Day 6 (cont.)
Another tough day on the Canyon

When we finally reached the river again after hiking down Lava Canyon we were all pretty tired and it was 4:30. We still hadn’t eaten lunch so we got out some snacks and made some
sandwiches and waited for the other group to arrive from upriver. They came in about a half an hour after us. After they fueled up with some food, we pushed off again to try and cover another 4 miles to camp. We actually camped around Basalt (lower Basalt I think) which was a huge sandy bench. It was really warm but not much wind at night which made for a good night sleep for me.

Carlyn and Jen near the top of Carbon Creek

I felt everyone’s morale was a bit low from the long day but once we hit camp everyone pitched in and got dinner going and things were looking up. I think this is something our group did pretty well for the whole trip. When we needed to, everyone worked together and helped make the best out of any situation. This is something a lot of Grand Canyon trips have trouble with as the trip goes on.

Day 7
Basalt to Grapevine
This was a great day on the river. We got an early start because we were hoping to cover 13 miles and had a few big rapids. The first big rapid was just downstream at Unkar. Everyone got out for a long scout and Jen just about stepped on a rattlesnake. There were a couple groups
scouting at the same time so most everyone took some time to ogle the snake. I was a little more concerned with the rapid. Unkar is probably the first rapid I really felt had Grand Canyon size proportions. Huge waves up against a huge rock wall on the left. Like most Grand Canyon
rapids there was a good sneak on the right. Jen and I decided to try to go just to the right of the biggest wave and had a good ride through. Everyone else skirted a bit to the right with good results.

A short stop for lunch and a couple more rapids and we stopped to scout Hance. Hance is intimidating for a first timer because it is pretty long and there is some stuff to avoid both at the top and the bottom. The usual move is to come in right, hit or skirt a couple holes and
then pull left all the way to miss a big hole at the bottom in the middle of the river. I missed the move a bit at the top but with a lot of work was able to miss the bottom hole. Bob had a textbook run making the pull to the left look easy. Debbie decided to just come right down
the middle and gut the bottom hole. They got a huge hit but came through just fine. Hance was one of my favorite rapids of the trip.

In Upper Granite Gorge

About a mile below Hance we entered Upper Granite Gorge with dark, black walls coming down right to the water. At the beginning of the gorge section is Sockdolager Rapid. I didn’t really have a clue what this rapid was like and there wasn’t much of an opportunity to scout so
Jen and I figured we’d aim for the biggest wave in the rapid and see what happened. It turned out to be a great run with a long series of huge waves. Shortly below this we stopped to camp at Grapevine. Grapevine is an awesome camp with a small beach below an overhanging canyon wall. Just beautiful.

Grapevine Camp-one of my favorites

Since we had some time before dinner, those of us not on dinner duty took a raft across the river in order to hike up Vishnu Cr. This was a short but pleasant hike up a nice slot canyon. We rowed back across the river as the sun was setting. We were sharing this site with a small group that wasn’t having the best of luck on their trip. They had flipped a raft in House Rock Rapid and it took over 2 hours to flip it back upright. This caused them to lose some of their ice in one of the coolers. Not something you want to happen on day 7 of an 18 day trip. They were nice folks and a couple of them joined us for the hike.

Cool geology on Grapevine Creek

Full Moon at Grapevine

Day 8
Grapevine to Granite
Today was a great day. We got an early start because we wanted to stop at Phantom Ranch for a bit and we also had a couple big rapids to run. The Canyon is just gorgeous through this section and there are lots of fun rapids spaced pretty evenly throughout. The Weather was perfect as well.

We got to Phantom ranch a bit before noon and everyone except me hiked up to the ranch to make phone calls, send postcards or just see the ranch and hang out. I spent the time filling water jugs, taking a good bath, and reading a book. It was quite relaxing and enjoyable for me
and I wasn’t really all that jazzed to see civilization at the ranch anyway. Jen came back down to the beach and gave me some lip balm she bought. What a sweetie! I’d forgotten to bring lip sunscreen so my lips were showing some wear and tear.

The river below Phantom Ranch seemed to get faster and pushier with several fun rapids until we got out to scout Horn Rapid. Horn has a couple different options depending on how big you want to go. The rain from several days ago had finally raised the river so we had brown, high water for Horn. The big line down the right looked too risky so everyone decided to run between the “horns”; between two big rocks at the top and through a big hole. I was a little nervous about this one because it looked pretty big from the top but it didn’t require any real maneuvering except getting lined up at the top.

