Wed 6/8 - A new group arrives

     Today started off with a hot breakfast of pancakes and sausage.  Once we broke down camp and Dana worked on loading the boat we had some time which we filled attempting to build a small rock dam in the river and by skipping stones.  Turns out I am not very good at skipping stones, so Dave took the prize for most skips by a wide margin.

Once we launched we headed directly across to the opposite river bank and pulled into a small opening in the Tamarisk.   We docked here and headed through the very overgrown (and very Mosquito choked) trail until it emerged in the desert.  A short scramble up the rocks brought us to some very impressive petrified wood that were entire tree trunks rather than the small pieces we had seen in camp.  We hiked around a little bit before we headed back to the boat to continue downstream.  Right around the time we got back to the boat the S-Rig carrying the 4 day tour showed up.  We wound up lashing our boat to theirs so that we could move more quickly down the river to our next destination.  The passengers on the boat were a group of 5, a father daughter, and a couple of cousins.  We tried to mingle a bit, but everybody pretty stayed in the groups that they came with.  The guide on the new S-Rig was Andrew who had been our shuttle driver yesterday, and he proved to be a very fun and personable person who made it a point to get to know everybody in camp.

    After motoring a bit down river, we pulled off for lunch.  It was pretty much identical to yesterday's lunch of cold cut sandwiches and snacks.  There were no side hikes from this spot, so we got back on the boats immediately after lunch.  Around this time Eric decided to do a bit of rearranging to create a couple of extra comfy spots on the boat.  These were in high demand for the rest of the day, and seemed to amuse the guides.

    Our next stop was a hike up to the ruins of some Anasazi dwellings and Petroglyphs.  The guides explained a bit about Anasazi life and how they survived in this area.  After the hike we were all pretty hot, but we stopped just across the river for a hike to a cliff diving area.  The cliff rose up gently the further we walked upriver, so we were each able to decide how high we wanted to go, with a maximum height of about 20 feet or so.  Most of us jumped from the top, although Eric started a bit lower at about 4 feet.  After testing that out he got braver and tried from the staggering height of about 6 feet..... 

     Once we were back on the boats we motored a bit further downstream and stopped for to make camp.  After last night we did not hesitate to setup tents immediately as we had no intention of attempting to sleep outside.  It turned out that there were slightly fewer bugs here than the first campsite, but still way too many.  At one point I fashioned a mosquito net out of a small piece of our tent which looked a bit silly but was actually very effective.  We had a bit of time before dinner so Dave and Brad decided to explore a bit and wound up hiking (well, mostly climbing) to a cliff overlooking our campsite. 

     Dinner was Poppy Seed chicken in a creamy sauce with Rice Pilaf and cheese cake for dessert.  After dinner one of the guides offered to lead a hike up to the same viewpoint that Dave and Brad had clambered up to earlier to watch the sunset.  Eric and I went along this time, as did Dave and Brad again.  It turned out that the guide knew a much easier route up than they had taken earlier, so it was not a bad hike.  The view from the top was spectacular and we all hung out awhile to watch the sunset before hiking back to camp and calling it a night.