There wasn't much frog croaking last night, so I got lucky. Keith and I discuss our itinerary today. I hurt my right big toenail the first day coming down the South Bass Trail and don't feel like doing a day hike to Boucher Rapids at the end of the day. Since Keith has not seen the rapids and he is a much stronger hiker than I am, we agree that he will leave here early ahead of me, drop his pack when he reaches Boucher Creek, do a day hike down to the rapids, and then meet me back at our new campsite at Boucher Creek. He leaves Slate Creek a few minutes before 8:00. I eventually leave around 8:20. Right away I find a Tarantula crossing the trail. Then I find a note from Keith in the sand as to when he passed this point.
The views to the west of Geikie Peak and Scylla Butte are great.
There only appears to be one drainage to pass today, but it has numerous, large fingers, so this is going to take a while. Around the middle most finger of the drainage, I meet a group of five people westbound for Agate Canyon. I give them water reports for the rest of their hike.
This is another crystal clear day, but it is already getting a little warm. I'm glad I'll be reaching Boucher Creek early today. The views are magnificent in all directions as I reach the north side of Marsh Butte.
In about two hours, I get my first view of the Colorado River today. It's still flowing a muddy, brown color. I am now on the east side of Marsh Butte and will soon reach the point where the trail starts a rapid descent into Topaz Canyon. That section looked quite steep when my daughter and I were camped at Boucher Creek in 2005.
There are more great plants to photograph. The Brittlebush have put out long green shoots and are just getting ready to bloom.
The view of the Boucher Trail on the other side of Topaz Canyon to the east reveals just how steep it is. I'm not looking forward to going up that tomorrow. I start the descent into Topaz Canyon around 11:00. About ten minutes later, I meet a group of five coming up the trail headed to Slate Creek. I don't envy them since they have gotten a late start out of Boucher Creek and it is already very hot right now.
This descent is brutal. It clearly is the toughest descent we've had on the entire hike. Near the base of the descent are a lot of rocks with some kind of silver, reflective material embedded in the rock. It is almost like looking at a mirror. This picture does not do justice to the reflective nature of the rock. At the bottom, I find Keith's pack on the other side of Boucher Creek and leave him a note showing when I arrived here.
I reach the campsites at Boucher Creek around noon. The best campsite where my daughter and I camped a few years ago is already taken. Bummer. I sit down and talk a while with the guys who are camped here. In just a few minutes, Keith arrives and we look around for our own campsite. There is another pretty good site next to the other guys, so we put our stuff down there. It is blistering hot, so we decide to wait until later to set up our tents. About all you can do now is look for some boulders to hunker down beside in the shade. Around 2:30 the guy leading the group I met earlier going up toward Marsh Butte comes into camp with a medical emergency. It seems one of the guys in his group is having a heat stroke or heat exhaustion just east of Marsh Butte. Fortunately, we have our satellite phone. After several calls to the Park Service and a few dropped calls by the satellites, we convince the Park Service to send a rescue helicopter. While we wait for the chopper, Keith and I go over to explore Louis Boucher's mine. It is only about fifty feet long, so apparently Boucher found it more profitable to mine the tourists than look for copper.
We next go by the remains of Boucher's cabin. It seems to have deteriorated some since my daughter and I were here.
Keith and I find some Boucher artifacts in one of the campsites and return those to the cabin. One is the head to a shovel and the other is an intact liquor bottle.
In just a little while, the rescue helicopter flies overhead toward the east side of Marsh Butte, lands, and turns off his engine. In another half-hour, they finish loading the victim on board, start up, and fly back to the rim.
I find more blooming plants and flowers here.
When the sun finally goes behind the ridge and it cools off some, I move over to a campsite just north of Boucher's cabin to increase my distance from the other campers and reduce the effects of snoring from the guys next to us. In a few minutes, the remainder of the group from Marsh Butte makes it into camp. I meet with the victim's wife, Barb, who is very appreciative for the use of our satellite phone. I am happy to report that I coordinated with them after this hike and the fellow recovered nicely and is doing well.
Since the climb up the Boucher Trail is brutally steep, we decide to leave camp by seven o'clock tomorrow morning and beat the heat. MAIN INDEX | HIKING INDEX | BACK TO DAY 5 | FORWARD TO DAY 7
|