Tom lines up for the big hit in Horn Rapid

Debbie comes through the big hole with Jaime riding the bow

I had both Nan and Jen riding with me (Nan had developed some tendonitis in her wrist and forearm from kayaking) and we watched and took photos of everyone before hiking up for our run. This was the first rapid for I wore a helmet for. Don’t know why but it felt like a big rapid to me. Some hard pulling got me out to the middle of the river and then I had to figure out where the rocks were. This was a bit difficult because they were covered by water but I got to a good place and accelerated down the tongue into the big hole between the rocks. We took a huge hit at the hole but came through just fine covered with gritty, chocolate-brown water.

Deep in the Canyon below Horn Rapid

Mike and Tom decided to stop a bit early at a small camp right above Granite Rapid hoping that the water level would fall a bit and make Granite better. I wasn’t all that excited about listening to Granite all night and being nervous about running it first thing in the morning so as soon as we hit the beach I hiked downstream to take a look. I was happy to see that Granite, although having huge waves, seemed like a pretty straightforward rapid. Having eased my concerns for the evening and having the day off from camp duty, I decided to explore Monument Cr. which was just next door to camp.

I started up the riverbed and was happy to see some water in places. The canyon wasn’t too impressive to start but seemed to get better the further up I went. Far ahead of me was a huge wall which looked like a really cool place to hang out. It drew me further and further up the canyon. Eventually I realized that the wall was too far away and I wasn’t going to have enough daylight to get there and back so I thought maybe I would just climb up one of the walls next to the river and traverse back to camp. I started up what looked like a break in the wall that would get me up to a grassy flat area at the base of another wall. Once on the grassy area I thought I’d be able to traverse back to camp. I got almost to the top of the wall and had to do a move with a fair amount of exposure in order to get to the top. At about that time I also dislodged a rather large rock and got to watch as it rolled and crashed a long way to the bottom of the canyon. That was enough to get me to really look at the situation I was in and decide to head back down and take the long way out. I got back to camp about a 1/2 hour after sunset to find Liz and Jen just about to head out looking for me. Chastened from making them worry about me, I sat down in the dark to eat a great dinner.

Day 9
Granite to New Shady Grove
This was the big rapid day; Granite, Hermit and Crystal. We got a slow start in the morning which, for me, was a bit frustrating. I hate waiting around when I know I’ve got some big rapids to run. Makes me too nervous. I think there would be some real benefits to doing a simpler trip with less elaborate food and fewer people. Focus on hiking as much as possible and less time spent setting up and taking down camp and rigging the rafts. More kayaks and less rafts would help too.

I was itching to go once we finally got off the beach and we had a great run down through Granite. Huge waves coming off the right wall that can flip a raft if you aren’t careful but like most of the rapids, the current is moving so fast that you are done before you know it. Next up was Hermit which has some of the biggest waves on the trip. Nothing dangerous so the trick for me was to find the biggest, best ride through the rapid. This was a bit hard because the boat got pushed around a bit and you can’t hit all the waves. Jen had a great ride standing up in the bow. Debbie rode the bull through Hermit and fell off the front about halfway through. All good fun!

Jen still standing at the bottom of Hermit

We stopped for a long scout at Crystal Rapid. This is one of the signature rapids in the Grand Canyon. It has a couple big holes near the middle of the river and then some big waves that push into a wall on the left at the bottom. There was a commercial trip, a kayaking trip
and another private trip there so I got the chance to see both kayaks and rafts run the rapid before we did. There are 3 main options for rafts; sneak the big holes on the right which is pretty easy, gut the holes down the middle (hardly anyone does this), or run left of the big holes and then pull away from the wall at the bottom. This line has some pretty big waves but gets you past the biggest stuff.

Most of the commercial rafts ran the left line but several of them had some difficulty pulling back to the middle to miss the wall at the bottom on the left. One boat almost flipped on the wall. We watched Mike and Carlyn also hit the wall and almost dump themselves out of the boat.

