Another wet night. We had a four foot rise from our tent to the water’s edge, but I woke up several times during the night to check out if the river had risen. We did not have a good escape route and I kept running the what if scenarios in my head. At 5 o'clock I did a check and learned that my worries were in vain. We both slept in till 8 and then as the rain continued to pour we elected to have a reading morning. When a break in the rain came we quickly got out of bed and broke down camp and had breakfast. Fortunately the wind had picked up and the biting gnats got blown away from us. An eleven o'clock departure was our latest yet, but with a stronger current we are still averaging over 28 miles a day. Scenes around us are always changing. Today we paddled through the Noatak Canyon. It was quite spectacular with rocks being uplifted and swirled in many directions. A rapids that poured over a ledge presented no problem as the water level created more noise than wave action. Tomorrow we are planning on stopping at Ricky Asbury’s cabin. We found a great spot that we could nestle a kitchen between the rocks. We were glad we stopped when we did as the rain and wind picked up. It was a short day on the water with plenty of reading in the evening and morning.
Miles traveled 28
