Tanner to Palisades – October 2009 – Day 4
Palisades Creek to Tanner Beach:
“Fire, fire on the South Rim”Great beginning to another easy day as I reel in another respectable rainbow on my first cast of the morning. Two more trout are to follow, one of which hit my spinner and fought so hard I initially thought it was a bad snag. I am reluctant to leave but we need to get back to Tanner Beach.
Retracing our steps along Beamer I scare up a couple waterfowl (western grebe or merganser?) near the low route from Day 2. Back at Tanner we have a visitor in camp, a small lizard that has somehow lost its tail. It scurries around for a meal sneaking up on flies but always scares them off at the critical moment.
We travel down River along the Escalante Route to try out the fishing there. Rounding some massive sand dunes a huge plume of smoke is visible above the South Rim. On our drive in we passed some preparations for a prescribed forest burn, and hopefully that’s what we’re looking at. From down here it looks like a massive bomb has exploded on the rim, and we wonder if the planned burn didn’t perhaps get a little out of control.
The current here is too swift for successful angling so I return up River. There is an excellent eddy at the River bend above Tanner Rapids where my efforts are rewarded with two more rainbows.
Night comes on as we filter gallons of water for our dry camp tomorrow. The first mice encounters of this trip occur as a pair boldly darts in and out of our camp throughout the evening.
