[This may appear out of sequence. It will be posted with day 11 from my computer on the trip and Pam and Kammy Wolfson took days 12 through 16 handwritten out and will be transcribing them and posting them when they get back to Meadview. The alternator and generator that were brought in to charge the car batteries are not working well, and my 3 solar batteries and solar panels are working well, but since we leave most beaches before the sun hits them and land on most beaches after the sun sets, getting these into digital mode has proved to be a bit problematic.]
When we got into Lower Whitmore Wash last night, we pulled into a small beach and brought all the rafts in and tied them together and tight to the shore, which had a lot of rocks on it that were too big to move. There was not enough room to bring all the wooden boats in, so the Portola and Susie Too were nestled in between two rafts and tied off from their bows, and also roped to both oarlocks that will keep them straight and not moving into other boats as the water surged from side to side with the waves coming off this small, fast rapid. To unload, we bring the Portola and Susie Too in turn onto the small beach and throw out the stuff we think we will need, but while they are tied to the rafts we still have to make trips to and from the wood boats for what we have forgotten. That involves walking out onto the far end of the raft, balancing, and then stepping onto the bow deck and staying low while both are moving so you don’t fall in. The water is only 18 inches deep and there is a sand bottom, but a fall from three feet up could mean a broken leg or a bad scrape. Tony does stumble and does fall getting from the Portola to a raft getting a couple of gashes on his right leg. We have a number of people with wilderness medical training and experience along on the trip, so he is soon in a lounge chair while everyone confers over what to do and gets the scrapes cleaned up and bandaged. (I am actually writing this blog two days later and Izzy is re-bandaging the wounds and they are doing fine with no sign of infection.)
We are expecting Arnie Richards to be at the top of the Whitmore Wash Trail with Ian and Sandy Elliot, who are joining the trip tomorrow, and Pam and Kammy Wolfson who are hiking in to visit. We see flashlight waving on the top of the rim and wave some back so each knows that the other was seen. Our 17th day is going to be spent getting up late, recovering from the Alive Below Lava Celebrations, eating a big breakfast, cleaning clothes, shampooing hair, hiking, reading, and just enjoying the heat; the shade of the two shade structures we put up as the day goes warmer and just relaxing.
CeCe and Stef are leaving the trip here on day 18 to head to other engagements. Stef will fly to Iceland on Sunday from Las Vegas to work for 6-8 weeks at a heli-skiing operation that he worked for 6 years ago. He is looking forward to heading out, but sad to leave the Susie Too since she has given him a lot of fun rowing her. He confides that he had a dream several years ago about rowing a dory in the Grand Canyon and she surpassed all his expectations of how much fun it was. CeCe is heading back to Canada for a week of guiding and then her senior guide examination in the Canadian system that she has been preparing for for a long time. A mentor has arranged for her to work at the resort where the examination will be given for the week before. She flies out on Monday. They both take a load of gear up the Whitmore Wash trail to leave in Arnie Richards’ car at the top, and then hike back in with backpacks full of fresh food for the next three days: We have fresh porkchops, which we cook over the barbecue, and a salad bar, and in the middle of the day the surprise of frozen ice cream (Strawberry Ripple and Cookies And Cream – both so hard from the dry ice it was packed in that all of us had to wait for it to thaw so it could be cut out of the carton… but OH SO good!).
Arnie has brought in a ukulele and the words to the Gilbert and Sullivan song “Now I am the ruler of the Queen’s Navy” that Martin Litton sang on the 1963 trip in fine voice and to much cheering. We sing it, laughingly in tribute to a fine man, great conservationist, and the one who has done more to keep the dories similar to what we have built and are rowing on the Colorado and other rivers in the West. The ghosts of those who built the originals and the spirits of all who have loved dories ride with us on this trip and are frequently mentioned and memorialized in stories and conversations both within our group and with the other private trips that we share the river with.
Dinner tonight is both pork chops and beef brisket, which I have been roasting in the Dutch ovens for 7 hours, mashed potatoes, broccoli, salad, cheddar soup, and chocolate-covered cookies. We all are stuffed and sit up visiting with everyone later than we normally do. The half moon comes up late and we head to bed.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Day 16 in Grand Canyon: Cove Camp to Lower Whitmore Wash
Coffee was called early and breakfast soon after that to get everyone up and moving, everything packed and down to the boats.
Stef, who will row the Susie Too through Lava, packed her heavy towards the front. Even people who had not been in dry suits before were now, or were in heavier splash gear. While not said, the old “dress to swim and rig to flip” was going through everyone’s minds: loads were redistributed and tied down extra tight. Robb ties down Tony’s boat and every strap is so tight is almost <twangs> when you touch it. Then he ties down his own boat. Breakfast things are packed away and we leave.
We pass Vulcan’s Anvil, a large piece of columnar basalt sitting in the river and head down toward the scouting spot. We pass the above-Lava camp site. On the Sonoran Desert Museum trip I was on in 1988, we camped there and were treated to a great thunder and lightning storm, complete with wonderful waterfalls coming off every cliff, and a flashflood coming down the drainage, then went and ran Lava on a thick, muddly flow. Today, while the water is still muddy from the Little Colorado River flow, it is not thick and the sky is clear and it is hot.
We reach the scout stop on the right and pull in and tie off. Nate, Dave, and I will film and be picked up downstream. At the scout location, we stand looking down at the rapid. Craig starts pointing out lines the boatmen can take. Dave, Nate, and I climb on to seek high points for the photos we want to take. Nate pickes the high point in the middle, Dave takes a rock close to the first drop off where he can get photos all the way down the rapid, and I climb farther down to a large boulder just downstream of Cheese Grater Rock, a large black, columnar basalt boulder with a rough, sharp surface that is a must-miss rock. I can see the drop-off at the top. If a boatman picks the V-wave run I will get some air shots as the wooden boats crest the waves and have a good downward angle into the waves above Cheese Grater rock and a great angle of the end waves as well. I can also see the top and the start of the “Dory Slot”, so named because if you ware willing to skirt the ferocious “Ledge Hole” on the right, you can go over one small wave and likely get an easy, relatively dry ride.
Robb goes first, with Natalie as passenger, and, as always, makes it look easy and eddies out on the right. CeCe is next and her raft flies through and eddies out on the left near the waterfall. Izzy is next with John as passenger and makes it looks easy and dry as they also hit the dory run. The wooden boats come through: Greg in the Portola, who eddies out on the right, Stef in the Susie Too, who brings it under where I am sitting (both of us pumping fists), and then Craig, who makes a great run in the Flavell II and turns in right below Cheese Grater Rock to pick up Dave.
Our yellow boat friends arrived just after we started scouting and they came through in tight formation with no problems. Tony follows on the cataraft and makes a great run, but finishes backwards, and he is followed by Doug, who comes through dry and grinning.
Nate and Dave scramble down safely over the very exposed rocky trail down to the water. Dave climbs over Izzy’s raft to Craig’s boat, while Nate and I pack away camera gear and cases on Izzy’s boat and head off to the Son of Lava and Tequila Beach. We break out the tequila and our yellow boat friends break out the Yukon Jack and an impromptu boat party ensues, with much laughter and high-fiving. They head off to Mile 185 camp and we head to Whitmore Wash for the night. Beers are passed between boats. I take back the oars of the Susie Too to test my wrists and we enjoy the feeling of ABL, “alive below Lava”. We still have 100 miles to run, but Lava is behind us, at least for this trip.
For the first time on this trip, our chosen stop, Upper Whitmore Wash, is taken by a group from Arizona River Runners and NPS archaeologists, who are on a monitoring trip. We had been passed by them above Walthenberg Rapid a few days back. We move down to Lower Whitmore Wash and set up camp for our layover day, our exchange of 2 people going out and 2 coming in, and 3 more people hiking down for the night tomorrow.
Stef, who will row the Susie Too through Lava, packed her heavy towards the front. Even people who had not been in dry suits before were now, or were in heavier splash gear. While not said, the old “dress to swim and rig to flip” was going through everyone’s minds: loads were redistributed and tied down extra tight. Robb ties down Tony’s boat and every strap is so tight is almost <twangs> when you touch it. Then he ties down his own boat. Breakfast things are packed away and we leave.
We pass Vulcan’s Anvil, a large piece of columnar basalt sitting in the river and head down toward the scouting spot. We pass the above-Lava camp site. On the Sonoran Desert Museum trip I was on in 1988, we camped there and were treated to a great thunder and lightning storm, complete with wonderful waterfalls coming off every cliff, and a flashflood coming down the drainage, then went and ran Lava on a thick, muddly flow. Today, while the water is still muddy from the Little Colorado River flow, it is not thick and the sky is clear and it is hot.
We reach the scout stop on the right and pull in and tie off. Nate, Dave, and I will film and be picked up downstream. At the scout location, we stand looking down at the rapid. Craig starts pointing out lines the boatmen can take. Dave, Nate, and I climb on to seek high points for the photos we want to take. Nate pickes the high point in the middle, Dave takes a rock close to the first drop off where he can get photos all the way down the rapid, and I climb farther down to a large boulder just downstream of Cheese Grater Rock, a large black, columnar basalt boulder with a rough, sharp surface that is a must-miss rock. I can see the drop-off at the top. If a boatman picks the V-wave run I will get some air shots as the wooden boats crest the waves and have a good downward angle into the waves above Cheese Grater rock and a great angle of the end waves as well. I can also see the top and the start of the “Dory Slot”, so named because if you ware willing to skirt the ferocious “Ledge Hole” on the right, you can go over one small wave and likely get an easy, relatively dry ride.
Robb goes first, with Natalie as passenger, and, as always, makes it look easy and eddies out on the right. CeCe is next and her raft flies through and eddies out on the left near the waterfall. Izzy is next with John as passenger and makes it looks easy and dry as they also hit the dory run. The wooden boats come through: Greg in the Portola, who eddies out on the right, Stef in the Susie Too, who brings it under where I am sitting (both of us pumping fists), and then Craig, who makes a great run in the Flavell II and turns in right below Cheese Grater Rock to pick up Dave.
Our yellow boat friends arrived just after we started scouting and they came through in tight formation with no problems. Tony follows on the cataraft and makes a great run, but finishes backwards, and he is followed by Doug, who comes through dry and grinning.
Nate and Dave scramble down safely over the very exposed rocky trail down to the water. Dave climbs over Izzy’s raft to Craig’s boat, while Nate and I pack away camera gear and cases on Izzy’s boat and head off to the Son of Lava and Tequila Beach. We break out the tequila and our yellow boat friends break out the Yukon Jack and an impromptu boat party ensues, with much laughter and high-fiving. They head off to Mile 185 camp and we head to Whitmore Wash for the night. Beers are passed between boats. I take back the oars of the Susie Too to test my wrists and we enjoy the feeling of ABL, “alive below Lava”. We still have 100 miles to run, but Lava is behind us, at least for this trip.
For the first time on this trip, our chosen stop, Upper Whitmore Wash, is taken by a group from Arizona River Runners and NPS archaeologists, who are on a monitoring trip. We had been passed by them above Walthenberg Rapid a few days back. We move down to Lower Whitmore Wash and set up camp for our layover day, our exchange of 2 people going out and 2 coming in, and 3 more people hiking down for the night tomorrow.
Day 15 in Grand Canyon: Ledges to Upper Cove
From Upset at mile 150 to Lava Falls Rapid at mile 180, the canyon opens up a bit and all the rapids are smaller. We do about 23 miles today and pull into camp late, get set up, have a fast dinner, and off to bed. The river is mellower, the rapids lower, and the scenery beautiful (as is it all). But we know that tomorrow is Lava Falls Rapid, the “Big One”. After Upset, I think all of us are worried about how we will do and how the boats will do.
Day 14 in Grand Canyon: Football Field to Ledges
We are out of camp early with our lunches packed and ready for a lot of small rapids, followed by the big one, Upset, an 8 rating in all the guide books.
Kanab Canyon is about 6 miles down, where many of us have hiked before, then Olo, then “Matkat” (Matkatamiba Rapid), then Upset shows up and we park the boats about 500 feet above the rapid and walk down to scout. There is a left run up against the left wall with a large rock at the bottom you have to miss, or would probably flip on. The center hole is huge and is to be avoided, but right lateral waves are driving you straight toward it.
