Granite to Emerald camp-10.5 miles
Well, amazing as it may seem, after the storm we just survived, we got mobilized and onto the river by about 10 AM, since we don't really have a choice, gotta keep movin'!
Dan MacFarlane asked to follow me through Granite, since the day we got here and ran it just for fun, I "made it look easy". I proceeded to get knocked over on about the 3rd wave, and was upside down or in the midst of several roll attempts most of the rest of the way through the rapid. So much for easy, or the appearance of it. I did finally get back up, and saw Dan swimming along behind me and was able to get to him and tow him into the eddy on the right. I believe everyone else made it through just fine, although everyone got wet...no surprise there! We made good time down to Hermit, and stopped to scout on the left. Not as big as it is at 18000, but still plenty big. The photo below shows Hermit from about 1000 feet above on the Tonto shelf, on Oct. 4, as the storm clouds were gathering.(Photo below by Jim Herriges)
There was one big breaking wave most of the way down in the middle. Everyone but Erin made it through Hermit unscathed, and Erin was soon back in her boat and we were on our way again. We pushed on through Boucher without scouting, and some brief sunny spells helped keep us warm.
We soon arrived at Crystal, just after noon. The river seemed to have risen overnight, although not dramatically, but Crystal Creek was flowing high, and was so red it looked more like tomato soup than water! (Photo below by David Cook)
There was one big breaking wave most of the way down in the middle. Everyone but Erin made it through Hermit unscathed, and Erin was soon back in her boat and we were on our way again. We pushed on through Boucher without scouting, and some brief sunny spells helped keep us warm.
We soon arrived at Crystal, just after noon. The river seemed to have risen overnight, although not dramatically, but Crystal Creek was flowing high, and was so red it looked more like tomato soup than water! (Photo below by David Cook)
I had talked to a Canyon Explorations guide about Crystal before we broke camp today, and she said the left side, low water run, has more room than it looks like from shore, and to check it out from the high scout. But when we arrived everyone headed down the gravel bar for the up-close views. The right side at this water level looked super tight for the rafts at least, and hard to get far enough over at the entry. We eventually made our separate ways down to see the rock island below, and eventually a few of us ended up going to the upper scout point right above where we landed, and sure enough you could see the left hand line looked much more doable from there. I convinced Dan Solie to follow me over there, but all the other rafts were going to try the right. All the scouting took well over an hour, and I realized then I was starving, but everyone was pretty keyed up and wanting to go. But I thought doing that would be a big mistake, and said so, and we had a pretty expeditious lunch and I think we all did better for having done so.We sent some kayaks down the right first, Tim, Dan, and Jim, and then Larry led the rafts. He was aiming for the right sneak route, but from way too far out in the current, and the momentum of the tongue grabbed him and funneled him right down the middle, and into the big hole. I held my breath, praying the momentum that got him there would get him through, which, in a burst of spray, and relief on everyone's part, it did. Sam came next and was positioning for what looked like a re-run of Larry's line, and I used my "dog voice" on him; GET RIGHT! GET RIGHT! GET RIGHT!, and amazingly, and just in time, he did, and had a clean right run. Michael and I then led Dan over on the left side, and Dan was so pumped he nearly ran over us before we got to the drop, but he had a pretty clean run, not without bumps, on that side. Michael was determined to get back to the right and had an amazing run from left to right, traversing the hole on the way, but staying upright the whole way. I was down below the rock island on the right by the time Max ran, and so only heard on the radio that he was hung up at the top in the rocks...he really got right, just a bit too soon.
So we had the inner gorge biggies behind us, and now just the rest of the Gemstones, my faves of all the rapids in the canyon, Agate, Sapphire, Turquoise, Emerald, Ruby and Serpentine to look forward to. Unfortunately, we were feeling a bit pressed for time, so we basically just plowed right on through them down to a small but sweet camp at the top of Emerald for a pretty respectable run of 10.5 miles for the day. I did manage to catch one fun surf in Turquoise, which is just about my favorite spot, and rapid, in the whole canyon. The camp looked and is small, but has a lot of little pocket sized tent sites among the boulders and is a really nice spot, looking right down at Emerald Rapid. We call the camp Emerald City, since we were packed together like urbanites here. (Photo below by Jim Herriges)
The weather had lifted a tiny bit during the day, but the clouds were still dense, and scraping across the canyon rims, and spitting rain occasionally. So we put up the small wing for dinner, but furled it for the night. After dark there was distant lightning flashing over the horizon, but no audible thunder, and I was dreading the possibility that the previous night would replay, but other than some very light rain, the weather was dry-ish. I got optimistic and hung all my wet river gear up to dry before bed, and it was dry in the morning.
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