It’s a Small World

Phantom Creek was calling our names, but Phantom Ranch Canteen was calling mine even louder. While the rest set up camp or plunged into the water, I set off the 1/2 mile or so to the Ranch and hopefully a cold drink. I’m not sure why cold drink seemed so important, but it did. And was it ever good. Strong Iced Tea, just a little bit sweet, seemed to reset the body and I scampered back to hop in the creek.

I quickly changed into my ill fitting swimwear. That’s about where I fizzled while trip packing and just grabbed the quickest thing. It also didn’t help that, while not part of the training plan, I had increased my calorie intake prior to the trip. Just to, you know, cover all the bases. No pun intended. Adding to the pretty picture was a glorious Hikers Rash spreading over my lower legs. I didn’t blame Carla for her involuntary shout of laughter when she caught sight of me wobbling over the rocks to join them. It was a sight all right.

The water felt epic as we lounged in little dammed off pools, built new dams and in general relaxed. It’s so green down there compared to what we’d been through. There was a pomegranate tree that was blooming, birds sang, the sun beat down and Andrew hiked. That guy is unstoppable.

When everyone felt sufficiently rested, we headed down to Boat Beach on the Colorado for some polar plunging. That river is COLD. I wouldn’t dream of entering it in moderate weather. Extra blazing hot weather is another thing tho, and in we went. You can’t go in very far because of the current, but it gets deep enough to swim around some. Our toes got numb after a bit, but the hot sand quickly restored circulation. A sudden rain shower blasted us, which had a beauty all its own.

And so the long, lazy afternoon progressed. Between dipping in the water, getting more drinks from the Ranch and doing some more exploring, we had a pleasant day. A book and a card game were borrowed from the Ranch, and Carla and I spent some time with our feet in the creek while we read. Andrew and Heath hiked the River Trail for a ways, and some took naps. A ranger stopped by and told me she saw legs like mine all the time and it was just the heat that did it. Not to worry. Blisters were compared, Jared won that contest, and more mole skins were acquired from the med station.

The squirrels are total devils in the campground. They have no healthy fear. There they sit, six inches from you as you eat, their beady little eyes staring, waiting to dart in and steal something. While our backpacks all remained unscathed, tho one hopped in a time or two, our tent wasn’t quite as lucky. We now have a squirrel vent.

Supper was more of the same, with food being swapped and compared. Some had had the foresight to cool their stuff in the creek. The water out of the taps down there is almost hot enough to make coffee with. It’s so not refreshing, but no one was complaining. We would clearly be dead without it.

At 7:30pm the thermometer showed 99*, so things were improving. After a last trip to the river to see the canyon walls at dusk, we headed for bed. That involved a little different process than normal! Some plunged in the creek to get fully wet prior to laying down, others just wet their shirts and I got my hair thoroughly soaked. Even with all that it was pretty miserable. Hardly a puff of air, and just baking rocks. Heath had brilliantly packed down a little fan, so that helped enormously. There was no way I could close the tent door, so we sometimes had little things running over us in the night. I’m surprised they didn’t skid out on the sweat. Bats swooped around and thanks to the full moon it never got totally dark. Sleep eventually came, albeit very broken, but we didn’t actually go down to sleep. We went down to explore and discover, so all was good.