We all discuss and enter left and more right for the wooden boats. Robb ran it first and picked the left run and hit it spot-on and eddied-out on the left. Stef takes a raft on the right run and, again, does it perfectly and eddies out on the right beach below where Nate is filming. Tony runs third and tries to move right and does not make it. He takes the cataraft sideways into the big hole where it stops and flings Tony off upstream and then plops down on top of him and spins out of the hole on the right. Tony soon surfaces and pats his head (the “I’m alright” signal) and heads downstream with Robb in hot pursuit. They eddy out just around the corner. Greg Hatten is next in the Portola and also does not make it around the center hole, slides in sideways and he and Leif are pitched out and swim right. The Portola only rolls over twice and then flushes out, riding much higher than at Grapevine and with the hatches dry. Stef rows off the beach in hot pursuit and they all eddy out within our field of veiw and we soon see the Portola upright. Greg and Leif have been able to roll her over by themselves and have her bailed out. Doug brings is his raft down on the right side and parks it at the right side and walks back and brings the Susie Too down as well. CeCe jumps in to be safety there.
Our new friends from Alaska in five yellow rafts start through. The first one flips in the center hole and the oarsman swims to the Susie Too and was pulled in. The raft and passenger headed down to where Stef was and was pulled ashore. The last yellow raft goes sideways into the hole and surfs for over two minutes with both onboard high-siding and finally getting an oar in the water and popping out.
Izzy brings her raft down with John as passenger in a perfect run, pulling right to avoid the rock. Nate and I jump on with Doug and we row down to Stef and the upside-down yellow raft. They are rigging a Z-drag. Tony and Robb already have used the Z-drag to get the cataraft over and is repacking the raft. We head out and make it to the Upper Ledges where we camp late, cook fast, and set out a lot to dry, which we have to put up wet when the wind gets strong and some things disappear into the river and not recovered. Natalie Mortenson, Leif’s daughter, spends time following mice and kangaroo rats along the ledges at the back of our camping spaces.
Kanab Canyon is about 6 miles down, where many of us have hiked before, then Olo, then “Matkat” (Matkatamiba Rapid), then Upset shows up and we park the boats about 500 feet above the rapid and walk down to scout. There is a left run up against the left wall with a large rock at the bottom you have to miss, or would probably flip on. The center hole is huge and is to be avoided, but right lateral waves are driving you straight toward it.
We all discuss and enter left and more right for the wooden boats. Robb ran it first and picked the left run and hit it spot-on and eddied-out on the left. Stef takes a raft on the right run and, again, does it perfectly and eddies out on the right beach below where Nate is filming. Tony runs third and tries to move right and does not make it. He takes the cataraft sideways into the big hole where it stops and flings Tony off upstream and then plops down on top of him and spins out of the hole on the right. Tony soon surfaces and pats his head (the “I’m alright” signal) and heads downstream with Robb in hot pursuit. They eddy out just around the corner. Greg Hatten is next in the Portola and also does not make it around the center hole, slides in sideways and he and Leif are pitched out and swim right. The Portola only rolls over twice and then flushes out, riding much higher than at Grapevine and with the hatches dry. Stef rows off the beach in hot pursuit and they all eddy out within our field of veiw and we soon see the Portola upright. Greg and Leif have been able to roll her over by themselves and have her bailed out. Doug brings is his raft down on the right side and parks it at the right side and walks back and brings the Susie Too down as well. CeCe jumps in to be safety there.
Our new friends from Alaska in five yellow rafts start through. The first one flips in the center hole and the oarsman swims to the Susie Too and was pulled in. The raft and passenger headed down to where Stef was and was pulled ashore. The last yellow raft goes sideways into the hole and surfs for over two minutes with both onboard high-siding and finally getting an oar in the water and popping out.
Izzy brings her raft down with John as passenger in a perfect run, pulling right to avoid the rock. Nate and I jump on with Doug and we row down to Stef and the upside-down yellow raft. They are rigging a Z-drag. Tony and Robb already have used the Z-drag to get the cataraft over and is repacking the raft. We head out and make it to the Upper Ledges where we camp late, cook fast, and set out a lot to dry, which we have to put up wet when the wind gets strong and some things disappear into the river and not recovered. Natalie Mortenson, Leif’s daughter, spends time following mice and kangaroo rats along the ledges at the back of our camping spaces.
Day 13 in Grand Canyon: Below Fossil to Football Field
This is another day with three big rapids and a number of smaller ones. In some sections, they pile on top of one another and you have to be on your toes.
The first is Specter, where there is a right run next to a wall that misses a big hole. Most of the rafts take that line, but Stef, who is back at the oars on Susie Too, sees a path on the left of that hole that will keep us off the wall and we dance down that line, catching some awe and having fun. We arrive at the bottom with barely two inches of water in the boat and a lot of laughter.
Bedrock, my peronal nemesis, is next. We land above and climb through the Doll House to scout and at low water and dropping, she looks nasty. I flipped a raft here in 1969 by wrapping it on the Bedrock and then, when it came off upside-down, rode it in the left eddy while trying and trying to climb on it until it decided to do the left run. This year, I elect to be picked up at the bottom and, given that Stef wants a lighter boat to do the run, both of us are happy.
Robb goes first and does a perfect run and he eddies out at the rock and sets up a safety with a throw bag. CeCe is next and does a great job as well and eddies out on the beach I am on. Tony comes next and is too far left entering the left side without touching the rock and we can see him upright and backwards through the notch. The back side of the Bedrock catches him and puts one of the pontoons under water. Robb, on top of the rock, shakes his head, but Tony high-sides and a surge washes him off upright – oars, gear, and boat all intact – and he eddies out on the left in sight on a small beach. Izzy heads down and spins, almost wraps on the rock, but the pillow pushes her off. We think it’s a certain flip, but she and John hold it, make it through the left side and also eddy out next to Tony. Craig brings the Flavell II down and pulls and pulls and pulls and makes it around on the right with his steel prow almost touching the secondary rocks on the right side of Bedrock, with a huge grin and a wipe of the sweat of his brow gesture he has earned and to our applause.
Greg has been practicing putting his stern on rocks just for this rapid and we laugh about a small steeper rock that the water is just splashing over. I tell him I want his picture with the Portola stern just over that rock and he laughs and says that he does too. His run is perfect with his stern going on the left side of all the right side rocks and he ends up the farthest from Bedrock and with his stern only five or six feet from that sleeper rock to great cheers from all of us. Stef brings Susie through a little closer to the rock, but safely and with a lot of fun. He picks me up below Bedrock and it’s off to Deubendorf Rapid, which we do a read-and-run, then a half-hour stop at Stone Creek to top off our water supplies. I set up the solar chargers to see if I can get any of the batteries up enough to use my laptop.
After we pump fresh water, we head on down the river with Doug Freeman at the oars of Susie Too. Tapeats Creek has been one of my favorite camping spots on several trips down the Bill Hall trail past Thunder River, down Tapeats Creek, along the river high on the cliffs to Deer Creek, and then back out across the esplenade and back out. Today, the whole river is pulling into the rock pour-over at the top. Greg makes three big pulls and goes right of the rock. Doug is pulling for all he is worth and goes up and over the rock, sliding off to the left as both of us high-side so we keep her upright. He grabs the oar he has lost on the left and we make it through the rapid with no more than three inches in the bottom and we both bail to see if there is a hole or other damage. We think we hit with the area under the forward compartment, but instead find we have cracked the wood in the rower’s footwell in two areas. It does not appear to be leaking and we haave other swirly water to worry about, so we wait for camp.
Jeffe Aronson, a dory boatman for Grand Canyon Dories, who does a great blog called “Stories From the Big Ditch”, just did a blog about repairing wooden dories and used several photos of dories being pulled out of the water by rolling them on thwarts (the inflatible center tubes on paddle rafts, which are not used with a rowing frame). We camp at “Football Field” below Deer Creek and roll the Susie Too out on two thwarts and all the wood boat builders look at the cracks, determine that the cracks aren’t through the fiberglass, are not leaking, and none of the ribs are damaged, and we just need to take care for the rest of the trip. It only took four of us to move her out of the water and back in – much easier than lifting her. Thank you Jeffe and Craig Wolfson, who had the thwarts and brought them in; a few pumps of one of our air pumps and they were ready to go.
The first is Specter, where there is a right run next to a wall that misses a big hole. Most of the rafts take that line, but Stef, who is back at the oars on Susie Too, sees a path on the left of that hole that will keep us off the wall and we dance down that line, catching some awe and having fun. We arrive at the bottom with barely two inches of water in the boat and a lot of laughter.
Bedrock, my peronal nemesis, is next. We land above and climb through the Doll House to scout and at low water and dropping, she looks nasty. I flipped a raft here in 1969 by wrapping it on the Bedrock and then, when it came off upside-down, rode it in the left eddy while trying and trying to climb on it until it decided to do the left run. This year, I elect to be picked up at the bottom and, given that Stef wants a lighter boat to do the run, both of us are happy.
Robb goes first and does a perfect run and he eddies out at the rock and sets up a safety with a throw bag. CeCe is next and does a great job as well and eddies out on the beach I am on. Tony comes next and is too far left entering the left side without touching the rock and we can see him upright and backwards through the notch. The back side of the Bedrock catches him and puts one of the pontoons under water. Robb, on top of the rock, shakes his head, but Tony high-sides and a surge washes him off upright – oars, gear, and boat all intact – and he eddies out on the left in sight on a small beach. Izzy heads down and spins, almost wraps on the rock, but the pillow pushes her off. We think it’s a certain flip, but she and John hold it, make it through the left side and also eddy out next to Tony. Craig brings the Flavell II down and pulls and pulls and pulls and makes it around on the right with his steel prow almost touching the secondary rocks on the right side of Bedrock, with a huge grin and a wipe of the sweat of his brow gesture he has earned and to our applause.
Greg has been practicing putting his stern on rocks just for this rapid and we laugh about a small steeper rock that the water is just splashing over. I tell him I want his picture with the Portola stern just over that rock and he laughs and says that he does too. His run is perfect with his stern going on the left side of all the right side rocks and he ends up the farthest from Bedrock and with his stern only five or six feet from that sleeper rock to great cheers from all of us. Stef brings Susie through a little closer to the rock, but safely and with a lot of fun. He picks me up below Bedrock and it’s off to Deubendorf Rapid, which we do a read-and-run, then a half-hour stop at Stone Creek to top off our water supplies. I set up the solar chargers to see if I can get any of the batteries up enough to use my laptop.
After we pump fresh water, we head on down the river with Doug Freeman at the oars of Susie Too. Tapeats Creek has been one of my favorite camping spots on several trips down the Bill Hall trail past Thunder River, down Tapeats Creek, along the river high on the cliffs to Deer Creek, and then back out across the esplenade and back out. Today, the whole river is pulling into the rock pour-over at the top. Greg makes three big pulls and goes right of the rock. Doug is pulling for all he is worth and goes up and over the rock, sliding off to the left as both of us high-side so we keep her upright. He grabs the oar he has lost on the left and we make it through the rapid with no more than three inches in the bottom and we both bail to see if there is a hole or other damage. We think we hit with the area under the forward compartment, but instead find we have cracked the wood in the rower’s footwell in two areas. It does not appear to be leaking and we haave other swirly water to worry about, so we wait for camp.
Jeffe Aronson, a dory boatman for Grand Canyon Dories, who does a great blog called “Stories From the Big Ditch”, just did a blog about repairing wooden dories and used several photos of dories being pulled out of the water by rolling them on thwarts (the inflatible center tubes on paddle rafts, which are not used with a rowing frame). We camp at “Football Field” below Deer Creek and roll the Susie Too out on two thwarts and all the wood boat builders look at the cracks, determine that the cracks aren’t through the fiberglass, are not leaking, and none of the ribs are damaged, and we just need to take care for the rest of the trip. It only took four of us to move her out of the water and back in – much easier than lifting her. Thank you Jeffe and Craig Wolfson, who had the thwarts and brought them in; a few pumps of one of our air pumps and they were ready to go.
Day 12 in Grand Canyon: Hotauta to below Fossil
Today was a long day with good weather, no wind, and a lot of fun. Little rapids (below 4′s), with Fossil (a 5), Forster (a 5), and Walthenberg (a 6) being the three bigger ones to run today.
