Wow, Sunbeam, we loved your descriptions, your narrative, AND the pictures you posted! Great job!
And Jody's robo-helicopter photo of the boats on the beach is fabulous.
It's great fun reading everyone's reports. We haven't looked at Rob's maps yet, but we're looking forward to it (and perhaps learning to do that ourselves.)
It was super meeting everyone, some for the second time, and many new folks.
When we left Forgotten Canyon, we HAD planned to go stay a night in Annie's Canyon, but, as Sunbeam mentioned, it has NO place to camp, though it's still one of our favorites. We looked through a couple of others, hunting a site to stay out of the wind predicted for the next day, but nothing looked promising. We finally chose Slick Rock Canyon. A houseboat was in the opening, and a small boat, about our size with an older couple about our age did NOT look friendly, so we went back near the opening and chose a fairly sheltered spot just inside the canyon. (When I walked Lindy later, up on the shelf, I saw why the older couple didn't offer to share their beach--they were skinny-dipping off their boat! LOL)
We'd only planned to stay one night, but the wind was so high the next morning that we stayed another night. We had plenty of blowing sand to contend with, but it was definitely better than being out in the main channel. We left there the next morning (was that Thursday?), with the intention of getting to Dangling Rope for more gas and to empty our portapotti and then head farther toward Wahweap, but the wind just got higher and higher. It was from the southwest, so we tried getting closer to the southwest side wall of the main canyon, thinking it would block the wind somewhat, but NO! The waves were really bad, not good in a 16', so we turned in to a couple of canyons, including Reflection Canyon, looking for a campsite before we settled on one in Hidden Passage Canyon. With the water level so low this year, the maps and info that are "normal" for the lake are not accurate, so it was kind of hit or miss.
But even in Hidden Passage, with all its winding around, etc., the wind blew HARD, almost ALL DAY, first from one direction and then from another. We did not put up our camperback, figuring it would just make a great sail and really slam us around. We did have the bimini up and lowered the back canvas-and-and plastic curtains behind the seats, so we spent a lot of the day in a really small space. (Thanks again to Rob from Portland, who gave us some Gorilla Duct Tape, which allowed us to use our bimini, even after major zipper failure.) Of course we got sand in our ears, teeth, and noses, in our clothes, in our hair! It was the pits. But we worked sudoku puzzles and played Farkle and Phase 10 Dice and read a bit, so we had some distraction. The beach of our campsite was about half as long as a football field, much higher at the center, blocked at the back by about a 40-foot high canyon wall and water at either end. We walked Lindy around on her leash on the beach and then let her go run free for about an hour. She's a runner, so we normally can't do that, so she loved it, even with the sand blowing, etc. After a time, she came back to us, so it was fun for us to see that she was wanting to be near us. Maybe she'll learn not to run away!
The wind continued to blow almost all night, but Lyle had the boat anchored by three lines--tied to two anchors and a downed tree, and so See-Saw was secure, though we DID worry! The next morning--Friday?--we got up to NO wind, so we took off quickly, headed out. We reached Dangling Rope right after it opened.
We got gas, dumped the portapotti, and a lady walked past and up the dock with a bald eagle on her arm. I went and talked with her, and she invited me to come close. She has a wildlife-and-ecology conservation thingy in Southern California. She got the eagle when it was 5 months old, with a badly broken wing, which was fixed enough that she can fly but not well enough to be able to hunt and sustain herself. Her name is Kenai because she was found in Kenai, Alaska. (She's now 5 years old and is like a dog, as far as following commands, wanting to be with this lady, etc. I got within a foot of the bird; she's gorgeous!) A man named Gregory Colbert is the "best" nature photographer working, and he owns the largest art collection in the world (or so the lady says), and they had a big crew (several houseboats, etc.) there and were getting ready to start filming videos of that eagle (and others of the lady's birds, I think she said) flying through the canyons of the lake. Then there will be a big art exhibit of the video and still shots from it, with a simultaneous opening in 8 American cities in one day. So that will be something for us to watch for.
We had a beautiful trip back to Wahweap--bright sun, little wind, reminders of why we are C-Brats. (We'll try to get some photos posted soon.) Meeting with Marcia, Nick, Boomer, Diane, and Heinz for lunch was a final treat at the end of the trip. We spent that night at the campground at Wahweap, unloaded stuff from the boat back to our pickup camper, had a NICE LONG shower, and then headed out to our next destination--Bryce Canyon, another gorgeous site! After a couple of days there, we timed our departure with the government shutdown, headed across southern Utah, through gorgeous Grand Staircase-Escalante, and across Hite Crossing of the northern end of Lake Powell, to Blanding, and on southeastward. We're now in Albuquerque, before heading home to Amarillo on Friday.
What tales we C-Brats can share!
Janda, Lyle, and Lindy
