Day 7, and yet more rapids

We learned around this time that days 6 and 7 of our trip would be the big water days.  Day 6 was a blast.  There are rapids sprinkled throughout the trip, but the densest packing of the higher scaled rapids are by far between miles 73 and 126.  53 miles of splash and fun.  We went through half of them on day 6, Day 7 was the next dose. And it would all start with one of the sketchiest rapids, Crystal.  With the lower water levels, the guides decided the left side was the way to go into the rapid.  Everyone in the group celebrated a clean run through Crystal, and we continued down the river.  The other Gem rapids followed, Sapphire, Turquoise, Ruby, and Serpentine were the more challenging of the Gems.  Again, no pictures of the rapids, but a few of the terrain are below.

Sometime during the morning, we were floating down the river, and Mike and I started playing catch.  The boats were drifting down the river, and slowly drifting farther apart.  Mike asked me to put one out over the river for him to dive at.  First attempt was decent, but he wanted to go a second time.  Below is a shot of the sequence which Ryan captured of that second throw, and an animation of the sequence.  I think its fun to look at the reactions of the folks on the boat, especially Naomi and Mike.

After this run we took our first short hike of the day to Shinumo Creek.  Warm water to relax and play in.

From here we continued down river about a mile and had lunch.  The second most exciting rapid of the day, Waltenberg, lay just a couple miles down the river.  I managed to move up to the front of the raft for this one, and was greeted with lots of water covering me as we went through the waves.  

A few miles beyond Waltenberg we stopped for a short walk up to Elves Chasm.  

We ended the day just beyond mile 119.  This was a wide open beach camp, which would lend itself well to boccie ball and tossing the disc.  We had a 8 person boccie ball game going that night, first time I recall playing the whole trip.  Boccie ball would become a staple of activity from then on, conditions and time permitting.  

The view above in the distance is a bit muted due to fire activity in the area.  It would become more noticeable the next morning, with ashes dusting the camp.  

Link to Day 8