Well, Its been a while since the last post but rest assured that we have been getting back in to the swing of things post Grand Canyon....Devon is back at work and I have finished my transition from routine hospital to Critical Care. Fiona has hung up her swimming goggles for the winter and is enjoying her routine anyway. (I have no idea why this is bolded...F$^@ing computer)
It truly was an amazing trip. Having seen a lot of beautiful places in the US and the world. Seeing our earth’s history laid out in a grand display of rock and water was nothing less than spiritual.
I joined Devon on his Day nine of the trip that we had been planning even before we thought about having a Fiona. After a last minute cancellation a friend of mine Elissa put her life on hold too and came with me so we drove together to the canyon after saying bye to Fiona, Jane, and her husband Ben. The drive took us down the central valley of California and across the Mojave which was lovely to see after so long away from the desert. We had a wonderful stay at the rim of the canyon, bathing and lounging and readying ourselves for a long hike down hill to meet the rafts.
We started in the morning and it was literally freezing. Having come in at dusk the evening before the canyon was a beautiful surprise to us and we had a stranger take our picture at the top as we set off down the Bright Angel Trail. We had a good spring in our step still at that point, at the end of the day we had lost a bit of that spring but we were both happy to be outside and beginning our adventure.
Most of my supplies were at the bottom of the canon with Devon but Elissa had a big pack with her. Were I to give advice to someone else doing this trip, I’d say bring half o what you thought you’d need….but more on that later.
The trip down was through all the rock layers that the rest of the trip had been slipping past over the previous 9 days. It was a sort of fast forward through hundreds of millions of years of time.
When we finally reached the Colorado, we met Devon and Sean who was hiking out and we crossed the river over a foot/hoof bridge and met our group. It was HOT at the bottom as compared with our morning start with frost, hats and gloves..
The rafts were lovely all parked on the boat beach and after finding that phantom ranch was out of ice cream decided not to venture up there…
The first rapid of the day was Horn, which is a good sized one. Devon handled the raft beautifully and a good though wet time was had by all.
The next day was an amazing whitewater day! It was the biggest whitewater day With Crystal Hermit granite (not necessarily in that order) and the Gems. It was amazing to think about Powell and his team forging through those rapids with wooden boats, For us riding in 18 foot rubber rafts they were roller-coasters with splashes and “yahoooooos” at the bottom.
I suppose at this point I should mention that I did miss Fiona but I was not sad to be away. I knew that she was well cared for and I was so enjoying being back to the old lifestyle of adventure in beautiful places. We took pictures of her fairy with Devon on the raft, she had sent the fairy to take care of Devon and the fairy did well through some big water runs.
Each night we were tired and the sun set early, dinners were cooked dished done and camp made every night and different than in the past where we stayed up to the wee hours we flopped into bed at dark. This left time for a lot of stargazing in the middle of the night. We think that our usual bed time on the river was not later than 8PM. And we woke up ready to jump back onto the river the next morning. Devon and I slept on the raft most nights. No rain, beautiful weather, the sound of the river washing under us all night was soothing. (except a couple of places we camped where Devon complained that the raft was surging too much and reminded him of sleeping on Califia on the open seas.)
By October 13th My fourth or fifth day on the river I went with a group to hike up and over from Tapeats Creak to Deer Creek. It was beautiful and after a long hike up there was a waterfall shooting out of the side of a cliff face making a river called Thunder River.
It looked as though it was the Hanging Garden Of Babylon. Lush ferns, mint, flowers all clinging to a ribbon of cook clean water in the middle of a desert. Fantastic. The water at the top and then at the bottom of the hike made it possible. Otherwise I might have turned into a raisin. Devon and John hiked up to meet us
above deer creek. As we came down through Deer creek we saw some of the mot beautiful sculpted rocks anyone could have imagined. Not for those scared of heights, or toddlers…
We camped looking across the Colorado a the deer creek waterfall falling a hundred feet into the gorge below. The view out of our tent in the morning was quite memorable.
That day we cruised through upset rapid, hiked up “ Matcap” and got to try out our climbing moves.
Camped at at a bend in the river called Ledges. We slept on the raft which was good, I was a bit worried that otherwise I might have rolled into the river in the night. By this time I was starting to miss Fiona a bit more but still was comfortable being away. I think that Devon and I both needed some time away to be like our old selves.
I think that after Ledges camp we went on the a magical place called Havasu which will forever in my mind equal the most beautiful turquoise colour, “havasu blue”.
I went for only a small explore there, I focused on napping on the raft and reading my book….the little swim I took up the drainage at Devon’s suggestion was worth leaving a nap in the shade.
That day ended with us at Tuckup camp which had a super climb, scramble up the canyon behind it. We got to use rope and finesse our climbing skills from earlier hikes.
Wee played Bocci that night and all went to sleep a little apprehensive about the biggest rapid of the trip waiting for us the next day….Lava.
Lava was over before we knew it. Indeed the scouting had taken much longer than the running of it by far. Devon as usual did a fantastic job of guiding us down the good line. I was happy to be at the bottom of it after the night of worry previously.
The last couple of days on the river after Lava were lazy, not much to worry about with that behind us. I focused on collecting more rocks to bring home. We held some tournament style Bocci, and tried in vain to finish off the adult beverages we had brought and rationed until then.
Being on the river took us completely away from our computers, cars, jobs, news, responsibilities, chores etc. …all the parts of our real lives.
As we neared the end of the run, we were at once sad to see it come to and end and excited to get back to see Fiona again. It was just the right amount of time away.
I would go again in a heartbeat.
Couldn’t have done it without Nanna Jane taking off of her regularly scheduled life to be here with Fiona. And Of course Grammy too.
Since we returned We have settled back into fall, back to work, back to our lives but we're imagining our next adventure already we're just not sure where when or what.
Love
Louise
