So
it's another early start as we push onto cover another 20 miles. The
day starts off beautifully sunny but very quickly the sun is gone behind
the clouds and the wind brings with it a very wintry chill. Within no
time I am shivering and feeling very cold in my shorty so I jump onto
Antoine's raft for a quick change. Feeling warmer I spend the morning
blasting rapids and surfing waves. About
2pm we
hit a grade 6. Quite literally! Robs boat pins on a small rock at the
top of the run. James quickly paddles to help but finds himself very
close to an upstream pin. Luckily James pulls Rob clear but
unfortunately Rob is now offline as he heads towards a massive midstream
undercut and siphoned boulder. The description in the book says 'go
right at all costs!'. Robs well offline and can't bring it back. He
heads left avoiding a potentially nasty pin and disappears of into the
siphon channel closely followed by James and Ted. Somehow they all
manage to make it through. Nerves a little shaken but all ok.
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| Antonie Checking out Deer Creek Falls |
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| Deer Creek Canyon looking back towards the Colorado River |
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| Amazingly Scenic Canyon |
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| Anne Exploring Deer Creek |
By
3.30pm we
reach our main destination 'Deer Creek' and spend two hours exploring
this incredible creek / canyon hiking up to the natural spring before
running back down taking in the incredible views of the canyon cut deep
into the valley, waterfalls and views of the river, camps and canyons.
All the camps at Deer Creek are full. We bump into Tom Martin (who
wrote the grand canyon guidebook) and his team who are paddling Dory's and making a film about the earliest descents of the river. We push on further to the football field a massive (well by Grand Canyon campsite terms) open campsite on the outside of a bend. Confused at first by the high water line on the sand we later realise that this is in fact the site of a medi evac that morning. Luckily is was for someone with a pre existing medical condition who's meds weren't working and needed to get out.
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| Busy campsites at Deer Creek |
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