Big Runs in Crystal and Slithering Company

This trip was a hot, hot trip. I think it got up to 115 this week. The trip started out normal.  We did some fun hikes and were off to a pretty good start.  On Day three we dropped into the upper granite gorge.  There wasn't anything abnormally big.  Hermit had fun 15 foot waves.  Then we got to Crystal.  We Dropped right into the left side of the rapid (the big side).  I had one of the smoothest runs I have ever had.  I made it down past the rock bar and pulled into an eddy to watch my second boatman (Andy Dicus) come through.  I saw him have a big hit in the center hole and then disappear behind the big cliff on the left.  He had slammed the boat into the cliffs.  It corked the frame and pushed the corner of the frame through a tube of the boat.  It ripped a 12-15 inch hole in the boat.  We made it down to the Ross Wheeler beach to camp for the night.  It took until 11pm to get the boat patched.  On top of all that, it was 100 degrees in the shade (at 9:00 pm).

Right when we thought we were in the clear, a passenger fell the next morning and split his finger wide open.  We almost needed to fly him out of the canyon.  

This is a Grand Canyon Pink Rattlesnake.  It slithered into one of our camps this week. Some of our passengers came down and told us that there was a rattlesnake next to their camp.  Another guide and I went and caught it with some tongs. The snake was deep in some brush and hard to catch. I kept it in a bucket all night and Leigh took this picture when I let it go the following morning.

Good looking snake!!