Day 8 - Matkatamiba: Even the Name is Magical
Trip Start
Apr 28, 2012
1
15
20
Trip End
May 23, 2012
Where I stayed
Upper National Campsite
River Mile 167, Arizona
Friday, May 11, 2012
Breakfast was simple but good; grilled bagels with creme cheese, salmon, onions & capers, along with the ubiquitous campfire coffee, orange juice and tea for the non-coffee drinkers. We quickly ate, cleaned up, loaded the boat, then headed out, all before 6 AM. This morning would be a big gamble. Last night when Randy said that we might not be able to get in, the hearts of everyone who had done this trip before, sunk. Matkat is a photographer's paradise, with incredible light, a small stream that excels in giving you reflection pool after reflection pool, and wonderful Muav Limestone terraces that twist and turn. It was not only my favorite shooting location from the last trip, it was the favorite of most returnees, and we all loved the name. It just rolled off your tongue like the exotic name it was, and even in its shortened form, Matkat, it still held promises. The newbies wouldn't know what they're missing, but we certainly would. It would be worth whatever effort it took to get in.
The first problem is that its after the start of Matkatamiba Rapid, not before or at the bottom of the rapid, but shortly after the start which means you have to be fully committed before you attempt to get in. Second, the opening to get in is narrow with a fast current, and third, Randy had said that he wasn't able to get in on a prior trip, so things were really going to be dicey. Our backup plan should we miss Matkat would be to spend quite a bit of the day in Havasu Creek, but as nice as Havasu is, we were all hoping the backup plan wouldn't be necessary.
To make a long story short, Randy nailed the entrance, and there was even a gravel bar we could hop off the boat onto. Once Katie, with Justin's assistance, got us tied up, off the boat we came with our gear. In 2009, it was a simple walk up a limestone chute in no more than shoe-top level water up Matkat Creek. Once up past a nice little waterfall tumbling 5-feet over a series of Muav Limestone terraces, there were pools that were no more than mid-thigh in depth, but with a gentle flow that made it easy to set up and photograph the twists and turns of the terraced canyon. As I said before, a photographer's paradise.
You can well imagine our surprise when after walking no more that 20 yards up the gravel bar, we were faced with a pool that was quite deep. Eric Black decided to find out what it amounted to, so into the pool he went. He headed in the direction of the chute we'd need to follow, and almost immediately, he was in water up to his shoulders, then over his head. This was not what we had planned for! He regained his footing and moved right, then left, and found that there was only a short spot where you might have to swim a little before you got your feet back on the gravel bottom. He explored up the chute and said things appeared pretty normal past the pool. Needless to say, we were now a bit bummed. All the work and angst it took just to get to the gravel bar at the opening, looked like our efforts would be wasted and we'd be stymied from going further. Damn, damn, and double damn! We now had a harvest of lemons so we decided to make lemonade. Everyone pulled out their gear and started to shoot what turned out to be a fantastic reflection pool.
We were busy commiserating with each other over our bad luck, when someone, I not sure who but think it was Randy, said that we've all got dry-bags for our camera gear so why don't we put the gear back into the dry-bags, then ferry them across the pool. What a capital idea! We gathered all the dry-bags as well as a few of our sleeping mats (they float), then proceeded to ferry people and equipment across the pool. It was adventurous, fun, wet and hilarious! Once up into the chute, even the newbies recognized that we had struck gold. There was so much oohing and ahhing going on, it was difficult to concentrate on the business at hand, but concentrate we did. I had four images of Matkat from my previous trip that I absolutely loved, but I missed one shot that I had spent two and a half years hankering to get another chance at. I did not miss it this time.
