Butt Crack Canyon

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Last night at dinner, I turned to Kris and told him, "I dub thee Butt Crack Canyon," as I pointed up to the rock structure across the river from us. He looked up, smirked, and responded, "Yes, and we're on Moon Beach."

Morning hairdo

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When I stumbled to the campsite this morning, Kris turned and smiled at me. And then started laughing. Andy turned at the sound, followed Kris' gaze, and also burst out laughing. Confused, I asked what was so funny. Through his gasps, he told me to take a picture of myself.

Foolishly, I did.

Red ants

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We learned of the red ants at the orientation yesterday morning.

When they bite, they hurt. A lot. So don't get bitten.

Fortunately, they go to bed at dusk, so setting up a campsite near(ish) to them is okay, as they'll go to bed before us.

At least, that's the plan.

Cicadas

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Dang! The cicadas are LOUD! And there are a LOT of them.

Those are Andy's fingers.

Little water today

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Wow, that didn't take long until I was annoyed with someone. I shouldn't be surprised, I guess, given how much on edge I've been as of late. I guess it's better than I get it out of my system early than to let it stew for a while.

After arriving at Pipe Springs, we surrendered all of our snacks (which had me worried about Kris and his need for food, actually), stuff all of our gear into dry bags and surrendered our backpacks, hopped into boats (we were in Tracy's boat, Tracy being the trip leader), and immediately started down the river. We had Horn Creek Rapids first, which I think is one of the big rapids on the river.

We stopped early, around 1 in the afternoon, for a short day. Given that our day started at 4:00 AM, it doesn't really feel like a short day. While Kris and Andy chose to go for a hike with the Upper Canyon group, I chose to stay behind and find a book to read in the "library," which is a large ammo case full of books about the Canyon, mostly about geology and less about rafting. I had chosen to travel with no books, no music and no other solidary endeavours, so as to force myself to socialize with other people and not just go off by myself. I don't know how wise this plan was, as I'm bored instead of social.

I ended up passing out on the campground, anyway. Yeah, sleeping. Now THAT'S a social activity. Everyone seemed to get a good hoot out of my passing out in the middle of the campground, as several people took pictures of my slobbering as slept.

Andy and Kris managed to hike a short ways, then turn back. Andy was good to me, and took pictures of rocks, as I would have done. Andy's taste in rock is different than my taste in rock, I note.

He did, however, take pictures of Kris for me, including his butt:

We found a good place to sleep tonight. We're under a tree, a short way away from the beach.

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