Robb is rowing Susie Too in the morning and Tony takes his first turn at the oars in the afternoon. We are trying to make up some time so we can still do our layover day at Staircase for some great hiking. So we pack lunches to eat on the river, rather than stop and lay out our lunch on a Roll-A-Table, which takes an hour to set up, eat, and take down.
We reach Elves Chasm and spend half an hour exploring and also meet up with two other groups and discuss camp sites. Looks like we need to head to below Fossil.
Forster and Fossil rapids today are just read-and-run, although Fossil is a nice S-shaped rapid with some rocks in strategic places that require pulling on the oars to miss.
Walthenberg has some big waves and Robb runs that perfectly. Susie Too dances up and over everything she is aimed at, catching air when she can, and having her riders laugh a lot. Sometimes she is a dry-rider. If there are lateral waves at the bottom that come over the sides, then she fills up and the pump goes on and we bail and between the two, we get her emptied out in a couple of minutes. But full or empty, she is very stable and a joy to be in.
While we are at Elves Chasm, a small trip pulls up that had been scouting Walthenberg and we talk dories, how Susie did, and he tells us that seeing a dory go through a rapid had been on his Bucket List. So, he was a happy camper to have watched this.
We get to below Fossil and set up camp, enjoy a great dinner, and get to bed. The almost-full moon comes up in a notch across from us and sets just after midnight behind the cliff behind us, but the moonlight reflects off the east cliff all night and it is bright and still.
Robb is rowing Susie Too in the morning and Tony takes his first turn at the oars in the afternoon. We are trying to make up some time so we can still do our layover day at Staircase for some great hiking. So we pack lunches to eat on the river, rather than stop and lay out our lunch on a Roll-A-Table, which takes an hour to set up, eat, and take down.
We reach Elves Chasm and spend half an hour exploring and also meet up with two other groups and discuss camp sites. Looks like we need to head to below Fossil.
Forster and Fossil rapids today are just read-and-run, although Fossil is a nice S-shaped rapid with some rocks in strategic places that require pulling on the oars to miss.
Walthenberg has some big waves and Robb runs that perfectly. Susie Too dances up and over everything she is aimed at, catching air when she can, and having her riders laugh a lot. Sometimes she is a dry-rider. If there are lateral waves at the bottom that come over the sides, then she fills up and the pump goes on and we bail and between the two, we get her emptied out in a couple of minutes. But full or empty, she is very stable and a joy to be in.
While we are at Elves Chasm, a small trip pulls up that had been scouting Walthenberg and we talk dories, how Susie did, and he tells us that seeing a dory go through a rapid had been on his Bucket List. So, he was a happy camper to have watched this.
We get to below Fossil and set up camp, enjoy a great dinner, and get to bed. The almost-full moon comes up in a notch across from us and sets just after midnight behind the cliff behind us, but the moonlight reflects off the east cliff all night and it is bright and still.
Day 11 in Grand Canyon: Above Salt Creek Camp to Hotauta Camp
[We have had problems with the batteries recharging so there has been a delay in getting these out. Days 12 through 16 were sent out with Pam and Kammy Wolfson who will post them as soon as they get them transcribed from my handwritten journals. We had a full day on the beach at Whitmore Wash on the day we exchanged people so my laptop is up and functioning and Leif’s laptop is up and functioning and the cell phone with the data program is up and functioning.]
We start out today knowing that we will be running three big rapids with scouting and filming and and still hoping to make decent times and get into camp early enough to make dinner before everyone crashes. We did it, but a strong afternoon wind that hit three miles from our camp site selection, in an area with no other camp sites available, made that part of the trip very hard.
First rapid we came to was Granite Rapid at the mouth of Monument Creek. Monument Creek Campsite is one of my favorite places and is accessible from the Tonto Trail on the Hermit Loop. It has a nice clear spring running through it and the scenery is dramatic. I have taken many photos of the monument itself and one of them won several awards in multiple contests, including the Arizona State Fair, and has been published several times in various calendars, books, and magazine articles. There is a revegitation project going on there where the National Park Service is getting ready to remove an invasive species, the tamarisk tree, or the remains of the tamarisk trees, after the tamarisk beetles get through killing them. They are planting several native species to provide shade and privacy screening for all the people on river trips who stop there, and all the people who hike down to Granite Rapid from the rim. So they have left buckets and a watering log to ask us who are coming through on river trips to water these 200 plants. There has been some mortality since they put the plants in last year, but a surprising number of them have survived and appear to be leaving out. To build up really good karma for our group, instead of scouting the rapid (since I am not rowing today), I take a bucket out of the Susie Too and haul about 25 buckets of water from the river to the plants on the north end, and about half of the plants on the south end before everyone comes back to run the rapid.
I am riding with Nate today, our official photographer and videographer, who always seems to have a camera in his hands. He was down here in a kayak two years ago and is very familiar with the river and we have a lot of fun today on the raft. CeCe and Stef are taking the Susie Too down, rotating our rowers through the wooden boats to get them familiar with them and give them a turn at the really active way they handle. And I get to get photos of what she looks like dancing through the waves.
Hermit Rapid is next and is a read-and-run, with us having a great time in all of the successive waves being more fun than the last. We all looked out for number 7 which was indeed the best (most challenging), depending on your point of view. Craig and the Flavell II obviously catching air on several of the waves. Then on to Crystal where we spend two hours scouting the rapid and discussing the lines. There were three that we ran. The left run that most people thought was un-runnable was run very well by Robb and Tony, who hardly got wet and made it look easy. The left hole that looks so hard did not even slow them down. Most of the others ran the classic right run, missing the center hole and not hitting any of the rocks on the right shore. Stef, running solo in the Susie Too ran a center run and hit the center hole straight on, was stopped momentarily, and popped right out and danced through the rest of the rapid and lower Crystal as well. Nate and I ran up and took the raft down and went right and had a great run. Son of Crystal is a little more technical and many of us spun once or more in getting through.
The gems were next and that was a rapid or riffle every quarter mile or so: Agate, Sapphire, Turquoise, Ruby, Serpentine, and then two miles farther, Bass Canyon and Hotauta on the left, which was a great sand dune camp with some ledges. We have made up barely 22 miles at this point and many of us are hoping that the schedule can be adjusted so that we can have the layover day at Whitmore Wash in a week.
We start out today knowing that we will be running three big rapids with scouting and filming and and still hoping to make decent times and get into camp early enough to make dinner before everyone crashes. We did it, but a strong afternoon wind that hit three miles from our camp site selection, in an area with no other camp sites available, made that part of the trip very hard.
First rapid we came to was Granite Rapid at the mouth of Monument Creek. Monument Creek Campsite is one of my favorite places and is accessible from the Tonto Trail on the Hermit Loop. It has a nice clear spring running through it and the scenery is dramatic. I have taken many photos of the monument itself and one of them won several awards in multiple contests, including the Arizona State Fair, and has been published several times in various calendars, books, and magazine articles. There is a revegitation project going on there where the National Park Service is getting ready to remove an invasive species, the tamarisk tree, or the remains of the tamarisk trees, after the tamarisk beetles get through killing them. They are planting several native species to provide shade and privacy screening for all the people on river trips who stop there, and all the people who hike down to Granite Rapid from the rim. So they have left buckets and a watering log to ask us who are coming through on river trips to water these 200 plants. There has been some mortality since they put the plants in last year, but a surprising number of them have survived and appear to be leaving out. To build up really good karma for our group, instead of scouting the rapid (since I am not rowing today), I take a bucket out of the Susie Too and haul about 25 buckets of water from the river to the plants on the north end, and about half of the plants on the south end before everyone comes back to run the rapid.
I am riding with Nate today, our official photographer and videographer, who always seems to have a camera in his hands. He was down here in a kayak two years ago and is very familiar with the river and we have a lot of fun today on the raft. CeCe and Stef are taking the Susie Too down, rotating our rowers through the wooden boats to get them familiar with them and give them a turn at the really active way they handle. And I get to get photos of what she looks like dancing through the waves.
Hermit Rapid is next and is a read-and-run, with us having a great time in all of the successive waves being more fun than the last. We all looked out for number 7 which was indeed the best (most challenging), depending on your point of view. Craig and the Flavell II obviously catching air on several of the waves. Then on to Crystal where we spend two hours scouting the rapid and discussing the lines. There were three that we ran. The left run that most people thought was un-runnable was run very well by Robb and Tony, who hardly got wet and made it look easy. The left hole that looks so hard did not even slow them down. Most of the others ran the classic right run, missing the center hole and not hitting any of the rocks on the right shore. Stef, running solo in the Susie Too ran a center run and hit the center hole straight on, was stopped momentarily, and popped right out and danced through the rest of the rapid and lower Crystal as well. Nate and I ran up and took the raft down and went right and had a great run. Son of Crystal is a little more technical and many of us spun once or more in getting through.
The gems were next and that was a rapid or riffle every quarter mile or so: Agate, Sapphire, Turquoise, Ruby, Serpentine, and then two miles farther, Bass Canyon and Hotauta on the left, which was a great sand dune camp with some ledges. We have made up barely 22 miles at this point and many of us are hoping that the schedule can be adjusted so that we can have the layover day at Whitmore Wash in a week.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Day 10 in Grand Canyon: Clear Creek Camp to Above Salt Creek Camp
We wake to a clear and already warmer day. We rush to get breakfast done and the gear loaded and leave to make for a slightly earlier start. We have Zoroaster Rapid and 85-mile Rapid, which are bigger ones, and numerous ones that are substantial riffles that some we suppose might not even be there at higher water. There are rocks exposed in lots of areas that those of us who have done this only at higher waters have not seen. The guide books we have list all rapids as a 3 or higher on a rating scale of 1 to 10. With Lava being the 10, House Rock Rapid being a 7, Hance and Granite being 8’s, and some of them having a double rating with a higher water rating and a lower water rating. Most of us are running with the guide book open next to us on our seat or tucked into a map case or just under a strap. All are printed on waterproof paper, so we hang them to drain overnight on a convenient bush or tree.
We are also lucky that we have Craig Wolfson with us, who has run the river professionally and privately for over 30 years, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of both what the entrances are and the must-make moves in each, and which we can read-and-run, which involves getting close enough to the top so that you can stand up in your boat and look at the whole rapid and determine your moves. In all cases, you position your boat facing one way or the other, depending on which way you think you might have to pull on your oars to move backwards since you have much more power in a pull stroke than a push stroke, and hitting a rock or a wall or getting your boat wrapped on a rock are things we want to avoid at all costs.
Today we get through the morning and head up to Phantom Ranch, only a day later than planned. John Schroeder and I head up to the ranch fast on a sentimental journey. Friend Linda McClure was the manager here in the late 1980's, and her husband Dennis McClure also worked at the ranch in a variety of capacities. For their 3-year tenure, I kept a sleeping bag and pad in their cabin; even if I could not get a permit to hike in the corridor, I frequently called up to see if they needed anything purchased in Phoenix that I could bring to them and would drive up, pick up a pass at the transportation desk, and head down at first light for one or two days at Phantom Ranch. One of the projects I was involved in over the course of one Fall in '86 or '87, was to plant trees here to replace the cottonwoods which were aging and dropping limbs in high winds. Several friends and I planted about 17 trees in various locations; somewhere I have a photograph of a couple of us hugging one of those trees that is barely as tall as I am just after we got it into the ground and watered it. There is a wheelbarrow in the background with soil enhancements and shovels in it and we are wearing work gloves. When last I was here in 2002, it was a tall sapling and I want to see how that one tree has fared. We see several that I know I planted and I give each a hug. We see the old fig tree next to the shower house that I have eaten so many figs from over all the hikes I did down here, and then head up to the mess hall and beyond to the tree which is now 30 feet tall and just leaving out. I can get my arms around it still and stand there with tears running down my face that it has survived and appears to be thriving. John records the moment for me to savor over the years with his camera and with mine. So many great memories from all the time I have spent here in my "Church of the Canyon".
The rest of the team fills the water bottles we need refilling and heads to the ranch for postcards, stamps, lemonade, and souvenirs. Phantom Ranch has special tee shirts designed each year, one usually with a hiking theme and one with a river theme. The river theme is a Bruce Aikin design of a dory approaching Nankoweep and the dory is white with the suggestion of a green stripe on sunset-shadowed water and it is beautiful. I have one in my pack to bring home and wear proudly. It is as if he designed it just for me to find.
