After a night of very little sleep for me, Lars, Courtney, Noel and I boarded the raft and pushed off from the Potash boat ramp at 8:30 am. It was a bittersweet moment for me as I waved goodbye to my family on shore.

The weather was picture-perfect with very little wind. Thanks to Lars’ strong rowing arms and his ability to read the current in this very flat section, we made miles quickly while I dozed between taking pictures. We even had time to stop for a short hike on the left shore.

There we saw 800 year old grain storage ruins and rock art left by the Anasazi, apparently ancestors to the local indigenous peoples here when the area was “discovered” by European settlers almost 200 years ago.

After a long day perched on the underside of my hard plastic kayak that was loaded on to the rear of the raft, I was happy when we made camp at 6 pm about 34 miles downstream.

Gracious enough to share this expansive beach camp with us was “Lisa the Frog Lady”. She is an employee of the federal government who travels alone with all her food and gear in her kayak; her purpose is to study amphibious life along the river and its side canyons.

She gave us a wealth of information on many river-related topics and, interestingly, her husband is currently (pun intended) on full-length kayak trip down the Klamath River in Oregon. He must be crazy too!

It was another starry night with a nice cool breeze. As I dropped off to sleep I was thinking that the cool, flat sandy beach under my sleeping pad made as comfortable a bed as any I can remember. The rest was much needed, not only from the day before, but because of what I knew was in store the following day.