[at-l] Part II 2001 Raft Trip Summary

[CrzyPlum@aol.com (CrzyPlum@aol.com)]

Follow up to nite 2 /day three. Day 3 camp was shrouded in bedding and tarps 
for the first hour or so; the hot schist and warm breezes did their thing, 
all was dry before bedtime.
Day 4 Wednesday 7/11/2001
Excellent french toast and spicy sausage then on to a day of Big Water, nice 
hikes & frolic. You can't start a day much better than this. Two short miles 
and Mike runs Granite Rapid and eddys out to let everyone on his boat have a 
close look at Kelley's boat charging thru. Kelley then takes the lead thru 
Hermit and eddys out so those on her boat can watch up close and personal as 
Mike and his gang are hermitized. I was on Kelley's boat and the next roll of 
pictures I'll put up has a great 14 shot sequence of Mike's run thru Hermit. 
On our other trips Granite & Hermit were the last two rapids of the day, 
that's nice but, running those two, first crack outta the blocks in the 
morning is one great way to start a day. Made last nites smallish campsite 
definitely worthwhile. Then we run Boucher Rapid. [We camped river left at 
the rapid on both previous trips. In '98 my watch read a temperature of 120 
setting on a piece of the schist here. It was never extremely hot on this 
years trip] After Boucher it's a short mile and we pull in to scout Crystal 
(Joe had not seen the big C at this water level, reportedly the scout was for 
his benefit). I'm glad we stopped as I'd not had a chance to see this rapid 
from ground level. Boy that's a Big Rock in the middle. How'd you like to see 
a motor rig perched atop it? A few have done it. Back to the boats; Mike 
makes a nice clean run and Kelley executes a very nice turnaround run. During 
the turnaround portion of the maneuver the back of the boat came to within a 
few feet of the boulders on the bank, well done. It is always great to be 
ABC. Onward to Tuna Creek and the rest of the gems (yes, tuna is a gem too), 
there's Agate, Sapphire, Turquoise, and Ruby followed by Serpentine, all good 
thrilling rides.
At mile 108 3/4 we nose in river right at the head of Shinumo Rapid for a 
short hike up the creek to a pleasant waterfall and a warm water shower. Back 
on the boats and down to mile 116 1/2 River left a hundred yards or so above 
Royal Arch Creek for lunch, running 110 mile,Hakatai, Waltenberg, 112 1/2, 
and Rancid Tuna rapids along the way. After lunch we move that hundred yards 
down stream to the mouth of Royal Arch Creek and tie up for a hike. It's 
funny, I enjoy what's at the end of this hike so much that I forget between 
trips just how much work and rock scrambling it takes to reach the fun. All 
three of our trips stopped here, if I ever do one that doesn't, there will be 
a twinge of regret as we float by. This is Elves Chasm, surely the little 
people live here and come out to play when the moon is bright. This place 
brings out the kid in everyone. I don't know if it is the swimming behind the 
waterfall, the climbing up the fern covered rocks while looking up thru the 
twisting slot to get a glimpse of sunlight, the struggle to get that last few 
feet to stand midway up the waterfall and survey your kingdom (yes, for old 
short legged fat boys that last few feet is hard & a tight squeeze too); 
guess it's all of them. Every time I get to that spot, which is several times 
each trip, I don't want to jump, I just want to stand there and recall all of 
the similar jumps I've made over the years from boulders, tree limbs, erosion 
cut banks, bridges, etc., into who knows how many kinds of water. But, none 
were quite like this, midway up a waterfall in a narrow fern cloaked canyon, 
fantastic. Oh well, gotta get on with it to let someone else have some fun 
too, Splash, think I'll do it again. Sorry for the lapse in the narrative but 
Elves Chasm is a special place deep inside the special place that is the 
Canyon. Several folks had to be coaxed to make the trip up to the jump the 
first time, nobody needs coaxing for the second time. I think young John 
would have stayed there till the next trip came by or longer, he made more 
jumps than the ten year old on our first trip.
By the way, ABC is Alive Below Crystal.
