Thirteenth river day 17.3 miles Ledges 4/07/2019
This was scheduled to be a big day, little did we know how long of a day it would end up being. After floating down the Colorado for little bit we pulled into the first hike of the day, and were greeted by Deer Creek Falls plummeting to ground out of the Tapeat narrows, 2 miles from last night’s camp at Above Owls Eyes. After climbing up the canyon again, we repeatedly looked into Deer Creek Narrows searching for the rush of water we heard constantly before finally seeing it again towards the top of our hike before it cascades down the slot canyon out of site again.
Hiking the trail between the canyon wall and the narrows, our path becomes very slender in spots with the right edge dropping into the again unseen rush of water. Snaking our way along the dry, dusty red wall we are suddenly rewarded with an explosion of lush greenery surrounding a pool in Deer Creek before the water rushes forward again disappearing into the harsh red rock narrows.
On the water rowing again, we saw the hikers from before moving slowly picking their way across the rocky, uneven sloping shoreline. They started waving their arms beckoning us to them. They wanted a ride to get back onto a trail! Obliging we piled them into our boats giving them a lift to Kanab Canyon, saving them hours of rough scrambling and route finding in the process. We offered them beer and fruit from our coolers stocked with a seemingly never-ending supply of fresh produce, steak, and cold beer, which they gladly enjoyed on the float. When we stopped to drop them off, we offered them more fruit and beer to take with them, at this point being ultra-light hikers, most of them were appalled. That would add extra weight and they would have to pack out the empty beer cans. Thanking us again they hiked away with their perfectly weighted and rationed meals while we floated away on coolers stuffed with more food then we could eat, cracking fresh ice cold beers.
Next up on the agenda was Matkatamiba Canyon. Half of the rafts missed the eddy for this hike either on purpose or accident. The three boats that made it scoured the walls looking for anchors to tie the boats to. We ended up only finding one piton and tied all three boats to it. Hiking into what I though was the coolest slot canyon we had explored to date, we shimmed, waded and splayed our way deeper into the canyon until it finally opened up. Unfortunately, we were forced to turn around just beyond this point by time constraints. Heading back to the rafts we discussed how we would love to explore this canyon more if we did the Grand Canyon again. Our first surprise of the day was waiting as we approached the mouth of the canyon. Panic arose: we couldn’t see our rafts! The Colorado had risen on our hike and pulled the boats out into the flow, luckily, they were still attached to the piton. Trying to untie them we found that the tension was too great. I climbed on the furthest raft with Oz, we cut the strap lose, and it pinged back flying at him relived of its tension. With our raft free the rest of the remaining boats were able to be pulled back further back into the eddy. Surprisingly with all our fingers still attached I rowed to a downstream eddy to await the unstrapping of the remaining two rafts. We met up with the rest of the group then headed down river to scout Upset Rapid. Walking down the right shore we discussed the two different routes for the rapid. The left one where you run the meat of the rapid and right line that was a sneak, it appeared to us that the sneak line was a little shallow and one had the possibility of bouncing of a shallow rock and being sent into the massive munchy hole in the center of the river. I believe that we had flows between 13,000 and 18,000 for our 21-day trip after looking back at the gauge reading after our trip was over. As the route was debated, we saw Jared in his boat pulling out with his crew. As I was wondering which way he would go, his boat started angling left, moments later he smashed the off the big crashing waves at the top; well guess he’s taking the big line. Coming out the other side he tries to keep his moment to the left of the nasty hole in the center of the river! Powering forward he busts through the left side of the hole settling the debate for the rest of us. We are running the left line!
After the group was all successfully through, we looked at the map and decided to stay at Ledges Camp for the night. Pulling up to the low limestone ledges we hop out and stake our rafts to the small sand area above the low ledge which was cursed as we were soon to find out. After unloading and setting up camp, we wait for a huge steak dinner. The smell of meat cooking on charcoal wafts through the camp drawing spectators to the kitchen, which consist of three foldout aluminum tables, a propane stove with multiple burners, and a blaster, think of a huge jet boil, for heating water quickly. Tonight, the kitchen was lighted by headlamps, Luci lanterns, and strips of Luci solar string lights stretched between a tree and a tripod of Warner kayak paddles lashed together. Brett dressed in a red puffy and swimming trunks watches over the steaks both to cook them and guard them from the pressing group. After dinner with an extremely full belly, I crash out only to be awoken later because one of the rafts had broken free and was missing!
Adventures Of The Average Joe 