Ouch!!  Are my legs sore this morning and I still have some slight nausea.  I am sure glad we are not hiking the 10+ miles it would take today to get back on schedule on our original itinerary.  We have a very nice campsite at the base of the cliff protected by some Tamarisk trees.

     The Park Service powers their way down the river with a virtual armada of boats.  We learn later from two hikers that the Park Service was at Cardenas Creek yesterday shocking the river so they could count the number and different species of fish that floated to the surface.  Hmm, an interesting expenditure of our tax dollars.

     Marsha decides to do a day hike over to Seventy-Five Mile Creek and then up it a ways.  Art and I are having none of that.  We decide instead to do a day hike up Papago Creek. 

     We watch as Marsha hikes up the steep trail and then heads easterly.  Eventually she goes into the next drainage and we do not see her again that morning.  Art and I head up Papago Creek for our day hike.  It is about fifty feet until the end, a twenty-five foot pour-off that is not negotiable.  That took about thirty seconds.  Well, after a hard day hiking, it's time to head back to camp for a nap. 

     This is the cliff that sticks out into the river that causes you to take the high route.  The distance from the rocks on the east side of the cliff to the sand on the west side is about fifty feet.  We discuss whether we can wade that distance and avoid the grueling three hour hike up and over.  All the websites say not to wade in the river due to its depth, forty-five degree temperature, and fast current.  We find an eight foot stick and probe the river bottom by the cliff, but it is every bit of six feet deep, so we work on other alternatives.  Our depth sounding reinforces our belief that the once useable low route will never be a realistic option under current river discharge rates.

     Marsha has been gone about five hours.  We have agreed if she is not back by 4:00, Art and I will come looking for her.  Around 3:30 she arrives back in camp.  We also see two other hikers headed this way.  We welcome them to our camp and give them each a power bar.  They have come from Cardenas Creek and tell us the fish story about the Park Service.  They are headed to Hance Rapids for the night.  We invite them to spend the night at our campsite.  Despite our concerns about them going over the high route after a long day of hiking, they head out.  We advise them to exercise extreme caution on the western slope of the cliff section.

     The river water carries a great deal of silt, which complicates filtering water from it.  I brought a collapsible water jug and Marsha has some large zip-lock bags that we use to allow the silt to settle out of the water.  We were all able to filter water with no problems after this.  Filtering muddy river water without allowing any settling will probably result in your filter becoming clogged.

     We discuss the difficulty of going back over the cliff section tomorrow and alternatives.  I suggest that tomorrow we try to flag down some rafters and see if they will transport us across to the sandbar on the other side of the cliff.  We have Marsha practice giving her most distressed look to see if that will improve our chances of some rafter stopping.  After supper we eat our last raspberry crumble dessert.  Marsha is pleased that she was able to explore Seventy-Five Mile Creek since we will not be going that way tomorrow.  Art and I were happy to have the layover day. 

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