Sunday morning was the start of the last full day on the river for Kerry and Nate. They had a lot to accomplish and some interesting challenges ahead of them so they were up and moving about well before 7 am.

Big Nate found himself a little breakfast nook to enjoy his morning coffee. Kerry is not a coffee drinker and his refresher of choice is a spot of milk tea.

Getting water is a constant endeavor! One can filter the river water, but the side canyons often contain springs that provide a much clearer alternative to the turbid river water.

The side canyons also offer interesting features as well as providing a venue for some of the typical shenanigans. Here Kerry indulges in one of his standard Yoga poses, the Tree, while Nate, who has amazing flexibility for someone 6’5″ tall has opted for the Hand To Big Toe asana.

Nate’s paddling skills were greatly improved after three days of practice on the river. Here he confidently negotiates a short stretch of white water.

There was a group of paddlers out of Saint George who Kerry was already familiar with, and Sunday saw them rendezvousing with them.

Sadness and tragedy struck the Saint George group that morning. There was a married couple that was rafting with one of their teenage sons. The other son had opted not to go, and that morning they had received a message informing them that the other son had committed suicide. The helicopter in the video below is the one that they had summoned to airlift them out of the canyon.

Below is a slideshow from the morning rambles. “Tom” at the end is Tom Seletos, one of Kerry’s business and adventure partners. They had already encountered Tom’s wife Mari on day two. They had started at different times, and Sunday was when they would finally rendezvous.

There are a number of options for exiting the river. Kerry and Nate were heading to the confluence of Coyote Gulch and the Escalante River where they would hike out to a trailhead where I would pick them up. The Saint George group would float further down the river as it morphs into an arm of Lake Powell. They had arranged for pickup by a motor boat operating out of the Bullfrog Marina. That option avoids the off road driving of the HITR road for any car shuttles, but replaces it with a much longer drive passing through Hanksville.

The reunion with Natalie and Keith took some of the pressure from Nate as the subject of Kerry’s video appraisals of his kayaking skills! Even on the river, though, one must watch one’s back!

By about 1:30 Kerry and Nate had put in about 10 miles down the river. The Saint George group had separated into group bracketing the Dynamic Duo on the river, and Nate had located a very clear and easily accessible spring where he could support his insatiable thirst!

It was not long before they had a potentially disastrous encounter with a sharp rock!

The rental kayaks were supposed to have patch kits included, but none were found. Even if there had been a patch kit it might not have a patch large enough to repair a tear this long. The option of trying to float the two of them using one functioning kayak would require a LOT of walking and dragging. Not very appealing. Luckily fortune smiled on them again!

A fellow rafter had a large enough patch and some adhesive so they were able to craft a patch that worked, sort of! When applying a patch on the road there are always some tense moments and uncertainty about whether the patch will work. Do you have the right adhesive for the surface? Did you apply the patch properly? It’s fingers crossed time!!

The delay while waiting for the pack to set was an opportunity to engage in their usual shenanigans. One of Kerry’s staples is the jump shot, and I have had to capture many images of Kerry in flight. Once I discovered that the key to getting the right moment is to use burst mode that task was much easier. Here we see some impressive air time.

The delay also provided them with an opportunity some additional explorations up a side canyon.

Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! There was even a small waterfall that Kerry was able to use to take a shower!

Kerry could have waited for his shower! The patch held, sort of. There was still some leakage and they had to make frequent stops to reinflate. As Kerry is considerably lighter than Nate they had swapped rafts and were making decent progress down the river. Shortly before 7 pm they encountered some rain.

Below is a slide show from their fourth day on the river

By 8 pm they were settled in to their last night of camping on the river. They were also enjoying the company of Tom and Mari as Tom had finally caught up with the group. Kerry and Nate would be exiting the next day via a hike out of Coyote Gulch where I would pick them up, and the rest of them would continue on down the river for a pickup from Bullfrog Marina.

My Sunday was not as exciting. That morning I had received a message from the outfitter that I had made a reservation for a jeep with. They regretted to inform me that the jeep I was supposed to get had been returned in a broken condition and would not be available on Monday.

I did some phone work that morning and found that the closest location that had a jeep available for Monday was in Cedar City. The bad news was that Cedar City was 130 miles away, but at least it was on our route home which made the drop off easier. I spent a substantial portion of the day driving to Cedar City to pick up the jeep and then driving back to Escalante.

The Starbucks in Cedar City has a table that was set up in order to honor MIA’s in anticipation of the upcoming Memorial Day. The title was “In Honor of those missing this Memorial Day”.

There was also a possibility of thunderstorms that night so I opted for comfort and rented and AirBnB in Escalante for the night. It was reasonably priced and way overkill for what I needed. I had the entire second floor of a large Craftsman style house, and it actually had bed space to sleep eight!