Day 6 - Upset

We awoke to a beautiful cloudy morning.  As we ate breakfast and broke camp, we were happy, because the clouds are our friends protecting us from the hot and burning sun.  Temperatures have been in the 100's but on the river it feels cooler and we keep everything pretty wet to create evaporation.

Today we joined the paddle boat.  I liked it on the flat water but in the rapids, I was concentrating on rowing so much that I missed the excitement of going through the rapids.  Mark and several others jumped out and floated through 2 rapids.  They said the liked it but no one was smiling as we pulled them back into the boats.  They were pretty cold and Mark swallowed some of the river. After lunch at Kanab Creek where it was too hot and very sunny,  I switched rafts.

We came down the river and we started to see lightning and hear close thunder.

As we approached "Upset", we parked the rafts and went to scout out the rapid.  Four of us stayed on the shore and took photos of the rafts going through the rapids in the rain.  We then hiked back and shot them with Tess.  She took us right down the middle and it was crazy exciting.  We rose high up and descended down low several times.  It was so wonderful.  I loved every minute.  I'm glad I got to do this one on day 6 instead of day 2.  I would have been scared to death, but now I am so experienced, I absolutely loved it.  It was a wild ride for sure!

Mark is on the front with the paddle up

Our guide Tess

Johnsons are happy they survived Upset

It rained again as we rowed out of Upset and the canyon cooled down and looked so pretty.  We pulled into a rock ledge place to spend the night--no sand!  2500 feet of red wall sandstone greeted us right across the river.  We set up camp and then had stew and cornbread for dinner.  It was good.  We then had an impromptu guitar/song concert by Matt and Marin.  She sang a song by "The Cranberries" called Zombie that I really liked.  It got dark to the rhythm of the guitar and we one by one went off to our hard beds on the rocks.  It was just a sliver of sky with the very tall looming wall in front of us and tall walls behind us.

After getting all situated which takes some time each night, it started to rain.  I washed my face, lotioned up, cleaned my feet, rubbed in Aquafor, brushed my teeth, put my stuff away so it won't blow away, settled into bed and said our nightly prayers.  The rain felt good and I just used my sarong for a blanket so I won't get too hot.  I can get it wet if needed.  I tossed and turned and it rained at least one more time, but I awoke rested and ready for another day.

The Legdes, our bedroom for the night

Day 5 - Deer Creek Falls

A great breakfast of eggs, tortillas, tomatoes and avocados filled us up and off we went again in our rafts for another day of fun and adventure.  Today was a land day after we shot a few rapids, one named "helicopter".  There are as many eddies as there are rapids and if you get stuck in one, it is hard to get out.  We pulled out at a large waterfall, Deer Creek Falls.  There is a lot of hiking in this area, but I was content to sit at the falls and take a nap in the mist.  Mark hiked up to the top of the falls and sat in the rock thrones someone made.  

Packing up after breakfast

Deer Creek Falls

Lynn and Carol Sue napping across the falls from me

Our highly recommended rafting company

I washed my hair and sat at the confluence for a few hours alone.  I didn't really think of anything in particular, but it was wonderful.  Lynn and Carol Sue came down and joined me and Lynn had come up with a new business idea and wanted to go home right then and try it out.  He can be pretty funny.

I am acclimating to the rhythm of the days in the canyon.  We never know what time it is except we get hungry and we get sleepy.  I wake while it is still dark every morning and watch the sky.  

We had spaghetti for dinner and it was very tasty.  I also liked the gooey brownies for dessert.

There were lots of stars out, we could finely see the Milky Way.  I didn't level our campsite the way Mark does each night.  He was talking to Geoff (the Aussie), so I prepared for the night and was sorry all night.  There was too much slope and I tossed and turned all night.  Early this morning, just at sunrise, I felt a weight on my stomach and thought it was Mark's arm--just before I went to touch him, I saw a medium-to-large lizard crawling off of me.  YUCK--I wasn't too freaked out since it wasn't a snake.

Day 4 - An old, old world

After eggs cooked to order, we boarded our rafts with Kevin as our guide today.  We enjoyed hearing about Bessie and Glen Hyde (guide Brad wrote a book about them).  He is more nonchalant about the whole rowing thing and once I calmly pointed out a large rock we were headed into!  I soon learned to trust him as I had Derick and Matt our first two day's guides.  

We stopped for a small hike up a narrows canyon.  It was spectacular!  Matt, also a geologist, stepped off the billions of years as he told us of the creation of the world. When he got most of the way down the canyon, he said all of mankind's time on earth covered his big toenail.  I guess our lifetime is just a clipping!  It was impressive to think about.  I did think about the grand preparation of our beautiful world that took billions of years and that same Creator God knows my name and my needs and my gratitude.  What a mind expanding experience.

