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| The gathering at the "take-out"
on the river. That is Liam Duncan front and center. |
The Bedrock Store, at the "take
out" area near the river. It was part of a scene
in the movie "Thelma and Louise," so I'll
have to watch that movie again now, dangit. |
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| Brad negotiated 4 bags of our extra
ice to buy some favor with the owner (on the right).
Yep, we gave away extra ice... |
The Bedrock Store, established in
1887. Might be earlier, but not later, I swear. |
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| The put-in event on the river. That's
Matt. We had to inflate one big boat, and organize
about 28,000 tons of ice, beer, meat and whiskey. |
A reverse view of Matt as my driver
in the canoe, which I only did for two hours until
sunset after the put-in at 5:50 pm. |
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| Kristin looking over initial dinner
on Wednesday night. We hit the bank at 8:00pm and
started camp, and the pros started working... |
Matt and Brad with the M1A2 Abrams-grade
Main Battle Tank steel fire pit, which we had to haul
if we wanted a fire on the river. |
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| Kristin and Joyce supervising dinner.
It was my 37th BIRTHDAY this evening! The whole crew
sang me the "Birthday Dirge" and I got a
Twinkie with a lit fuze in it. I actually cried at
the effort. |
Morning rush at the first landing
site, 6 miles from the "put-in" and coffee
is king. |
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Matt enjoying a
mug of morning "Joe"
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Bill on his new boat.
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Drea in her inflatable
kayak before May 4 morning pushoff.
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Matt and Brad commanding
the canoe
on day two.
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Steve scraped a rock
the night before and was taking on water. The "rapid
pump" was used often, and not just by him.
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It is a lot of work
to pump out water from an inflatable canoe!
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Matt and Brad somehow
squeezed themselves and their canoe under a fallen
tree (called a "strainer") and actually
survived. Note that they wore their helmets after
this episode.
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Liam and his dog,
Sakari. Also known as just "Kari." Liam
said the name Sakari means "Sweet" in
Eskimo, and he chose an Alaskan native name for
her.
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Liam taking a quality photo from his Admiral
chair.
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A huge overhang
over the river.
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Everyone "eddied
out" here and we took pee breaks and photos.
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Liam at the helm.
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Sakari looking
alert on the river.
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Bill "The Other
Bill" having a good time on our boat. He got
kicked off of his own boat so the women could row
and take pees.
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A minor riffle, but enough of something
to be a challenge to Matt and Brad in the canoe!
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Our stop for lunch
on day 2.
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Matt
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Tony
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Dez on the Deck!
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Happy to be alive,
I think.
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Kristin purposely
being a dork for my camera!
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Kristin checking
the bow rescue line.
No laughing matter on that one,
and it did come out twice for emergencies..
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Kristin and Drea
describing the river...
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Brad enjoying a
drink at lunch on Day 2.
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Dez having a good
time...
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Joyce and Kristin
making super sandwiches!
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A toast to the
sandwich-makers!
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Liam and Matt checking
maps to see how far we can get until the end of
daylight...safely.
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Our lunch spot
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Matt
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Matt, striking
out for part II on day II
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Matt and Brad running
some nice
rapids in their canoe!
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Matt and Brad running
some nice
rapids in their canoe!
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Steve (left) and Brad (standing)
and Bill "the Other Bill" (sitting) on our
last beaching. |
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| Steve all dressed up on "Formal
Night" which Matt never warned us about! |
Steve and Drea in "Formal Wear" |
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Awww...
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The whole crew
minus the photographer
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| Brad and Matt on Formal Night. No
formal wear was brought out by us. We had a substitute! |
The "Other
Bill" brought props, man!
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Brad and Matt,
feeling no pain.
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Dez brought a hula-hoop
for crying out loud! I brought a camera in a waterproof
Lexan case...I shouldn't have been surprised, actually.
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Matt and Brad on
Friday morning push-off. We had to leave early from
the crew to get me back towards Denver and my flight
home.
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A view from me
as the heavyweight "duffer" in the canoe.
We were on our own without help from here. Everyone
was nervous.
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Bighorn Sheep caught
high on the walls from my "duffer" photo
position in the canoe.
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After the S-Curve
Class IIIA rapids and the Anasazi pictographs. Bear
prints! The Locals made these about 900 years ago,
man.
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Depictions of the
aliens who visited them before they extracted the
Anasazi to Antaries IV?
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If that isn't an
alien I don't know what is...
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More bear prints
scratched into the walls from nearly 1,000 years
ago before they left.
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I was careful to
see some color of daisies growing next to cacti.
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The last good scene
before the thunderstorm rode right over us at 50mph
and almost swamped our canoe with hail.
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