Got up early so we could leave early. Have a long hike planned, but first a long paddle of several miles. Had a large peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a couple of slices of grapefruit for breakfast. Grabbed a couple of candy bars for lunch. Would have liked an apple, but they looked soft.
Barry found some markings on a rock next to his tent. Looks like Anasazi rock carvings. Notice the comet's tail points away from the sun, though the comet's motion is around the sun. This means whoever made the markings had to see the comet or knew about the behaviour of comets. Someone who does not know better, would draw the tail parallel to the sun, trailing the motion of the comet.
Lynne was my partner, President of Mosaic Toronto, a true outdoor enthusiast and an expert canoeist. To my dismay, Lynne insisted on taking as much as possible, extra full water bottles, Tex and dry bags. With our canoe overflowing with gear, Lynne grabbed a bag and said, "We can take the garbage too!".
"Oh joy," I thought.
Due to Lynne's energetic enthusiasm, we were the first to start, and because of our lead, the canoe ride turned out to be easy, as we coasted much of the way waiting for the crew to catch up.
We camped in the wide delta of Indian Creek. As the river passed Indian creek, there was a mild rapid that filled the air with a constant roar. I pitched my tent down on the mud flat. Most people, under 6 feet tall, camped in the wood above, which had large branches crossing the trail at the exact height to give a tall person a concussion in the dark.
Indian Creek is known to have some of the best hiking in the Canyonlands, splitting into two long canyons, Rustler's Canyon and Indian Creek canyon, miles long, both with numerous side canyons. A virtual paradise for hiking enthusiasts.
We headed up the broad bed of Indian Creek.
The canyon forked after about half a mile. The left fork led to a dry fall, which is a water fall without water. The dry fall had a ledge about 6 feet up, which we were able to mount and then a second which was another 20 feet up and insurmountable. To get beyond the dry fall and continue up the canyon, we would need to climb that ledge. The walls were sheer, being smoothed by the flow of water, with no holds or boulders about.
We retreated and wandered about the left canyon looking for a way up, but the canyon walls were vertical and hundreds of feet high. We returned to the dry fall, but to no avail.
Jesse stumbled over a broken up piece of cooler that looked like it was washed down the river. The good man that he is, he picked up the broken cooler, and at the end of our hike, dragged it back to camp.
We tried the right fork which was a rincon. A rincon is where a hairpin curve of the river was shortcutted by the river breaking through the near wall, leaving a tall pillar of ground surrounded by the former river bed.
The rincon was as bad as the left fork, with huge walls beyond our skill to climb.
As a last resort, we consulted Jesse's book, which said the dry fall was impassable. The way out was through the rincon. There was a breakdown in the eastern wall of the rincon. One was supposed to be able to scramble up the pile of debris about 200 feet high, then cicle a quarter of the way around the rincon along a narrow ledge of loose rocks and then up and over boulders to exit the rincon into the canyons beyond.
We climbed the pile of debris, which was not too bad, but no one had the nerve to climb up to the narrow ledge above and then circle the rincon from that height, a fall being certain death or worse.
Disappointedly, especially with the great hike the day before fresh in our minds, we returned to camp.
Runited the dinner crew from Tuesday. Jesse, Kati, Jeff Burke and I with help from Luba and Neil, made dinner. Tried to use everything that was left, which mainly was a lot of beans. Made chili with rice, quesadillas, salmon and hot dogs. Came out great.
Made a vat of beans and whatever vegetables we could find, including the baked potatoes from Monday. Poured in the salsa Rick and I had bought from Costco and did a taste test. Wow, the chili was delicious.
Knew at that point there was no improving the taste, but we still had barbecue sauce, mustard, chili peppers, garlic salt, lemon juice and a bunch of other stuff. My mother's spirit to get rid of leftovers entered me and before I could excise the demon, had poured in all the above and more. The chili was not only worse, but bordered on the inedible.
Fortunately, a weak stomached person, Luba I think, said she could not handle spicy food and we had separated half the batch beforehand. There was only one thing to be done. We mixed the batches and voila, perfection.
Asked Rick to let everyone know dinner was ready and he shouted, "Last call for dinner." That explained a thing or two.
As the sun fell, bats flew overhead. Heated some water on the fire and bathed in my tent, then joined the group for our second, and final talking stick circle.