We round up and everyone heads back to the boats to get ready to run Horn Rapid. This is another serious rapid, rated a 9, and is the one that most of us have been dreading. It is in the shade and we climb high on a talus slope on the right side to get a look at it. We run some of the rafts through to be safety boaters and then the wooden boats go. After Greg Hatten drops over the edge, we do not see him in the rapid like we have the rafts until he pulls up in the sun on the beach at the bottom left. Doug Freeman is washed out of his raft on the way down and self-rescues, but loses his favorite hat. CeCe and I take off and she hits her line, breaks through the left lateral waves and rides the rapid down on the outside of all the big holes, dancing up and over and down and through. We come through the rapid with barely 2 inches of water in the boat and again I have the sense that we have someone else in the boat guiding our route. Craig Wolfson is last of the wooden boats and fills to the brim, so Dave Mortenson has another bailing job.
Because we have tarried so long at Phantom Ranch and Horn we stop for lunch at 3 and are passed by 2 other raft groups, which are heading for the camp we had planned on so we stop at above Salt Creek camp for the night and spread out and set up camp and really enjoy the lamb chops and scalloped potatoes for dinner. We head to bed to enjoy the almost-full moon and the incredible stars... a sleep well-earned.
We are also lucky that we have Craig Wolfson with us, who has run the river professionally and privately for over 30 years, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of both what the entrances are and the must-make moves in each, and which we can read-and-run, which involves getting close enough to the top so that you can stand up in your boat and look at the whole rapid and determine your moves. In all cases, you position your boat facing one way or the other, depending on which way you think you might have to pull on your oars to move backwards since you have much more power in a pull stroke than a push stroke, and hitting a rock or a wall or getting your boat wrapped on a rock are things we want to avoid at all costs.
Today we get through the morning and head up to Phantom Ranch, only a day later than planned. John Schroeder and I head up to the ranch fast on a sentimental journey. Friend Linda McClure was the manager here in the late 1980's, and her husband Dennis McClure also worked at the ranch in a variety of capacities. For their 3-year tenure, I kept a sleeping bag and pad in their cabin; even if I could not get a permit to hike in the corridor, I frequently called up to see if they needed anything purchased in Phoenix that I could bring to them and would drive up, pick up a pass at the transportation desk, and head down at first light for one or two days at Phantom Ranch. One of the projects I was involved in over the course of one Fall in '86 or '87, was to plant trees here to replace the cottonwoods which were aging and dropping limbs in high winds. Several friends and I planted about 17 trees in various locations; somewhere I have a photograph of a couple of us hugging one of those trees that is barely as tall as I am just after we got it into the ground and watered it. There is a wheelbarrow in the background with soil enhancements and shovels in it and we are wearing work gloves. When last I was here in 2002, it was a tall sapling and I want to see how that one tree has fared. We see several that I know I planted and I give each a hug. We see the old fig tree next to the shower house that I have eaten so many figs from over all the hikes I did down here, and then head up to the mess hall and beyond to the tree which is now 30 feet tall and just leaving out. I can get my arms around it still and stand there with tears running down my face that it has survived and appears to be thriving. John records the moment for me to savor over the years with his camera and with mine. So many great memories from all the time I have spent here in my "Church of the Canyon".
The rest of the team fills the water bottles we need refilling and heads to the ranch for postcards, stamps, lemonade, and souvenirs. Phantom Ranch has special tee shirts designed each year, one usually with a hiking theme and one with a river theme. The river theme is a Bruce Aikin design of a dory approaching Nankoweep and the dory is white with the suggestion of a green stripe on sunset-shadowed water and it is beautiful. I have one in my pack to bring home and wear proudly. It is as if he designed it just for me to find.
We round up and everyone heads back to the boats to get ready to run Horn Rapid. This is another serious rapid, rated a 9, and is the one that most of us have been dreading. It is in the shade and we climb high on a talus slope on the right side to get a look at it. We run some of the rafts through to be safety boaters and then the wooden boats go. After Greg Hatten drops over the edge, we do not see him in the rapid like we have the rafts until he pulls up in the sun on the beach at the bottom left. Doug Freeman is washed out of his raft on the way down and self-rescues, but loses his favorite hat. CeCe and I take off and she hits her line, breaks through the left lateral waves and rides the rapid down on the outside of all the big holes, dancing up and over and down and through. We come through the rapid with barely 2 inches of water in the boat and again I have the sense that we have someone else in the boat guiding our route. Craig Wolfson is last of the wooden boats and fills to the brim, so Dave Mortenson has another bailing job.
Because we have tarried so long at Phantom Ranch and Horn we stop for lunch at 3 and are passed by 2 other raft groups, which are heading for the camp we had planned on so we stop at above Salt Creek camp for the night and spread out and set up camp and really enjoy the lamb chops and scalloped potatoes for dinner. We head to bed to enjoy the almost-full moon and the incredible stars... a sleep well-earned.
Day 9 in Grand Canyon: Hance Rapid to Clear Creek
Today was the day we all demonstrated that we understood the importance of working as a team. We were able to do so and do so well when Greg Hatten and the Portola, with Dave Mortenson as a passenger, got into serious trouble in Grapevine Rapid. We had to rescue both of them from the water, as well as an upside-down Portola. As I write this at 9 p.m., everyone is fine and the Portola is a little the worse for wear, but serviceable.
But let’s start with the first part of the day. Hance Rapid at low water since September of 2012, is one nasty rapid. The left run has been totally covered up with rock, debris, and mud. At low water there are a lot of rocks, a lot of strong currents that keep you from going where you want to, and only a few ways to get from the top to the bottom, now all on the right side. We set up to photograph and CeCe Mortenson, who is again rowing the Susie Too with me as a passenger, wants to watch the first 4 people make the run. She watches from the rock flow at the edge of the water; I watch from the beach we are parked on. It looks to me like every one of the first 4 make a different entry and she confirms that. Tony rows the whole rapid backward, using his more powerful strokes to make it through with no damage, but getting very wet. Craig Wolfson with Pam Mortenson runs almost every hole and his boat is soon filled with water to the gunwales, and Pam spends a lot of time bailing the boat out with a bleach bottle with the bottom cut out. Robb starts out where he wants to be, but does not make it to the pathway and hits a few rocks. Then it is our turn and CeCe starts out too far right and never manages to make it left of some big visible rocks that she was going to do, so we make a right run in very tight quarters, mostly run backwards, mostly run full of water with our wonderful pump trying to empty her out, and the next wave filling her up again and with me moving from one side to the other (called "high-siding" to balance the boat and keep it from flipping). We go sideways, fully loaded with water, into a large rock and tear away 6 inches of outer chine and 8 feet of metal strip protecting the chine from the left side. We also crack the inner chine. A few minutes later we come down hard on a rock with a big <thunk> which cracks the floor in the sump pump compartment. Neither of these is causing leaking, but do cause concern. I spend time at the bottom of the rapid bailing her out with a bucket and smaller quart milk plastic bottle with 2 sides cut away, and then sponge to get the last of the water out and check for damage. The last 2 rafts with the photographers come down with very wet rides for their passengers and rowers. Nate, one of the photographers, has captured our run well including hitting both rocks and that we were indeed backwards for the entire upper part.
Most of us are wearing drysuits today with closed feet under water boots and gaskets at wrist and neck to keep us from getting wet and cold. The canyon is deep and it is cloudy so it feels a lot colder today.
We do a read-and-run of Sockdologer Rapid next and enjoy the bouncing through the waves and haystacks where water comes together from both sides in lateral waves, causing lots of high waves in the center. As we finish Sockdologer, the group of kayakers doing the same trip in 13 days pass us. They are trying to go 30 miles today and we exchange a few words as they have to pay strict attention to all the swirling eddy currents that can so easily flip a kayak, but not our larger boats. We had seen them first at Unkar where they went down the rapid first and then camped at rattlesnake camp to hike in the ruins and above.
We get to Grapevine, which Tom Martin’s guide says to avoid the left side and go right but avoid the pour-overs in the center. The rafts head left and the wooden boats head right with Craig Wolfson in the lead and getting a wet ride. Greg and Dave head through next and disappear beyond a pour-over. We see Greg’s head above the water and it is not moving away as we expect. CeCe does very strong pulls so we do not take the same line and we flash past them with a few feet to spare on their left, with no way to get to them. They have water from the pour-over filling their boat and washing out over the downstream edge and it looks like they are trapped in the current and the boat appears to be shaking but stuck. Greg is yelling at Dave to high-side, a move to shift the balance to the upstream side in hopes that the boat will move and break free. I use my whistle strongly downstream to stop everyone and alert them that we now have a water emergency and everyone pulls to the side. Cece and I bail our boat because it too is full of water and we know we may have to take a passenger on board. CeCe also pulls at the oars upstream to stay as close as possible to render any assistance we might be able to. One of Greg’s oars blushes out first and we see that the Portola is now upside-down and see one swimmer and then the other after about 4 minutes of the beating water. We move into position to intercept the first swimmer, who is Dave Mortenson on his back, coming down head first and not moving much. Leif gets a throw rope to him first; he hits a couple of rocks while holding onto the rope. We reach him and Cece and I pull him on board and put him in the rescue position and hold onto the throw rope as Izzy’s passengers pull our boat to shore and tie both of our boats off. The Portola finally breaks free just about the time we get Dave on board and we yell among ourselves as to who is going to intercept Greg and who is going after the Portola and make sure they have the gear at hand to take the still-upside-down boat under tow. Greg is pulled on board and the Portola is grabbed and tied off and both of those boats head to shore just downstream from us. We get Dave into dry clothes and get hot water into him and then untie and drift down to the next cove where the Portola is now upright. We see two other oars on shore, and Tony and John are going over the boat looking for damage. Greg is wrapped up in dry clothes and we pass the hot water to shore for him, and CeCe sends over the last of her morning coffee which is still hot. We still have rapids to run, but it is clear that we will need to make camp sooner and Craig Wolfson suggests Clear Creek, which we head for. We talk to both Dave and Greg and do a medical assessment: Except for bumps and bruises, and the possibility of a cracked rib for Greg, we are all worse for wear.
Tony and John go over both the Portola and Susie Too and discuss if repairs are needed and it appears that nothing is leaking yet so we dry everything out and do a wait-and-see to see if there is any leaking we need to address. Izzy spends the afternoon cleaning out Greg’s boat and laying out his supplies to dry in the dry air. We set out the solar panels even though it is cloudy and they start to charge. Izzy and John take on the kitchen duties and make a vegetable and meat pasta that is really good after a salad and chicken noodle soup. We do our evening briefing of tomorrow's run and all head to bed and are soon snoring quietly as I come down from the excitement of the day and the pleasant knowledge that we were ready, willing, and able to work as a very effective team when needed to.
But let’s start with the first part of the day. Hance Rapid at low water since September of 2012, is one nasty rapid. The left run has been totally covered up with rock, debris, and mud. At low water there are a lot of rocks, a lot of strong currents that keep you from going where you want to, and only a few ways to get from the top to the bottom, now all on the right side. We set up to photograph and CeCe Mortenson, who is again rowing the Susie Too with me as a passenger, wants to watch the first 4 people make the run. She watches from the rock flow at the edge of the water; I watch from the beach we are parked on. It looks to me like every one of the first 4 make a different entry and she confirms that. Tony rows the whole rapid backward, using his more powerful strokes to make it through with no damage, but getting very wet. Craig Wolfson with Pam Mortenson runs almost every hole and his boat is soon filled with water to the gunwales, and Pam spends a lot of time bailing the boat out with a bleach bottle with the bottom cut out. Robb starts out where he wants to be, but does not make it to the pathway and hits a few rocks. Then it is our turn and CeCe starts out too far right and never manages to make it left of some big visible rocks that she was going to do, so we make a right run in very tight quarters, mostly run backwards, mostly run full of water with our wonderful pump trying to empty her out, and the next wave filling her up again and with me moving from one side to the other (called "high-siding" to balance the boat and keep it from flipping). We go sideways, fully loaded with water, into a large rock and tear away 6 inches of outer chine and 8 feet of metal strip protecting the chine from the left side. We also crack the inner chine. A few minutes later we come down hard on a rock with a big <thunk> which cracks the floor in the sump pump compartment. Neither of these is causing leaking, but do cause concern. I spend time at the bottom of the rapid bailing her out with a bucket and smaller quart milk plastic bottle with 2 sides cut away, and then sponge to get the last of the water out and check for damage. The last 2 rafts with the photographers come down with very wet rides for their passengers and rowers. Nate, one of the photographers, has captured our run well including hitting both rocks and that we were indeed backwards for the entire upper part.
