It was a wonderful night. We felt a couple of raindrops again at one point (third time, this trip) but nothing ever materialized from it. We have not had the rain fly on the tent at all because I would much rather be able to see the stars.

It feels good to not have anything pressing to do today. I'm gonna get up shortly and hike up Deer Creek a ways. Sue and Tom can sleep in and hopefully they will be up when I get back. I was hoping to start the day hike down to Deer Creek Falls around 10. I love lay-over days!

09:50 - Deer Creek camp

Back at camp. I didn't go too far, a mile up creek, maybe a little more. I passed by the other spring that feeds Deer Creek and shortly after that the creek really started climbing... up, over and around these huge boulders. It was fun. The bed of the creek is bone dry above that spring. I found a very pretty little flower growing among some boulders, stopped to take some photos of it and then turned around and came back. Sue and Tom are up and ready to go. I am bringing my pack and just letting people throw whatever they need for the day into it.

10:55 - Deer Creek Falls

The hike down through the narrows and to the river was a breeze. There is a small, private river party here, just one raft, a handful of people. The falls are beautiful and its a beautiful day.

12:30 - Deer Creek Falls

I managed to cop two beers, one from the first river party and another from a second river party that came in while we were hanging at the river. The first one was easy. There was a woman sitting up by Deer Creek Falls and she had a bag of soda and beer cooling in the creek and I just said to her "You have beer!" and she asked me if I wanted one. Way cool! I had to work for the second one though. A guy on the second river party dropped a sneaker off the raft and it started floating away down the river and I rescued it for him. No big deal since I was already wet from swimming in the river anyway. As I handed it back I jokingly said that it would cost him a beer. About five minutes later while we were sitting on the beach he walked up and handed me a can of Coors. Way, way cool!

We're having lunch now and the beer is cooling in the creek... dessert. I passed the first one (Red Dog) around right after I got it and we each got about 3 sips. We'll share this other one as well. It reminds me of being a teenager and sharing beers down by the Charles River in Cambridge. I think thats probably the last time I passed around a beer like this.

14:35 - Deer Creek narrows

We hung around at the river until just after 1:30 and then decided to head back up to the narrows. Another river party came in just as we were leaving and it was getting a little busy down there. The other river party headed up to the narrows shortly after they arrived so we figured it would probably be a little busy up here as well. As luck would have it thought, they were just getting ready to leave as we arrived and the four of us hadt he place to ourselves for a while. It was fun to just play around in the water again and act like kids. I love lay-over days!

I shot a little video segment with the camera when Robin and I were here yesterday and I shot another one today while we were down at Deer Creek Falls today. I like having a camera that will also shoot video. I hope these come out good. I am still kicking myself for forgetting to do this while we were at Thunder River but there was just too much going on that day. I dont even have as many photos as I would have liked of Thunder River. I guess it means I will just have to go back again.

20:00 - Deer Creek camp

This afternoon I hiked to Deer (Dutton) Spring to get some photos of the waterfall and some of the other things up that way, as well as to check out the lower part of the trail we will be taking back up to Surprise Valley tomorrow morning. The trail seems easy enough to follow and it should not be a problem. I still have no idea how Sue and Tom are going to deal with the extended uphill climb with full backpacks but I am hoping that they will manage.

The waterfall up at Deer Spring was beautiful but I was disappointed with the rock sculptures in the "Throne Room". There were some pretty creative constructions there when we visited during the river trip in 97 and what was there today was boring in comparison. I remember there being a miniature Stonehenge and a castle and now there are only all sorts of thrones of various shapes and sizes. Bo-ring!

So we are all bedded down for the night now and the plan is to get up around 5 am tomorrow, get camp broken and all of our gear packed up and be on the trail by 6 am. I hope we can pull it off. I am hoping that we can be up in the lower reaches of Surprise Valley by 8 and at the foot of the Redwall by 10. Weve got something like 5½ miles to cover and if we stick with what weve been doing, about ½ mile per hour, we should be at camp for tomorrow night by 5 pm. I am actually hoping to get there earlier than that but well just have to wait and see how it goes. Hopefully everyone got nice and rested today.