TO 30’ FALLS ... Good half day, 5 hours moving. ... July 24/d

78A, 79A, 80A -- Trouble Spot #7

Paddle 4-5 miles, a few spots of fast water.

P 800 yds on right. Hug the right shore approaching. Takes out in the bottom of a deep grassy bay just above the falls. Goes around a 30’ falls. Very Pretty! Loading area very poor. (2nd & 3rd R slashes shown on 4-1 maps)

C.S. at both ends of this portage. The one about 30 yards from the end is the best. It’s a good C.S. except you have to walk for water. A cold spring runs into the river 30 yards downstream from loading area.

See PHOTO 81 (BELOW/RIGHT: 30' Falls on Lower Rupert)

What a great day! Right now I’m munching on doughnuts and sipping ice cold spring water. Breakfast this morning was Cream of Wheat and fish (plus the apple cobbler I saved- so good!) What a way to start a day! Then we shot some easy rapids, portaged some, one tricky crossover across a strong current with stacks. (Took pictures). And then that was the last of the Martin, which emptied into a delta about 5 miles long. Then a short paddle on the Rupert to trouble spot #8- the first rapid on the lower Rupert. Very, very tricky. The game here was avoiding the stacks, boils, and cellars that surrounded the path down the center. I absolutely aced it. That is definitely one of the top 5 feelings I know- getting down to the bottom of a really big tricky rapid, having shot it perfectly. Took a lot of pictures with Finney’s telephoto. Used up my roll of film. Only 20 pictures worth of film left- yikes!

We’re now camped on an 800 yd portage around a 30’ falls/cascade- super beautiful! If I could only relax like I will at Rupert’s House now, I’d be in ecstasy! It’s so beautiful here- unbelievable. I still can’t get over that rapid today, it’s quite a thrill. We shot down, about 20’ downstream of a ledge that ran diagonally across half the river. The ledge created a small waterfall to our left, with boils created by it, that we had to paddle through, or as close to as possible because to the right was a huge cellar with 4’ stacks below it that could only be avoided by pulling hard left the whole time. Everything was like a normal tricky rapid but magnified bigger a couple times. It'’ hard to explain and impossible to see in pictures because you loose the three dimensional viewpoint. Even standing on shore it doesn’t look that big, but wow, when you get out there WOW! The wind switched around to the S and has brought a drizzle. Just yesterday Aspen started coming in. Spruce and jack pine, birch, and aspen now. Ugh- only 18 pictures worth of film left ( I went camera crazy and shot over 20 yesterday and today.) Finney brought a telephoto which I’ve borrowed periodically. It’s great. I feel like we’re finally approaching the end of the trip.