First 1/2 mile today on Charly's boat with Kris and Andy

Yes, Havasu Falls is as I remembered it. Kris and Andy wanted to be in front, so they took off. I didn't want to go, so though I was in the front of the beginning, I drifted to the back after the break/gathering point at a big pool.

Josh showed us (Sonia, Michael, Adam, Pam and me) a good stopping point. He convinced me to keep going, but I stopped about three mintues afte rrealizing the pace he was setting was both outside my comfort zone and way past the pace I wanted to go. I turned back to spend the morning with the Js: Jaffe and Jorgensons. I learned how to play Botticelli, (even if I couldn't spell it in my notes) where you think of people to stump each other in a guessing game.

As a side note, Susan fell early in this hike and injured (deformed) her wrist. She's still down at the boats, and didn't make it to the Olympic Pool gathering point. If her wrist is broken, she'll be helicoptered out. When I heard about the incident, I told Josh about a previous trip of mine to the Grand Canyon, with Kristy and Charles, and how Charles was helicoptered out. Fun.

Well, with lots of effort, the camera finally opens. It grinds with sand in the gears, and sometimes it doesn't open, or I have to shove it closed, but at least it's somewhat opening again and I can take pictures. Yay!

Surprisingly, I'm still on battery 2.

Thinking about it, I should have brought Kris' pink plastic cards on this trip. No worry about their getting wet.

And, yes, surprisingly yes, it is possible to be done with the Canyon. I felt like I wanted to be done last night. This morning, I'm okay. Last night, not so much.

Whoever said there are no mosquitos in the Grand Canyon lied. Sitting on the pot this morning, one landed on my arm and started digging in. I swatted it, then debated wiether or not to bring the corpse to the group to show it off and provide evidence of their existance at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

I decided not to.

Kris and I talked about the "canyon aura" Sonia asked about in the group sitting at dinner last night. She asked why the canyon top was brighter at night: the sky at the edge of the canyon appears lighter than the night sky looking away from the edge. Was the cause reflected sunlight, moonlight, city lights?

Charly piped up and asked, "Oh! Do you mean the canyon aura?" He named the phenomenom, but couldn't explain it (which, admittedly, frustrated me a bit, because it stopped the conversation, without explaining the phenomenom).

I told Kris I though the aura was an artifact of the way the eyeball works. Unfortuantely, I didn't explain my thoughts well, so we talked for a long while about it. Essentially, I tried to describe the phenomenom where, if you stare at an object in big contrast to its surrounding, then look away, you see an retinal imprint of the object.

Looking at the canyon rim, which is solid dark, next to the slightly bright sky, your eye doesn't focus on one point. The slight movement, with a slight retinal imprint, gives the impression of an aura along the canyon edge.

I don't recall which of rods or cones (update: rods for light, cones for color), the the light sensitive ones may have a loner lag time, which makes the aura more pronounced. Actually, when its this dark, color is irrelevant, so the lag time is also irrelevant.

Kris asked if it was the same phenomenom as when a blue circle in a dark backgroun is seen as a darker blue than the same blue in a white (or lighter than the previous circle's) background. I said not quite, but we'd do the experiment later at home.

I do, think, however that I eventually explained it well enough.

Andy slept through the whole conversation.

I've decided I really like my poop. Not only do I poop fast, but it also comes out in very discrete groups, piles even, so that when I wipe, little comes off onto the paper as there's little there. Unlike some people, I think, I'm not smearing crap all over my butt.

And! It comes after announcing itself.

Yes, I have the best poop ever.

Slept fairly well last night, as I have finally given up trying to sleep the whole night through. I am now happy to sleep an hour or two at a time.

Andy asked me, "Do you look at your watch when you wake up?"

"Yes."

"Maybe that's your problem."