After watching a bunch of people run it, Jennifer and I decided the left line looked good. I wanted to punch though a big hole in the middle on the top and then try and catch the left edge of the biggest hole in the middle rather than sneaking everything on the left. We shoved off, lined up and hit the first hole right on line but it stopped us cold and pushed us to the left of the biggest hole. Still, we were in good position to pull away from the wall. It was more work
than I thought it would be but we cleared the wall pretty well. Bob got a bit hung up making the move to the right at the top but Jules gave him some help and he did fine the rest of the way.

The author hard at work somewhere in the Canyon

After re-grouping at the bottom of Crystal we spent the rest of the day running the rest of the “Gems” section (rapids are named after gemstones). This was a great section with really good scenery and fun, big rapids spaced evenly throughout. The camp at New Shady Grove was a
bit small and didn’t have a lot of level spots. I didn’t sleep very well at all.

Day 10
New Shady Grove to Big Dune

This was a great day with the last of the “gems” rapids; Emerald, Ruby, Serpentine and some others like Walthenberg. The scenery is this section is very similar to parts of the Owyhee with bright orange outcrops and cool geology. One of the highlights of the day was stopping at Shimunano Cr. which has a good flow of fresh water. We wanted to fill up water jugs but more importantly, swim in clean, clear water! After 10 days on the river I think everyone was starting to get worn down at this point. Part of that for me is never really feeling that clean. The Colorado is cold and filled with silt so while you can do some general cleaning, it’s not very satisfying. Clear water is rare in the canyon so when we got to Shimunano we were like kids in a candy store.

Jen and Liz head up to swim at Shimunano

Bob enjoying some clean water (look at that smile!)

Shimunano has a small waterfall and deep pool only 25 yards from the main river so it is easy to hike up and take some time to swim around and relax. We had great hot weather so the water was really comfortable. Most of us took turns getting under the falls and letting the water pound on us or jumping off the waterfalls into the pool. Most of the ladies took the opportunity to take some water back to the boats and do a bucket bath with soap. We also had some lunch so afterwards everyone was in good spirits as we headed down the river.

Mike under the falls at Shimunano

Our next stop was at a place called Elves Chasm. This was one of my top sights to see on the trip so I immediately headed up the creek; scrambling up a couple waterfalls and over some boulders. Elves is very beautiful with sculpted grottos with pretty waterfalls and clear pools.
Once everyone got up to the top waterfall a few people started swimming behind the falls where you could climb up a chimney and then jump into the pool from the top of the falls. I wasn’t so excited about jumping but after some encouragement from Nan, both Jen and I decided to give
it a go along with Jaime. There were ferns and cool colored rocks in the chimney; really magical. And then we worked our way out to the jump spot. It’s only about a 10′ jump but I had some real hesitation about jumping because the water wasn’t completely clear so I couldn’t see the
bottom. Pretty much the same situation as when I broke my knee in Costa Rica. After an embarrassingly long time, I took the plunge; purposely leaning back so I would land a little more on my butt and not go as deep in the pool. Of course the pool is deep and there were no issues
but I definitely got my excitement for the day!

Elves Chasm

After Elves Chasm we headed down another couple miles to a nice camp below some great sculpted rock walls. Before dinner Nan, Jules and Jaime climbed up to a cool overlook while I hiked up a huge rock pile further upstream. Nice views of the river and our camp.

Day 11
Big Dune to Talking Heads
Today was a long day (15 miles) but pretty easy. We had just enough rapids to keep things moving along and interesting. Scouted the 3 big ones today (Spector, Bedrock and Dubendorff) and saw a rattlesnake on the beach while scouting Dubendorff. Spector was really fun with a fast entrance to some big waves. We had lunch at Bedrock and watched a group in front of us get stuck on rocks trying to make the move away from the bad left channel. At lunch we had a heated discussion of how the schedule for the rest of the day would work. Just downstream are two very popular hikes; Thunder River and Deer Cr. We couldn’t really figure out a way to accommodate everyone without splitting up. We finally decided that some of us would hike Thunder River that night and meet up with everyone else at camp. As it turned out it wouldn’t matter anyway as our plans changed at Dubendorff Rapid.