Back to the boats. Several miles of flat water (read boiling, direction 
changing river looking for its ocean) with a few routine rapids thrown in for 
good measure.[Cindy, hardly recall Forster/123mile, nobody went in the 
gutter, must have just been you & Mel foolin' around]. There was 
Blacktail,Forster,Fossil, Randy's Rock, 127 mile and then along comes Specter 
(Sphincter) Rapid to provide a late afternoon wakeup call followed closely by 
Bedrock Rapid (how's it look, left side of the boats). Camp is 131 1/2 River 
Right, Galloway Canyon, campsites are way spread out here. Can't believe that 
I didn't write down what was for supper. It was fantastic grilled pork chops 
but they were so good I don't remember what was with them. Again, it 
threatened rain much of the nite but only managed a lite sprinkle bout 
2:30am. Didn't get the rain suits out.
This trip was cooler than our others but the cloudy sky sure limited the 
stargazing and satellite watching.
We also camped here in '98 and the next morning took a long hike up the next 
creek down stream (Stone Creek) about a mile or so into the hike I slipped on 
a slick rock in the stream and it jumped up to meet my butt. It was very sore 
by evening and by the next morning I was black & blue from waist to part way 
down both thighs. There are some pictures around somewhere showing just how 
pretty a bruised butt looks. I spent much of the rest of that trip with my 
butt in the Colorado to let the cold water ease the swelling.
Day 5 Thursday 7/12/2001
Up to great blueberry pancakes and bacon. 
Push off to a run thru Deubendorff Rapid and a quick five miles to a stop at 
mile 136 river right, Deer Creek with a run thru Tapeats Rapid and visit with 
Helicopter Eddy and the river's narrowest point along the way. Quite a long 
play time. Some stayed at the bottom of the falls, some hiked (read climbed) 
to the Plaza area at the top of the slot portion of the canyon and some hiked 
on back to the spring. I stopped at the Plaza. The walk across the narrow 
exposed spot didn't bother me near as much as when I did it in '97. In '98 I 
sat in the river cooling me rear. Deer Creek "flashed" last Oct/Nov; the 
plaza area and the base of the falls are changed a little. My river rat son 
was on a private trip when it flashed and has pictures of red water shooting 
out several feet at the top of the falls. Also a picture from above the plaza 
area with the water level even with that narrow place in the trail. That 
means 60 feet or so of what is normally slot canyon full of wildly running 
water and debris. After play time a short two miles thru Doris Rapid to 138 
River Left for lunch just below Pancho's Kitchen (which was 5th nite camp in 
'98).
After lunch, thru Fishtail, 141 mile, & Kanab rapids to 148 river left, 
Matkatamiba Canyon. The boats nosed into the mouth and we hiked (read 
shinnied, bouldered, pushed and pulled each other) up the slot to an area 
where it widens and shelves out. There it was play and rest/relax time where 
all of the Butt Pygmies learned to make Butt Dams. My, My how the 
River/Canyon makes children of us all. I guess when you are walking on rocks 
millions and billions of years old our insignificance is rather obvious and 
lots of barriers are lowered. After play time we were shown a less 
"technical" route back to the boats. Joe and Kelley had come up that way. 
This route may have required less climbing skills but it had a stretch that 
tested this fat boys limits on exposure. If turning around hadn't been as bad 
as going forward I'd probably have gone back and retraced our incoming climb. 
We all returned safely and reboarded for a long ride across the river to 
camp. This was a quite small campsite but I didn't hear anyone snore. Maybe 
it's cause we didn't sleep to well, as this was our first and only really hot 
nite. Hot winds blew most of the nite interrupted only occasionally and 
briefly with a cool breeze from the canyon mouth across the river. Again rain 
clouds blew by most of the nite with thunder & lightening off to the North 
but we stayed dry. Could have used the cool down.
Supper was chicken fajitas.
I've gotten way too wordy.
Part III to follow.





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