Week Two... Down to Four

After the first week, 88 miles in, Gary, Dan, and Torrey hiked out at Phantom Ranch.  We had a little parting drink, saw some other people (quite a few actually), sent our families post cards, then said goodbye and continued on for another 200 miles with just four of us!

January 19th to 25th highlights

Fan Island Hike:  We were able to slow down a bit after the push to Phantom Ranch, so we took a rest day at Bass camp where we decided to go for a hike up to a place called Fan Island.  It took the majority of the day to do this hike, which included a little bit of scrambling but no serious rock climbing.  At the top of the island we were treated to amazing views down and we managed to get a lot of sun this day which was a great break from the cold.

Elves Chasm:  This was a short hike, but we overshot it a little so had to hike up the river to get back to it.  Totally worth it, the pictures don't even do this justice!  As an added bonus we got to float back down to our boats afterwards through a little riffle which was tons of fun!

Simply being on the river... It cannot be said enough that either on the big rafts or in a pack raft, the rafting is peaceful at times, then an adrenaline rush through the rapids, always accompanied by the impressive beauty of the canyon itself!  Many times during this trip I would catch myself with a silly smile on my face just thinking about how lucky I was to be able to do something like this!

Camping at 'the ledges':  Most of our campsites were sat up on nice sprawling beaches, but this night we were running out of daylight and forced to set up camp on a rock ledge.  It was pretty funny, we were all a little more cramped than we were used to, I managed to lose the lid to one of the pots we had (thankfully Aaron was able to perform a recovery dive in the morning), and we had to do a minor rock climb any time we wanted to use the bathroom...  

Hike up Havasu Creek:  Even though I messed up here and didn't wear my dry suit for the hike like everyone else, it was one of the more impressive hikes of the trip!  I did end up on Aaron's shoulders for one crossing, then just with a wet lower body after awhile...  It was an awesome hike up to Beaver Falls, where I eventually made it even though not as soon as the other 3 because I was trying to stay dry.  Havasu Creek had that same amazing blue color that the Little Colorado did, and it had the added bonus of leading to an awesome waterfall, and there was another if we were to keep going (or approach it from above).  Another place that I hope to be visiting in the future!!