Day 20 - Granite Park to Two Hundred Twentymile Canyon

Nate is rowing Susie Too today and didn't want to run the rapid last so Izzy walked down to shoot photos while I stayed at the raft and shot from above the rapid.

Two Hundred Ninemile Rapid is rated a class 5 (on the Grand Canyon 10 point scale) but has a boat eating hole part way down.

Greg put on a clinic on how to run the left side of the hole but I think I was the only one in position to watch. This series is shot approximately 5 seconds apart.

Starting from the right, backing into the rapid on a line moving to the left,

starting to rotate the boat to the left immediately after the first drop.

Pulling away from the right while the river works to push to the right.

Maintaining position left of the wave train but with the hole still to come

makes for a nice view

as you slide by the hole with a smile on your face.

Just over three miles later we had a class 3 rapid named Little Bastard. Seemed deserving of the name - most everyone got much wetter than they did in 209.  Craig had Leif rowing the Flavell II.

It looks like the boat disappeared but in fact they showed us a lot of the bottom of the boat coming off a wave.

Nate figured he could do as well but my timing was off so the picture isn't as impressive as the view just a second before.

We stopped at Pumpkin Springs for a short break

and then continued on with a bunch of boat swapping going on. Dave was seen rowing the Portola, but Natalie was more photogenic and a better boatman.

This lineup didn't last too long but it was interesting while it did.

Home for the night was the upper Two Hundred Twentymile camp, positioning us for our 10 a.m. appointment at Diamond Creek the following day. We moved excess gear to two boats to cut down on the confusion as gear was sent out and new supplies brought in.