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| Canyoneering | 3.50 Miles |
1,588 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 3.50 Miles | 3 Days | | |
| 1,588 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Life is like packrafting. Most of the times you are paddling down the River. Heading to a destination. Sometimes you take a different path from your friends hoping to reconnect another time, other times you are on the same course. Often you are floating aimlessly, either in joy or in pain. Sometimes you are a bit deflated and need to stop and fill yourself with a big breathe of air. Other times you are surprised that when you feel there is no way you’ll be able to continue because you have lost have your buoyancy but then you are surprised how little air it takes to keep you afloat. And then one day a brand new packraft comes along and you are no longer having to struggle.
Actual triplog...
The Ropes trail made this more of an adventure than if we had done the backhaul. A bit of route finding and scrambling. The pack complete with three days of provisions including sparkling waters and ciders was a bit of an albatross. But overall doable.
After we got to the River we blew up our rafts and loaded our drinks into drag bags (I used my rat sack) and headed out.
It was nice floating with friends! I was the only who brought a water gun, surprise!!! Since it was warm out most people appreciated a spray. I also used mine to bail out my raft if I managed to get too much water in it.
We camped at Ferry Swale the first night. It was hot when we arrived so some of the crew huddled against the cliffs in their boats in the shade. I wanted to stake a claim on a site before other parties arrived, so I headed to the beach. When the shade came to camp the ants came out. Oh no! Do we move? Later, we noticed the ants had gone to bed, so our spots were fine. I had no idea that ants had a bedtime!
The next day we headed back out. We checked out the petroglyphs near Horseshoe Bend. When we got to Horseshoe Bend we could hear and see the tourists above us. We decided we’d send a message because they never responded to our yells. We got out on the slick rock and aligned ourselves in the shape of a heart. We laid there for a few minutes hoping we’d find ourselves later on Instagram. When we stood up we also gave them a show. Oh those Horseshoe Bend shenanigans were fun!
While we were hanging out there, Airkewled found a Frisbee that floated. This gave us new meaning to our floating. We tossed the freebie around and in some case some of us even tossed it behind us (oops)!
We got to 6 mile camp and couldn’t understand where everyone was. This is the last camp before Lee’s Ferry and it really should have been packed on a Labor Day weekend. We Wondered what the other people knew that we didn’t! We ended up having the place to ourselves (Except for the toads and rattlesnake) so we spread out and enjoyed the beach. We finished up the alcohol we brought since we knew it would be a long last day with finishing the float and driving home.
In the morning I kept hearing splashing in the River. I thought it was my friend, Tim. We enjoy annoying and picking on each other so I thought he was throwing rocks into the River next to my tent to wake me up. I finally looked and saw either a musk rat or beaver splashing while diving down for food. What fun! Tim thought I was throwing rocks to annoy him, too!
Our last day on the River included paddling with some Herons, checking out Finger Arch, and hiking to Hislop Cave. That morning I learned my raft was losing air - a seam had failed. We tried to patch with Tenacious tape which would not stick when wet. So I routinely pulled over to add air to my boat. I also had to pull out my drag bag because it tended to sink and act like an anchor. I paddled like a madman to each destination so that I wouldn’t run out of air. But that probably wasn’t necessary, the raft held up for the most part.
Hislop Cave was nice to see - it’s more a less a shelter cave with a great view.
Edit: At Lee’s Ferry, I was shocked to find Chumley present to welcome us to shore after our long journey. You might have thought we had crossed the Pacific Ocean by the reception he gave us.
I was really glad to have such great friends to hang with on this weekend. I consider myself very lucky!
FYI, even though I’ve been paddling my Klymit Flatwater Dinghy for 5 years, it was still covered under warranty so they sent me a brand new raft! |
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Route Editor
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