Max picked out a Polly Pocket mermaid for Emily. She spent the rest of the evening "swimming" and singing for her little mermaid. Emily picked out a monster truck for Max. It's one of those cars that you can pull back and it will then propel itself forward. It was fun to see how excited they were to give their presents to each other.
I really thought that after we finished day eight that it would be mostly quiet, but then the next day I kept hearing about bedrock and Dubendorf. I vaguely remembered reading about Dubendorf, but I did not have any recollection of Bedrock.
Bedrock was the second of the main rapids that we went through on day 10. On most rapids there is usually some kind of comparison, but of the rapids I have rowed I think that Bedrock is unique. At the start the river it is going strait. As you enter the main rapid the river makes an abrupt right hand turn. In the middle of the river is a giant rock. Most of the water is flowing around the left of the rock. That is where the current is trying to take you, but it is not where you want to go. At the top of the left run there is a strong recirculating eddy with a narrow chute to try and make it through at the bottom. The right is an easier run, but there are a lot of boulders close to shore. For a good run you wait until you are past the rocks and then pull hard to the right.
The run went how I hoped, but it sure did not feel like it was going to. I waited until I was past the last boulder on the right and then started rowing for all I was worth. It felt like nothing was happening, and that I was destined to make a left hand run. Then almost as if by magic I was free of the main current and heading down the right run with a lot of room to spare. We did have a little drama on the river. One of the boats went too far right and got caught on the rocks. It was a little scary because they were pinned for a few minutes in an area that would have been difficult to help with.
Through Bedrock
The next rapid was Dubendorf. To be honest I am not sure exactly what happened there. It was kind of a crazy rapid. There were waves all over the place. I’m not sure that I went where I was supposed to go, but wherever I went it was a fun ride. We made it to Racetrack Camp shortly after, which was good because we had a long hike after lunch.
The Thunder River hike is quite amazing, but it really took it out of me. It was actually one of Adrienne’s favorite hikes when she went down in 2001. It was a hot day and one of the hardest parts of the hike was at the first. We hiked along the side of the canyon from our camp to Tapeats Creek. From there we started the trail. The first part of the trail is a series of switchbacks that go ever upward on a south facing wall. With the sun beating down it was a difficult climb. It is on climbs like that, when I start to feel jealous of mountain goats. Once to the top of the canyon we walked along the side of a cliff until it met up again with Tapeats Creek.
We hiked along the side of the creek, and across it several times, for what seemed like miles and miles. By that time the heat had given me a throbbing headache. At last we came to a spot where we could see Thunder River. Thunder River looks like it is flowing right out of a cliff. It is an amazing scene. Our vantage point was also beautiful with the creek on one side and some beautiful cottonwoods on the other.
The next thing I know the people who have been on the hike before start talking about the final push. At that point I was done. I had a terrific headache, and despite my best efforts at hydration, I felt like I had a belly full of warm water and a dehydrated body. I decided I would press on though. How bad could it be?
It seemed like the farther we walked the farther away our goal was. The trail went up the side of a mountain and every time I looked up the people ahead of me were higher up the switch backs. Not seeing the end I actually called it good and laid down to rest about 15 yard before the end of the trail. Luckily the group sent someone to get me. I had no idea how close I was to an oasis. The trip was hard, but the payoff was big. It was nice to have a refreshing spot before making the trip down. We filtered some water, rested a while and then made our way back.
On that trail even the walk back down seemed tough. When I made it to within a half mile of camp I met up with Mark, who had been my passenger for the last three days. He had hiked back from camp because he had heard I was struggling. He brought a flash light and some water. It was twilight as we made the final push down. He even offered to take my place on clean up crew that night.
When we got back to camp I got some food and water in me. I also took a bath in the cold river, and then sat in my chair with my feet in the water. It was amazing. I have never in my life had a headache disappear so quickly. I guess the grueling parts of the hike lasted a few hours, but the good parts of the memories will last a lifetime.
After our big day on the river the day before day 9 seemed to be a fairly mild day as far as rapids go. There were some big ones to be sure, but they were more spread out. This day would be mostly about seeing the sights and moving down river.
Our first stop of the day was Shinumo Creek. We could easily see the creek from our camp, but do to the landscape it was not easily accessible. It is too bad, because it is really quite a lovely spot. There is a small waterfall about 50 yards up the creek from the river. The drop is only about six feet, but it is a gusher. It would have been nice to go there the day before when I was feeling a bit hot and miserable. Our stop was short. We cooled off for a bit and then filled my empty cooler with water to be filtered later.
I was really excited for the next stop on our trip. I had heard and read a lot about Elves Chasm. It is a little bit farther from the river than Shinumo, but it is a truly beautiful spot. The creek there carves a chasm into the rock. In one spot there is a small waterfall that pours into a pool. From the waterfall you can jump into the pool. Our group spent a long time there just doing that.
Our last diversion of the day was Blacktail Canyon. At first I was not that excited to go. It started out as a short hike over a large sun baked debris fan. When you get there it is a small slot canyon. I say that it is just a small slot canyon, which is true, but it is more than that. It has a feel to it that is hard to describe. In some ways it feels out of place. Maybe that is because to step inside feels like moving into a different world. It is cool and enclosed compared to the outside which is wide open and very hot. It also has a bit of a spooky feel. That may be a consequence of the ghost story that Nancy read to us about the canyon from one of her books. It was a place that I was a bit sad to leave.
After our sight seeing we pushed to the Randy’s Rock Campground. A commercial group had left it open for us, which was good, because we made it there rather late.
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.
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.
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.
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.
