I'm more than a little entertained about the way that the canyon forms not only on a big scale, but also on the small scale.

As the waters receded from the dune we camped on, it created small sculptures and carvings that looked like the big stuff.

And the big stuff:

Andy: "Wow. That doesn't look appealing."

Me: "What does it look like?"

Andy: "A wet bed sheet."

At dinner yesterday evening, Tracy offered the suggestion of wetting our bed sheets in the river before going to bed. Both Kris and Andy did so. I opted to stay dry. I'm not sure either of them slept better last night for the wetness, as it also rained last night. A lot.

Kris, Andy and I had put up the tent before we went to bed. It had sprinkled a small bit last night, so we knew that rain was a possibility. It hadn't, however, rained enough to send us into the tent. Last night, we put up the tent just in case. We had also decided, based on the amount of wind in the Canyon at night, and how much sand said wind kicks up, that we were going to choose sleeping locations based on wind protection. We looked for areas where we were downwind of a large rock, outcropping or bush, and used our tent for wind protection in the other direction.

Last night, however, it rained. Not just the spattering of the night before, but full gusto, big drop, Arizona monsoon rain. I had jumped into the tent still dry, but Kris and Andy waited until the rain was really coming down. I then insisted they put the rain tarp on the tent, which we had neglected to do last night, so they were even wetter when they finally came in.

Before the rain began, the sky had cleared and I managed to see the black sky with so many more stars than I normally see. I managed to see the new constellations I learned on the plane flight over, though I didn't recall their names, as well as draco and a few others I did recognize.

We were camping at the 118 dune camp, which is in Steven's Aisle, after rafting though some big rapid yesterday.

Michael brought a disc along. Turns out, the upper canyon group played ultimate in some large cavern up river. I wish we could have been there. Michael has good stationary throws, which bodes well, as he's tall.

I think it won't be long until people figure out what Andy and Kris and I are champs in.

Okay, so, the first camera battery died today. One of my spares is broken, but I'll keep it out at night to let it dry in this dry, dry, "but it's a dry heat!" air, in hopes it'll be functional again. I won't try it until the end of the trip, though, in case it does something weird and ruins the camera.

I managed to get over 500 pictures on the first battery, I think close to 600, which includes turning the camera on and off, on and off over 200 times. I'm going to turn off the picture review, turn down the LCD brightness (which today I discovered was on full-bright), and try to minimize the on/off use as well as I can. I'm thinking of turning of the continuous autofocus, too. Not sure on that one.

Still, 600 pictures in 2 days. I'm both pleased and hopeful that 5 cards and 4.5 batteries will be sufficient.

Finally! Took pictures today! I figured out that if I keep the camera in the dry bag, the tiny one that Mom and Eric loaned me, and tuck it under the secured dry bags, I can pull it out during the day and take pictures. Lots of pictures. I'm happy.

Kris and I spent the morning in Matt's boat, as Andy took to the paddle boat. With his sunglasses on, Matt looks like Brad Pitt with dark hair. Sounds similar, too. I'll have to reassess that statement after seeing him without his sunglasses on, which I haven't done yet. Eyes are key in this.

I'm thrilled to say I've figured out this peeing in a boat trick, and have been peeing a LOT. The guides keep telling us about keeping hydrated. Given how I spent a large amount of time peeing, I have to say I'm listening. Though Matt did figure out my bladder is the Smallest Bladder in the World pretty quick.

The trick, at least for me, is to pee into a can, then dump the contents into the river and wash out the can. I picked up a can last night before dinner, managing to get the ERG canister, which has a lid. I recalled my need to urinate all the time was a problem last trip, with my being unable to pee with my butt hanging overboard, with my lower body in the water, or (as usual) with anyone hearing. I couldn't care less if you could see me. If you could hear me, well then, the flow clenched.

Turns out, Matt has a similar "issue": he needs cover sound, too. Not normally a problem on a river with 18000 cfs flow, I think.

The day started off pretty rough for me. I was in the back of the boat, with Kris and Pat, a trip assistant and a friend of Matt's, in the front. I sat on the back left, Kris being in the front left, during the rapids and, at the end, crouched in the back and started crying. During the rapids, I was overcome with worry and was scared. It wasn't for myself, though. I was worried about Kris.

Realizing that this was going to make for a pretty horrible trip down the river if I spent the whole thing worrying about Kris, I calmed down, thought about the absurdity of my reactions, and was fine the rest of the day.

Today's hike was to Elves' Chasm, where a small waterfall fell at the end of the short hike. I remembered this waterfall, though not the hike into the side canyon. I also recall Eric jumping from the waterfall. Guy probably did, too, but I don't have any strong memories of his doing so.

Once the guides showed us we could jump off the waterfall, people started rushing the climbing hole to get up. Andy and Kris went, as did most everyone else, before I decided I wanted to go.

When did I become so fearful? When did everything become so hard for me?

I climbed up, slipping slightly once with Andreas helping me out. I froze at the top of the waterfall, even though it wasn't very high up and 10 people had made this jump before me. I needed Kris to call out 3 2 1, then needed everyone to call out 3 2 1 for me. I still paused, then jumped.

Well, Abbey commented that I more "slid off" than jumped, but I did go over the edge.

And looked terrified doing it, unlike Kris and Andy who looked calm and entertained.

My camera battery died just before Kris jumped a second time.

Tragically, I had left my spare camera battery in a ziploc bag, instead of the dry bag. Water was in the bag when I went for the battery, with blue acid oozing out of the terminals. The good part was that it was the crappy Lennar camera battery, which lasts less than half of the time as the Canon camera batteries. Unfortunately, I'm down to four camera batteries, and it's day 2 isn't even over yet.