Everyone seemed very very pleased with their efforts, including Jack, who for at least the 20th time since I've known him, proudly announced that he had just taken the best shot of his life. I believed him two and a half years ago and have a copy of his "Laura's Gift" taken on the beach at Fern Glen (river mile 168) in 2009 above my bed to memorialize it. I still believe him when he continues to say it at darn near every photo shoot we made. The mood and general tone of everyone was one of elation. We came, we saw, we swam, we photographed! The spirit of the group wasn't even dampened when Jack announced that it was time to head back to the boat. We calmly gathered up our gear, placed it back into the dry-bags and headed down the chute. Everyone also seemed to gear up for the swim back through the pool, everyone that is except Julie-1. She whined that she had just dried off and warmed up and didn't want to get drenched again, so could Randy carry her! Randy, ever the gentleman, politely said no, but came up with an even better solution. He would ferry her over on a stack of sleeping mats, keeping her high and dry. Julie, playing the part for all she was worth, readily assumed the role of Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, waving to her loyal subject as she was whisked across the water with nary a drop touching her toes. We laughed, hooted, guffawed, and laughed some more. Captured on video, it has to be one of the highlights of the entire trip. Go girl!
Back at the boat, things were getting quite chaotic! A group of 7 private oar-driven rafts were attempting to land one-by-one in the small space next to us. Randy tried to convince their trip leader to have his other boats hang back until we could vacate the mouth, but something must have been lost in translation, as raft after raft continued to bunch up next to us. It was a comedy of brawn over brains. None of the arriving rafts tied off on the rocks, so each new arrival clamored over a raft already there and attempted to use sheer strength to hold their raft to keep it from being flushed down the rapids. It wasn't pretty, but they were generally successful, only one raft got flushed, and it tied up against the terraces about a quarter of a mile downstream. As we headed downstream, we could see the two people from the raft "scrambling" along the terraces trying to get to the mouth of Matkat.
What a morning! Matkat had been everything we hoped for and then some. By now we were starving, so Randy pulled in and tied up along some Muav terraces about a half mile above Havasu Creek. Salami and cheese sandwiches for lunch along with still fresh fruit, nuts and cookies. Randy and Katie had sure planned well for our care and feeding. While we were busy making sandwiches, someone looked over at the tree next to us and exclaimed, "there's a rattlesnake on the tree branch" and sure enough, there was a Grand Canyon "Pink" laying on the large branch no more than 6 or 7 feet away from our water jug and another 10 feet from most of us. No idea how long it had been there, but it was obviously not in any hurry to move from its perch. We gave it a wide berth as we cleared up from lunch, and it eventually got down from the limb and moved under a nearby rock. Pinks are famous for not being very aggressive, and this one didn't appear to be either, nonetheless there were elevated heart rates on quite a few of our members. From then on, everyone looked closer at trees, as well as on and under rocks.
Even if the mouth of Havasu Creek is not crowded with rafts (the mouth is reserved for oar-powered rafts only), you know you're there because the travertine infused turquoise waters of the creek push out into the Colorado in stark contrast to the river's either green or chocolate waters. Havasu is the toughest tie up for a motor powered raft. As we can't land in the mouth, we're forced to tie up at the bottom of the rapid, at the end of some Muav terraces. To make matters much more difficult, the terraces set about 5-6 feet above deck level. First, Katie with Justin's assistance (I swear he's trying out for swamper), get us tied off, then after we balance on the nose of one of the pontoons, they grab our hand and assist each of us to find footholds to climb up on the terrace. This is the one place that Trip Leaders make you keep you life jacket on until we're up on the terrace and well away from any edge. We buckle the life jackets in a long chain & secure them to rocks to keep them from blowing away.
The scramble over the terraces to the mouth is relatively straight forward, though without Randy or Katie as guide, we occasionally dead end ourselves and have to backtrack some. Still pretty easy to get to the mouth. Once at the mouth, there is a well worn trail that has been in use since before people started to run the river. It's a little exposed (a river term that means it's close to a drop off, it's on a narrow ledge next to a drop off, or it requires the use of hand-holds to navigate a narrow ledge, or all three), so we single-file our way over and around until we can climb down to creek level. As we had spent most of the morning at Matkat, we were only going to do a quick look/see at Havasu. We left our camera gear on the boat and only took point & shoots with us. That was fine because the noon-time sun bore down on the entire creek and canyon. It was extremely bright and hot, so it was really nothing more than an opportunity to plop down in the turquoise water to temporarily cool off. That accomplished, we headed back to the boat and on to our destination for the night, National Canyon (river mile 167).
