Day 8 - The Big Stuff

Day eight was by far the biggest of the big water days. On that day we ran three of the canyon’s big six rapids. After you finish the big three there is still a lot of white water left. There is a series of rapids called the jewels. Each rapid is named after a different jewel. Rapids include Sapphire, Ruby, Turquoise as well as others. It is a pretty good stretch all by itself.

While we were getting ready in the morning one of our passengers, Marley asked if I had a plan for running Granite. This was before the morning scout, but after having seen the rapid the night before. My response was, “Yeah, I’m going to pick a spot and then pray.” I had never before seen a rapid quite like Granite. It was like the whole stretch of river was in chaos. There were not many spots that looked completely un-runable, but the river was full of waves that I would not hit on purpose either. In picking my line I think I mostly exercised faith in the more experienced rafters. I was pretty nervous about this rapid, because I do like having a better plan than hang on and pray. It turned out to be one of the best rides of the river.

Scouting Granite

Granite Rapid

The next rapid of the big six that we would hit was Hermit. Hermit is kind of interesting. The main part of the rapid is a nice wave train. The defining feature of Hermit is the fifth wave. It is huge, and it surges. You do not want to arrive at the fifth wave at the wrong part of the surge. We ran it at a fairly forgiving water level. I have heard many stories about the fifth wave flipping several boats in the same group. In a lot of ways Hermit had the same strategy as Granite. So I picked my spot and hoped for the best. It was a bumpy ride, but ultimately it was a good one.

The Fifth Wave Surging

Crystal rapid was the next big one for the day. Boy is it a big one. It is also one of the newer rapids on the river. It was formed by a flash flood in the sixties. It is the second highest rated rapid on the river. It is also the deadliest on the river. At the top of the rapid there is a debris fan on river right, a large eddy with a pourover on river left, and some gargantuan holes down the middle.

Some of the holes on Crystal

Our run was on the right side of the river. There are some rocks at the top of the rapid on river right. We started out just right of center at the top of the rapid. My stern was pointed downstream and to the right. After we passed the rocks I made my move to break through the tongue. After watching the first boat through I decided that I wanted to wait a little bit longer for the breakthrough. It is kind of a tough thing to wait. When you wait on this part of the rapid the current is pushing you toward the big holes. In this case patience paid off. My line was a lot easier than it would have been. It was a straight shot to the right side. From there my run was clear except for a submerged rock that briefly caught us.

My Boat after having made it through the first part

At the bottom of the rapid there is a large rock garden. It is the rock garden that really makes the rapid dangerous. It can easily trap boats and people after a bad run. A month early a commercial boat lost power in Crystal. The large boat got stuck on the rock known as big red, and was stuck there all night. The passengers were rescued by helicopter the next day. Our run was considerably better than that. I made the pull to the right of the rocks and all was well.

It is funny. When we were talking about favorite rapids that evening, everyone looked at me like I was crazy when I said Crystal was my fave. A good run through Crystal is not much of a ride. For me it was a good and a boring run, but there was a feeling of triumph about hitting a rapid like that just how I wanted to. I have literally known about this rapid for seven years. Adrienne’s family made a CD for the last run through the Grand Canyon. One of the songs was ABC by the Jackson Five. For the rafters ABC signified being Alive Below Crystal.

Even with three big rapids and three scouts to go with them we made pretty good time. We decided to break plan and keep running straight through to camp. The main reason is that our intended destination, Bass Camp, is extremely popular. This meant that we would not be able to have our planned lunch of tuna sandwiches, on Tuna Beach, below Tuna Rapid. You can’t win them all!

It is really too bad that the Jewels come right after such an intense section of river. They were some pretty fun rapids. After the big three I think I may have been to worn out to enjoy them.

Our camp that evening was another hot one. Some people went on hikes in the area, but I was too wiped out. I spent the afternoon reading and sleeping. That night we decided to pull out the black lights. They are for finding scorpions. It was kind of scary because we found a lot of them. I guess that is one of the advantages of sleeping on the boat.

Deso Trip, Day 5

Day five was pretty mild rapids. We were a little behind were we wanted to be so we were up early and trying to get on the river and get moving so that we could get home at a decent time. We spent the day rowing and had a few water fights along the way, which helped make the time go faster. We rafted up for lunch instead of pulling off to save time and got to the take-out around 2:00 pm.

My mom's trailer had broken down close to the put-in when Nick and Joey had taken off to run shuttle our first night. Luckily my mom had a Sat phone and was able to work things out for us to get a trailer to bring the boats and gear home in, thanks to her friend, Lee.

The last day you're always anxious to get off the river and home. Usually by the end of a trip everyone knows how to help and work together to get things done quickly and by 3:30 we were loaded up and headed home.

I was pretty anxious to see Max and Emily. I have the best in-laws in the world, who offered to bring our kids to our house instead of us having to drive the 2 hour round trip to pick them up, so we were able to get most of our stuff unpacked and put away before they got here. Max seemed pretty excited to be home and was his usual self, but Emily wanted nothing to do with me and would cry when I held her. It was pretty late when they got home so after Jeff's parents took off we put them to bed and she had mostly warmed back up to me the next morning and only wanted Mom tonight when Jeff got home, so I guess things are back to normal.

