A photo of Major Powell less than ten years after his final Green and Colorado rivers expedition. (But it likely was the politics and his position in same that did most of the aging!)
Note To Dkos Readers: If you are just joining me for this series of diaries on, please read the introduction in the first diary (http://www.dailykos.com/...). I also recommend reading the ensuing diaries. It will help explain the essence of both the adventure and the social politics behind same.
Below The Confluence To Victory & Mystery: Cataract Canyon 60 or so mile passage is a tough run for any who dare to take on its series of rapids. Make that many rapids, most of them Class IV and V. By tough, I also mean physically and mentally challenging. For the oarsmen of this first expedition it was truly the worst stretch of whitewater they encountered. There were eighteen rapids inside and waiting for the men in that eternally long (though relatively short) canyon. They were also forced to line and/or portage most of the rapids. Getting through the canyon was tediously slow going in places and there was nothing the men could do to speed things up. As Sumner noted about Cataract Canyon, they encountered the worst rapids thus far seen in their adventure. Bradley concurs, where he wrote in his journal on July 21st, the fifty-ninth day of the trip, the Colorado River is not an easy river to navigate.
What Sumner and the others still didn’t know about the rigorous new challenges they were forced to deal up to this point was how the worst of the rapids were farther down the line with separated by one long canyon of the calmest water thus far in their adventure. Had they known this with any certainty some of the men very well might have left the expedition somewhere in Mound Canyon, which today the name has been changed to Glen Canyon. Actually, the overall morale of the men was diminished at this time of their ordeal and a few of them who likely considered such drastic plans, that is, if and when an opportunity presented itself. In the meantime, they were all committed to the single task of getting through Cataract Canyon's formidable gauntlet and making it out alive. From the nearly constant sound of the thundering rapids, the men must have sensed they were in another Lodore Canyon, only this 'new' Lodore was far worse than the original.
On July 17, Sumner, for a change of pace and writing style, wrote like a poet and talked about the vivid display of a passing storm that shook the cliffs with peals of thunder that only added to the dismay and desolation of the setting the men were in. He also noted on that fifty-fifth day of the excursion they were down to about 600 pounds of flour whose quality was already poor. He also felt they were obliged to continue due to their remaining meager provisions.