The first set of rapids was a long one, and we all got wet, which was not so nice on this chilly morning. Now we are passing a fault zone.We are now stopped at the Little Colorado River (mile 61.5) -it is very blue, almost like the Caribbean. It is also much warmer. We floated through a chute and small rapids. On the way back to the boat, we took a short hike to an abandoned hermit's cabin, which was once an Anasazi ruin. Now we can see the Desert Watch Tower, which is where the road meets the South Rim. We are stopped at Carbon Creek for lunch.

We can also see some of the rock layers that will disappear with the Great Unconformity, and we passed the sacred Hopi salt mines. Then we ran a series of several dousing rapids, which cooled us of. Then we stopped for a short walk to see a large Anasazi ruin site (mile 72.5) -we baked on this hike, but we saw several prickly pear cacti and ruins. Immediately after that, we ran our first two-hander. Then we ran Nevill's rapid, Now we are looking at Hance rapid, a 30' drop, which Bill calls our first "real rapid". We got pretty wet on that. Then we entered the schist, some of the oldest exposed rock on the continent. This started the narrow inner gorge. Some of the next rapids got us very wet, and we went through a waves that were walls of water, getting everyone soaked. Now we are stopped to take a hike. The hike was up Clear Creek Canyon, and a lot of it was wading through water. At the end there was a waterfall, part of which flowed sideways, You could also go behind the waterfall pretty easily. Now we are passing Phantom Ranch and its bridges. We will camp after we pass Horn Creek rapids, which is almost a two-hander. After looking at several sites, we chose a relatively small one with a lot of wind. We could not get the one Bill wanted because someone was already there. We stopped (mile 91.5) late, at about 6:30. We had chicken fajitas for dinner; I chopped the lettuce. The people from San Diego made very good guacamole; I was the official "taste-tester" because I generally do not like guacamole. I liked this, The fajitas were good, but we didn't finish until 8:15. After looking at the stars and talking for awhile, I went to bed around 9.

The next series of rapids was know as the Jewels. Right before Ruby, I got a nosebleed-and Bill drove the boat for the ride. I ended up in the front for Bass, and got wet, which felt good. Now we are stopped (Shinumo Creek, mile 108.5) -some people will walk up to jump off of a waterfall, others will walk and wait at a pool. To get to the pool, we had to swim through some rather deep spots. After that, we went back upstream, to where we dropped off the jumpers, for lunch. It was very hot. Then we ran a series of soaking rapids which helped us cool off. I tried to sleep, but before I did we saw a herd of at least five bighorns up on the ledges. Then we stopped at Elves Chasm (mile 116.5) for a short hike to a pretty waterfall and pool. We could not stay for long because another group was waiting.

After we were back on the river for a while, we saw a single bighorn grazing close to the river. It was still hot, so crashing through walls of water in Forester and other rapids felt good. Today we stopped (mile 125.5) around 4:30. Our site is not wide, but stretches pretty far along the river, and has some ledges. The rest of my family is sleeping on the ledges, and I have visions of Kent rolling right off. We had cole slaw, beef stew, and rolls for dinner. I helped make the cole slaw. For dessert, we had a choice of pies, I had strawberry-rhubarb. gun. I went to bed around 9, but watched the bats for awhile. Sue talked about the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers for the fourth night in a row.