Day 13
Pancho’s Kitchen to Upper Ledges
Interesting day today. We got an early start today because we thought it might be crowded at Matkatamiba Canyon which is one of the more popular spots on the trip. Mike had missed this on his last Grand Canyon trip and was determined to see it this trip. We knew there was a trip camped just upstream of us and Mike was worried that if they passed us they might get to Matkat first and then there wouldn’t be room in the eddy for us. This group was also a little peeved with us for splitting our group temporarily at the Deer Cr. hike. They thought we were trying to get an advantage by getting to campsites early; something that is frowned upon on the Grand.

More Great Canyon Scenery below Pancho’s

The morning was mostly flat for rapids although I did knock Jen out of the boat when I dropped into a hole with a bad angle. It was quiet funny although I think I enjoyed it more than Jen. This section of the Canyon is beautiful with vertical walls of orange-yellow rock. About 5 miles downstream of camp I noticed that Kari was rowing Stuart’s boat and he looked a little tired. Pretty soon Liz and Jen both hopped on Stuart’s boat because he seemed to be having a bad asthma attack. We were in pretty flat water so the boats were spread out a bit. Stuart’s boat drifted towards the back of the group but I didn’t think anything was particularly wrong.

Just below a small set of waves I pulled over a bit to let some of the back boats catch up and saw Jamie (who was rowing Tom’s Cataraft) come flying by me trying to catch up with the boats in front of me. I knew something was bad upstream so stopped in the eddy to see what was going on. Pretty soon Jules came by in his kayak and told me that Stuart was having a major asthma attack and needed the epi-pen which was in Debbie’s boat in the front of our group.

Both Jamie and Jules headed back upriver and after waiting awhile I decided to hike upstream as well in case I could help in some way. When I got up close to Stuart’s boat I found the other trip that was camped above us hanging out waiting. One of their members was a doctor and had gone up to help with Stuart.

After what seemed like a long time, Stuart started to breathe a little easier and was able to get back on the raft. He was still pretty weak so we decided to stop just downstream at Kanab Canyon for lunch. Stuart seemed to be feeling better after lunch but Kari or Liz continued to row so he could rest.

Upper Matkat Canyon

We got to Matkat with no problems. Matkat is another really cool slot canyon carved though the canyon wall. With brightly colored canyon walls and the white rock of the creek itself, I thought this was one of the prettiest and coolest stops on the river. After climbing up the narrow slot of the creek, the canyon opens up into “The Patio” which is a huge circular bowl with huge rock walls on all sides. There is a flat area in the middle which almost looks like it was man-made. Very interesting place.

Edge of the “Patio” in Matkat Canyon

Nan and Jules in Upper Matkat Canyon

A couple of us hiked further up the canyon but we were a little limited for time at this point so we had to come back down early. I’d like to hike further up this canyon next time I do the Canyon.

The slot canyon section of Matkat Canyon

Below Makat, the Canyon narrows and is very scenic down to Upset Rapid. Upset is a big rapid with big waves leading into a big hole in the middle of the river. At this point after all the drama upstream and the long day, I was just ready to get to camp. There was an easy sneak line to the right of the hole and an aggressive left line along the wall. The left line involved threading the needle between a couple big waves/holes on the left and the hole in the middle. While scouting I was surprised to see Mike pull out and line up for the left line. Mike had been running pretty conservatively most of the trip but he fired it up for Upset with a good line and no problems. Soon after that I was surprised again when I saw Stuart’s boat pull out into the current and line up for the left line with Stuart at the oars. I heard afterwards that Stuart wanted to prove to himself that he was o.k. enough to run the rapid well. He greased it but I still wonder what would’ve happened if something had gone wrong.

Jen and I had no problems with the right-side run. I’d like to run the left line next time assuming that the timing is better than we had. Chris rowed Liz’s boat through Upset, clipped a bit of the left edge of the hole which stood the boat up on its side but with some quick high-siding, the boat flattened back out without flipping. Unfortunately, at some point during the run, Chris broke an oar.

We pulled over for camp just below Upset at Upper Ledges camp. This is the only camp we used that didn’t have a sandy beach. Instead, there are terraced rock ledges which provide some great places to sleep and set up the kitchen. There was also a small spring at one end of the camp that fell 7’ off a ledge and created a shower of clean water. I was pretty excited about this and although it was cold, it felt great to get clean at the end of a long day.

Dinner was shrimp alfredo which was great even if we ate in the dark. We had a beautiful clear night although we did get a few sprinkles at some point during the night that had me worried about getting drenched since I wasn’t using my tent.