It was a great trip and so relaxing. Jeff did a great job rowing, I was so proud of him! Shannan said to me a couple of times that he looked as happy as a clam the entire time, and I think she was right. I especially enjoyed watching how much fun Kaitlyn and Rachael had. It made me so excited to bring Max and Emily in a few years.

Deso Trip, Day 4

Day four was my favorite part of the trip as far as rapids go. We had Joe Hutch rapid that day, which has become pretty big after a flash flood carried some big boulders into the river from a side canyon last year. It was probably the most technical and scary of all the rapids we faced and I was really nervous to run it. The last multi day trip I went on six years ago my mom, Jeff, and I flipped in Big Drop 2 on Cat and ended up riding through Big Drop 3 on the bottom of our boat. I've been a little scared of rapids since then.

The oarsman decided that Kaitlyn and Rachael should walk the rapid with their mom, and I admit that I wanted to walk the rapid, too, but I felt like I needed to be in Jeff's boat supporting him on his first big rapid. He did so great and hit the rapid just how he wanted to! I don't have any pictures, but I'll post some video that Shannan took when I get a copy.

After lunch the boys were ready to let someone else ride in the duckies, so Vanessa and Shannan took the two man and I took the one man. We had a couple of bigger rapids (Wire Fence and Three Fords) coming up and I was a little nervous being in a duckie all by myself, but I thought it probably wouldn't be to bad since the water level was pretty low.

Wire Fence and Three Fords have always been two of my favorite rapids on Deso since they have some nice big waves. I was getting more and more nervous as we got closer, but kept trying to tell myself I could do it and to just dig in. Wire Fence was big but fun and I thought that Three Fords would be about the same. Three Fords is really close after Wire Fence and as we were coming up on it, Shannan, Vanessa and I were starting to get really worried. The water basically funneled down the far right side of the river, being blocked by rocks all along the left side. As we were coming up on the rapid we could just see a big drop and lots of water spraying up. I thought for sure I was going to flip over as I watched Shannan and Vanessa go down the tongue and drop into the rapid. All I could think was, "Oh Crap!" and then, "Dig In!" as I followed them in. There were some huge waves and it was a fun and bumpy ride. I can't believe none of us ended up in the water and we all three hooped and hollered when we realized we had made it through. A couple of people told me later that it looked like my duckie caught air as I went up that first big wave. It was such a rush! My only disappointment is that I didn't get a photo or video of me riding through that rapid.

That night in camp we got a picture of everyone's Chaco tans. (Except Rachael and Dalin who weren't wearing Chacos.)

Deso Trip, Day 3

The rapids were bigger and funner this day, but still nothing too big.

Our campground that night was by Chandler Falls Rapid and was my favorite of our whole trip. We had a nice sandy beach and played a lot of horse shoes.

Jeff and I beat Dalin and Nick at horse shoes, which was another one of the highlights of the trip for me. They were both pretty cocky about their ability to beat us, which I'm sure added to the pleasure of winning! ;)

Deso Trip, Day 2

Day two we stopped to see some petroglyphs and a moonshiners cabin. We hit our first rapids, but nothing very big. The middle section of this trip is very pretty and we had a great campsite right below Firewater Rapid that night.

Rachael loved the rapids and just wanted more.

Kaitlyn loved playing games and talking at night in camp. She was always setting up everyone's chairs in a circle and trying to get everyone to sit down and play a game, any game. She didn't care what it was as long as we played something!

The highlight of the day was when we got to see a group of big-horned sheep run down the cliffs close to sunset. I didn't get any pictures with my camera, but it was amazing!

Deso Trip, Day 1

Jeff and I spent the last five days rafting on the Green River through Desolation and Gray Canyons. It was beautiful and relaxing and so much fun. It was the maiden voyage for our boat and Jeff's first time rowing an oared boat. He did so great!

This is the first multi day trip that we've taken since we've gotten married. The last time was in 2003 about a month before we got engaged when Jeff went down Cataract Canyon with my family. It makes me a little sad that it's been so long since I've been on the river, but what can you do when for the last four years I've been pregnant or nursing?

I dropped the kids off Thursday around noon at Jeff's brother's house. I admit that I cried a little as I drove away. That afternoon we took off from my mom's house and headed to the put-in. This is my fifth trip down Deso and was by far my favorite. Usually Sandwash (the put-in) has so many mosquitoes that you stay in your tent as much as possible and are miserable the entire time you are rigging your boat. This trip they were really mild in comparison and I even slept outside on my cot the first night.

It took us a little longer than usual to get rigged and off the first morning since Jeff and I had to rearrange some stuff on our boat. The first day is all flat water so we spent all day rowing and playing in the water.

We had twelve people on our trip: my mom, my sister Shannan and her two girls, Kaitlyn and Rachael, my brother-in-law Brian and his brother, Craig, and Brian's friends/neighbors Nick, Joey, and Dalin, my cousin Vanessa, and Jeff and I.