Grand Canyon Rafting May 2004

GC Rafting
May 2004

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Day 11: Sunday, May 23 2004
Deer Creek
Click on pictures to see larger images

Pat reads to us

No more sleeping in, the conch shell blew bright and early at 5:30am. We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast. I noticed I was really hungry - despite spending a lot of the day relaxing on a boat, somehow all of us noticed that we were much hungrier than normal! And the food was all so good, I ended up actually gaining a few pounds over the course of the trip, oops! Since today was Sunday, as we waited for the boats to be ready for loading, Pat read us a "sermon" from one of the books about the river. (The guides would sometimes read us little excerpts from books about river stories, or poetry, or canyon geology; something I always enjoyed.)

"Let's see what we have here..."

Robert and I rode with Sam, and Jeanne and Jason both braved the duckies again. Soon after we started, the Hatch motorboats came by; and we held a supply exchange. This far downcanyon, a lot of trips find they are running a little low on some items; but fortunately these items are often different from trip to trip, so "bargaining" between trips is possible. ("We'll give you ice if you give us some m&ms and popcorn!") We went a few miles downstream past Tapeats rapid and Helicopter eddy (a big eddy that circles around like the blades of a helicopter - cool!). We pulled over at Piano rock (which did indeed look like an old upright piano!) and most of us got out to do the hike up and over to Deer Creek. (Some passengers stayed in the boats, which went downstream to the mouth of Deer Creek, and did the shorter hike up the standard Deer Creek trail.)


Starting the hike	View on the trail

Kristin led the hike, and since Robert and I happened to be just behind her, I got a chance to talk to her for a while. All the guides were really interesting people with great stories to tell about their lives. Kristin loves birds and works with a rehab center to help injured birds of prey recover and get back into the wild. Her passion for her work and for the birds shone through in every sentence she spoke.

The Deer Creek drainage

As we hiked along, we caught up with a group of backpackers who were on a 7-day trip. Heh, so much for solitude while backpacking (as all of us tramped past)! Although I'm sure they weren't expecting to be alone in a popular place like Deer Creek. We crossed a saddle and headed down into the Deer Creek drainage - the creek was obvious, since it was surrounded by a strip of lush green trees and vegetation. We stopped at a place called "the Patio" - a really nice spot under rustling trees with Deer Creek itself tumbling through some little narrows before dropping off in a lovely waterfall into a big set of narrows. There were tons of colorful little lizards scampering about, and Anasazi handprints high on the cliff walls. Back at breakfast we had made ourselves sandwich lunches and snacks to take on the hike, and we enjoyed a snack while waiting for the rest of our group to arrive.


The Patio	Little narrows	Pretty waterfall


Lunch on the patio	Waterfall at the end of the patio

After our break, Matt led a bunch of us up to Deer Creek spring, where the water pours out of a hole in the cliff (kind of a mini Thunder River!). We saw yet more lizards and a lot of birds along the way. The waterfall at the spring was really neat because you could climb up and stand behind it and get a great view of the valley through a shimmering stream of water. Matt also showed us "the Throne Room", on the far side of the spring, where giant blocks of talus had been arranged into huge chairs. People had also made scepters and crowns out of yucca, and we all had fun laughing as people tried them on and sat in the thrones.


View from behind the waterfall	Jim behind the spring


Matt, Jason, and Jeanne in the throne room	Jim is King of the Canyon

One of the many lizards

Robert had decided to stay back at the patio and read a book, so I hiked back mostly by myself, which was nice too. Solitude is a rare thing on a river trip! With each step along the trail, lizards scampered out from underfoot, so there was a kind of constant rustling as they moved in the undergrowth. They were really very pretty when viewed up close - the bigger ones had a kind of rainbow sheen to their skin.

After everyone had returned to the patio, Pat told us he would lead a group to canyoneer down the Deer Creek narrows to just above the final big waterfall that goes to the Colorado river. Robert and I were delighted! We love narrows and canyoneering. Sam brought ropes, and he used one to fix a line to help people down into the main narrows. The narrows were really, really cool. Sculpted curves, deep canyon walls, and nifty little pourovers to scramble down - what fun! It was quite chilly though since the water was cold and the narrows were deep enough that the sun only rarely reached the bottom. But it was totally worth it to see such an awesome place!


