowing creek in the night. A rope was strung across the creek to assist those who camped on the other side. At some stage during the evening someone reported seeing a rattlesnake at the point where the trail crossed the creek, but it either did not want to hang around with all our activity, or was just passing through as it was not seen again.
On the left you can see my bed space up against the canyon wall. MaryBeth and I had to split up our camp for tonight. She didn’t like my lovely spot by the wall because there were lizards scampering all over the rock wall, and I could not find space near her tent without being in a walkway. Needless to say, we survived the night apart. The hikers, Larry and Alvin, did indeed join us for dinner, and were extremely grateful for the delicious grilled pork chops, apple sauce, beans and squash, with hot dutch oven brownies for dessert. They would have been eating navy bean soup if we had not camped on their beach. Now they were not only eating a great meal but they would be able to double up on rations another night too. They had hiked down from the north rim 2 days before, stopping at the upper Tapeats campground for a night on the way. They were photographing waterfalls and rapids and had a lot of heavy photography equipment with them and had packed very light on the food rations to save weight. Tonight was the night of the full moon. It was a very warm night. The hot breeze felt like it was coming straight from an oven. My spot by the wall, with the radiant heat releasing from the rock turned out to be very hot in the night. The lizards running across the rock kept spattering sand on me. The moon was as bright as daylight. I was awake anyway, so I moved out into the creek delta and took up a place on a rock to enjoy the cool air. The full moon light was bright enough to read by, and I sat out enjoying the cool and the quiet for what felt like several hours until the moon went down behind the opposite canyon edge over Great Thumb Mesa. Finally, now in the dark, I returned to my bed and managed to drift off to sleep.
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