After receiving a kind invite from stnichols, I again did the 4-hour drive to Phoenix to meet with SBers stnichols, scubasteve2000, giladshay, and John. I was looking forward to it because I could dive my singles rig in preparation for Bonaire. The first hint that things might not go well was my first exit from IH10 - Loop 202 East exit ramp was closed. This proved not to be an anomaly as it seemed every way I wanted to go was also under construction or closed . . . :huh: Finally, there was no doubt I'd be late for our 7:30 show time. :blush:
I called up stnichols, who immediately said, "I may lose you, I'm in a ba---" . . . He knows his cell zones! After a minute or two, he called me back, and was graciously understanding as I explained that I was doing loop de loops on Phoenix's famous loops, and that I still needed to get my Tonto pass. Unfortunately, because I was on the phone, I missed the exit for Loop 101 . . . . :doh:
Easy, peasy, right? take the next exit, and go 101 north . . . except that you couldn't get there, so I had to go 101 south, U turn, and back up north . . . loopy! :loopy:
For those of you who don't know, the National Forest Service has a way to avoid gatekeepers and associated costs by having convenience stores sell day passes for the Tonto National Forest. Rather ingenious cost-saving measure - you scratch off the date-time of arrival and display it in your windshield. However, it seemed the scuba gods were not done messing with me because there wasn't one convenience store on the road to the forest area, so I had to do yet another turn-around to find a store on the other side of the expressway . . . . :chuckle:
It was easy enough to find Sheeps Crossing from the Bush Highway, but I did have a bit of "Oh, NOes!" because of the "T-intersection" that was not expected . . . fortunately, there was a bit of a hint as the right turn had a "Road Closed" sign . . . :coolingoff:
The left turned into a parking lot where scubasteve2000 and stnichols were awaiting. These lovely gentlemen helped me haul stuff the hundred yards to the river where John and giladshay were enjoying the shade of a huge mesquite. I again recounted my roundy-bout trip, and dear John validated my feelings, saying that Phx did indeed seem to have shut down every stinking ramp in the city!
A bit of a haul . . .
Convenient Step-Through
Path to the River
To the right, Kayaks coming down
First to the site gets the shade!
We chatted and learned a little about each other - stnichols has a most amazing winter job (our winter, their summer) supporting Antarctica! My favorite story is when they 'phone home' to people at work . . . "May I ask who's calling?" "The South Pole."
SS2000 is working with sidemount (Hooray, another converteee!). In the meantime, I got into my drysuit as my tank and BP/W was already set up. I had some issues with a free-flowing reg, so I swapped it with the reg from my O2 bottle. Yes, all are O2 clean as were the tanks and gas. Thank God I threw the 'freeflow' reg in my save-a-dive bag. As I had not yet order the Bio seals, I again electrical-taped my neck seal. I must've done something right as it didn't leak . . . this time. :blush: Not so right - my freshly exchanged bungee'd reg was seeping air. I could hear it. I took off the faceplate, and it stopped. Definitely, it was out of adjustment, because the faceplate caused it to seep again.
GRRR.
I decided to breath out of that one.
The gentlemen gave an excellent site brief -- the river bed slopes to 2/3s of the way across, and goes to 30 feet the last 1/3. The current is in the far half, and you need to hug the bottom. If you come too far back, you'll hit the rapids. Just after the rapids is a calmer, sandy spot where you really have to get out, or the real rapids will get you belong that.
(I resolved to not go there!)
They continued to say that they swam across, hugging the bottom, and then turned up-current for 15-20 minutes and just picked up what they found. They also mentioned that you WILL lose your buddy, so be prepared. Then they turned around and drifted back to our location. An excellent brief, to be sure . . .
I didn't quite internalize that hug the bottom thing. We got into the main stream, and I was hugging about 6" to a 1" from the bottom. No matter how hard I kicked into the current, was going backward and as promised, rapidly lost sight of anyone. Exercising the better part of valor, I headed into the shallows on the same side of the river from which we came, and headed upriver in accordance with the plan. Also, my reg was definitely blowing - the current was pushing on the diaphragm . . . I finally unscrewed the faceplate and put the diaphragm and faceplate into my pocket. I was in less than 10ft of water, so I considered the risk minimal enough to do so. I went on my primary.
There was a tremendous amount of trash and aluminum cans on the river bottom -- if I had brought a bag, I could have filled it a hundred times. I picked up fishhooks, a pair of scissors :huh:, a lighter, cut some mono-filament, a broken kayak paddle, etc. Mardi gras beads? What? I figured I could tell them it was none of their business how I 'earned' my beads!
Gas Management was interesting. Starting with 1700psi, I figured I could use about 800 going up current, and 400 coming back. Dutifully, I turned at 900psi, and used, oh, about 20psi coming back! :lol:
I climbed out and dropped my stuff under the tree, and went back to grab whatever for the next diver, John. He had a motherlode - 'fresh' (uncoated) sunglasses, about a dozen old sunglasses, a gorgeous-though-broken blown glass drug bowl, a set of wheels . . . :huh: . . . and bunches of mardi gras beads. Oops, there went my joke.
Some of the booty!
Colorful Kayaks / Tubers on the River.
'Sweet young thing', in the spirit of, "if you've got it, flaunt it", stood up and proudly flashed the crowd. Oh, yes, she had a lot to be proud of! Poor young woman was pelted with beads!!!! (no, I was not so tacky as to take a picture!) I was LMAO!!! 
Armed and dangerous. He gently squirts it toward a little girl on our 'beach', and she is off to find hers for a [water] gunfight. . . . but John just hangs out after some play . . . .
