Mexico Trip 2006

My trip log - Day 8

We had an added member to our group today. Thayer (Men’s Journal writer) was going to join us on a section of river that, according to the map, didn’t look super steep. So, Thayer thought that this was a perfect opportunity to come along and get a first-hand glimpse as to what goes on during the river exploration. Once on the river, we encountered boulder gardens that we could easily boat scout. So, just as usual, Ben was in the lead and Rafa following. The rest of the group hit an eddy above a chunky boulder garden that lead into another boulder garden, which then took a turn and the river disappeared. Ben and Rafa went down to the last rapid they felt safe doing - Not once did Ben ever continue down river without knowing what was around the corner. EJ and I picked out way through the rapid above the boulder garden Ben and Rafa eddied out at. Ben gave us the sign that we needed to head back upstream and scout from uptop. So, we ferried and pulled ourselves back upstream. Half of the crew headed out to scout while the other half decided to “hang-out” Topics of discussion while we waited were: 1.) How the heck do you crash into Elephants with your car! - Thayer had so many great car crash stories. 2.) What we were going to gorge ourselves with when we got home and could eat anything we wanted - Nick’s choice was McDonald’s in Mexico City and potatoes and chicken when he got home. My choice was lots of chocolate and Quizno’s. At least 2 hours past and the scouting crew came back. “It’s good to go”, they shouted. “Even though the walls canyon and the river bends sharply, it’s pretty much all class III.” We were bummed and happy at the same time. Bummed that we didn’t just “give ‘er” and head downstream without wasting hours scouting, but happy that we could, actually, continue downstream and not have to repel or portage our boats around. We continued down another kilometer or so and hit the 40 foot waterfall that John Grace took a horrible swim in, in Burning Time. We knew this waterfall was closely approaching and we were happy to finally get there. It was getting late now, the sun was going down. We were scouting for what seemed like an eternity. Nobody looked like they wanted to commit, especially because it was the end of the day, motivation was going down and the undercuts we were eyeing we didn’t want anything to do with them today. Ben, thinking no one else would run it, took one last look at the falls. “You gonna run it?” I asked. “I don’t really want to, but I will.” He replied. It was decided that a seal launch in above the falls would put you at a better angle than running the rapid above, so Ben, launched in and headed over the falls. He got his right angle and plugged it. We waited and waited, and he finally came up downstream. “Sweet”, we cheered. “Way to go!”