Crystal Rapid.  The large hole in the middle is eight feet below the river line and the back wave, a recirculating monster, towers some 10 feet above the river.  Thirty-foot motored multi-tube baloney boats treat this hole with great respect.

And on the eighth day God made the Big Drops.  This is the Big Day.  The Monster Run.  The Extreme Day of White Water in the Grand Canyon.  This day we will run 14 rapids, of which six are rated 6 or higher, two are eights and one is a 10+, the monster boat flipper, Crystal.  We will run just under 15 miles, but it will take all day.

We start out running Granite Falls (8) and immediately meet with near disaster.  A huge rogue wave explodes off the river right wall at the top of the rapid just as the paddle boat enters and washes Mark into the drink.  He runs the rapid in his life jacket.  Bill, remembering House Rock from five years before almost jumps into the water to join Mark, but Brian's quick thinking high side and my hard left-side pull right us and we make it past the wave and negotiate the rest of the rapid.  Mark is nearly in shock from the much worse water experience than that he had on House Rock in 1999, but he is ok. 

We then come to Hermit, where we encounter two naked women bathing in the pool above the rapid.  They grab their clothes and run off and we tie-up and head for the scouting point.  Hermit is a carnival ride of giant haystack waves that you take right down the middle of the river.  Your boat goes up and down in an incredible see-saw motion that is a total, exhilirating blast.  Charlie videotapes Al and the paddle boat making the run, and as Al hits the first of the big waves you can hear Erika's screams above the roar of the water.  Even in the paddle boat, approaching the tongue we can hear her. 

From Hermits we hit Boucher, rated only a 5 (by now we are getting jaded) but it is no easy run.  We follow Al, as always, as he stands on his seat to read the rapid while he drifts toward the tongue.  We follow him in rapid succession, paddle boat, Tim, Steve and bringing up the rear, "Steady" Eddy.  Then Crystal.

Crystal, like Lava Falls, is a name laden with import to all who run white water in the American West.  Created by a massive flash flood in th e winter of 1966, the "old Crystal" was largely ingored, a mere hole in the river.  However, Rod Nash notes in his Big Drops that "after December 1966, no one ignored Crystal.  Overnight it became one of the most dreaded rapids in the West, and, if anything, it has worsened over the subsequent years.  Today, particularly at high water, boatmen regard Crystal rather than Lava Falls as the crux run in the Grand Canyon."  (Nash, p. 153).  And Crystal is tough.  We learned that in 1999 when Bill W. hit the big hole and the recirculating back wave straight on and it flipped his boat in a spectacular end-over-end.  And it scared the hell out of us on this trip.

The cheat on Crystal is to run right of the hole, being careful of the Rock Garden toward the river right shore.  A narrow pinch, it is the safest way through the rapid.  In the paddle boat we hit the tongue perfectly and at just the right moment we cut to the right and slide down the streaming "green line" of water sandwiched on all sides by towering white spray.  As we hit the Hole, I look down on my left and see it below me some eight to ten feet.  Then, all of a sudden we spin 180 and I am now facing backwards into the hole, slightly ahead of the rearward moving direction of the boat and on my right.  Not a good place to be.  In fact, it is terrifying and in that moment the thought "oh shit, we are going into that fucker backwards and I'm going to die" crosses my mind.  But my skills kick in and as I'm considering my imminent demise, I start paddling left turn just as Brian yells the command.  We continue our 180, converting it into a 360 and head straight through the Rock Garden and into the Thank God Eddy on river right.  We made it.  We scream.  We yell.  We cheer.  We clash our paddles together in the universal high five of the paddle crew.  And we wait to see how the rest of the boats do.  All pass through their trial with flying colors and we rejoice in our good fortune.  But the day is really just getting started.  On to the two Tuna Creek rapids (7 and 4 respectively), past Nixon Rock and through Agate (4), Sapphire (6), Turquoise (4), 104 Mile (5), Ruby (5), Serpentine (7) and Bass (5).  Steve is oaring a boat for his first time and he steps up to every challenge. 

In the aftermath that night, Charlie had the best comment about our run through Crystal.  "You guys did the neatest piroutte right on the edge of disaster."

Finally, we hit Shinumo and make camp just above the Rapid.  As we pull up in the paddle boat, we are in the lead, we see an individual camping with a beer in the river, cooling.  His name is Craig and he is on indefinite leave from the Post Office in St. Louis, Mo.  Nice enough guy.  Since we disturb him we invite him for dinner.  Lamb Chops.  There were incredible!  Al is not a happy man that night.  He is unhappy that we did not keep going to the other side of where Shinumo Canyon enters the river.  However, as we see the next day, there is no place big enough for our crew.  But the Lakers get pounded in Game 5 and so we all retire to recover from our great endeavor with the sweetness of sleep well earned.

Steady Eddy steers his way through one of the big waves at Hermit's Rapid