Most of us are wearing drysuits today with closed feet under water boots and gaskets at wrist and neck to keep us from getting wet and cold. The canyon is deep and it is cloudy so it feels a lot colder today.
We do a read-and-run of Sockdologer Rapid next and enjoy the bouncing through the waves and haystacks where water comes together from both sides in lateral waves, causing lots of high waves in the center. As we finish Sockdologer, the group of kayakers doing the same trip in 13 days pass us. They are trying to go 30 miles today and we exchange a few words as they have to pay strict attention to all the swirling eddy currents that can so easily flip a kayak, but not our larger boats. We had seen them first at Unkar where they went down the rapid first and then camped at rattlesnake camp to hike in the ruins and above.
We get to Grapevine, which Tom Martin’s guide says to avoid the left side and go right but avoid the pour-overs in the center. The rafts head left and the wooden boats head right with Craig Wolfson in the lead and getting a wet ride. Greg and Dave head through next and disappear beyond a pour-over. We see Greg’s head above the water and it is not moving away as we expect. CeCe does very strong pulls so we do not take the same line and we flash past them with a few feet to spare on their left, with no way to get to them. They have water from the pour-over filling their boat and washing out over the downstream edge and it looks like they are trapped in the current and the boat appears to be shaking but stuck. Greg is yelling at Dave to high-side, a move to shift the balance to the upstream side in hopes that the boat will move and break free. I use my whistle strongly downstream to stop everyone and alert them that we now have a water emergency and everyone pulls to the side. Cece and I bail our boat because it too is full of water and we know we may have to take a passenger on board. CeCe also pulls at the oars upstream to stay as close as possible to render any assistance we might be able to. One of Greg’s oars blushes out first and we see that the Portola is now upside-down and see one swimmer and then the other after about 4 minutes of the beating water. We move into position to intercept the first swimmer, who is Dave Mortenson on his back, coming down head first and not moving much. Leif gets a throw rope to him first; he hits a couple of rocks while holding onto the rope. We reach him and Cece and I pull him on board and put him in the rescue position and hold onto the throw rope as Izzy’s passengers pull our boat to shore and tie both of our boats off. The Portola finally breaks free just about the time we get Dave on board and we yell among ourselves as to who is going to intercept Greg and who is going after the Portola and make sure they have the gear at hand to take the still-upside-down boat under tow. Greg is pulled on board and the Portola is grabbed and tied off and both of those boats head to shore just downstream from us. We get Dave into dry clothes and get hot water into him and then untie and drift down to the next cove where the Portola is now upright. We see two other oars on shore, and Tony and John are going over the boat looking for damage. Greg is wrapped up in dry clothes and we pass the hot water to shore for him, and CeCe sends over the last of her morning coffee which is still hot. We still have rapids to run, but it is clear that we will need to make camp sooner and Craig Wolfson suggests Clear Creek, which we head for. We talk to both Dave and Greg and do a medical assessment: Except for bumps and bruises, and the possibility of a cracked rib for Greg, we are all worse for wear.
Tony and John go over both the Portola and Susie Too and discuss if repairs are needed and it appears that nothing is leaking yet so we dry everything out and do a wait-and-see to see if there is any leaking we need to address. Izzy spends the afternoon cleaning out Greg’s boat and laying out his supplies to dry in the dry air. We set out the solar panels even though it is cloudy and they start to charge. Izzy and John take on the kitchen duties and make a vegetable and meat pasta that is really good after a salad and chicken noodle soup. We do our evening briefing of tomorrow's run and all head to bed and are soon snoring quietly as I come down from the excitement of the day and the pleasant knowledge that we were ready, willing, and able to work as a very effective team when needed to.
Day 8 in Grand Canyon: Chuar Canyon to Above Hance Rapid
When we leave a camp, it means that everything we have taken off the boat to use has to go back on the boat and has to fit in the space it is allotted. This is done, in part, by having things come out of boxes that are made to fit on the rowing frame each raft is fitted with. We also have small crates that a lot of the fresh vegetables were originally stored in and they have been moved from my forward hatch into the now first week cooler, which is empty. We originally had 5 twenty-pound bags of charcoal in the forward hatch, plus the 2 crates and it was full. I asked several dory boatmen how they loaded their dories to make them both efficient and balanced. According to them, they wanted some more weight forward to start and then balanced later in the trip. Brad Dimock, boat builder extraordinaire, historian and writer stated - and I am paraphrasing - that the dories started out over-loaded at Lee’s Ferry, were about right by the time you got to Phantom Ranch, and were downright sport by the time you got to Lava Falls.
We have used 40 pounds of charcoal so far, so I now have room to take a couple of my smaller bags and put them into the forward hatch so that Tony Wrigley does not have to row them down the river anymore. As we use more charcoal, I can take more of my own stuff back. My personal camp setup (tent, sleeping bag, extra fleece sleeping bag liner, pillow and sleeping pad), takes one large dry bag with shoulder straps - so, like a backpack - I can carry it to the place I want to camp from the boats in one load. It won’t fit into any hatch, however, so that will remain on Tony’s boat for the duration of the trip. He also has my 2 large York Packs (plastic waterproof boxes) in which I have a lot of the dry food for the special dishes, or whole meals I am doing, and for the deserts with the Dutch ovens - the cobbler cake mixes and the cans of fruit to make the cobblers. My Dutch oven lifter, the liners, and aluminum foil I use to keep the Dutches a bit cleaner than if I used them without those (you can use coffee grounds or wet sand to clean out a Dutch, never soap; but if you are using river water and wet sand that water is really cold - in the 40’s and it physically hurts to spend the time with your hands in the water to get them clean). And then you have to oil the Dutch so it won’t rust and to keep the non-stick surface, so there is a bottle of cooking oil in the box as well. You get the picture.
Most of the rafts have rowing frames with drop bags that go down into the inside of the raft and oddly sized things go there: the 5 propane tanks, the dish washing pails (stack of 4), the groover boxes, and the daily dry food boxes. We also have 3 tables that are 18 inches by 6 feet, 4 feet tall with folding legs, and then a few Roll-A-Tables for putting lunch together on a beach. We have 3 major first aid kits and at least 5 minor first aid kits with all the things specified by the NPS and then some. We have several bags with ropes and pulleys and other things to turn over a flipped boat or raft. We have chairs. We have a fire pan and a large fire blanket to put under the fire pan all in a 24 by 24 by 14-inch packing box. We have a heavy duty tarp that forms the floor of the kitchen we set up every night. Craig Wolfson’s boat, the Flavell II, has 4 large metal boxes on it that holds all of our cooking utensils, all of our plates, bowls, cups, serving and prep pieces, a lot of food, silverware and everything else we need to take care of feeding 16 people.
When we left Chuar Canyon yesterday, we continued to follow the Palisades of the Desert cliff until we got to Desert Watch Tower in the far distance on the rim, and then even that fell behind. This section is very open and the tall cliffs are far away from the river. There are 2 major rapids in this section and several minor ones. The first major one is the Unkar Rapid. At higher water this is a more difficult rapid (for some of us, we would consider that a more fun rapid). Susie likes it and dances down the long length of it beautifully and I have film to prove it. Today at the lower water level we are running, this looks a lot easier. Unkar Rapid is also an important one in that the original Flavell II boat met her demise at Unkar in the early 1970’s when the boatman and wonderful photographer, John Blaustine, got hit in the face with a wave, which washed his contact lenses out. He could not see to row and rowed into the rocks at the bottom and, in hitting them, essentially broke the boat in two. Martin Litton was supposed to have said that the boat had had that much damage before but not all at the same time. After that trip, the boat was destroyed in a fire, but Dave Mortenson was able to locate 2 of the original boxes in the Old Grand Canyon Dories yard in Hurricane, Utah and, with permission, collected them and still has them. This boat was built from a 14-inch scale model of the boat that had been built after the original Flavell II was built. After drawing plans from the model and getting the measurements from Dave for the boxes, Craig Wolfson went to work building the boat from the inside out (the opposite of how boats are normally built). When the replica boxes were brought down by Dave and Pam, they fit with about ¼ inch of clearance. We have to be careful not to bend them so they will continue to fit every time we take them off and put them back on the boat.
Craig Wolfson is our head boatman and is responsible for setting the order of running each day and telling us the best ways to run the various rapids we encounter each day. He is very happy that the Flavell does so well and suffers no damage in this rapid.
The second major rapid for the day is Neville Rapid, named for Norm and Doris Neville who started running the San Juan, the Green and the Colorado Rivers through Glen Canyon, Cataract Canyon, and Grand Canyon (respectively) in the 1930’s and 1940’s and whom several of the people who built the original ones of our small boats got their start rowing for which gave them the experience and the love of these canyons and started them on their quest to build ever better boats for their Grand Canyon trips. This is a long one with a pour-over in 3 places in the middle of the run that you can’t see until you are almost upon it. A pour-over is where the water pours over a large, mostly hidden large rock that would do serious damage to our wooden boats and might flip a rubber raft if run the wrong way. CeCe Mortenson is rowing the Susie Too today. I spend the day in Craig Wolfson’s Flavell II to get some photographs of the Susie Too dancing on the waves and it is so beautiful to watch her. Today is sunny and life is good.
We have used 40 pounds of charcoal so far, so I now have room to take a couple of my smaller bags and put them into the forward hatch so that Tony Wrigley does not have to row them down the river anymore. As we use more charcoal, I can take more of my own stuff back. My personal camp setup (tent, sleeping bag, extra fleece sleeping bag liner, pillow and sleeping pad), takes one large dry bag with shoulder straps - so, like a backpack - I can carry it to the place I want to camp from the boats in one load. It won’t fit into any hatch, however, so that will remain on Tony’s boat for the duration of the trip. He also has my 2 large York Packs (plastic waterproof boxes) in which I have a lot of the dry food for the special dishes, or whole meals I am doing, and for the deserts with the Dutch ovens - the cobbler cake mixes and the cans of fruit to make the cobblers. My Dutch oven lifter, the liners, and aluminum foil I use to keep the Dutches a bit cleaner than if I used them without those (you can use coffee grounds or wet sand to clean out a Dutch, never soap; but if you are using river water and wet sand that water is really cold - in the 40’s and it physically hurts to spend the time with your hands in the water to get them clean). And then you have to oil the Dutch so it won’t rust and to keep the non-stick surface, so there is a bottle of cooking oil in the box as well. You get the picture.
Most of the rafts have rowing frames with drop bags that go down into the inside of the raft and oddly sized things go there: the 5 propane tanks, the dish washing pails (stack of 4), the groover boxes, and the daily dry food boxes. We also have 3 tables that are 18 inches by 6 feet, 4 feet tall with folding legs, and then a few Roll-A-Tables for putting lunch together on a beach. We have 3 major first aid kits and at least 5 minor first aid kits with all the things specified by the NPS and then some. We have several bags with ropes and pulleys and other things to turn over a flipped boat or raft. We have chairs. We have a fire pan and a large fire blanket to put under the fire pan all in a 24 by 24 by 14-inch packing box. We have a heavy duty tarp that forms the floor of the kitchen we set up every night. Craig Wolfson’s boat, the Flavell II, has 4 large metal boxes on it that holds all of our cooking utensils, all of our plates, bowls, cups, serving and prep pieces, a lot of food, silverware and everything else we need to take care of feeding 16 people.
