We departed the Clear Creek camp and by 10 a.m. were passing the Clear Creek drainage on our way to Phantom Ranch and points west.
The black Vishnu Schist has streaks of pink Zoroaster Granite running through it.
We knew we were getting close to Phantom Ranch when the black bridge started coming into view. This bridge is used by hikers and by the mules from the South Rim.
We stopped at Boater's Beach. While some filled water jugs from the water spigot near the beach, some of us walked up to Phantom Ranch. Helen wanted to hug some trees that she planted there over 30 years ago while I wanted to get a Phantom Ranch exclusive t-shirt. This year's boater t-shirt has a white dory approaching Nankoweap in a painting done by
Bruce Aiken. Very appropriate!
The boatmen went up to scout Horn Creek Rapid (8) about 1:30 p.m.
The light was just right so that you could see the two "horns" on the left side at the top of the rapid. The idea was to just clear the right side of the right horn and then move further left.
There were quite a few nervous boatmen for this rapid. Helmets were strapped tight and then one by one the boats disappeared over the edge. Izzy had a great run. Craig broke an oar on the Flavell II but the real excitement was on Doug's raft. He got flipped out of his raft. We thought Natalie had pulled him back in, but he says he self rescued. In any case, everyone got through right side up.
Camp for the night was the "Above Salt Creek" camp since groups passed us that were planning to take the two camps that we would have liked. It was a small camp with quite a few sleeping on the boats.
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