Wednesday 29th September 2010 by Dan –
My alarm went off at 5:45am. I woke to round up the breakfast crew that that I was part of. It was still twilight, not many other people were up yet and I was still sleepy. On my way down to the beach from my tent I saw the dark shape of something in the sand on the trail in front of me. It was a snake! As I fumbled to find the switch on my headlamp it quickly started moving to the side. It went up the bank to the side of the trail, and then as I managed to turn my light on I saw its dark ringed tail disappear into a small hole in the bank. I think it was a Gopher snake.
Today was a good day. I was feeling more comfortable in my boat. I ran a couple of rapids without incident. I flipped twice near the end of the day. The first was in swirly water near the eddy line while filming. I was rescued in a joint effort by Erin and Jim. Soon after that swim I flipped again in the next unexpected read-and-run rapid while following Erin. The second flip was my first conscious awareness of lateral waves.
For lunch we stopped at the beach near the Nankoweap Canyon where it is possible to hike to the Puebloan granaries in the rock face high above the river. I left my solar panel out changing our camera batteries and we headed off in the hot sun.
The hike did not take too long. The trail was well established and the upper section was partially in the shade. The granaries themselves were interesting to see, but what was even more impressive was the view of the river and canyon from this level.
After the hike we ate lunch and continued out journey down the river. We paddled almost 9 more miles until we reached the campsite above the Little Colorado River at river mile 62.
The LCR as it’s known was running brown, which we knew was going to change our paddling experience for the days to come.
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