More amazing scenery

Dubendorff is a long rapid with some big waves up at the top on the left and some more big waves toward the bottom in the middle. At this point in the trip some of us were trying to hit rapids pretty big so I lined up to go down the middle the whole way. At the bottom we were waiting for Bob’s run as he was a little nervous. He wanted to pull to the right and miss the biggest waves in the rapid because he had the smallest boat in the group and he didn’t have as much weight as he did in the beginning of the trip. This is a perfect recipe for a flip if you miss your line. Unfortunately he was a little bit too far to the middle at the top and once there it is pretty hard to move away from the big waves at the bottom. He hit a big wave a little crooked and that was all it took for him to go up and over.

Tom and Jules were out to the boat pretty quick in their kayaks and helped get Bob to another raft while the rest of us scrambled to push the raft to shore. We finally got it to shore and with the help of some ropes, got it back upright. All the gear and oars were still in place-nice rigging Bob! Bob was a little shaken and cold so while he got into some dry clothes we decided it was late enough in the day that we should stop at the first available camp and give Bob a chance to recover.

The camp actually turned out to be pretty nice with a good, short side canyon hike. I was able to scramble up to a broad plateau above the camp and get some nice views. I hung out in the sun and relaxed for awhile until it was time for dinner. After the heated discussion at lunch I think everyone was feeling the need to get some alone time and just chill for a bit. We talked about hiking the next day and decided that if Debbie and I could tow a couple boats from Thunder River to Deer Creek, it would allow a group of folks to hike up to Thunder River, over the top and down Deer Creek. I was o.k. with this because I didn’t think my knee would make the long hike anyway and it sounded like a good challenge getting two boats downriver. Plus, some people really wanted to do this hike so it was nice to help out.

With the hiking logistics resolved, everyone was in better spirits in the morning and we pushed off. Tapeats Cr. (beginning of the Thunder River hike) was just downstream from camp so we tied 4 boats to shore and set out on the hike while Mike, Bob, and Tom took their boats down to Deer Cr. I started hiking early because I wanted to get back to the river with enough time to get 2 boats downstream. The hike up Tapeats is very pretty and follows the river almost the whole way. Lots of up and down and then a long uphill climb up Thunder River. My knee was pretty tired at this point but I wanted to get up far enough for a view of Thunder River so pushed it pretty hard. The source of Thunder River comes right out of the rock wall and cascades down to Tapeats Cr. over a long series of waterfalls. Very pretty.

The source of Thunder River

I got up to a good view and then started heading back down. Going downhill was harder on my knee than the uphill so I was limping pretty good and wondering how long it was going to take me to get back down to the boats. Pretty soon I met Debbie coming up and she was happy to turn around and head back with me as her knee was bothering her as well. We stopped to cool off in the creek several times on the way back and eventually made it back to the boats.

Nice view on the way down from Thunder River

After a snack and drink, I tied up my boat to the back of Liz’s boat and pushed out into the current to try and figure out how to get both boats through a couple short rapids without hitting rocks or getting pushed into a bad place. I quickly realized that this wasn’t going to be that easy. Having so much drag behind me really made it difficult to maneuver. I had to keep spinning around alternating between backing the boat and pushing the boat. After awhile I got a good rhythm and while we got some strange looks from some commercial guides, I thought we did pretty well. It was a lot of work, though; particularly when we hit flat water and an upstream wind as we approached Deer Cr.

Deer Cr. is a very popular stop in the Grand Canyon. There is a beautiful waterfall right near the river and then you can hike up higher to some great views of both the river and Deer Cr. I was pretty spent when we got to Deer Cr. so I decided just to hang out, swim and relax at the bottom waterfall while Debbie hiked up to one of the upper views. It was pretty interesting to watch all the other people visit Deer Cr. I’ve been noticing ever since the Nankoweap hike that the average age of folks boating the Grand seems to be mid-50s or so. Lots of people older than that too.

Camp at Pancho’s Kitchen-one of my favorite camps

Eventually all the hikers showed up and we headed about a half mile downstream to camp where they had snacks all set out. Camp tonight was at Pancho’s Kitchen which is a really great camp. A huge overhanging wall that I set my sleeping pad under. Very little wind and very pretty. Unfortunately dinner was one of the worst we’d had so far. Canned ham just didn’t work for me and others. The huge pot of mac and cheese we made to go with it was pretty good though. We also had a huge thing of cheese cake for dessert.

Nan and the infamous cheese cake