In my journal I wrote the following:
'We took the [inflatable] orca, shark, and stingray up the [Little Colorado] river to ride down the confluence. I rode all three of them while most everyone else sat and watched. Sometimes I feel like such a child when I am around other people. Sometimes it makes me feel a bit self conscious, other times it makes me feel like it is my job to remind others to have a good time.'
I was looking forward to this day from the beginning of the trip. The confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers was a memorable stop from when I rafted the top half of the Grand Canyon in December of 2012. The water of the Little Colorado is a brilliant blue from the travertine mineral deposits. This time, though, the water was a dirty chocolate milk brown. It must have rained up the canyon several days earlier and all of the silt and dirt changed the color of the water. I was rather disappointed.
Most of the day was pretty windy and overcast, but it is also the section of canyon where we came out to Tanner Wash and it opens up as the high walls fall back and you get an incredible vista of the surrounding area.
We set up our camp in the wind and celebrated Tim's birthday. We sat around the carrot topper (our campfire stove) and played a game where you had to make an animal noise as suggested by the person before you. Annika's horse, Trevor's possum and Alan's velociraptor stole the show and we moved to play Cards Against Humanity while huddling under the shelter of a tarp to stay out of the rain.
Not every day on the Grand Canyon is perfect. You can't have perfect water, or perfectly sunny days. On those days you are reminded that the people who you surround yourself with, are the ones that make life better under any circumstance.