During the run from Havasu to National Canyon, we started to see more and more Bighorn Sheep. In 2009 they seemed to be everywhere in the canyon once we got out of Marble Canyon. This trip they had been rather scarce until today, when we saw 4 or 5 groups of ewes with young, and a couple of rams.
For those of us who made the 2009 trip, National Canyon was mythical. It had been our intended destination on that trip as well, but an unfortunate incident caused us to miss it, and we ended up at Fern Glen (river mile 168) instead. On the 2009 trip, there were 22 of us in two boats, a modified J-rig driven by Trip Leader, Jed Fuller, and an S-rig driven by guide, Laura Fallon. Jed's rig had already landed at Upper National beach, and in attempting to come in and land next to Jed, Laura got too far to the right and got flushed down the rapid. This would not normally be much of a problem because there's another campsite at the bottom of the rapids. However, this time the lower camp was already occupied, so it meant that Jed would have to vacate the upper beach and we would have to move on. We ended up at Fern Glen, a mile downstream. This would have been just another river-dictated modification, except the next morning, Jack captured the water on the beach swirling around a rock and carrying the blue and gold reflections of the sky and light of the canyon walls. A serendipitous moment that yielded what he called then, "the best shot of his life". He titled the image "Laura's Gift" because had it not been for her misfortune, we wouldn't have been on that beach for him to capture the image.
This time, though, we were successful at making National Canyon. When we arrived mid-afternoon, it was still blazing hot with the entire camping area in full sun, so after unloading the boat, we all sought shade and coolness however we could. Our plan was to do both an evening and morning shoot here, so I left my camera bag, took my point and shoot and headed for the shade of the canyon. Jack had said that National, though much larger, was more like Matkat in that it had this wonderful Muav limestone floor with a small stream running through the middle of it, and didn't have the gravel and boulder strewn floor that most side canyons had. Again, he was wrong! In all fairness, it had been a number of years since he had been to National, but the lower half of the canyon was a jumble and tumble mess of rock, from gravel- to car/truck-sized boulders. I ran into Justin who was looking for his quintessential "rock" shot and spent time talking to him. In the mood to explore, I told him I was going to carry on, so away I went.
After 20-30 minutes of scrambling through this rocky mess making my way up canyon, I came to the cause. I was staring at a major rock fall in the canon that from the looks of things probably happened within the 6 months or so. I picked my way up and over the rock fall, and laying out before me, was this wonderful limestone floor with a small stream coursing its way along the floor. Damn, Jack had been right after all. Justin had said that if I find anything interesting to let out a yell, so yell I did, again and again. After every twist and turn of the canyon, I let out another yell. While not a magical as Matkat, National presented some very very nice photo opportunities. I finally made my way to the end of the canyon (or at least as far as I could go) and was stopped by a chest-deep pool at the base of a 10-12 foot waterfall that carved its way through the limestone. It was a gorgeous site, but was going to present difficulties photographing it.
I headed back the way I came, and after going up and over the rock fall, I ran square into Justin. We chatted for a few minutes, then I told him he needed to come with me. He ooohed and ahhhed all along the way, until finally we got to the falls. After searching for several minutes we concluded that in order to shoot the falls, it would take 2 people, because there was no place to brace a tripod without someone holding a leg. I volunteered to help, and Justin got his shot after he braced himself against the wall while I braced one leg of his tripod again the other wall. This method would serve tomorrow's shooters well. As I only had my point and shoot, my shot of the falls would have to wait until the morning. We headed back towards camp very proud of ourselves.
Dinner was fettucini with pesto sauce, and a green salad. Yet another winner from Katie and Randy. At this stage I was starting to worry about putting on a few pounds, a fear that unfortunately came true, even though I judiciously avoided dessert every day. After dinner, we passed around and finished my stash of Irish Whiskey, toasting to our wonderfully successful day. It really didn't get any better than this.
