Scorpion story:
After rigging our rafts the night before launching down the Canyon, we went to Marble Canyon Lodge for dinner. They have a gift shop, and Margot fell for a stuffed scorpion.
She said ” I hope we see a scorpion!! “
Me: “Well, pretty good odds of seeing one, but let’s hope it’s not too close”
Your high school English teacher would call it foreshadowing.
A week later we wake up, pack the rafts and head down river. Day 7 or 8 of our trip.
A bit of flat water, and then get to Horn rapid. It’s a sizeable rapid, and we get pretty wet. Enter the Eddy below and I’m watching the boats behind me run the rapid.
A literal blood curdling scream from the front of my raft. Margot shouts “There. iS. A. Scorpion on my leg!”
I look forward and on her leg is the biggest scorpion I’ve ever seen in the Grand canyon. Several inches long. Carl reports he could see it clearly from his raft 50 feet away.
Sonya, our other passenger, reacts faster than me and is closer, just leans over and deftly flicks it away. It flies into a corner of the raft. It’s huge. My guess is it stowed away on a bag or in the raft overnight, then the rapid washed it out from its hiding spot.
Scorpion pictured is not the actual scorpion from the story. Story scorpion was much much bigger, but I didn’t pause it get a picture.
Margot named her stuffed scorpion Edith because of the scorpion she encountered being found in an Eddy.
