Grand Canyon - Day 13

Thursday, October 7th - Day 13 - by Erin

For the first morning in several days, we woke up to actual sunshine! The only difficulty was there had been a heavy dew the previous night, so everything that had been left out to dry was actually wetter, but at least we had sunshine!

After breaking camp, we paddled about 100 yards downstream to the mouth of Blacktail canyon. Blacktail is an incredible canyon made up of layers of Tapetes sandstone. As with many narrow side canyons, Blacktail ended with a waterfall. Flattened vegetation and deep rivulets gave evidence of the flood that must have pounded through the narrow canyon after the torrential rainfall.

After leaving the canyon, it was rapid after rapid. Dan swam in Forster and then we both swam in a really swirly "riffle" around mile 124. The third rapid, Fossil, was one of the most exciting of the day - it was a really long rapid with several S-curves. For some reason we didn’t follow our usual order and all of the rafts and kayakers ended up going into the rapid in a bit bunch. Dan flipped early on and ended up swimming. None of the kayakers could quite get to him because we were still in the middle of the rapid, but Dad threw him a throw bag and he and Dan pulled him on to the yellow raft in the middle of the rapid. I am not sure where his boat ended up but I think it was pulled on to a different raft. Shortly after that we stopped for lunch on a small beach. It was sunny, but really windy so it still felt quite cool.

Immediately after lunch was another unnamed rapid with one huge wave and some super-swirly water. It flipped me and I ended up swimming. I popped up, but was sucked back underwater by a massive whirlpool of water – talk about disconcerting! I actually had to kick to get back up to the surface. Tim later told me that while upside down in the kayak there was actually a moment when it looked like my whole boat had been sucked into the vortex – yikes!

The rest of the afternoon was great! We started our new "quick scout" program where we all piled on shore took a 3-5 minute look at the rapid and jumped back in the boats. We went through Specter - no problems remembered, Bedrock - also no problems except that several of the rafts passed quite close to the rock but it made for good film :-)

Next up was Dubendorff . In my opinion, Dubendorff was one of the more impressive rapids on the river. For whatever reason (probably because it had just rained for days and the river was swollen with water), the waves appeared immense and the river wide and turbulent at this particular spot. We spent a bit longer looking at Dubendorff and assessing the best route around the massive hole at the bottom of the rapid on river left. The first plan was to attempt cutting right across the tongue, but on closer look, there was concern that the current within the tongue was too strong and would be very difficult to cross. Instead, we all ended up taking the far more manageable, far right route through Dubendorff - except for Michael who braved the left route and managed to skirt the massive hole on river left. The far right route was still plenty exciting, but it kept us all – rafts and kayakers – well clear of the hole.

We kept going after Dubendorff through several smaller rapids. On our way, we passed the Beckwith group and stopped to ask about Sam's life jacket - which they returned but with no knife. We continued through Granite Narrows which is the canyon’s narrowest point at 76 feet across. It is incredible that this is the narrowest point and the river is still huge! We ended up camping at OC's. It had been one of our longer days and we had covered around 17 miles. Everyone was pretty tired, but we were able to get camp set up and a dinner of fish tacos cooked in no time. Great day!

Grand Canyon - Day 12

Wednesday, October 6th - Day 12 - by Erin

I definitely slept better than last night when we were flooded out, but not great. I felt like I was waiting all night for the storms to start up again! Luckily the weather seems to be clearing up a bit. I dragged myself out into the drizzly morning to help with breakfast. Under Michael's direction, we made egg sandwiches with sliced oranges. We also prepared fresh tabouleh for lunch.

It turned into a cool, damp morning, but we managed to get the tents packed up and everything loaded on the boats before it started to pour. I tried to do a pre-water warm up on the beach to get ready for our first rapid of the day, Emerald, which was right at our doorstep, but unfortunately its utility was marginal. Emerald rapid had surprisingly massive waves and it wiped me out pretty quickly. A huge lateral wave rolled me right over. It was not much fun to swim on the first rapid on a cold morning, but at least I was the only swimmer. I was quickly pulled to shore and Michael helped to empty my kayak which was much appreciated. Unfortunately because the morning was cold and drizzly, I started to get cold quite quickly.

Next up was Ruby, the last of the gems. I did not see what happened, but Dan ended up swimming. I made it through as did all of the kayakers and rafts. We went through several smaller rapids and riffles before arriving at Serpentine. Sadly, Serpentine did not go so well for me and I swam after getting flipped by a large wave. Luckily, the expert rescue squad was ready and pulled me to shore. I was getting extremely cold at this point and Jim very kindly offered to lend me his farmer john dry suit. I was worried that he would get cold and did not want to accept, but my shivers outweighed my worry and we quickly changed. The farmer john made a HUGE difference and I finally started to warm up for the first time all day.

We stopped for lunch at Shinumo creek just as the sun was peeking out from behind the clouds. What a reaction that got! Everyone was smiling and laying out wet clothes to dry. Before eating lunch and pumping water, we hiked up Shinumo Canyon. It was not a long hike and most of it involved walking up the creek bed through a narrow, little canyon. It was a beautiful canyon that ended in a spectacular waterfall! Several people jumped into the pool beneath the waterfall and enjoyed a fresh water shower. I was still too chilled to jump in another cold pool of water, but it was funny to see everyone’s wetsuits fill with water!

Just as we finished lunch, it started to rain again, so we quickly got back on the river. We were all wearing water clothes anyway, so it was the best place to be in the rain. We went through several small rapids before reaching Waltenberg. We stopped to scout Waltenberg and then went through. The goal for the kayakers was to ferry right to miss a hole at bottom center. I started off ok and even scored a combat roll, but unfortunately, I didn’t make it far enough right and ended up going through the hole sideways, so I was back upside down and swimming before I knew it. Jim also swam at Waltenberg after going through the same hole. Luckily for me (but maybe unluckily for him), I was still wearing his semi-dry farmer john, so I stayed relatively warm and dry even though it was my third swim of the day. All of the other kayakers and rafts made it through in good form.

As we were going through Waltenberg, the rain was pounding down and it even started to hail, but it did not last for long. Before we knew it the sun was back out and we were able to see some spectacular waterfalls throughout the afternoon. We stopped for a quick hike at Elves Chasm. It was a beautiful little spot with a lot of fun rocks to clamber over on the way back to a waterfall and a pool.

We were aiming for one of the Blacktail camp sites and were hoping to get in before dark. We ended up stopping at 120-mile campground which is just above Blacktail Canyon. It was a huge campsite with lots of room for everyone to spread out. We are getting very good at setting camp up quickly and dinner served in no time. The only thing that took a bit longer to cook tonight was the gingerbread cake, but everyone who stayed awake to eat a slice thought it was delicious!