A Totally Ditchin' Weekend, Part Two

I'm finally getting around to posting part two of A Totally Ditchin' Weekend.    The delay isn't my fault.  I Inherited....   No, wait.  That's someone else's excuse.

This time it's all Beth's fault.  That would be Beth at Memoir on the Fly.  She has been posting photos of her recent trip to the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon and other places where there are fabulous things to see.

My resolution to stay home and try to save money before I go to Antarctica in November began to weaken.   Maybe I could go camping thirty miles from home, I thought.   Work that in with some litter picking.  Save gas by not driving to and from each day.

Then I got an e-mail from Kathy in California.  "The usual suspects," she wrote, "are going camping in Yosemite for a week."  Lickety-split, I got myself invited, spent the last of my airline miles on a ticket, and am packing for camping.

I've never been to Yosemite and I can't think of a better group to show me their "backyard."

Now I have to finish up this post about what a fabulous weekend I had while picking up litter in the Silvertip area.  

There's nothing like the serendipity of being in the right place at the right time, and that's what happened last Saturday.   Friday evening I'd left off at Mile 59, so that's where I started from Saturday afternoon.

Mile 59 is also where the river runners launch their rafts for a relaxing float down Six Mile Creek,

Such a nice creek.  Beautiful water trickling through the mountains, on its way through historic gold fields, then to empty into Turnagain Arm.  So while the rafters gave a short safety talk, got everyone situated, and inflated the rafts just right, I picked up some litter and then headed downstream a ways to watch the rafters come through.

Oh, by the way.  Keep your arms in the raft.  There are a couple tight spots.

Note the guy on the rock directly across from me.  And yes, that is my boot you saw.  I am perched on an overhanging rock, hoping it is solidly attached, splayed out just as if I was trying to keep thin ice from breaking under me.

And this video is from a point and shoot I had anchored to my perch by a stick through the strap and poked into the moss.

If by some miracle this video plays, perhaps it will comfort you to know this section rates only as Class IV.  Two Class V gorges are farther on down, places with names like The Nozzle and Suckhole.

Right after this spot, though, is where you can jump ship if you've had enough.