When we left Chuar Canyon yesterday, we continued to follow the Palisades of the Desert cliff until we got to Desert Watch Tower in the far distance on the rim, and then even that fell behind. This section is very open and the tall cliffs are far away from the river. There are 2 major rapids in this section and several minor ones. The first major one is the Unkar Rapid. At higher water this is a more difficult rapid (for some of us, we would consider that a more fun rapid). Susie likes it and dances down the long length of it beautifully and I have film to prove it. Today at the lower water level we are running, this looks a lot easier. Unkar Rapid is also an important one in that the original Flavell II boat met her demise at Unkar in the early 1970’s when the boatman and wonderful photographer, John Blaustine, got hit in the face with a wave, which washed his contact lenses out. He could not see to row and rowed into the rocks at the bottom and, in hitting them, essentially broke the boat in two. Martin Litton was supposed to have said that the boat had had that much damage before but not all at the same time. After that trip, the boat was destroyed in a fire, but Dave Mortenson was able to locate 2 of the original boxes in the Old Grand Canyon Dories yard in Hurricane, Utah and, with permission, collected them and still has them. This boat was built from a 14-inch scale model of the boat that had been built after the original Flavell II was built. After drawing plans from the model and getting the measurements from Dave for the boxes, Craig Wolfson went to work building the boat from the inside out (the opposite of how boats are normally built). When the replica boxes were brought down by Dave and Pam, they fit with about ¼ inch of clearance. We have to be careful not to bend them so they will continue to fit every time we take them off and put them back on the boat.
Craig Wolfson is our head boatman and is responsible for setting the order of running each day and telling us the best ways to run the various rapids we encounter each day. He is very happy that the Flavell does so well and suffers no damage in this rapid.
The second major rapid for the day is Neville Rapid, named for Norm and Doris Neville who started running the San Juan, the Green and the Colorado Rivers through Glen Canyon, Cataract Canyon, and Grand Canyon (respectively) in the 1930’s and 1940’s and whom several of the people who built the original ones of our small boats got their start rowing for which gave them the experience and the love of these canyons and started them on their quest to build ever better boats for their Grand Canyon trips. This is a long one with a pour-over in 3 places in the middle of the run that you can’t see until you are almost upon it. A pour-over is where the water pours over a large, mostly hidden large rock that would do serious damage to our wooden boats and might flip a rubber raft if run the wrong way. CeCe Mortenson is rowing the Susie Too today. I spend the day in Craig Wolfson’s Flavell II to get some photographs of the Susie Too dancing on the waves and it is so beautiful to watch her. Today is sunny and life is good.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Day 7 in Grand Canyon: Layover at Chuar Canyon
Because I planned one spectacular dinner that required a turkey and some additional time, Pam Mortenson, who did all the food scheduling, menus and most of the purchasing, placed that meal for today because we had a layover day to rest and hike in Chuar Canyon. We started the day with green chili, crustless quiches, and lots of bacon, coffee, and tea. CeCe and Stef took off early for an all day hike, while Doug, Robb, Dave, and Craig did shorter hikes. Several of us heated water with our backpacking stoves, or the Coleman propane shower and took a shower or washed our hair. I don’t think any of the men have shaved yet - after 25 days they should be sporting some good beards. About 3 p.m. I started working on the turkey dinner and cooked it Trash Can Turkey Style in a small trash can we have been hauling along for the trip with one of my deep Dutch ovens in it ( I have 3 along on this trip and used every one today for the turkey stuffing, bread, and caramel apple cobbler). John Schroeder and I have done this type of cooking a lot for groups big and small in camping areas, on canoe trips, and also at home because it is so easy and the turkey is so good. It was tonight as well and we are all stuffed.
Today was a very windy day and the kitchen and chair circle were in the windiest places in this large camping area so they moved the chairs to an unused camping spot slightly behind the ridge, and we had the benefit of sun and not a lot of wind. Tony and Greg both took naps sitting up. Several others retired to tents for naps or to rest and read. Many of us sat in the sun to enjoy the warmth. All of us with solar chargers had them out and plugged in - my 3 Goal Zero 30 amp solar panels came out of their drybags and each charged up the batteries they were paired with quite nicely. We recharged about 10 camera batteries, an iPod, my laptop I’m using to write this blog, and several of us also spent time downloading our photographs and videos to external hard drives we brought. Nate spent most of the day working on downloading and saving still shots and video. I finished up the 3 blogs we sent out on Tuesday and gave them to Leif to send, and spent part of the day talking to my office about trips we have going out this month and other things. My house purchase that was supposed to close last Friday, I find out is now scheduled to close sometime next week. My real estate agent and I have done everything we need to do and are just waiting on the title company. Most importantly, Tina pulls a 10 day weather report on weather.com and tells me that we have another 10 days of sun and partial clouds, but no chance of rain is showing for both Bullhead City on the west end of the Grand Canyon and Page on the east end. Sad for the drought-stricken southwest, but really happy for those of us on the river. I share that information with the group and we all feel extremely lucky and blessed.
The weather is amazing with daytime temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s and nighttime temperatures in the high 40’s and 50’s. It may not have gotten colder than 60 last night and does not seem cold as I write this on Tuesday night about 7:40 p.m. The trip 2 years ago launched with snow on the ground less than 100 feet up the cliffs and had storms 3 times in the 21 days they were on the river. When you have a schedule to keep to get off the river in your allotted time, you don’t get the luxury of taking a layover day unless you have scheduled it. You have miles to go each day before you sleep and if you don’t make it one day you have to make up for it the next, whether it is raining or not.
The group of boaters that launched the same day as we did pass us today late this afternoon and spend some time talking. One of the men along is a boat builder in Colorado and has built several boats for Grand Canyon Dories under Martin Litton so we have some good conversations. We will see them again as they are actually taking out at Pearce Ferry the day after us. We are sharing the camping area with 2 backpackers from Tucson who head down towards Phantom Ranch tomorrow by land as we head out by water to a camp spot at Hance Rapid. I have camped many times there both from river trips as well as backpacking trips so I am looking forward to it. There is an area there that I spent 12 hours at waiting for a group to come down river so I could join them for a 3-day trip between there and Hermit Rapid where I hiked out. A storm rolled through to the east and I shot about 50 photos in a day that was quite dramatic and made several series of photographs showing all the faces of the weather that day. There are great memories of this section of the canyon for all of us who have been here before.
Today was a very windy day and the kitchen and chair circle were in the windiest places in this large camping area so they moved the chairs to an unused camping spot slightly behind the ridge, and we had the benefit of sun and not a lot of wind. Tony and Greg both took naps sitting up. Several others retired to tents for naps or to rest and read. Many of us sat in the sun to enjoy the warmth. All of us with solar chargers had them out and plugged in - my 3 Goal Zero 30 amp solar panels came out of their drybags and each charged up the batteries they were paired with quite nicely. We recharged about 10 camera batteries, an iPod, my laptop I’m using to write this blog, and several of us also spent time downloading our photographs and videos to external hard drives we brought. Nate spent most of the day working on downloading and saving still shots and video. I finished up the 3 blogs we sent out on Tuesday and gave them to Leif to send, and spent part of the day talking to my office about trips we have going out this month and other things. My house purchase that was supposed to close last Friday, I find out is now scheduled to close sometime next week. My real estate agent and I have done everything we need to do and are just waiting on the title company. Most importantly, Tina pulls a 10 day weather report on weather.com and tells me that we have another 10 days of sun and partial clouds, but no chance of rain is showing for both Bullhead City on the west end of the Grand Canyon and Page on the east end. Sad for the drought-stricken southwest, but really happy for those of us on the river. I share that information with the group and we all feel extremely lucky and blessed.
The weather is amazing with daytime temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s and nighttime temperatures in the high 40’s and 50’s. It may not have gotten colder than 60 last night and does not seem cold as I write this on Tuesday night about 7:40 p.m. The trip 2 years ago launched with snow on the ground less than 100 feet up the cliffs and had storms 3 times in the 21 days they were on the river. When you have a schedule to keep to get off the river in your allotted time, you don’t get the luxury of taking a layover day unless you have scheduled it. You have miles to go each day before you sleep and if you don’t make it one day you have to make up for it the next, whether it is raining or not.
The group of boaters that launched the same day as we did pass us today late this afternoon and spend some time talking. One of the men along is a boat builder in Colorado and has built several boats for Grand Canyon Dories under Martin Litton so we have some good conversations. We will see them again as they are actually taking out at Pearce Ferry the day after us. We are sharing the camping area with 2 backpackers from Tucson who head down towards Phantom Ranch tomorrow by land as we head out by water to a camp spot at Hance Rapid. I have camped many times there both from river trips as well as backpacking trips so I am looking forward to it. There is an area there that I spent 12 hours at waiting for a group to come down river so I could join them for a 3-day trip between there and Hermit Rapid where I hiked out. A storm rolled through to the east and I shot about 50 photos in a day that was quite dramatic and made several series of photographs showing all the faces of the weather that day. There are great memories of this section of the canyon for all of us who have been here before.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Day 6 in Grand Canyon: Nankoweep to Lava Chuar
On Day 5, I did not mention the wonderful dinner that that night’s cook team has done: hamburgers with all the fixings and brats (bratwurst), plus the first of the Dutch oven cobblers which we actually end up eating for breakfast. We have 5 large ice chests that we are getting into only once a day and only 1 at a time - our fresh food is divided into 4 chests with lots of ice that we are "managing" by keeping them covered, locked down, strapped tightly, and by emptying any ice melt out through a small valve on one side. Hopefully, we will have fresh meat and frozen veggies for the whole trip, although the menu has been planned for a lot of canned food the last week of the 21 days to Diamond Creek. Scott Morris will be bringing in fresh food for all of us when they join us on day 21 at Diamond Creek for the Diamond-to-Pearce Ferry part of this trip. I was part of the group 2 years ago that came on at Diamond Creek and got to help row the bots in a 30-40 mph wind down to Pearce Ferry; it was a lot of work but oh so worth it. That section of the canyon is beautiful as well, and there is some great hiking and beautiful vistas, so we have invited along other people to join us there. We will be taking out at Pearce Ferry at 10 a.m. on day 25, which is the 29th of March.
Nankoweep is one of several places in the canyon that has a lot of special meaning for me. Nankoweep Trail is one of the hardest of the trips into the canyon from the North Rim. There are lots of sections where the trail is exposed (one false step and you fall to your death), and it is long but it is also the first of over 80 trips to the river I have done since my first hike in 1972. I was dating a seasonal ranger named Jim King, who was at the North Rim that summer and he invited me to come along as he did a trail patrol hike down Nankoweep with 2 new rangers he was suppose to be showing the ropes to. Those 2, who I will not name, did not want a woman along to slow them down and made a lot of condescending comments meant for me to hear that a woman did not belong in the canyon, etc., etc. I made it to the camp at the mouth of Nankoweep Creek just before dark (that trip is usually done in 2 days, we did it in 1). Less than an hour after they got there, the 2 newbies were discussing among themselves about what point they should radio in that they had an overdue hiker. Jim was just sitting there with a smile because he knew I had the stamina and strength to do the hike. We hiked out the next day and I beat both of them to the rim by about the same amount of time. With a huge smile on my face. And while I have not hiked Nankoweep again, every time I have been there on a river trip I have fond memories of that trip. Jim King was the ranger who took me and several of my friends into a lot of areas I probably would not have tried by myself: Hopi Salt Trail to Tanner, North and South Bass, into Thunder Falls Cave, and many, many others. As a seasonal ranger, he spent 9 months usually at the Grand Canyon, either at North Rim or at Desert View on the South Rim, and then the rest of the year either at Joshua Tree NP, where he taught me to climb, or as winter keeper at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for the concessioner who ran the lodge, or, finally, after he left the Park Service, as the manager of the Babbitt’s store at Tusayan. His love of the canyon was as great as mine turned out to be. At his own expense he usually had a search and rescue dog and was frequently called out to do searches in Grand Canyon and if I was around I was also certified as a volunteer and got to go. They would usually drop us by helicopter with the dog to see if she could pick up a scent in the places they suspected the hiker had been and either picked us up again if she did not identify any scents and put us down in another location, or if she alerted it gave the helicopter the direction to search. Very rewarding work. Jim died of a heart attack in 1995 and he is still missed by people in my hiking group.
After leaving Nankoweep we have lots of little riffles and then Kangwunt Rapid and 60 Mile Rapid that are rated 4-5, and then the Little Colorado River and 3 miles to go to camp at Lava/Charr where we have a layover day. Greg Hatten starts the day in Susie Too and I start the day in Portola, where he agrees my oar stands are about 2 inches too short. He had dealt with that after the last trip by adding wood to his oar stand and getting his oar locks forged with a 6 inch shaft to raise them 2 inches, which appear to be perfect. I will do the same at the end of the trip, probably getting them done by his same supplier. We switch back just before Kangwunt Rapid so each of us, if we are going to hit a rock at this low water level will do the damage to our own boat. The Little Colorado River is running muddy and where we stop just upstream of the mouth you get a clear view of the chocolate water of the Little Colorado River mixing with the clear green of the Colorado so that a half mile downstream it is all chocolate brown and will probably remain so for the rest of the trip.
