A few miles below this, after running a pair of small rapids, we reached a larger one, known as the Badger Creek Rapid, with a twenty-foot drop in the first 250 feet, succeeded by a hundred yards of violent water.  Emery had a little difficulty in this rapid, when his boat touched a rock which turned the boat sideways in the current, and he was nearly overturned in the heavy waves which followed.  As it was, we were both drenched.

About the middle of the afternoon, twelve miles below Lee’s Ferry, we reached the Soap Creek Rapid of which we had heard so much.  The rapid had a fall of twenty-five feet, and was a quarter of a mile long.  Most of the fall occurred in the first fifty yards.  The river had narrowed down until it was less than two hundred feet wide at the beginning of the descent.  Many rocks were smattered all through the upper end, especially at the first drop.  On the very brink or edge of the first fall, there was a submerged rock in the centre of the channel, making an eight-foot fall over the rock.  A violent current, deflected from the left shore, shot into this centre and added to the confusion.  Twelve-foot waves from the conflicting currents, played leap-frog, jumping over or through each other alternately.  Clearly there was no channel on that side.  On the right or north side of the stream it looked more feasible, as the water shot down a sloping chute over a hundred feet before meeting with an obstruction.  This came in the shape of two rocks, one about thirty feet below the other.  To run the rapid this first rock would have to be passed before any attempt could be made to pull away from the second rock, which was quite close to the shore.  Once past that there was a clear channel to the end of the rapid, if the centre, which contained many rocks, was avoided.  Below the rapid was the usual whirlpool, then a smaller rapid, running under the left wall.  This second rapid was the one that had been so fatal for Brown.  The Soap Creek rapid in many ways was not as bad as some we had gone over in Cataract Canyon, but there were so many complications that we hesitated a long time before coming to a decision that we would make an attempt with one boat, depending on our good luck which had brought us through so many times, as much as we depended on our handling of the boat.

It was planned that I should make the first attempt while Emery remained with the motion-picture camera just below the rock that we most feared, with the agreement that he was to get a picture of the upset if one occurred, then run to the lower end of the rapid with a rope and a life-preserver.