Overnight temp
about 63 Degrees. After a granola breakfast, we went
fishing. Each of us caught two rainbows, 10-12." all on a
gold Super duper. We decided to scout the trail to Papago
Creek, about a mile up river, to see if we could go the low
water route. We discovered, like last year that only about
30 feet of water separated us from where we wanted to go,
but it was too deep to wade safely with packs. We decided to
return and break camp and head for Papago by way of the
overland route, thereby getting a jump on tomorrow's hike.
That way we'd have about 1.5 miles less hiking the next day.
We'd originally planned to hike every other day and rest up
and explore on the in-between days. But both of couldn't
wait to get to the exploring part! Because of the water
level, we had to take the high route to get to Papago Creek.
It required a 100-200 foot scramble up a scree slope and
along the edge of a cliff. When we got to the vertical
descent, we dropped our packs and used a rope that John had
brought just for that purpose. We lowered our packs the 75'
to the beach. No problem. Took time out
for lunch. You guessed it, 1.5 bagels with p-nut butter, and
a baggie of trail mix. From some trail
descriptions John read, there were two possible routes to
75-Mile Creek. One was a high route, along a cliff edge. The
other was a route near the river. We decided to scout the
low route in preparation for the morrow's hike. From where
we were siting during lunch, looking through binoculars, the
route looked impassable with several places appearing to
blocked by cliffs plunging into the river, but as we walked
along the river we discovered the low route was a cake walk.
A little boulder hopping and some easy walking along sloping
shelves were all we encountered. We went back and got our
packs and made 75 Mile Creek in about an hour. As w left
Papago, we saw a Prairie Falcon. Cool. We stopped on a rock
shelf and watched trout swim by. At 75-Mile
Creek, we set up camp and I took another nap (I sure did
enjoy my naps), while John went fishing. In the space of a
half hour, he caught 9 trout! All on a gold Kastmaster. Up
to 15". John kept and I cleaned the last fish he caught and
had it for dinner. Water was clear
and cold. I bathed and washed some clothes. John too.
We had another
freeze dried meal and supplemented it with the trout. First
we tried to to fry it in foil over John's stove, but the
stove was too hot and the fish too big for the burner, so I
cut it in half and we boiled it with lemon pepper. It was
delicious. The bones pealed off like pulling on a
zipper. Had tea after
dinner and slept under the stars. I took a couple
astro-photos.