Downclimbing into the narrows	Me in the narrows	Jason in the narrows


Negotiating a pool	Jeanne goes down a waterfall	Huddling in a ray of sun: Jason, Robert, Hilary, Jeanne, Cindy, Jen

In some spots the stream was flowing along quite fast, meaning we had to be careful of our footing, and once a very big dead lizard floated by (yuck!). We came to a tall pourover and Sam fixed another rope with a bunch of knots in it to help people climb down. After another while, we reached another downclimb followed by a deep pool which Sam said we had to swim across. Robert stopped at this point since he was too cold to swim, but I kept going. We continued along, enjoying the narrows, until we came to a final pool where the stream went around the corner.


Beautiful narrows	Paul and Sam help Jeanne down	Log caught in the narrows

Sam had a little fun with us here - he told us the huge final waterfall was just around the corner and the current was fast, so once we went around the corner we had to "swim for our lives" to the side lest we be swept over the fall. He demonstrated, swimming hard around the corner. I followed him around the corner, also swimming hard, but found it was no problem to get to the side, where I looked up and saw Sam lurking, pressed back against the corner. He motioned for me to be quiet, telling me he was hoping that as people came around the corner, they'd think he'd been swept over the falls. I sat up next to him and we waited. This sort of worked on Hilary - she came around the corner, looked really confused, and started peering downstream (where a roar of water indicated that the falls were indeed close). Sam was delighted that his practical joke had worked, laughing so that Hilary looked up and saw us.

Me returning from the narrows

Sam explained that this really was the end without serious rappeling gear (too bad we didn't have it!), so we turned back and started working our way back up the narrows. Some of the pouroffs were a little more difficult to climb up than they had been to get down, since the rocks were wet and sometimes quite slippery. At one waterfall, the current was so strong that it was difficult to swim to the base and get ahold of the rope to climb up. I watched Jason get spit back out once before making it, which was funny enough that I was laughing as I went, which made it even harder to swim strongly enough. I got spit back out several times (laughing harder every time) until Paul took pity on me and stuck out his leg so I could grab hold of his ankle and get pulled close enough to reach the rope.

When we climbed all the way back out into the sun at the patio, it felt so good after being chilly for so long! While we were in the narrows, several backpackers had showed up as well as people from another river trip, so it was getting almost crowded. We headed back down the normal trail to the boats. The normal trail was pretty cool too, high up on the wall with the narrows below, and more handprints visible on the walls above. When the canyon opened up and the trail started switchbacking down to the Colorado, there was a really excellent view back upriver, too.


Looking in the narrows, from the trail	Me and Robert on the trail

At the base of the trail we got to see the big Deer Creek waterfall that we had only heard the roar of from the narrows - wow!!! What a magnificent waterfall! Sam challenged us to push through the spray and touch the back wall (which he demonstrated was possible although difficult). I tried but the water was so powerful that I had to shut my eyes to preserve my contacts and then I couldn't see where to go. Sam and Geoff tried to help Hilary by pushing her, but even then she couldn't make it.


Deer Creek falls	Me at the base of the falls

Eventually we all packed up and got back in the boats. Pat wanted to camp below Doris rapid, but unfortunately a motor trip zoomed past Deer Creek without stopping to ask the other trips what their arrangements were, and took the spot Pat had planned on. Since other trips had already claimed the other nearby sites, we kept on going downriver (with Pat fuming over the other boatman's discourteous conduct). Pat was particularly annoyed because it meant our guides had to row 10 extra miles against really strong winds, which was very tiring for them. Cindy transferred out of our boat to the paddle boat to help them out. Robert and Geoff were in the front of our boat and ended up getting quite cold due to hitting lots of little splashy waves in the rapids (especially in Fishtail rapid). Sam tried to keep us dry after the canyon was in shadow, but even with his best efforts Robert was still shivering hard. I stayed mostly dry in the back except for ice cold feet (despite my neoprene socks).


Jen pushes against the wind	Jeanne and Jason in the front of the paddleboat


Return of the Redwall	Sam rows through a rapid

I thought the section of the canyon we were traveling through was particularly pretty - a lot like Marble Canyon, with Redwall and Muav Limestone rising in steep cliffs. We finally got to camp just above Olo Canyon. The camp was slanty and small but we were all very happy to stop! We had steak (or chicken) with onions and mushrooms and coleslaw and broccoli/cauliflower for dinner, with m&ms for dessert. For once the wind wasn't very strong in the evening, and the guides lit tiki torches after dinner which was fun.