We climb
down without too much trouble and head down to the confluence. It
rains lightly which feels wonderful after the heat we've been living
with. At the confluence, the Colorado brings in blessed cooler
water. The river had been perhaps 80 or more degrees on the Green
and the Colorado cooled it at least 10 degrees. It was now a
pleasure to swim in. We rowed down to Spanish Bottoms just above
the rapids of Cataract Canyon. We swam amid dragon flies. We
explored the area which seemed capable of supporting 30 different groups
coming through - but we were alone.
The next morning we hiked up to some granaries
and the Doll House area on returning we swim some more. We enjoy a
layover. Wind in the evening makes us push our tent back into the
tamarisk. It's a bit creepy and hot - but I sleep fine.
Angie leaves during the night and sleeps down on the shore, the wind has
let up.
We head on into Cataract Canyon the next
morning. Woo hoo! Cataract. We had been thinking about
it and worrying whether we'd have the skills to make it or not.
We've never run it before but the water was low and that made the water
a bit slower giving us more time to recover from any mistakes. It
also meant that the water was technical, we'd have to cut behind rocks
here and there and be at the right place to run it. The major
rapids are Big Drop 2 and Big Drop 3.
At
Big Drop 2, we pulled up to scout. I saw two runs. On the left by
us there was a short wavy run that seemed good except the entrance was
critical. Miss it and you would be hung up on a rock or flipped or
worse. The other side seemed more technical though the water was
moving slower. An Outward Bound support boat guy came up to
scout. He liked the right hand side. We rowed over to the
right to scout the rapid from that vantage. It did look ok.
Then we saw his line and it made so much sense. I had been worried
about a spot where the boat would have to pass between a standing
diagonal wave and a rock - it looked very small and not making it seemed
to lead to bad prospects. But he ran the slot perfectly and I saw
it could be done. The other Outward Bound people came through in
their paddle boats. Three boats and one of them hung briefly on a
rock in the middle of the river. We climb in and head down.
I miss my first landmark but recover by swinging in behind the eddy
created by a rock. We are back on track and sail through
perfectly. Yeah there was some plagiarism involved but it still
took some skill!
Big
Drop 3 we ran following the Outward Bound folks line. It was big
but pretty straightforward. Throughout Cataract Canyon we wore
helmets as we weren't sure if we would end up flipping or not. You know
these two rapids get your adrenaline pumping. No matter how big
the rapids are I'm always amazed at how small they look from
downstream. You'll have to trust me when I saw that these were
enormous rapids with a significant fall in a short span of the
river. We made it through Cataract Canyon and then out on to Lake
Powell.
Out of 52 original rapids,
there are only 27 rapids left above the still waters of Lake
Powell.