Mike and Leslie 

Matt giving our geology lesson

We saw big horn sheep most days.  I just don't know how they got there or how they go somewhere else.

Another beautiful, clean waterfall to play in.

We had a lot of rapids in the morning and stopped for a lunch of taco wraps and Mark was not so thrilled with beans for lunch.  I liked them.

The scenery is so amazing, there are not words to describe the majestic rock formations, everything is a superlative.  

We came to a rapid that the guides needed to scout out and we stopped and climbed up to check it out while they talked amongst themselves about the best technique to use and how to best shoot the rapid.  This makes me nervous, thinking they are nervous.  But they do a great job and we shot through the rapid and it was so much fun.  We pulled over right after and it was to our surprise, our camp for the night.  It was an even longer sandy beach than last night.  Mark quickly scouted out our spot next to the river away from everyone else.  The only problem was it was on the way to the portable bathroom!  Oh, and another problem was that there was just enough room for our sleeping mats to fit between the water and the rocks.  The water rose higher in the evening and as we went to bed, I had visions of floating down the river in the middle of the night.  By the time we woke up, the water had receded several feet. It is regulated at the Glen Canyon Dam for the electrical power needs of the LA and Las Vegas areas.  Lots of AC going this time of year.

We had an Asian fusion chicken meal with really good corn bread for dinner with ginger cake for dessert.  Ted and Suzie celebrated their 22nd wedding anniversary with all of us!  

With our little beach spot we were the only ones who kept cool all night.  The stars were bright and shiny but then the clouds moved in and it was a dark, dark night.

Day 3 - Whitewater

After a restless, hot and uncomfortable night, we woke up with a layer of fine sand all over us and all of our stuff--microdermabrasion for free!  We should look years younger at the end of this trip.  Here's to wrinkle free by August 1st.

Blueberry Pancakes and yogurt set us up for our day of total rapids.  We decided to ride in the front of the raft today switching with the Johnsons.  I was so brave!  We started right off with pretty great rapids.  I moved to the back with Carol Sue for a few of the bigger ones.  It was fun to see the big waves break over Mark and Lynn.  The first big rapid after breakfast was Chrystal.  We got out of our boats and hiked up a ridge to look at it and hear stories about the floods of 1983 and how boats got swallowed in "the hole".

Leslie (Stresslie)

Rebecca 

Suzie

Checking out "Chrystal Rapid"

Brad telling us about the 1983 floods

Derick, trip leader

I got braver and sat up front with Mark after lunch.  Lunch was tuna wraps.  At the lunch spot we hiked up to a 100-year-old boat stuck up on the rocks and Matt told us stories about it.

We went through "The Gems" rapids and the rapids after were so much fun.  At one point the guides asked if anyone wanted to swim the big waves and about 6 people jumped out of their boats and it looked fun until they clambered into our boat, they were so cold they couldn't breath!

We really enjoyed our guide for the day, Derick.  He told stories and showed us pictures about life on the river.   At first I wondered about his skills, he looks young and we went into a few of the rapids sideways.  But then I found out he is the trip leader and every one of our guides is an expert.  

After lunch, we tootled on over to a little bay and hiked up a spring to a waterfall.  The water was so warm and we swam around and played under the waterfall.  I took pictures of everyone under the falls.  You could go behind the falls through the rocks and then out around behind the falls.  Mark stole a kiss as it is hard to have any privacy with 27 other people around all day and all night.

McKayla, Mike, Leslie and Cole (the polite ones)

Leigh and Geoff (the Aussies)

Marin and Ryan (the youngsters)

Lynn and Carol Sue

Ted and Suzie (Ken and Barbie)

Rebecca and Jeff

Theo and his mom

Suzie, Stormy and the Testosterones

Cole

Mckayla

Rebecca

We shot some more rapids and then pulled over on a big sand dune at Blacktail Canyon for the evening and night.  Hamburgers, bratwurst, salad and the chocolate chip cookies were so good.  I wouldn't mind if we ate those every dinner.  Rapids and water make one hungry!

 Before dinner, a windstorm came up with lightning, thunder and a little rain.  The sand was blasting our legs so hard, it hurt.  It passed quickly and they night was calm and cool and we slept well.  Today was quite a bit cooler with cloud cover all day--quite a surprise and delight!  I loved the rapids that were big but rolling up and down with a rhythm.  

Mark and Lynn enjoying the beautiful evening

The Lyons preparing for the evening

Our bedroom for the night

Ryan helping the sore leg muscles

The Groover

Wash your hands after using the facilities

Mike

The Dawson Family

Lynn says, "Embrace your inner dog"--don't know what happened yesterday and have no idea what will happen today.  We are starting to embrace.