We camp on river right on a windy day and I have learned from talking to the office at lunch that we are probably due for a high wind day tomorrow, which we are taking as a layover day here to rest, reorganize, and do some great hiking. Dinner is pulled pork, cornbread, and salad. The night is warmer than the last 2 and several of us sleep out, or in tents without the rain fly so we can see the moon and stars and the incredible sight of the moonlight on the Palisades of the Desert - that wonderful cliff of while/yellow limestone. The Desert Watchtower is on our horizon at the cliff line to the west and will be so Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we will move north of it and past it.
Nankoweep is one of several places in the canyon that has a lot of special meaning for me. Nankoweep Trail is one of the hardest of the trips into the canyon from the North Rim. There are lots of sections where the trail is exposed (one false step and you fall to your death), and it is long but it is also the first of over 80 trips to the river I have done since my first hike in 1972. I was dating a seasonal ranger named Jim King, who was at the North Rim that summer and he invited me to come along as he did a trail patrol hike down Nankoweep with 2 new rangers he was suppose to be showing the ropes to. Those 2, who I will not name, did not want a woman along to slow them down and made a lot of condescending comments meant for me to hear that a woman did not belong in the canyon, etc., etc. I made it to the camp at the mouth of Nankoweep Creek just before dark (that trip is usually done in 2 days, we did it in 1). Less than an hour after they got there, the 2 newbies were discussing among themselves about what point they should radio in that they had an overdue hiker. Jim was just sitting there with a smile because he knew I had the stamina and strength to do the hike. We hiked out the next day and I beat both of them to the rim by about the same amount of time. With a huge smile on my face. And while I have not hiked Nankoweep again, every time I have been there on a river trip I have fond memories of that trip. Jim King was the ranger who took me and several of my friends into a lot of areas I probably would not have tried by myself: Hopi Salt Trail to Tanner, North and South Bass, into Thunder Falls Cave, and many, many others. As a seasonal ranger, he spent 9 months usually at the Grand Canyon, either at North Rim or at Desert View on the South Rim, and then the rest of the year either at Joshua Tree NP, where he taught me to climb, or as winter keeper at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for the concessioner who ran the lodge, or, finally, after he left the Park Service, as the manager of the Babbitt’s store at Tusayan. His love of the canyon was as great as mine turned out to be. At his own expense he usually had a search and rescue dog and was frequently called out to do searches in Grand Canyon and if I was around I was also certified as a volunteer and got to go. They would usually drop us by helicopter with the dog to see if she could pick up a scent in the places they suspected the hiker had been and either picked us up again if she did not identify any scents and put us down in another location, or if she alerted it gave the helicopter the direction to search. Very rewarding work. Jim died of a heart attack in 1995 and he is still missed by people in my hiking group.
After leaving Nankoweep we have lots of little riffles and then Kangwunt Rapid and 60 Mile Rapid that are rated 4-5, and then the Little Colorado River and 3 miles to go to camp at Lava/Charr where we have a layover day. Greg Hatten starts the day in Susie Too and I start the day in Portola, where he agrees my oar stands are about 2 inches too short. He had dealt with that after the last trip by adding wood to his oar stand and getting his oar locks forged with a 6 inch shaft to raise them 2 inches, which appear to be perfect. I will do the same at the end of the trip, probably getting them done by his same supplier. We switch back just before Kangwunt Rapid so each of us, if we are going to hit a rock at this low water level will do the damage to our own boat. The Little Colorado River is running muddy and where we stop just upstream of the mouth you get a clear view of the chocolate water of the Little Colorado River mixing with the clear green of the Colorado so that a half mile downstream it is all chocolate brown and will probably remain so for the rest of the trip.
We camp on river right on a windy day and I have learned from talking to the office at lunch that we are probably due for a high wind day tomorrow, which we are taking as a layover day here to rest, reorganize, and do some great hiking. Dinner is pulled pork, cornbread, and salad. The night is warmer than the last 2 and several of us sleep out, or in tents without the rain fly so we can see the moon and stars and the incredible sight of the moonlight on the Palisades of the Desert - that wonderful cliff of while/yellow limestone. The Desert Watchtower is on our horizon at the cliff line to the west and will be so Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we will move north of it and past it.
Day 5 in Grand Canyon: Buck Farm to Nankoweep
We leave Buck Farm Canyon fairly late, about 10:45, and head down to President Harding Rapid. This was named by one of the early survey trips who supposedly heard about the death of President Harding while they were working in the area. Dave wants to film the dories going through this rapid to match it to film he has of the original boats going through the same rapid. Izzy takes the oars of Susie Too from camp to the top of the rapid and decides she wants to photograph us going through, so I take back the oars. It is a straight forward rapid with a large rock in the middle and the right channel blocked with rock fall at this level of the river and is an easy run. Stef takes his inflatable paddleboard through and has so much fun he walks back up and does it again. We are mostly in the sun today, which is nice because the temperature has dropped a bit and it can be cool in the shade of these high walls at this time of the year. Most of us get into splash jackets when we are in the shade and get out of them when we hit the sun. A short time after the rapid, we find a great beach and pull over for lunch. I set up one of the solar chargers to get the Goal Zero large battery recharged and we laze around for an hour with setting up, eating, and cleaning up.
We have been divided into 5 teams and we rotate through 3 assignments and 2 days off in every 5. The assignment starts with dinner and goes through lunch the following day. The first and most important assignment is the groover. When first we come into camp, that box is unloaded as soon as it is uncovered and a spot for its placement is selected. Most of the time there is an obvious spot that has been used before and the box carrying our solid waste is carried and placed. Another box with the fitted lid and toilet seat is also carried and the seat lid fitted. A large, well-marked pee bucket is put out with a small child’s seat for the women to use and the seat is easily removable for the men to use. Most trips are using a pee bucket system these days since there have been several unexplained drowning deaths on river trips over the years where it was assumed that the unlucky victim got up to pee in the middle of the night, slipped into the river and drowned. Toilet paper is set out in a covered plastic box, small stakes with reflective arrows are set back along the trail so we can find it with a head lamp at night; the hand sanitizer is set out both at the toilet site and at the entrance to the trail and most importantly the Groover Guy is set out at the entrance to the trail. If the Groover Guy is at the entrance no one is using the facility. If he is gone, you must wait your turn or determine if he has been forgotten at the groover by the last user. With 16 on the trip, there are times when there is a line. This team is also responsible for washing all the removable pieces at the end of the morning before we leave and packing them away and carrying the now heavier box back to the boats and getting the box and all equipment packed away.
The second team is the cook team. When we come into camp they retrieve the food box for the day, which has the menu, a list of all the food they need for dinner, breakfast and lunch, and packing the breakfast and lunch food away in the boxes that will be used for those meals, and then shopping through the coolers and commissary boxes for what they need, cooking the food and cleaning up the food. Some of us have brought specialty equipment such as Dutch ovens (mine), or the raised fire pan (Doug), and we usually see if it is needed and get those out and set up for the group and getting those cleaned up.
The third team is the dishwashing team and they are responsible for getting water in 4 metal washtubs, heating it on the blaster (specialty 1-burner stove designed for heating water fast), and setting it up in a line with the first being hot soapy water designed to get all food particles off the dishes, pots, and pans. The second is also hot soapy water to make sure everything is clean. The third is a clear water rinse with Clorox, but the bleach does not work well if soap is present so it is really to get the soap residue off. The fourth and final rinse is cold water with bleach and dishes need to sit in this for a short time and then are put into a net dish drainer that ties onto tall tables that we work from, cook on, and wash dishes on. When they air dry, they are put away in the kitchen boxes.
In addition to the chores, each of us is responsible for unpacking and packing the boats, carrying gear, and generally helping out to make sure everything works in addition to setting up our individual camps and tearing them down the next day. In our spare time most of us photograph, journal, hike, nap or, in my case, write our descriptive blog. Except for Shy’s unfortunate accident the trip is going well. There is a lot of laughter, a lot of conversation and a lot of fun and the Canyon is beautiful.
The weather is warmer than expected and life is good.
We have been divided into 5 teams and we rotate through 3 assignments and 2 days off in every 5. The assignment starts with dinner and goes through lunch the following day. The first and most important assignment is the groover. When first we come into camp, that box is unloaded as soon as it is uncovered and a spot for its placement is selected. Most of the time there is an obvious spot that has been used before and the box carrying our solid waste is carried and placed. Another box with the fitted lid and toilet seat is also carried and the seat lid fitted. A large, well-marked pee bucket is put out with a small child’s seat for the women to use and the seat is easily removable for the men to use. Most trips are using a pee bucket system these days since there have been several unexplained drowning deaths on river trips over the years where it was assumed that the unlucky victim got up to pee in the middle of the night, slipped into the river and drowned. Toilet paper is set out in a covered plastic box, small stakes with reflective arrows are set back along the trail so we can find it with a head lamp at night; the hand sanitizer is set out both at the toilet site and at the entrance to the trail and most importantly the Groover Guy is set out at the entrance to the trail. If the Groover Guy is at the entrance no one is using the facility. If he is gone, you must wait your turn or determine if he has been forgotten at the groover by the last user. With 16 on the trip, there are times when there is a line. This team is also responsible for washing all the removable pieces at the end of the morning before we leave and packing them away and carrying the now heavier box back to the boats and getting the box and all equipment packed away.
The second team is the cook team. When we come into camp they retrieve the food box for the day, which has the menu, a list of all the food they need for dinner, breakfast and lunch, and packing the breakfast and lunch food away in the boxes that will be used for those meals, and then shopping through the coolers and commissary boxes for what they need, cooking the food and cleaning up the food. Some of us have brought specialty equipment such as Dutch ovens (mine), or the raised fire pan (Doug), and we usually see if it is needed and get those out and set up for the group and getting those cleaned up.
The third team is the dishwashing team and they are responsible for getting water in 4 metal washtubs, heating it on the blaster (specialty 1-burner stove designed for heating water fast), and setting it up in a line with the first being hot soapy water designed to get all food particles off the dishes, pots, and pans. The second is also hot soapy water to make sure everything is clean. The third is a clear water rinse with Clorox, but the bleach does not work well if soap is present so it is really to get the soap residue off. The fourth and final rinse is cold water with bleach and dishes need to sit in this for a short time and then are put into a net dish drainer that ties onto tall tables that we work from, cook on, and wash dishes on. When they air dry, they are put away in the kitchen boxes.
In addition to the chores, each of us is responsible for unpacking and packing the boats, carrying gear, and generally helping out to make sure everything works in addition to setting up our individual camps and tearing them down the next day. In our spare time most of us photograph, journal, hike, nap or, in my case, write our descriptive blog. Except for Shy’s unfortunate accident the trip is going well. There is a lot of laughter, a lot of conversation and a lot of fun and the Canyon is beautiful.
The weather is warmer than expected and life is good.
Day 4 in Grand Canyon: Shinumo to Buck Farm
We cook breakfast and load up the rafts and dories. CeCe, Stef, Natalie, Doug and Shy leave early to do a loop hike involving leaving one raft at Fault Canyon and leaving another raft at Shinumo Canyon, where they will hike and rappel back to, then pick up the second raft and follow us down the river to Buck Farm Canyon where we will all camp. Those 11 leaving earlier have a lot to do. We have to stop at a large spring to refill our water jugs with 25 gallons of fresh water from Vasey’s Paradise and do it in such a way that we don’t step on any of the endangered snails that live in that little microcosm of space. We also have to be careful not to get into the poison ivy which also grows there, one of the few places in Arizona where it is prolific.
Two of the rafts are full of the empty water jugs. The raft left at Shinumo has all our spare life vests for the hikers to wear after their hike and on their way to the second raft, which will have the ones they are using for the trip. The rest of us, after Vasey’s Paradise, head down to Redwall Cavern, a large solution cave at a little above the water level and full of sand. You can walk around it or sit and feel the immensity of it. Powell, who led the first exploration here said that you could seat 50,000 in it. That is an exaggeration, but 5000 would fit comfortably. We film the 3 dories, recreating a video that was made by Dave Mortenson’s father, Brick Mortenson, in the 1960’s, as well as video interviews with Dave Mortenson who explained the importance of these dories in saving the Grand Canyon from 2 additional dams scheduled to be built here in the 1960’s, for the so popular rafting trips such as we are doing and the commercial trips are doing as well that puts 30,000 people into this narrow corridor in a year on trips.
