The pair of photos below of Pot Creek 1 Camp almost look like they were taken in the daylight. But what about those stars? They were actually shot at 1:11 am while the camp was asleep. The scene is lit by the moon.
The boatmen were sound asleep an hour before coffee would be ready at 7 am.
But the early light was great. And others were starting to stir.
What is this “FOOD REPAIR”?
Stephen and I climbed the butte above the camp again, this time accompanied by Charlie and David. The scene was different in the early light than the night before, but still beautiful.
Stephen scrambled to the highest point wearing Crocs, helped a bit by Charlie.
The view upstream was worth a photo, or in this case, an 11-shot panorama.
The sun was just about to peek over the canyon upstream of our camp. But those at camp would not see its warmth for a while.
Back at camp, Stephanie made eggs to order. I took mine over-easy.
After a great breakfast we packed up at Pot Creek Camp.
But breaking camp takes a while so I wandered “out back” to make a few more photos.
As we left camp and headed downstream, this was our view. It was going to be another great day, as Sarge would say.
We did not travel far before we reached Harp Falls. We did not scout them, but they were splashy enough that I needed to put my DSLRs away. I shot the two images below with a mirrorless underwater camera at the end of Harp Falls. Both are mergers of a pair of photos
Shortly after Harp Falls we pulled over for a “history stop”.
Bruce pointed to the “graffiti” on the wall and gave us some of its background.
Al Holland, a “Warm Springs veteran” who was on the Yampa trip with us, filled me in on some details I didn’t get in my notebook: “The ‘Burg Nostrom’ is … an inscription left by the Amos Burg and Haldane “Buzz” Holmstrom trip of 1938. Holmstrom had run the Green and Colorado from Green River, Wyoming, to the recently completed Boulder Dam in 1937. Holmstrom rowed a well designed wooden boat of the Galloway style named the ‘Julius’, honoring Holmstrom’s benefactor Julius Stone, an Ohio Valley industrialist. On the second trip, 1938, Amos Burg joined him in an inflatable rubber boat named ‘Charlie’. Burg was a photographer from Portland, Oregon, who intended to film their journey, show the film at a San Francisco world’s fair, and sell stills and an article to National Geographic. I do not think he ever published the article, but his film, ‘Conquering the Colorado’, was nominated for an Oscar for documentary in 1939.”
This day Stephen rode a single yellow duckie — he would later switch to a blue one we rescued from the river — and Heather rode a double duckie with David.
On day 2 of the Green, I used my waterproof camera often. This was one time for sure.
We scouted Triplet Falls and Bruce didn’t like what he saw. So the duckies travelled these rapids strapped to several of the rafts.
Here are some photos at the exit of Triplet.
Soon after Triplet we pulled over to scout Hells Half Mile.
Here is a view of Hells Half Mile — I can’t show it all since it is a half mile long. This is just the early easy part. These rapids were named by Powell not because of the severity of the rapids but the length and difficulty of the portage. After losing a boat in Disaster Falls he didn’t want to risk another. For us these were the second of the two “no-duckies-allowed” rapids.
I was riding with Bruce and he let the other three rafts run the rapids first so I could get a chance to photograph from shore. He was very helpful during the entire trip getting me in position for good photos. Here is slide show of a section near the end of Hells Half Mile. After I took these I had to walk, you guessed it, a half mile back to the raft.
It was a short distance past Hells Half Mile to our next camp site at Rippling Brook 1. We landed, unloaded, and had lunch there. Jill was always an eager helper and in this case Dan really showed his youthful speed by being able to toss and catch the next chair in one blazingly fast move.
But, like many overly-energetic people, he got tired quickly.
While lunch was prepared we set up our tents, or tossed our pads and bags on the ground — like Stephen and Jill, I went tentless on this trip.
Lunch was around 1:30 pm this day. Bruce announced that in “a river hour” we would take a hike. At 4:30 pm we left for the hike up Rippling Brook, but not before naps were taken and Quiddler was played …
… and the SUP was tested.
Just before we finally headed up Rippling Brook I got a photo of a nicely twisted branch. There would be many of these to use as foreground objects as we climbed above the Green River in the Lodore Canyon.
The climb to the falls of Rippling Brook was spectacular. We had great views of the river in earlier and later light. Here are a pair from the hike up.
Most of Rippling Brook had no water, but there was a continuously-running falls at the end of the hike. A few people used it to cool off. Here is Jennifer doing so.
The hike down to camp was as beautiful as the hike up.
Stephanie and Bruce researched wildflowers while dinner was prepared.
Andrew and Charlie dressed for dinner in their finest.
David attempted to play volleyball but since there wasn’t a net he got few takers. So instead he joined the game of Bocce Ball
We had a nice flickering fire.
At 8 pm I made a photo looking upstream at fast-moving clouds.
Here are some of the other photos from another great day in the Canyon of Lodore.
