The Fords run the gnar at Big Joe
We got a later start this day, but it would turn out to be a very long day. Before I left, I took pictures of everyone running the big rapid next to camp. After a couple of hours, we came to Signature Cave and climbed up to it. As we were crossing the field, a trio of bighorn sheep got a little annoyed at us for disturbing their lunch. Here is a picture of me in the cave with the river in the distance:
The climb back down was a little scary at one point. There is a small ledge that had a mud puddle, and I was a little scare of slipping and falling, but I made it. I ran out of space and battery power as I was going back down to the boats, so I took advantage of being first down to change them.
As we continued down the river, it got twistier and the walls got steeper. We stopped for lunch near a rock formation called Cleopatra's Couch. Lunch was tabouli salad wraps, which was a little strange, but filling, which was important that day. This giant wall greeted us in the mid-afternoon:
The wind came up after a while, and it was slow going for a while. I took advantage of the situation to hone my oar-feathering techniques. Late in the day, we stopped and hiked up to Mantle Cave (named for some people named Mantle, not for a mantle-like formation). It was a hard hike in our drysuits, but it was an interesting place (other than the parts that had been vandalized - jerks).
Just downstream of Mantle Cave, we found our camp at Laddie Park. This camp also had a lot of willows on the bank, and wasn't easy to deal with, but the main camp section was a large grassy field, which made for nice camping.
Dinner was meatballs and rice, and because it was Paula's birthday, we had cake and ice cream! It rained a little bit, but it stopped after a while and the desert dried out the gear by morning.
On this day, I noticed that I was really getting dehydrated and it was making me uncomfortable. I had to really step up my water intake on this day. Another problem I was seeing was that my hands were getting really dry.
Dinner was meatballs and rice, and because it was Paula's birthday, we had cake and ice cream! It rained a little bit, but it stopped after a while and the desert dried out the gear by morning.
On this day, I noticed that I was really getting dehydrated and it was making me uncomfortable. I had to really step up my water intake on this day. Another problem I was seeing was that my hands were getting really dry.
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