Chapter 53

April 29 - May 3, 2001

The Wedding Trip - 3

Even taking it easy, they made good time down to Nankoweap, arriving at midday. Scooter had Noah pull out river right in an eddy immediately below Nankoweap Rapids, where Nankoweap Creek came down from the north. They unloaded, had lunch, and settled down for a quiet afternoon. The centerpiece of Nankoweap is always a hike to the spectacular view from the Anasazi granaries; Crystal offered to lead a hike up there. If they got back in time, Scooter offered to lead a hike up Nankoweap Creek, although she suspected there'd be few takers beyond Nicole.

Scooter got more than she expected, nine, and they hiked up for a ways, in and out of the water, having a good time. By the time they got back dinner was well under way; Karin and Nanci and some of the boatmen were working hard on it. Without thinking too much about it, she looked around for Crystal, and didn't see her. "Any idea where Crystal is?" she asked Karin.

"I think that's her with Noah up at the granaries," Karin replied with a nod.

Scooter glanced up to see two figures sitting on the ledge far above the river. "Might be," she replied. "Guess they have things to talk about, after all. Karin, did I ever tell you the story about Crystal and me having to go up there and bring two nude girls down?"

"No more than once a trip," Karin giggled. "And usually when we're here."

"Good grief," Scooter giggled. "Am I that obvious?"

"Sometimes," Karin grinned. "The stories build up, and I expect we'll have one or two out of this trip."

The next day was lazy, as it often was, with stops at the Little Colorado, then floating down to Cardenas where they camped for the night. By now everyone was getting settled in, and it seemed more like a normal trip, even with Adrenaline Alley coming up the next day.

They got down through Unkar, Hance and Grapevine in good order and floated on down to Phantom Ranch, where they caught up with Team 1 and picked up the hike-ins who had come down from the rim. They loaded up and floated on down to Horn Creek, where the combined parties made camp for the night. Al held a crew meeting and rearranged crews a little; Scooter and Jerry would be leading Team 3, as had been expected, and the rest of the rowing crew would consist of Barbie, Duane, and Andy, which was also pretty close to what Scooter had been expecting. They'd have Wade and Hannah for swampers, so it all added up to a pretty good crew of good people she'd worked with before.

There was one minor hitch -- a pickup boatman on Team 1 had to hike out; he had a motor rig trip scheduled for another company before Team 1 got off the river. That left them one short for this trip, but there was a spare boatman: Karin. -- she and Al had been planning to run a little separately from Team 2 the rest of the trip after the wedding, sometimes camping separately, a kind of a mini-honeymoon on the river. Now they wouldn't even be on the same raft. With Team 2 taking one fewer raft the next trip the problem would solve itself, but Scooter thought that had to be a little disappointing.

Al said he hoped that would do it for the summer, but Scooter thought he was optimistic; there were always changes, and she didn't think the odds of finishing the summer with the crew she started with were very good.

Team 1 was a lot slower getting around in the morning, so Al sent four rafts from Team 2 on ahead, to make sure they would be able to get into Baseball Man, where the wedding was to be held. They ran Crystal and the other big rapids in pretty good shape, with Randy getting spun around in some sort of a backwash and finishing Crystal backwards. They paused for a few moments to catch their breath, then got going again.

It took a while for the adrenaline to die down. They just drifted down river, getting close to their stopping point. There was one more rapids shortly below Crystal, Tuna Creek. A couple of days before this would have seemed like a big rapids, but now, it was just a routine patch of white water, and they just followed the obvious line, a little more water splashing over the side. Before long, Scooter told him. "Stay left, it's just around this bend."

"You stop here often?" Randy asked.

"No, it doesn't fit the usual schedule too well," she said. "We stopped last trip for lunch, just to check things out. The beach has built up a little since you were here. We'll land then work up as high up the eddy as we can. It's going to be just barely big enough for eleven boats along the beach."

"That little side canyon up there?" he asked Crystal, whose raft was right alongside.

"Yeah, that's it," Crystal said, letting out a sigh. "You know, Dad's and Mom's lives changed up there a couple times, and mine did, too. This is a special place."

