GC Rafting
May 2004
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Day 13 - 5/25/04
Day 14 - 5/26/04
Day 15 - 5/27/04
Day 16 - 5/28/04
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Day 13: Tuesday, May 25 2004
Our wedding anniversary at Havasu
Click on pictures to see larger images
May 25, our two year anniversary, and I couldn't think of a better place
to spend it than Havasu! We got up nice and eary and had granola with
cranberries and bagels with cream cheese for breakfast. There was
a really long line for the groover that morning, which kept us from getting
ready on time - the guides joked that it had been a bad idea having chili
the night before! As we were finishing the loading process, an Outdoors
Unlimited trip floated by - d'oh! But they were really nice and since their
leader had talked to Pat, he knew we were spending much longer at Havasu
than they were and so he had his boats let ours go past before we reached
Havasu so we could get off on our hike to Beaver Falls without having
to worry about them.
We unloaded at a set of ledges at the mouth of Havasu canyon and
Robert and I followed Sam up the trail in the first group with Cindy,
Geoff, and Hilary. Havasu was just as pretty as I had imagined it -
lots of lush greenery, red canyon walls, and beautiful clear water
that looks a brilliant blue color when in pools (from minerals again, like the
Little Colorado). It took us about 2-1/2 hours to reach Beaver Falls,
with many creek crossings, short scrambles over boulders, and wading through hip-high overgrown vegetation. The last
high climb led to a great view of the falls - really beautiful! We went
down to sit beside the big pool at the base and ate a snack. The pool
had some really cool travertine formations and the water was just
so pretty.
Sam took several of us on what he called the "jungle run". This involved
swimming across the pool at the base of the falls to the other side, and climbing
up the travertine to reach the sets of travertine pools above the falls (which
were really neat!). Then we had to swim across a narrow, swift-moving
channel that was not too far above the falls. Sam pointed to the falls below
and said, "Swim for your life!". I believed him, swam really hard, and it
was much easier than it looked and I whacked my chest against the
travertine (which is very sharp!) on the other side as I surged across
the channel. It turned out that Hilary was not a very good swimmer, and
when her turn to cross the little channel came, she hardly swam at all
and got washed down toward the falls. This totally freaked her out
(understandably) and she started screaming and thrashing. Sam and
Matt rescued her but it took her a while recover from her fright.
For the next bit, we had to do a short jump into a small pool to one side
of the falls, which was fun. I had wanted to see the famous "green room"
under the main falls, but Sam and Matt said that since the flash flood a few
years ago, the underwater entrance was now more dangerous and the
"green room" under the falls had gotten a bunch of debris in it anyway.
So instead Matt showed me the "blue room", which was a small, similar
little cave in this side pool. You duck under the water and under a travertine
overhang and come up in a little air pocket with cool little stalagtites of
travertine all around.
After this, we climbed out of the side pool and carefully worked our way
down the travertine to a point where we could jump beside the main falls
down into the main pool. This jump was relatively high (and a lot of fun!).
From there it was an easy, quick swim back to the side of the pool where
the rest of our group was. After being in the water for so long I was
shivering quite hard (once again, it may be warmer than the Colorado but
it's still not warm!). I tried to find a patch of sun and warmed up
while eating my lunch (which we had again packed in a lunch sack at
breakfast time).
Jeanne wanted to try the jungle run and Sam agreed to lead a second
group, so I did it again with them. That was probably a mistake since this
time I ended up whacking my knee really hard against travertine during
the narrow channel crossing - ouch! It really hurt and afterward it felt
a bit stiff and sore, so I decided not to go with the group that Pat led
down the creek below the falls on the way back. (Too bad, I'm sure
that was fun!) Robert and I stayed at Beaver Falls a little longer, trying
to take pictures (my battery on my digital camera was dead, and due to
a mix-up over battery types, we didn't have a final spare that we expected
to have). Why do cameras always die when you most want to take
a photo?
Eventually Robert and I left and we walked back at our own pace, enjoying
the canyon and each other's company. It was a really nice sunny day
and it even got a bit hot on the way back. (I was so freezing cold after the
second jungle run that feeling hot was quite a novel sensation!) Just as
we were catching up to some others from our group, we heard yells
in the distance and saw Kathy waving her arms at us. We weren't sure
if she was trying to tell us not to cross the creek (the crossings were marked
with cairns but not all were totally obvious). As we got closer we realized
she was yelling for help - turns out Conrad had slipped while scrambling over
a rock and fallen onto his face, injuring himself. We hurried over to help and
fortunately Paul and Kelly were nearby, with some first aid stuff. Thankfully
Conrad was not badly hurt, but he sported a pretty impressive black eye and
an assortment of cuts and bruises.
We headed back to the boats with the guides helping Conrad along, and
soon loaded up and headed down. (Conrad rode in our boat since he
had been in the paddle boat in the morning.) Mike and Christina gave the
duckies a try, and they did really well! Mike came out once but that was
it, and we did 10 miles further to our camp. The ever-present wind was
back and Jen had a hard job of rowing.
We camped at National Canyon, and Robert and Jim and Jason did a hike
up the canyon to a slot. I was worried about my knee so I stayed on
the beach and relaxed. We had lasagna and garlic bread for dinner,
with milano cookies for dessert (Robert liked that - they are his favorite
pepperidge farm cookies!). After dinner, Pat announced to everyone that
it was our wedding anniversary, and also Craig and Sharon's "half-birthday".
(They split the difference between their birthdays to celebrate one birthday
together on this trip.) And what a great wedding anniversary it was!
If only we could spend them all this way, on a terrific trip in a beautiful
place.
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