Map for day 8
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Day 7
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Day 9
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Last night was much better than the prior night and was a very comfortable night for sleeping. Jacob's Beach was quite possibly the best campsite on the trip as far as scenery went. The other people on the trip will no doubt laugh at me for saying that because every day when we would get into camp I would say "This is the best campsite we've had". The early morning sun lighting the cliffs along the river was excellent this morning and looking back I would still say that this was the best campsite. Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs with peppers, onions and mushrooms and there were also grilled bagels.
Robby decided today that we were not mixing ourselves up enough on the rafts and opted for random selection of passengers to the rafts. I ended up with Chris and Robin ended up with Robby. When we all got packed up and brought our stuff down to the rafts, he said we were ready to go too early this morning and told us to just hang out for a while.
We were on the river about 8 a.m. and headed down to Blacktail Canyon which was supposed to be our first hike for the day. We skipped the hike up Blacktail Canyon, however, because others were already camped there and it seemed a bit on the crowded side.
It was another very nice day of whitewater and we ran Forester, Fossil, Spectre and Bedrock Rapids. Bedrock Rapid is a modern name and refers to an outcropping of rock just above the rapid that has the same profile as Fred Flintstone. To make up for the missed hike up Blacktail Canyon, Robby took us for a hike up 128 Mile Canyon and then we stopped early for the day and camped at Galloway Canyon just above Dubendorf Rapid.
After a lunch of pasta salad we went over to Stone Creek Falls to get wet and cool off. Chris met us there and led some of us on another day-hike up Stone Creek to see another waterfall. There were many fine waterfalls along the way and the final destination was a place called HooDoo Falls, about 2-3 miles up Stone Creek from the river. We lucked out again, got there after another party had just left and had the place to ourselves. We hung out at HooDoo Falls for quite a while and I spent most of the time talking with Carolyn to see how she had been enjoying the trip. Robin and I had shared a raft with the Canadians for the first few days and since then we had not had a lot of time to talk. She was having a great time and was really enjoying the day-hikes. Late in the afternoon we headed back to our campsite at the river for dinner. Along the hike back I discovered a misplaced Aspen that had somehow managed to take root and survive much lower in the Canyon than it belonged. Aspens typically like cooler climates and higher elevations and are usually found up on the north rim but this one seemed to be doing fine right where it was. We also came across a Kingsnake that was slithering about among the rocks near the river.
Tonight was Mexican Fiesta night and we had chips, salsa and home-made guacamole for the appetizer and burritos for the main course. Yummy! The crew had Mexican music (Los Lobos) playing in the kitchen while they were cooking.
Day 7
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Day 9
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