We had already done most of FR42, saw what it had to offer, and were fairly impressed.  We conquered it along with some river crossings and eventually found ourselves on Jeep Island.  You may remember this pose shot:  

So the plan this time around was to run it backwards, downstream along the Verde instead of upstream, and camp at our beloved Island.  But we were also going to add to the equation a day of tubing and hopefully some good fishing.  Chris was out of town, but he let us use his Jeep, so we took his and Dana's.  We got all our supplies together and bought some big truck tire tubes and headed out with 5 of us.  The plan was to drive the two Jeeps to the camp site, then pile in one Jeep and drive back to the beginning, and then tube back to the site.  The part of the 42 we ran took a good 45min and had some nice steep uphill climbs (just as challenging on the way back down) but the going was fine.  We were all quite impressed with Dana's Jeep and her driving.  The only hitch was that the water had actually risen.  What used to be a knee deep crossing was now a waist deep crossing and the water was much much faster; good for the tubing, bad for Jeep Island.  We decided against that  route and followed the river a hair upstream.  We found a couple of crossings that were significantly deeper than our last trip but not as scary as our previous course and then settled on a different camping spot.

We then pulled everything out Chris's Jeep except the tubes and pumps and backtracked all the way to the beginning.  Pumping the tubes up was fun: a little cigarette lighter air compressor, a little bike tire pump, and a little lung power (I found I could blow a tube up with my mouth faster than the electric one and then Steve finished them off with the handheld).  Anyway, we got wet and headed down the river.  We never saw a soul the whole time out there, which begged the question as to why no one tubes this river.  We held off on answering that since we had no idea what the river had to offer except that we should end up at the second Jeep.  We've all done the Salt River before and considered it a borefest, but the Verde turned out to be a good 5x better.  The current was strong, and while it panned out in parts, giving us the relaxing tour, it had it's fair share of rapids.  Supposedly there's Class 3 rapids on it in the right season, but none of knew if 3 was higher than 1 as in 3rd degree burns or what.  It did prove challenging in parts and you could hear the roar of those from a good distance off.  We almost fell out on some of the better turbulent spots, and those were usually the ones you're obliged get out and do again- a nice waterfallish drop-off proved that point well.  There were even a few deep parts on the river where our depth-finder, Steve, couldn't find bottom.  We also found a couple caves, but without flashlights, you literally couldn't see your hand in front of your face, even though you could see your shoes and the exit.  But eventually we made it and it only too 2.5 hours.  We wanted to do it again, but we had to pick up the other Jeep and Steve and Debbie couldn't stay the night, so we all 5 made the trip once again.

We got both the Jeeps and were almost to the campsite, when we saw another Jeep and a full-size Blazer contemplating our first River crossing.  They didn't think we'd go, but got out of our way just the same.  I, in Chris's Jeep, just took off across, and when Dana and Jen were up next, all the guys waiting there were like, "You girls shouldn't go, you won't make it."  She said, "Dude, I've already done it twice today," and took off.  We think they eventually tried and failed because for a few hours their headlights never came closer and we heard an engine revving over and over trying to make it out of something.

After finishing setting up camp, we tried a little night fishing and weren't impressed yet because we just caught a couple carp.  We knew there were catfish in these parts, so chicken liver was our bait.  After a little bit something hit my line hard nearly bending my rod over double.  When I finally got it near the shore, the hugantic catfish on my line jumped and snapped the line.  Luckily though the girls were able to glimpse it's girth and thus confirm my story if need be.  So now the good news was that there were some big fish at our campsite, but the bad news besides a big one getting away, was that in all of our Arizona fishing (oxymoron) this was the first time we need the net we always felt silly lugging around after a frustrating day of zilch.  Even though it was getting late we fished a while longer and it paid off with another big'n, but instead of chancing another disappointment, a let the fish tire out a bit and then gave Dana my shirt and she was successful in hammocking the fish out near the shore.  That fish turned out to be a good 17.5 inches long and was enough to put my mind at ease to call it a night.

At about three-something in the morning, I head a noise behind us and saw a coyote-like creature walking through our camp.  I threw a rock and yelled and it ran, but the girls never stirred.  I rolled onto my back just in time to see a huge owl decide not to land on my face (okay maybe it was the branch above, but who's telling the story here?). 

-20 minutes later another waking noise: find a skunk about to cozy up with Jen.

-I scare it off, and the girls still don't stir.

-4:30 now and the sun is giving up a little light.  I can't take laying here anymore, so I wake Dana and we go fishing.

By the end of the morning, we have 8 big sized cats with three over 17 inches and Jen won with the 18-incher.  We played in the water some more and did campy things and then packed it up to go.  We started back across the crossings (btw the current was so strong at the crossing that I couldn't hold onto the tow rope in the water with the other end tied off onto the tree) and headed for home.

When we cleaned the fish we found they had been sucking down crawfish and one of the bigger ones had a 3 inch long claw among other various parts of his victim in his belly.  They were a joy to clean compared to wimpy AZ trout and had 4x the meat.  We fried the fish up a few nights later and yum.  A plan is definitely in the works to go back with more poles, people, and jeeps to tube and fish it again.