Camden's and Lathum's Excellent Adventure
Day 4 — More Petroglyphs, Paddling the Ducky and S'Mores
August 2016
Click on any image for a larger view;
Contact garya at this domain if you would like the high quality image for printing
The next morning while waiting for packing the boats to be finished, Joni and Lathum practiced swimming rapids
— sitting position, feet downstream and up to avoid rocks.
 |
| Joni and Lathum, Swimming Rapid Practice |
We headed on down the river and stopped at Rock Creek.
We hiked up the canyon to see some petroglyphs,
then refilled two water jugs on our way back.
We had four six gallon water jugs with us,
plus another four gallons in frozen milk-jugs in the coolers.
That turned out to be enough water for the whole trip,
but to be safe we refilled two containers at the creek.
We treated one,
but held off on the other until we would need it
because the treatment tablets are pretty pricey.
Steve read the instructions and they were basically a warning for chlorine gas;
it sounded like by handling them you were putting yourself in a desparate position.
We felt vulnerable without gas masks and a full hazmat suit!
 |
| Rock Creek |
 |
| Sherpa Camden |
Steve showed the kids
milkweed,
which is extremely important to
Monarch Butterflies,
It comes in numerous varieties and is somewhat toxic to livestock and mammals in general;
on our ranch in Western Colorado where we raised sheep
we had two varieties, one with skinny leaves and one with broader leaves.
We never had trouble with it,
but then we didn't have that much of it either.
The toxicity varies with the species.
I pulled the ones which were supposed to be more toxic,
but didn't worry too much about the common variety,
pictured here.
 |
| Milkweed |
On our way up the canyon we encountered some large boulders,
and Lathum had a ball climbing all over them.
However, he was wearing his foam-bottomed tennis shoes
which are great for the river and terrible for rock climbing.
Can you say "Slip-slidin' away..."?
 |
 |
| Lathum Climbing Rocks |
We found some poison ivy along the trail up Rock Creek,
but I think all of us managed to avoid it.
The petroglyphs are at point where the canyon splits;
they're on a wall on the right-hand side as you look up at the fork in the canyon.
 |
Rock Creek Canyon Fork
Pictographs are near the point at the base of the formation on the right. |
 |
 |
| Photo by Joni |
Photo by Steve or Diana |
 |
| Rock Cr Petroglyphs |
 |
| Rock Cr Petroglyphs |
 |
 |
| Photo by Steve or Diana |
Photo by Joni |
Latham soon tired of looking at the Petroglyphs,
especially when there was all that rock to climb!
However, going up is easier than coming down,
especially when you have sponges on your feet.
I went up and helped a bit.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Climbing Rocks |
| |
Photos by Steve or Diana |
 |
| Chasing Lizards |
 |
 |
| Replenishing our Water Supply |
 |
 |
Camden and Joni Cooling off
Photos by Steve or Diana |
Grandmas and grandpas seem to have lots of different names,
depending on the family.
My maternal grandfather was "Papaw";
for Lathum and Camden, it's "Umpa".
 |
 |
| Umpa and Camden in the Ducky |
 |
 |
| Umpa and Lathum in the Ducky |
 |
 |
| Diana, Joni and Camden |
 |
| The Crew |
 |
 |
Lathum, Camden and Randy
Photos by Joni |
Camden had more swimming practice.
 |
| Camden Swimming |
 |
A River Rat and a Rat-to-be
Photo by Diana |
At the start of the trip I had told Camden and Latham about making a whale belly,
and after much searching for three days
we finally found some suitable mud/sand.
Latham and Joni were in the ducky and as soon as they beached
Latham jumped out and started stomping.
 |
 |
Whale Belly
Photo by Steve or Diana |
Unfortunately, I had forgotten to tell him about taking off your shoes...
He was soon buries up to his crotch
and his shoes were heading for China.
Joni and I coached him for a bit on how to extract his legs with his shoes still on,
but it didn't seem to be working.
So I tried to free up his legs one at a time but even with that help we weren't getting anywhere.
Randy said he had heard pumping water down by there would loosen things up,
so he threw us one of the big squirt guns
and after much digging and squirting
and general messing around
we managed to retrieve Latham and both of his shoes.
 |
 |
Whale Belly 5750
Photo by Steve or Diana |
Whale Belly 5754
Photo by Steve or Diana |
Lathum found some flotsam along the shore where dragonflies were mating.
There were zillions of them.
 |
 |
| Dragonflies |
At one point we spied what looked like rabbit ears on the top of a ridge.
Upon closer inspection,
the one on the right was not touching the one on the left,
and it was also standing on a pretty small base.
You could see blue sky between the two all the way up.
It looked like it's not too difficult to get up there,
and I'd love to plan that for the next time if I ever get back.
 |
 |
| Rabbit Ears |
 |
Gary, Steve and the Boys
Photo by Joni |
We camped above Bull Canyon;
when we started unloading the boats
Lathum noticed some sticks had floated up with more dragonflies.
 |
 |
| Camp Above Bull Canyon |
| |
Photo by Joni |
 |
 |
 |
| |
|
Diana and Camden |
| Photos by Joni |
 |
| Dragonflies |
Randy and Lathum rigged up their rods and did some catfishin'.
That evening Umpa and Camden were on for dinner,
so Steve gave Camden some outdoor cooking lessons.
As with all our meals on this trip,
it was great!
 |
 |
| Photos by Joni |
After dinner we started a small fire and made s'mores.
Diana ("Granny D") has it down to a science;
you set the chocolate and graham crackers on a surface near the fire
so the chocolate gets soft;
then when you pile on the marshmallow it all flows together nicely.
 |
 |
| S'Mores |
Next: Bigger Rapids, Lots'a Fun
