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| From Grand Canyon Day 5 |
An early start this morning; 8:30!!! Even with a hearty blueberry pancake, egg & bacon breakfast, what kudos to the breakfast crew!
We floated down through long straight stretches as the river cut through the soft Muav Limestone and into the Hermit Shale. We encountered several small riflles. Really nice play waves at about 48.5 mile or so. This stretch has classic Grand Canyon scenery; isolated buttes and monuments appearing as the canyon opens up below Marble Gorge and the steep walls of the Redwall Limestone.
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| From Grand Canyon Day 5 |
Nankoweap rapids were fun, pretty much as described in the guidebooks. We stopped in a big eddy right at the foot of Nankoweap Rapids to have lunch and walk up to the Nankoweap granaries. What an iconic spot with down river views of the canyon and the emerald water of the river. The granaries are right at the base of the Redwall limestone and the top of the Muav. Here the Muav has knobby weathering suggesting that there may have been current or wave ripples in the thinly bedded limestone. The cold water of the river in the eddy helped with overheating before and after the hike. We had another great lunch buffet under the beach umbrellas!
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| From Grand Canyon Day 5 |
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| From Grand Canyon Day 5 |
Several Rapids and riffles in the afternoon. Kwangunt Rapid was accurately described in the guidebooks. However, other rapids and riffles in this section had some short sharp drops through chutes that lead into surprising tailwaves and sharp pulsating eddylines on either side. These hydraulics led to a few swims including Tim and Marshal in the Grabner at 60-Mile Rapid, Dan in a riffle below 60-mile and Dan and Erin at 60.5 mile.
For those of us that didn't swim in the river above the camp at Above Little Colorado afforded some very nice private bathing pools. The pull-in here is tight for four rafts, but the shelving camp of sand banks formed on the Tapeats Sandstone provided lots of room. Carp in the eddy here must have chased out all the trout...big fish, but no one wanted to eat them.
Marshal and Jim turned out a wonderful pasta topped with an itallian sausage and veggie saute!
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| From Grand Canyon Day 6 |
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