August 30-Above Salt Creek (approx mile 92.8)

7 –  Don read for us this morning: 

On the evening of July 24, 1869, when another man might simply have flung himself on the ground in nervous exhaustion, Powell climbed a boulder near the river’s edge and spent an hour gazing at the water in fascination.  Watching the waves in the gathering darkness, he was still studying, still categorizing, still enthusiastic, above all, still curious.  “The waves are rolling, with crests of foam so white they seem almost to give a light of their own.  Near by, a chute of water strikes the foot of a great block of limestone, fifty feet high, and the waters pile up against it, and roll back.  Where there are sunken rocks, the water heaps up in mounds, or even in cones.  At a point where rocks come very near the surface, the water forms a chute above, strikes, and is shot up ten or fifteen feet, and piles back in gentle curves, as a fountain.” 

Decades later, when boatmen began to run the rapids for sport, they would name the watery formations that Powell had identified and add others to the menagerie.  Powell’s crests of foam, for instance, capped tall pyramid-shaped breaking waves that are now called haystacks.  The water he saw piling up against the face of an enormous limestone boulder was a dramatic example of a pillow.  The mounds or cones were mini-horizon lines where the river poured over a barely submerged rock and dropped abruptly into a hole.  The ten or fifteen foot tall fountain marked a spot where a stretch of particularly fast-moving water collided with a rock, forming what today’s river runners call a rooster tail. 

Powell had not found every entry that would someday have a place in a white-water glossary, but he had made a considerable start.  A complete inventory would come later; the key accomplishment was sensing that there was system underlying what appeared to be chaos.  A white-water Mendeleyev, Powell shared his Russian contemporary’s yearning to uncover the natural world’s hidden order and pattern.  The difference was that Powell conducted his research not at a chemist’s bench but at the bottom of a thousand-foot canyon.

Morning on the River 

We do everything we can to delay Jen's departure.Hike at Clear Creek, cold beer at Phantom Ranch, and lots of hugs.

Dan and Salli are hot, tired and smiling when we meet up. They get to start off with Horn Creek Rapid, then get to work on cook crew. Dan's first ever.

(No water today….looking to fill our water jugs at Phantom Ranch.  Happy Birthday, GREG!  Jay sang as the rest of us were waking up and getting our day started.  Ice cold beer at Phantom, $4.25.  Salli and Dan arrive and meet up with us…..and the group “regroups” as we find water at Pipe Creek.  Catie is a great cook, huge help in camp….she seeks me out on walks and we’ve talked a lot.  I appreciate her friendship and perspective.  Big Day coming up with Hermit, Granite, Crystal, the “jewels” and many others.….16 miles, 15 rapids!  We are on the cusp of half way!)

Cheesy BLTs Serves 4

1/2 c cottage cheese, drained
3 oz cream cheese w/ chives1/4 c shredded cheddar
hot sauce
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
sundried tomatos chopped


Mix. Stores well.


Sesame-Ginger Sauce for poached shrimp (appetizer-Dinner 7)  To be used with 2 lbs. poached shrimp   *makes A LOT*  
1 tsp soy sauce
1 T honey
1 tsp peanut oil
1/2 c. sesame seeds
2 T peeled, coarsely chopped ginger
1/2 c. rice wine vinegar
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. red chili flakes
2 tsp fish sauce
1 T cilantro, chopped
salt & pepper
 
Toast sesame seeds in saucepan.  Add ginger, rice wine vinegar, sugar, chili flakes and fish sauce. Bring to boil and cook until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool slightly, Blend until smooth then add cilantro and salt and pepper to taste.