Day 14
Upper Ledges to Upper National
I awoke to one of only a couple days with cloudy skies. This was too bad as we had planned to stop at Havasu which is a great swimming spot when the weather is nice. Havasu has a really small eddy to catch at the mouth but there isn’t a lot of current so we were able to get everyone in and tied off to the walls. There was a commercial group there already but they didn’t seem to mind us joining them.

Boats anchored in the mouth of Havasu Cr.

Havasu Cr. has beautiful turquoise water with several inviting pools and river features. Unfortunately it was a little cool, cloudy and windy so I didn’t go swimming; although a couple brave souls did hop in. While some of the group hiked further up the canyon, I decided just to hang out and relax above a nice pool. A couple rain showers blew through but it was still a pretty place to be. As I got back down to the boats for lunch, the sun came out so I took a quick swim in the clear water at the mouth of the creek before pulling back out on the river.

Havasu Cr.


Havasu Cr.

We pushed another 10 miles of mostly flatwater down to camp at Upper National which is a nice big sandy beach camp. We got there pretty early and since I had the day off from cooking, I took a short hike up National Canyon. There was some nice limestone patio and a cool, short slot canyon at the top. I was able to wade, swim and climb up the slot canyon a bit but was stopped by a 15’. The waterfall looked climbable but was a bit exposed to try by myself. I’d like to see how far the slot canyon continued above the waterfall. We also were able to make a fire tonight since it is October.

Day 15
Upper National to Honga Springs
Today was a short day of flatwater to a camp just above Lava Falls. At this point for me, it’s all about getting to Lava and seeing it in person. It is the Canyon’s signature rapid and has a lot of mystique surrounding it. We got to camp early and it was very hot. Everyone pretty much lazed in what little shade they could find at camp. I thought there might be a fresh water spring just downriver so I took the IK downstream to check it out. I found a nice hike up some big boulders but no water.

One of the Lava traditions is to leave an offering at Vulcan’s Anvil (a midstream rock just above Lava). I thought for me I’d offer up the beard I’d been growing since the start of the trip. Days ago I’d brought up the suggestion that everyone raft Lava naked in support of Bob whose dream was to raft the Canyon naked. I figured being clean-shaven and naked was a good combination. Well I didn’t figure out how difficult it is to shave almost 3 weeks of facial hair with no shaving cream and cold water. After a half hour of hacking away at it I finally finished. Boy, never again!

It was an early night for everyone in anticipation of Lava Falls in the morning and a long day afterwards.

Day 16
Honga Springs to Panchant Camp

Jen leaving a good luck offering at “Vulcan’s Anvil”(photo courtesy Jamie Butler)

Everyone was up early to get a start on Lava Falls. Jen, Jamie and I stopped to place an offering at Vulcan’s Anvil for good luck and then continued downstream to scout Lava. Everyone except Bob and Jules scouted Lava from a high cliff on the right where you can get a good overview of the line but is difficult to get a sense of the scale of the waves. I had my game face on and after a relatively short scout was ready to run it. There aren’t really a whole lot of options for Lava at our flows. Basically miss a huge hole at the top and try to hit a huge V-wave straight and then hope for the best.

Scouting the huge waves in Lava Falls

Jen and I went back down to the back to the boat and stripped down. Turned out it was just going to be us, Bob and Jamie going naked for Lava. Deb was ready to run so we pulled out behind her and headed down.

Floating into Lava is definitely intimidating. The river is flat above the rapid and then accelerates like crazy as you enter the top of the rapid. I was focused on Deb’s boat and looking for the edge of the top hole that I wanted to hit. Once I hit my mark on the top hole I was totally focused on pulling to the middle of the huge V-wave and hitting it straight. We hit the V-wave right where we wanted to be and it was a huge hit. We both tried to lean forward to keep the bow down as much as possible and then we were through and into the huge waves at the bottom of the rapid. We got pushed too far right but were able to recover and stay off the rocks at the bottom. We eddied out to wait for everyone else to run.

Jules cruising Lava Falls

Next up was Mike’s boat who had a super clean line and then Stuart and Liz who had the same good lines. I got out to take some pictures of Jamie and Bob. Bob was scouting from the left because he had hoped to run the left line which is a little more forgiving at some flows. At our flows it wasn’t a good option so he decided to run the right-side line. He got a little bit too far to the right at top and a big wave turned him sideways just above the V-wave. Bob was rowing the smallest boat of the group and didn’t have a lot of weight in his boat at this point in the trip so he didn’t have much of a chance at the V-wave if he wasn’t perfect.