"I'll bet we got an hour to kill, anyway," Crystal said as they pulled up on shore. "Maybe more. I remember Dad saying that there's a neat little waterfall not far up this side canyon. I've never been there, but we could hike up for a look."

When they made it back down to the beach they found the rest of the rafts just pulling in, with people getting out. It was just as well that they'd pulled the two rafts that came early up to the bitter end of the beach, because rafts lined the little beach from end to end. They heard Al yell, "Yo, everyone. Gather around and listen up!"

It turned out that the game plan had changed a little since they'd been gone -- Al had some concerns about the size of the beach too, and along the way had worked out a deal with Dave and Mary. What they'd agreed to do is have a light lunch, then open up all the rafts and switch gear around to get ready for the rest of the trip. Those who were hiking out or going on with Team 2 would stay here, while the rest of Team 1 would set up across the. Team 1 would ferry the people who came for the wedding back over to this side. Things were a little confusing there for a while, but at least most of the gear was marked, so it wasn't too bad. The biggest hassles were on rafts where rowers were changing; they all had their own gear, and each of them had their own way they liked to have things set up so they'd know where to find them. It took a while to set up, but it was why a boatman usually stayed with a given raft for the season.

Once she got her stuff off, Scooter just sat back and let Mike do his thing. It was no longer her raft, the one she'd had for a trip and a half; it was his. For practical purposes, it now made Crystal the trip leader, too. This felt strange, and a bit lonely. For over two years, she and Crystal had been the best of friends, closer than sisters, almost always doing things together. There had been people who had hinted at thoughts that they were lesbians -- and as butch as Scooter tended to act, they may have had some reason for justification, even though both of them were totally straight. She'd known Crystal for years, hiking with her, rafting with her. The two were very alike -- Scooter was a couple years older, a little smaller, a little coarser, but both were strong and rough and scruffy and liked adventure and good times; both were happy with what they were doing, and hoped to spend the rest of their lives doing it.

But tomorrow at Bass Camp, Scooter would be among the group to take the long hike to the rim to head back to Flagstaff and start another trip in a few days. It would be hard to leave Crystal behind; for the next four months Scooter would be running a week behind her, and probably wouldn't see her again until Canyon Tours broke back down into two crews. It was going to be a lot harder to run without her friend, but there was nothing that could be done about it. Pretty much what they had to say had already been said, except for the goodbye that would take place the next morning.

The first time that Karin made the scramble up the rock face immediately above the camp had been a few months short of twenty-seven years before, and what happened there changed her life, changed it several times over. Now, she started up the face again, knowing that it would be the scene of yet another huge change in her life, but content with the knowledge.

As she climbed, people followed, in no particular order. As she was stepping onto the second ledge, Michelle swung her pack frame onto her shoulders, the triangular harp case strapped to it, and started up the rock face as if it was a walk down the sidewalk in Flagstaff. Myleigh followed behind her, wearing only her black bikini, moving carefully among the footholds and handholds -- she wasn't a climber, but this wasn't that difficult. Behind her, Nicole followed, carrying a daypack stuffed full, and then Randy, followed on behind by several people, guitar slung over his back.

In a few minutes, the head of the group passed a larger-than-life Anasazi pictograph of a figure standing behind a huge reddish shield that looked like the chest protector of an umpire. Many people stopped for a brief look at the 'Baseball Man', as the few river guides who knew of it called it, then followed the line on upward through a narrow little wash, then up a steeper climb to a flat expanse of exposed stone. They turned another little corner, and they were there. Nature had formed a cavernous amphitheater, fifty feet deep, a bit wider, maybe seventy feet from floor to ceiling. A live seep high up the cliff supplied enough water to grow an assortment of ferns and moss, and to form a shallow water pocket perhaps six feet across and a foot or more deep.

Here the head end of the party came to a stop just as the tail end of it was leaving the beach. Given the location, a lot of the formalities and traditions normal in such a situation weren't present. The bride, for example, at least wore white, but it was a white blouse and white shorts that didn't come close to matching. The groom, when he appeared several people behind her, wore jeans and a Canyon Tours T-shirt, and went over to stand next to the bride near the end of the water pocket, as people kept filing into the tiny spot.