We launched at about 7:45 am and scouted and ran the first rapid, Lower Corral, mile 29.2, rated class III, Sam on the left, which was a more interesting line, and the rest of us on the right, which started as a cobble bar with a little dragging on rocks but we did not have to get out of the boats in the rapid. We scouted Pinball on the left at mile 29.5 and ran it. There was more dragging on rocks but again we did not have to get out of the boats. There were several unnamed rapids below that which we ran on sight and they were great at this flow. We scouted The Maze, rated class IV, at two locations, at about mile 29.7 and 29.8, ran the upper part easily, and everyone except Sam lined the lower part. I stood at the hole with a throw bag while Sam ran the lower part and probably would have run it myself but there was a tree trunk stuck behind the big rock that projected out on the right side and we would have had to go right of the sharp tip and I was not sure that we would all clear the log. Sam was fairly close to it and his Bandit is shorter and more maneuverable than our bigger boats and he packed lighter than the rest of us did. Michelle was paddling her Tomcat Single (The Rocket) and I was paddling our blue Tomcat tandem. Sam punched easily through the hole below the drop but it grabbed our empty kayaks when we lined them and I had to pull them out with the rope. We scouted Quartzite at mile 31.7, which is rated class IV, on the island and then all ran right down a shallow channel to the right of the island with cobbles that snuck around the bigger drop on the left of the island. None of us elected to do the drop on the left that I ran last time. It was not a straight drop and looked sticky but was smaller and appeared less threatening to me than Black Rock. We did not walk down to scout the bottom part of Quartzite, but it was not difficult at this flow and we could boat scout it from an eddy on river right. We all portaged Corkscrew, rated class IV, on the left, mile 31.8 or 31.9, and the IKs seemed very heavy. We considered a possible way to portage part of it on river right but it would have required carrying or lining the boats on a steep slope. Sam launched first and he and Mike hiked back up to help get my boat down the last drop. I was happy with the boat choice but it would probably be better to go lighter at this flow. We ran the next rapid without difficulty, Sleeper, at mile 32, without scouting, which was the last class III, and then stopped for first lunch at about 10:30 am.

It was a long slog after the rapids to our second camp. It was good class II river but more than desired for one day, with long pools and cobble-bar rapids where it was hard work to avoid getting stuck. We worked out our opaque-water-reading skills and swam a lot between rapids to keep cool. We saw turtles, great blue heron, and a black tail hawk. There were several different channels at Cherry Creek, mile 35.9, and I did not take the North one and entirely missed seeing the creek. We saw the road at Horseshoe Bend, mile 39.3. Horseshoe Bend Rapid, rated II, was an easy gravel bar with scraping at this flow. Everyone was fatigued and we got spread out at times more than I would have liked. Mike and Sam inspected Coon Creek camp, mile 44.6, and decided it was too hard to get into with the mud. We inspected one other camp below that on river right, considered a cobble bank on river right, and plowed through some strainers and were about ready to accept any camp. We camped on river left where a gravelly wash came in and the river turned to the right at mile 45.5 camp (so named in the guide book) and I could tell that people had camped there before but not since the last good rain. The mouth was muddy and there was no good place to sleep out of the wash (to avoid risk of the wash flashing) but we decided to camp in the wash and it did not flash. It was about 4:30 when we got there. There were several piles of bear scat up the wash but we did not see any bears. I built a small fire on the dried mud at the mouth of the wash where a rise in river level or flow down the wash would wash away the ashes, and heated a can of turkey chili for Michelle and Dinty Moore Beef Stew for myself. It was good. I tried to find other access to the river to take a bath but did not find any. After dark, I made my way across the muddy uneven rocks to the river and washed up while standing in the river in my Canyoneers (boots). I found a place to stand in the water that was not in the mud. I dried off when I got back to my boat, changed into my other set of clothes that I had worn on the first day and then washed out in the river, and went to bed.