Bob about to hit the V-wave

He hit the V-wave and immediately flipped. Both Tom and Jules were in kayaks so Tom got to Bob pretty quickly and started towing him to shore while Jules was able to push the raft enough into an eddy to get it to shore. I helped him tie it off to shore while the other rafts got Bob to shore and then I went up to shoot pics of Jamie. Jamie was rowing Tom’s cataraft and the first hole slowed him down a lot so that when he got to the V-wave he didn’t have enough momentum to punch through it. Eventhough he was in the right place, the cataraft stopped and did a huge tailstand before it flipped back over his head. Truly an impressive sight!

Jamie dropping into the V-wave

Jaime was able to hang onto the boat and Jules helped him get it back upright. Meanwhile Stuart, Mike and I jumped onto Bob’s boat and flipped that back over and rowed it down to where Bob was waiting with a couple other boats. When we got there I found out that Chris had jumped onto a commercial raft that had run Lava right after Bob to help get it to shore after the guide fell out and couldn’t get back in. There was only one oar left in the boat so he got stuck against the left wall in the rapid after Lava (Lower Lava) but was finally able to get it to shore.

So, after all that excitement we all finally re-grouped below Lower Lava to begin celebrating ABL (Alive Below Lava). What a great feeling!

Pete and Jen below Lava(photo courtesy Kari Sutton)

Jen and I quickly broke out some drinks to celebrate and Chris was already trying to make a major dent in his remaining beer supply. There aren’t many rapids below Lava but there sure was some quality flatwater and upstream wind to contend with. The Canyon opens up quite a bit so the scenery is less dramatic than upstream. It was a long, hard slog to camp and everyone was pretty hot and tired when we finally got there.

Stuart, Liz and Kari all smiles at camp after Lava(photo courtesy Mike Pfeuffer)

Because we’d gotten an early start, we still had plenty of daylight left when we got to camp. I played some relaxed games of “Washers” (think of horseshoes with big washers) and just hung out with some cocktails and tried not to think about getting back to the real world in a few days.

Pete and Liz getting serious about a game of Washers(photo courtesy Mike Pfeuffer)

Day 17
Panchant to Mile 220
This was probably the worst day on the river for me; very few rapids and a strong upstream wind for most of the day. At a few spots on the river it was all either Jen or I could do to move the boat downstream. It was pretty frustrating for me although we both laughed about how ridiculous it was. The scenery was better than the yesterday but still doesn’t match most of the river upstream.

Jen and Pete on the river(photo courtesy Jennifer Bury)

Debbie and Jamie stopped and hiked up Three Springs Creek about 4 miles before camp. Jen and I thought about stopping but floated past the eddy before we could decide. Had we known it was a nice swimming spot I think we would’ve made more of an effort to stop. The last 4 miles to camp was brutal work and everyone was pretty wiped by the time we got there.

Nan relaxing in camp(photo courtesy Kari Sutton)

Thankfully, though, we had plenty of time to relax before dinner and rest. The last night on the river was bittersweet for me. I certainly had a wonderful time on the river but I found it a bit difficult not to start wondering whether everything was o.k. back at home. Of course, it didn’t help that the wind blew hard all night and since I didn’t put up my tent, I had sand wedged everywhere in the morning.

Day 18
Mile 220 to Diamond Creek
Very short day on the river today since we camped only 6 miles above our take-out at Diamond Cr. We had decent current all the way to the take-out which made for an easy day on the oars. Our goal was to get there right about 10am and de-rig everything before the PRO truck got there to take us back to civilization. I think we did a really good job getting everything broken down and packed away and then we hopped in the van for the long, dusty drive back to Flagstaff and my first, wonderful hot shower in 18 days.

Canyon dreams(photo courtesty Kari Sutton)

Wonderful way to end a wonderful trip. Thanks to Mike and Carlyn for organizing and trip leading duties, Jamie for all around positive attitude and trip video and pictures, Jules for kayaker-extraordinaire, Nan, Liz, Stuart, Chris, Kari, Tom and Debbie for being great river companions and teamwork, Bob for getting it done and being such a true river person. You are my role-model! And for Jen for being such a wonderful boat partner and positive spirit for the entire trip. Thanks for putting up with me!

Do we have to leave now?(photo courtesy Jamie Butler)

Pete(photo courtesy Jennifer Bury)