Woke up this morning to find a scorpion on my elbow, close to where I was bitten by a tick years ago. I think I rolled over onto it in the middle of the night, because it was not only dead, but a little dry.

When I took the picture, Andy cried out, "So big!" then offered to "put it into perspective" for me.

Not so big, I guess.

I had problems last night staying awake, but not for lack of trying.

After we arrived at the dune beach, and went to the waterfall, Andy, Kris and I looked for flat rocks in the Stone Creek side canyon creek bed. We were looking for the best skipping rock, but were not in agreement on how best to determine said "best". I stated that the only way to know which was best was to control for the thrower, as I was sure I had the best rocks, but by far the worst arm.

I insisted Kris throw my rocks, to check for "best," and was like, "Uh, throw yours, too? Okay!"

My rocks did win.

Of course.

Eventually, we wandered back to our tent, where Andy pulled out the three small discs he had brought with him, and offered a game of disc golf.

I've decided that playing disc golf with Andy has to be entertaining regardless of the environment. Trying to best him on even one hole was difficult. The game? Impossible. Especially when one bad throw puts the disc, the non-floating disc, in the Colorado River, to float out to the bottom of Lake Mead. Yeah. Joy.

Starting at the middle of camp, we used a red rock, a fellow traveller's hanging life jacket, a stick propped up in the sand, another life jacket that was accessible only by throwing a disc through another companion's open tent, a random white rock, the first aid kit and, finally, our own tent for the end.

I tried keeping track of my score based on my score relative to par, but Andy stopped calling out par after a few holes. I then kept track based on my score relative to Andy's score, but that became too depressing. I stopped keeping score.

At one point, I stepped backward into a cactus. Initially I wasn't too worried about the cactus, but after about 6 holes, the place in my ankle where the cactus punctured it, started swelling and stiffening. Krish suggested I take a couple of Benadryl we had brought along. Noting the irony of taking some, I did, then went off to help cook dinner.

Each night at dinner, as we all gathered into one big group, Tracy would recap the day, and tell us the plans for the next day. I had no idea what the plans are for today, as I could barely keep my eyes open to eat dinner. I didn't know what hit me, but it was large and it felt like a sleep stick (or branch, or tree, or truck).

Kris noticed, watched me finish my food, and took my plate, stating he'd clean up, I should go to bed. I stumbed back over to our peninsula camp and pretty much face planted. It was still light out, maybe 7:45, but I was down for the count. I tried to wake when Kris and Andy came back to go to bed, but I couldn't open my eyes. I gave up and slept like a rock until about 1, when heavy winds and some sprinkles suggested I try the tent. Kris came in around 4, but Andy stayed outside all night. He was closest to the stone, which I think helped.

I wish my calves weren't still so sore. I'm tempted to eat meat just for the protein so that they stop hurting.

I used the word "cruft" to Matt today. He looked at me puzzled.

"Cruft? That's a word? Is that a real word?"

I looked at him puzzled. I'd been using cruft in sentences for over 14 years. How could he not know what the word "cruft" meant?

I explained, in programming terms, it's the extra, outdated code left around that sorta works, sorta doesn't, and needs to be cleaned out. In non-programming terms, it's the extra, crappy stuff, say flotsam and jetsam that get stuck in an eddy, that needs to be cleaned out.

He didn't believe me. He asked Sam if he had heard of the word. Sam hadn't either.

So, because it's in my notes, here's the reference and origin.

We stayed tonight at Stone Creek, around mile 132. Turns out, Stone Creek actually has flowing water this time of the year, unlike many other of the side canyons. Not only that, but Stone Creek has a waterfall, too.

After finding a place to pitch the tent, on an peninsula in the lee side of a large stone, Kris, Andy and I walked over to the creek and started walking up it into the side canyon.

After about 50 meters up Stone Creek Canyon, Kris and Andy paused, and noted the creek running down. After this morning's lessons about dams and hydropower, Andy and Kris jumped at the opportunity to build a dam on the creek.

I kept walking up the creek, a little annoyed with the two of them. There was a waterfall to see! And a side canyon to walk up! What were they doing building a dam? I continued up the creek, taking pictures of the sedimentary rock and other interesting rocks along the way, walking farther and farther away from the two of them.

And then I realized, this whole trip wasn't about how fast I could hike up to a waterfall in the Grand Canyon. I was on a once-in-a-decade trip with my husband and with a good friend: the journey with them was far more important than the destination of this walk. If I missed the waterfall (which I didn't) would it matter if I had spent that time building a dam with Kris and Andy?

No.

So, I turned back around, walked back to where they were, and started filling in the cracks of their dam between pictures.

And when we were done, what do you know? The three of us made it to the waterfall just fine.

7 days (including today) left. 3 batteries ~ 1500 - 1800 pictures left. So... 200 - 250 a day. might be difficult. May not get so many macro shots. Andy's taken maybe 20-30 to my 600-700. Quality, man.