Dolores River - Slickrock to Gateway

Day Four

Breakfast blueberry pancakes, and Rocky cooks up potatoes and onions, Irish famine food, but everyone enjoyed the combination. Each day with seven people tended to be a three pot of coffee morning. Floated 20 miles, I think three class III rapids. I didn’t sleep well the night before, so I dozed, slept, and was generally lazy. Gorgeous canyon, lower canyon wider than upper canyon. Now we are floating with the hanging flume, built to carry water to the placer miners in the canyon. It was never completed and was a huge financial disaster. It's just amazing what a motivating force greed can be! The old spars on the canyon wall will be with us for a while now.

Then we lost our leprechaun...

After breakfast floated about 10 miles, wanted to take out at a great hiking/camping spot, but Rocky bounced off and missed the take out. Around the bend and out of site he goes. After much discussion, we decided to eat lunch, let the group go on a hike while Rob & I would go in search of Rocky. About a quarter of a mile around the bend we found our leprechaun on the other side of the river. This turned out to be a really good camping spot. There was a bit poison ivy but we were careful to avoid it. Things to remember on the hike above the canyon - nice trail, a mysterious grave site, blue heron flying below us, broken dishes, and rusted cans, blooming cactus and flowers, sick bat, and the haunting beauty of the flume.

Jay and Dave’s dinner

Appetizers- crackers, celery/carrots, oysters, cheese. Main Dish-Thai Peanut noodles Desert- Brownies (you can never have enough brownies when camping). Great job setting up the kitchen, organizing everything, and nice presentation.