Upper Saddle to Above Little C camp-14 miles
We got a pretty good early start, 9:30ish, and arrived at the cove below Nankoweap rapid at about 11, and prepared for the hike up to the granary there. Hot sun made for a hot hike, but the air temp was probably only in the 80s, so no real hardship.
We got back to the huge beach and most of us had some degree of a swim to cool off and wash off the sweat, and had lunch shortly after noon. We swapped some food with the Beckwith group (party that launched the same day we did) who were camped there, since we had no need for clam juice??? and got some granola from them since we had a shortage of both cold and hot cereal. After lunch I got back in a kayak for the remainder of the day. Tim and Marshall got in the Grabner, but W. replaced Marshall after he and Tim took a swim at an unnamed riffle with a mean hydraulic at the bottom, somewhere above Kwagunt rapid.
We made it to the camp above LCR at about 5 and had time for a daylight camp and cook scene. I feel nostalgic about the place since this was the site of the repair job on Ira's broken canoe in '88. The circumstances are so different though, it seems like a different place. We are now in a somewhat better position to make our exchange on 10/2 after 2 good mileage days, but cannot yet relax, with almost 30 more miles to go.
We had a nice bath in the river just downstream of camp, and from there we can see that the Little Colorado is still flowing pretty high and muddy, so tomorrow we will bid farewell to the clear water we have enjoyed so far. I'll miss the clear water, no more trout fishing I fear, but it will be a little more like the pre-dam river was, a bit more "real".
Great photo of Above LCR camp with the Little Colorado in the background!
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