Or, late night Canyon note, I'm not sure which is a better title.

Evenings are always entertaining here. I suspect that's mostly because it's cooler, we're all relaxed, we've finished another day on the river, and there's chance of falling off the ground and drowning. Or something like that.

After dinner, we had dessert, complete with ginger whipped cream. Didn't know there was such a thing as ginger infused whipped cream? Well, apparently neither did Justin, who lifted his whipped cream covered dessert to his face to smell the whipped cream up close.

Only to have the whole dish upended into his face by a fellow guide, to the merriment of those close by.

Yeah, lots of merriment.

And a little mortification on my part. Well, a lot actually. Wanna hear why?

Well, we were at Baste Camp, the hot hot hot dune beach, where we arrived early to set up and camp. As is a trend Kris and I seem to be starting, the trend of bathing every other day, I went ahead and had my muddy river, freezing cold, fully blinding-white naked bath in the river this evening. And, as with the whole trip, I didn't put on any underwear when I went to put on my evening wear.

No underwear? Huh?

Well, all my underwear is cotton (for health reasons, of course). When cotton gets wet, it stays soaked for a long while, especially when it's sitting between my bottom and the raft for a long part of the day. Wet underwear throughout the day? No, thanks. Having talked about cotton underwear to several other people on the trip, I'm not the only one with such great insights.

So, no underwear when I pulled on my skorts (shorts with an outer skirt). I thought nothing of this as I sat down after dinner with my plate in one hand and drink in the other.

I continued to think nothing of my underwearless state as I eat my dinner.

And I still continued to think nothing of my underwearless state as Tracy came to the front of the group, turned around to talk to us, summarized the day, and told us about tomorrow. She does that every day, why would that bring underwear to mind?

It wouldn't.

Sliding down the beach's dune face, giving oneself a wedgie, however, would cause underwear to come to mind.

Not only underwear, but said lack of underwear.

By the time I realized what was happening, and looked down, my hooch was in its full glory saying "Hi!" to anyone down the hill from me looking back up.

Say, Tracy.

I jumped up quickly, completely mortified that I had just flashed my hooch at the river guide, pulled the wedgie out, and slunk off to the dish line, praying that Tracy hadn't indeed, caught me.

She talked to me again later that night with a straight face. I can only hope.

After I pull out of this mortified state that is.

We dub thee Baste Camp.

Gah, it's hot here. We're at mile 144, just below the Kanab Rapid.

The camera is starting to look worn from the sand abrasions of it going in and out of the dry bag. I think I like the worn look.

With Kris riding the bull today, I really, really, really wish that I not only had known about the waterproof cameras, but that I had bought one, too.

Andy took pictures of rods today.

Rod activity high.

Well, as they're fond of saying down here, "If you're hot, you're stupid." And nothing better to cool you down than a good, old fashioned water fight.

Today's water fight was Kris and Andy with buckets in the front, against Sam and his bucket in a boat with Pat rowing. Justin in his kayak joined in at one point, with Josh splashing with his oars. Travis snuck around and snagged a bucket from the back of Josh's boat when I wasn't paying attention.

At some point, I was handed a water gun, but was completely uncoordinated with it, needing to brace the end on my stomach, clench my stomach, then pull with both hands on the barrel to get any sort of distance with the water, and that distance wasn't great. Buckets were much more effective.

I stopped a little ways into the fight, after finding the gun ineffective. I was a little annoyed at Michael for continuing to splash me with his oars, even though I had stopped being a participant. Eventually, the fight moved to another couple boats with Dave and Tracy slinging water around and Julie stuck in the middle of the torrents as another non-participant. I guess there aren't really any non-participants in Canyon water fights.

In the end, the water splashing was quite refreshing.