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Day Four, from Vishnu Canyon to Boucher Canyon. I was with Peter Dale in "Black Mesa." The major rapids on the fourth day were Grapevine (8), Horn Creek (8), Granite (8), Hermit (8), and Boucher (4). Although each rapid was very different today, they began to look the same: big roar, long tongue, big V-waves, some high clashes in the center chute, eddies at the end. Peter Dale was worried about Horn Creek which is impassable in low water, but we had a great ride through it. We photographed our boats going through Granite Rapid. Our boat was photographed in Hermit Rapid where Peter nearly lost it when he caught his oar in an impressive wave and bent his oarlock. We stopped at Phantom Ranch to mail postcards. We had intense rainshowers just before and after lunch and again during dinner, and so had to set up tents tonight. Before dinner, Rod Nash and I took a very short hike up Boucher Canyon to see the geology and Isis Temple. Camped at Mile 97, Boucher Creek. Turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, and cranberry sauce for dinner. |
"Rapids have a relentlessness about them that is unusual in the spectrum of outdoor recreation activities. There is no turning back, no reconsiderations, no second chance. Commit a boat to the power of a Big Drop and you must make the run - in the boat or in the water, in one piece or several. By way of contrast, the mountain does not pull the climber upward at twenty-five miles per hour, demanding instant and irrevocable decisions. You can rappel off the cliff. You can also brake a sports car, fall down on the ice or off a surfboard, and luff a sailboat into the wind. But rapids do not grant incompletes. Only pilots, skydivers, and hang gliders, who also deal with gravity in a fluid medium, face a comparable everything-on-the-line finality. They know with the boatmen what Winston Churchill meant when he observed that if you "play for more than you can afford to lose, . . . . . you will learn the game." Rod Nash, in "The Big Drops, 1989 |