cc) Camps – With the high flow this year, we set out to make miles when we could so we would have time to do as many hikes as possible. I didn’t keep notes, but I think we camped at 19.2 mile camp (night of M 6/27), then at Silver Grotto (29.5; Tu 6/28), then at Eminence (44.5, W 6/29), Main Nankoweap (53.4; Th 6/30), Below Nevils (76.2; F 7/1), Below Pipe Creek [aka, Pipe View] (89.9; Sat 7/2), New Shady Grove (103.5; Sun 7/3), Upper Garnet (114.9; M 7/4), Below Bedrock (131.7; Tu 7/5), Matkat Hotel (148.9; W 7/6), 158.7 mile (Th 7/7), Mohawk (172.6; F 7/8), 186.4 (Sat 7/9), 208L (not a marked camp; Sun 7/10), and Upper 220 mile (M 7/11). We didn’t have any camps that we didn’t like. Some were better than others in that we had shade early in the pm and late in the am. My favorite camp was 158.7 mile camp below Havasu because we had clean rock ledges, almost no sand, and overhang that provided protection from the rain. We did have a raven there, however. David and Glenn caught trout at Eminence, enough for everyone to have some that wanted some, which was a big advantage of that camp. They did not fish a most camps, however, so other camps may have had fish as well.

dd) Hiking – My plan from the beginning was to hike as much as possible on this trip and to focus on hikes that have water, shade, or both, so we could keep cool in the hot summer weather. We did manage to go to a number of places that we missed on the previous trip. I talked about this a lot in the planning meetings, and I thought everyone was wanting the same, but in the Canyon, I found that Mike’s family and mine were a lot more interested in hiking than the other participants. On the second day, we hiked a little ways up North Canyon, which was dry and hot, and then hiked at Silver Grotto (mile 29.5). We found Silver Grotto to have some very challenging climbing, but were able to do everything but the last climb above a pool of stagnant water. We were not able to climb up out of the river water at the mouth, but Mike climbed around into the canyon and held a rope for the rest of us to pull on to climb up. He said that the climb around was pretty exposed. Next time I would take climbing gear for the climb around and possibly pack some climbing shoes in a dry bag for the crux that turned us back this time.

ee) The next day, we did Red Bud Alcove (thinking it was Buck Farm), and Buck Farm, which were both very nice. Ted, Wesley, and I were the only ones that made it to the narrows and pools in Buck Farm, but we thought it was well worth the hike. It sprinkled on us as we were leaving Buck Farm. The next day, most of us did Saddle Canyon and Ted, Wesley, and I hiked up to the Nankoweap Granaries. We played in the Little Colorado the next morning. I brought a tube and the others wore their PFDs as diapers. That afternoon, Mike, Ted, Wesley, and I hiked up Cardenas canyon, which was hot and dry, but there were interesting rocks including a lot of strange circles that appeared to be stained in the rock. The next day, we hiked up Clear Creek, stopped briefly at Cremation Canyon, and then walked up to Phantom Ranch. In past years, Michelle and I scattered the ashes of two of our children who died at birth in Cremation Canyon from the rim, and the purpose of our visit there was to remember and honor them. If they had lived, Christopher would be 20 now and Isaac would be 3.