Ranger Don Mackelprang of Friedonia, Arizona, who had kindly scouted the road [NFS: 423 & 427] to Indian Hollow on Friday for us. We started down from Indian Hollow Campground at about 11:00 am and camped where the creek/spring first appeared in the streambed about 3-4 miles downstream from Vitz first camp--we were not handicapped by dog-type participants.]

Day TWO: From the base of the Coconino the canyon opens up as it decends through the Supai sandstone. Near the bottom of the Supai, it becomes hard and the canyon narrows and becomes full of springs and pools surrounded by cottonwood and Juniper. We entered the Redwall without even noticing and encountered only slight difficulty for a distance. Then we hit a dry waterfall of about 15 feet. Once again the leader panicked and followed a ledge a significant distance only to discover that the ledge went level as the canyon dropped away. Upon returning to my flock I found that Super Haven had found a series of handholds down the face and had down-climbed it. Red face and all, I followed him. The dog got tossed off a cliff for the final time. From here Indian Hollow narrows to about six feet just before it joins Jwnpup, an impressive canyon in itself. Two miles later on we hit Kanab — which luckily was not quite dry. The water was warm and full of creepy—crawlies and delicious. We established camp about an hour later, just short of a beautiful spring. Figures.

[DPS: It rained for a couple of hours on the second morning, so we had a stream to follow all the way down Indian Hollow from our first campsite. Vitz’s 15 foot dry waterfall was very wet for us -- a foot of falling water blocking the climbing route. We had to repel along side of the waterfall over the nose of a gigantic chockstone. Our camp was about a mile downstream of the junction of Kanab Creek and the Jumpup, where a side canyon comes in from the east. Kanab Creek was running about a foot deep and was very unappetizingly muddy. We found much better water in a plunge pool about 100 yards up the side canyon. Just the same, the light weight portable water purification unit we had along certainly proved helpful in a number of spots -- if only for psychological reasons -- those creepy.-crawlies can be best used as protein supplements by Vitzians.

Day Three: The trip to the river involves 12 miles of boulder hopping, stream wading, and mud slogging through incredible Kanab Cayon. Indian Hollow and Jumpup are the last canyons entering Kanab which are passable without technical climbing or jumping. The rest of the canyon to the river contains sheer walls of from 800 to 1200 feet. Near the mouth the canyon is less than 40 feet wide. We reached the green Colorado in early afternoon, set up camp, and took a swim.

[DPS: We arrived at the Colorado River about 4 pm and enjoyed a beautiful camp site amougst Tamarisks on the east side of the Kanab Creek.]

Day Four: After a fine night on the sand bar we proceeded upriver with Deer Creek as the objective. It was only ten miles distant — but it took over 8 hours to get there. Most of the way is boulder hopping along the river, but a mile past Fishtail Creek the Granite Narrows are encountered. A ducked route leads up the canyon wall and around exposed sandy ledges of Shinumo quartzite for two miles and included is a gain of 1000 feet. The route returns to the river about a mile from Deer Creek. As we waited for the group to reassemble the river began to rise - two feet in 45 minutes. And as it rose it turned from a clear green to the deep muddy brown of the real Colorado. There was a problem, however, as the last mile entails a traverse along the river's edge below an outcropping of Vishnu schist. We just made it around the corner as the river continued to rise and arrived at Deer Creek about dinner time. Deer Creek is one of the
 
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