The cork preservers hung in the
blacksmith shop, where they could easily be reached at a moment's
notice.
Desolation Canyon, with a slight breaking down of the walls for a
short distance only, gave place to Gray Canyon below the McPherson
Ranch. A good sized mountain stream, part of which irrigated the ranch
above, found its way through this division. We had been told that more
rapids lay ahead of us in Gray Canyon, but they were not so numerous
in our next day's travel. What we did find were usually large, but we
ran them all without difficulty. About noon we met five men in a boat,
rowing up the stream in a long, still stretch. They told us they were
working on a dam, a mile or two below. They followed us down to see us
make the passage through the rapid which lay above their camp. The
rapid was long and rocky, having a seventeen-foot fall in a half mile.
We picked our channel by standing up in the boat before entering the
rapid and were soon at the bottom with no worse mishap than bumping a
rock or two rather lightly. We had bailed out and were tying our
boats, when the men came panting down the hill up which they had
climbed to see us make this plunge. A number of men were at work here,
but this being Sunday, most of them had gone to Green River, Utah,
twenty-one miles distant.
Among the little crowd who came down to see us resume our rowing was a
lady and a little girl who lived in a rock building, near the other
buildings erected for the working-men.
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