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Being early risers, John and I were already awake at 5:30
a.m., when Bill decided to jump off of the roof of the houseboat, screaming
"Yahoo!" as he splashed into the cold lake water that morning. Janice and
Danny, however, learned that it was next to impossible to sleep late when
everyone else on board was awake at the crack of dawn.
 Now that he was awake, Danny decided to do a little fishing to make use of the
fishing license he had bought in Page. Janice had already caught a fish on the
first day -- a rather large bass -- but Bill kept telling him that "there were
no f-ing fish in that lake." He had already been trying to catch something for
two days, but he wasn't ready to give up yet. Thanks to the early hour of the
morning, Danny finally caught a fish -- a small bass, which he threw back into
the lake.
Since it was such a beautiful morning, John and I decided to go for a canoe
ride to the end of the canyon, to see what was there. After paddling for only
ten minutes, we came to a slickrock shelf, where we tied up the canoe then
continued on foot for about a half a mile. At first we walked across the
slickrock. Then, we came to a game trail that took us deeper into the canyon,
through prickly plants, soft sand, and large boulders. Finally, John found
what he was looking for: a large, flat boulder on which we could "play
naked"...
On the way back to the canoe, John found another hike for us to do. In this
canyon, the walls were steep -- but not quite vertical -- and covered with
dry, grassy meadows, at the top of which were huge amphitheaters which
contained what looked like ruins. In the midst of one meadow, there was a sand
"chute" that was probably a trail for mountain goats, as well as a series of
narrow, treacherous switchbacks leading all the way to the top. "Those could
be Anasazi ruins," John pointed out. "Let's go look."
Climbing up the slope of this hill was very challenging and treacherous as it
was made primarily of soft sand and prickly plants and dried out shrubs. We
were also not wearing our hiking boots, so the steep climb up the switchbacks
took its toll on my ankles. A few times, I thought about turning back, but
then I thought, "What if there really are Anasazi ruins up there?"
Of course, I didn't turn back, and when I reached the top, I discovered that
our "Anasazi ruins" were nothing more than a pile of rocks that had fallen off
of the canyon walls. Apologizing, John suggested that we go back to the boat.
"Yeah, but how are we going to get down from here?" I demanded.
Fortunately, getting down from there was the easy part. All we had to do was
slide down the sand "chute", which actually proved to be fun. We reached the
bottom in half the time that it took us to climb up there, and once we were
done, we climbed into the canoe and returned to the houseboat.
Upon our return, we discovered that the others had taken the speed boat to go
water skiing, so John and I ate breakfast and relaxed while we waited for them
to come back. It took them a while to return, though, so we pulled up the
anchors and prepared to leave, hoping that we would meet them along the
way...and that was when they returned!
That was the day we finally made it to the Escalante River Arm and began
exploring its side canyons. We also found The Rincon, a huge butte, which had
two trails that we wanted to hike. One of these trails wrapped around the back
of the mountain, through a wash where the Colorado River used to run, before
it broke through to the front side. The other trail went straight to the top;
that was the one John wanted to hike. By the time we made it to the Rincon,
though, it was too late in the day to go hiking, so we decided to save it for
the next day.
Our afternoon was spent in Escalante, exploring its side canyons in the
houseboat and in the speed boat. We saw Davis Gulch, where we found La Gorce
Arch; unlike Rainbow Bridge, we were able to walk underneath this structure.
John, Danny, and Janice did so and jumped into the water on the other side of
it. We moored the boat in Davis Gulch to have lunch and go swimming before
taking the speed boat into Fiftymile Creek. For the most part, though, the
afternoon was a lazy one. While sailing through the main channel of the
Escalante arm, John and I crawled on top of the houseboat, where he read his
book and I took a nap (and, yes, we also "played" up there).
The excitement of the day took place that evening, when the weather took a
turn and forced us to look for a campsite early. We couldn't find anything
next to the Rincon, so we went into Iceberg Canyon, where we found a very
large cove in which to beach the houseboat. Just after mooring the boat, the
wind picked up, and gray clouds quickly moved overhead, threatening to open up
over us. And, on top of that, the speed boat ran out of gas! We had an extra
five gallons of gas, which we poured into the gas tank, and we hoped that it
would be enough to get us to Hall's Crossing Marina the next morning.
Once we were settled, Danny took his fishing rod and tried to catch another
fish to no avail -- ironically, Iceberg Canyon was supposed to have excellent
fishing! He tried for most of the night, until it got too dark to see, but he
simply could not get the fish to take his bait. Then, his luck took a turn for
the worse when Janice started praying for him. A few minutes later, John got
an idea; he cut off a piece of fishing line and tied a baited hook to one end
then attached the other end to the railing of the boat.
 And what happened? He caught a huge carp!
After that, Danny gave up fishing for the night. (Janice and Danny managed to
get us back, though, when they defeated us at Trivial Pursuit -- a game that
was supposed to be John's forte. It was a humiliating loss.)
That night, Janice and Danny took their turn sleeping on top of the houseboat.
At bedtime, they crawled onto the air mattress and snuggled into their
sleeping bags...and suddenly, they were being dive-bombed by bats! Then, just
a couple of hours after the rest of us had gone to sleep, the wind picked up,
and it began to rain. Janice and Danny were forced to pull their bed down to
the front deck, where they spent the rest of the night.
I, however, slept very well, having taken sinus medicine before going to bed
because I was beginning to feel a cold coming on...
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