Camden's and Lathum's Excellent Adventure

Day 4 — More Petroglyphs, Paddling the Ducky and S'Mores

August 2016

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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.

Swimming Rapid Practice Joni Lathum
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 Cr
Rock Creek
Sherpa Camden
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
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 Lathum Climbing Rocks
Lathum Climbing Rocks

Lathum Climbing Rocks 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 Cr Canyon Fork
Rock Creek Canyon Fork
Pictographs are near the point at the base of the formation on the right.
Petroglyphs 6488 Petroglyphs 5697
Photo by Joni Photo by Steve or Diana
Rock Cr Petroglyphs
Rock Cr Petroglyphs
Rock Cr Petroglyphs
Rock Cr Petroglyphs

Rock Cr Petroglyphs

Petroglyphs 5708 Petroglyphs 6482
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 Climbing Camden 5712 Climbing Camden 5717 Climbing Camden 5719 Climbing Camden 5722
Climbing Rocks
Photos by Steve or Diana

Chasing Lizards
Chasing Lizards

Filling Water Carrying Water
Replenishing our Water Supply
Rock Cr Camden Joni 5732 Rock Cr Joni 5734
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".

Ducky Umpa Camden Ducky Umpa Camden
Umpa and Camden in the Ducky

Ducky Umpa Lathum DesoGray_0224_20160820
Umpa and Lathum in the Ducky

DesoGray_0225_20160820 Ducky Umpa Lathum

Ducky Umpa Lathum Ducky Umpa Lathum

Diana Joni Camden Diana Joni Camden
Diana, Joni and Camden

Crew
The Crew
Lathum Camden Randy 6475 Lathum Camden Randy 6479
Lathum, Camden and Randy
Photos by Joni

Camden had more swimming practice.

Camden Swim
Camden Swimming

Camden Swim Camden Swim
River Rat 5741
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 5744 Whale Belly 5746
Whale Belly
Photo by Steve or Diana
Whale Belly 5747 Whale Belly 5749

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 Whale Belly 5754
Whale Belly 5750
Photo by Steve or Diana
Whale Belly 5754
Photo by Steve or Diana
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Lathum found some flotsam along the shore where dragonflies were mating. There were zillions of them.

Dragonflies Dragonflies
Dragonflies

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DesoGray_0251_20160820

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 Rabbit Ears Up Close
Rabbit Ears
Gary Steve Boys 6490
Gary, Steve and the Boys
Photo by Joni

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We camped above Bull Canyon; when we started unloading the boats Lathum noticed some sticks had floated up with more dragonflies.

Camp4 Above Bull Canyon Camp 6500
Camp Above Bull Canyon
Photo by Joni

Camp 6527 Camp 6497 Camp Diana Camden 6498
Diana and Camden
Photos by Joni
Dragonflies
Dragonflies

Dragonflies Dragonflies

Dragonflies Dragonfly Camden Hat

Randy and Lathum rigged up their rods and did some catfishin'.

Fishing 6502 Fishing 6508 Fishing 6526
Fishing
Photos by Joni
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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!

Cooking Camden Umpa Lathum Cooking Camden Umpa Lathum Cooking Camden Umpa
Camden and Umpa Cooking
Camden Umpa Cooking 6525 Camden Umpa Cooking 6528
Photos by Joni
Camp4 Above Bull Canyon

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.

SMores SMores
S'Mores

SMores SMores

Next: Bigger Rapids, Lots'a Fun