Launch day is always exciting - fresh group, clean boats, limitless possibilities. We decided to have a bit of a lazy launch because the ranger had given us the ranger talk on rig day (usually it's a two-part affair, split across both days).

While we waited for the motel-dwellers to show up, I piddled around with my boat, making sure that everything's perfect.

Or at least acceptable, for day 1.

Eventually, everyone showed up. We had a little informal bagel breakfast to kick it off, took our group picture, and then shoved off.

The weather was clear but chilly. Hard to ask for better conditions in the middle of February!

The first day on the river is usually pretty uneventful (you hope!), and that's how it was for us. The first rapid of note is Badger, and everyone made it through smoothly.

Our destination camp is Soap Creek. The are actually two camps at Soap Creek: one above the rapid, and one below the rapid. Someone (I don't remember who) was opinionated that lower Soap Creek was better, so I made the call to go there.

The first few boats through the rapid executed the maneuver perfectly: run the rapid, and eddy out on the right so that we can make camp. Then I looked up and there was a bit of a problem: Parker was going through the rapid, and his oar had popped out. Without an oar, you can't make the necessary moves to catch the eddy.

Dang.

Oh well, we'll push onward and see what we can find downtream.

We wound up at a small-ish rocky camp called Brown's Inscription. We got to camp with plenty of daylight left for hiking and exploration.

I went exploring with Iselin & Eivind, and had some fun looking at cacti and fun rocks and this cool little cave-type-thing.

When we got back to camp, it was time for dinner. After dinner, we all sat around the fire for a bit and debriefed the day. We discussed what went wrong in the rapid, and what to expect for tomorrow.

The night was rapidly cooling, so I didn't stay up too long and headed to bed instead.