We spend a couple of hours waiting for our hiking group to catch up with us, but when they still have not arrived we head down to the Marble Canyon bridge site and then finally towards Buck Farm Canyon where our hikers minus 1 join us before we get to camp. Shy had taken a fall on the hike and had to be airlifted to Flagstaff for medical attention. This is a wilderness area and with the wonder of the satellite phones our group caries, help in the form of the Grand Canyon National Park Service Helicopter arrives shortly after notification. A paramedic assesses his condition and they take him out of the canyon. CeCe is able to speak to him in the ER in Flagstaff that night where he is still being treated, also with one of our satellite phones.
Two of the rafts are full of the empty water jugs. The raft left at Shinumo has all our spare life vests for the hikers to wear after their hike and on their way to the second raft, which will have the ones they are using for the trip. The rest of us, after Vasey’s Paradise, head down to Redwall Cavern, a large solution cave at a little above the water level and full of sand. You can walk around it or sit and feel the immensity of it. Powell, who led the first exploration here said that you could seat 50,000 in it. That is an exaggeration, but 5000 would fit comfortably. We film the 3 dories, recreating a video that was made by Dave Mortenson’s father, Brick Mortenson, in the 1960’s, as well as video interviews with Dave Mortenson who explained the importance of these dories in saving the Grand Canyon from 2 additional dams scheduled to be built here in the 1960’s, for the so popular rafting trips such as we are doing and the commercial trips are doing as well that puts 30,000 people into this narrow corridor in a year on trips.
We spend a couple of hours waiting for our hiking group to catch up with us, but when they still have not arrived we head down to the Marble Canyon bridge site and then finally towards Buck Farm Canyon where our hikers minus 1 join us before we get to camp. Shy had taken a fall on the hike and had to be airlifted to Flagstaff for medical attention. This is a wilderness area and with the wonder of the satellite phones our group caries, help in the form of the Grand Canyon National Park Service Helicopter arrives shortly after notification. A paramedic assesses his condition and they take him out of the canyon. CeCe is able to speak to him in the ER in Flagstaff that night where he is still being treated, also with one of our satellite phones.
Day 3 in Grand Canyon: North Canyon to Shinumo Wash Camp
Today is an 8-mile day, taking us through what is known as the roaring 20’s - a series of bouncy rapids, all about a class 4-5 and all about half a mile apart.
CeCe Mortenson rows Susie Too today and I play back seat passenger and sometimes back seat driver, as she sometimes takes a different line than I would have. Susie Too offers a short learning curve to an experienced paddler using her for the first time. CeCe reads water better than I do and her lines are better than the ones I would have taken, so I turn to taking photos and enjoying the scenery and bailing at the foot of each rapid from the passenger footwell. We have built the Susie Too with a sump pump under the rower's seat and with drain holes from both the rower's footwell to the front and the passenger footwell to the back, so I can bail from the back and the water will drain through the sump pump in the front and I can empty the boat from one spot. Only one of the rapids today puts enough water in her to trigger the pump. That splash guard keeps all water from the front except one wave, which totally covers CeCe in Georgie White Rapid out of the boat. Most of the water that hits us comes from the sides as we move though lateral waves coming from both sides, common after the holes and standing waves in a lot of rapids. Fun stuff. At the end of each, we find an eddy current out of the main current and watch everyone else make their runs and then go on.
A stop for lunch on a great little beach looking upstream to one rapid and right next to another rapid allows us to dry out and eat. Some fun showing quicksand off to the unwary by adding water to an already low area of wet sand has Natalie and others quickly sinking to their knees, with the rest of us ready to pull them out. We sit in the sand after lunch and make like lizards basking in the heat before dawning our wet gear and going out to face the water, which is always in the 40’s here. Those of us who run other rivers and are used to water in the 50’s and 60’s notice the difference. Some of us are dressed in fleece and rain gear over long underwear and with waterproof boots; some us are dressed in 2-piece waterproof clothing over long underwear and fleece; and some of us are wearing drysuits, which are one piece contraptions with tight gaskets at the neck and wrists, have waterproof feet socks built in that we put river boots over, and have a waterproof zipper across the chest, which makes it both hard to get into and out of and totally waterproof. It also makes it very hot, so most who are wearing those struggle to get out of the upper part when we land and then struggle to get into it before we leave. I am wearing a waterproof top with an inner liner that tucks into my waterproof pants, and then a heavy-duty top layer that tightens over the pants. I have a drysuit with me, but will probably wear it only on the days that the weather is bad, or that I feel I have a chance of swimming because of the rapids we are to run that day. I think I have 2 more days of what I am wearing and then will be in the drysuit for about 10 days - Unkar, Solkdologer, Hance, Horn, the Gems, Crystal, and Lava, to name just a few of what we have to come.
We arrive earlier at camp at Shinumo Wash, which has been much improved with more sand from the artificial flood the Bureau of Reclamation ran in November and December last year. The cook team makes dinner of tacos while I make brownies in my dutch ovens for dessert. We have enough sun to set up all the Goal Zero batteries and solar chargers we are using to keep the cameras, laptops, notebooks and storage devices going for 16 people, most of whom have more than one camera to record this trip of a lifetime. These charge merrily along as long as there is sun, and then do a trickle charge as they get into shadow. One of my batteries that has a percent charge meter reads that it has charged 5% additional after then sun is off of it just by evening light.
Lots of stories are told around the campfire after dinner. Dave Mortenson talks about the early trips that he was on as a teenager. Stories of Martin Litton, the conservationist, who went on to use these 3 original boats to found Grand Canyon Dories. The Susie Too ran private trips in Grand Canyon with him from 1964 to 1974 as the Music Temple. His Portola was renamed the Diablo Canyon. He founded Grand Canyon Dories as a commercial company in 1969, specializing in rowing trips only using the dories, but soon moved to the 18-foot Briggs Dories that can take 4 passengers. The boatmen who worked for him were devoted to their dories. After rowing Susie Too I can certainly understand why.
CeCe Mortenson rows Susie Too today and I play back seat passenger and sometimes back seat driver, as she sometimes takes a different line than I would have. Susie Too offers a short learning curve to an experienced paddler using her for the first time. CeCe reads water better than I do and her lines are better than the ones I would have taken, so I turn to taking photos and enjoying the scenery and bailing at the foot of each rapid from the passenger footwell. We have built the Susie Too with a sump pump under the rower's seat and with drain holes from both the rower's footwell to the front and the passenger footwell to the back, so I can bail from the back and the water will drain through the sump pump in the front and I can empty the boat from one spot. Only one of the rapids today puts enough water in her to trigger the pump. That splash guard keeps all water from the front except one wave, which totally covers CeCe in Georgie White Rapid out of the boat. Most of the water that hits us comes from the sides as we move though lateral waves coming from both sides, common after the holes and standing waves in a lot of rapids. Fun stuff. At the end of each, we find an eddy current out of the main current and watch everyone else make their runs and then go on.
A stop for lunch on a great little beach looking upstream to one rapid and right next to another rapid allows us to dry out and eat. Some fun showing quicksand off to the unwary by adding water to an already low area of wet sand has Natalie and others quickly sinking to their knees, with the rest of us ready to pull them out. We sit in the sand after lunch and make like lizards basking in the heat before dawning our wet gear and going out to face the water, which is always in the 40’s here. Those of us who run other rivers and are used to water in the 50’s and 60’s notice the difference. Some of us are dressed in fleece and rain gear over long underwear and with waterproof boots; some us are dressed in 2-piece waterproof clothing over long underwear and fleece; and some of us are wearing drysuits, which are one piece contraptions with tight gaskets at the neck and wrists, have waterproof feet socks built in that we put river boots over, and have a waterproof zipper across the chest, which makes it both hard to get into and out of and totally waterproof. It also makes it very hot, so most who are wearing those struggle to get out of the upper part when we land and then struggle to get into it before we leave. I am wearing a waterproof top with an inner liner that tucks into my waterproof pants, and then a heavy-duty top layer that tightens over the pants. I have a drysuit with me, but will probably wear it only on the days that the weather is bad, or that I feel I have a chance of swimming because of the rapids we are to run that day. I think I have 2 more days of what I am wearing and then will be in the drysuit for about 10 days - Unkar, Solkdologer, Hance, Horn, the Gems, Crystal, and Lava, to name just a few of what we have to come.
We arrive earlier at camp at Shinumo Wash, which has been much improved with more sand from the artificial flood the Bureau of Reclamation ran in November and December last year. The cook team makes dinner of tacos while I make brownies in my dutch ovens for dessert. We have enough sun to set up all the Goal Zero batteries and solar chargers we are using to keep the cameras, laptops, notebooks and storage devices going for 16 people, most of whom have more than one camera to record this trip of a lifetime. These charge merrily along as long as there is sun, and then do a trickle charge as they get into shadow. One of my batteries that has a percent charge meter reads that it has charged 5% additional after then sun is off of it just by evening light.
Lots of stories are told around the campfire after dinner. Dave Mortenson talks about the early trips that he was on as a teenager. Stories of Martin Litton, the conservationist, who went on to use these 3 original boats to found Grand Canyon Dories. The Susie Too ran private trips in Grand Canyon with him from 1964 to 1974 as the Music Temple. His Portola was renamed the Diablo Canyon. He founded Grand Canyon Dories as a commercial company in 1969, specializing in rowing trips only using the dories, but soon moved to the 18-foot Briggs Dories that can take 4 passengers. The boatmen who worked for him were devoted to their dories. After rowing Susie Too I can certainly understand why.
Day 2 in Grand Canyon: Badger Creek to North Canyon
We leave camp fairly late and row for 12 miles. There are a few riffles that are bouncy today and then there is the first bigger rapid at Soap Creek, which we scout; Nate, Izzy and Dave film and take photos of the rest of us running it. While scouting, a couple of us turn around to watch 2 condors and a red tail hawk soaring the cliff lines, while standing against the cliff watching us is a desert bighorn sheep ewe and she soon moves behind a bush.
We run 2 rafts through and the dories, with Susie Too going first. On the original trip, Pat Riley always led off in her followed by the other two. One long tongue of green water and a hole, another wave to go over, another hole and then lesser waves and holes until the rapid disappears in swirling water. Susie Too dances well and I feel well protected. We pull to the side, river left, and wait for the others. Whistles blow and we look upstream, ready to assess the situation, and see what help is needed. Leif Mortenson has attempted the rapid in the Jackson Fun Runner and has flipped and swam, becoming the first member of this trip to join the Colorado River Swim Team. He has his paddle and is making for the right shore where he can walk back up and join a raft; the kayak, upside down, is floating in eddy currents on the right side of the river and Craig Wolfson and I both move to intercept it. I take a position towards shore and he takes one further out; he snags the kayak and brings it on board the Flavell II and ties it down. Everyone else makes a good run and we head downstream for lunch and more whitewater fun.
There are a number of smaller rapids and then House Rock Rapid, which can eat boats. We climb to scout and are silent. This rapid has a 90 degree bend at the foot of a solid wall and some large rocks sticking out into the rapid, one of which is next to a huge hole. Robb and Izzy leave to set up the safety boats at the bottom of the rapid and to film, both making good runs. I run the first of the wooden boats through. I make my initial line and, into the drop before the turn, the river takes the left oar out of my hand and sends the handle outward. I am now leaning out of the boat to the left to try to grab it while still pulling backwards on my right oar to try to stay out of the wave train that leads to the huge boat-eating hole. We do 3 smaller holes and 3 smaller waves before I get the oar and pull hard and turn her just as the BIG hole flashes by on my left. I have missed it by feet and gotten a better look at it than I had ever wanted to see. Most people thought I would flip, but because I was leaning in just the right spot to try for the oar, I kept the boat balanced and she did the rest. Comments from others watching, that someone had been watching out for me, echoed my sentiments exactly. I finished the run backwards and full of water and spent 10 minutes at the bottom bailing with a large bucket, while the sump pump we had installed labored to clear the load. Everyone else makes good runs, although the Flavell II lives up to her wet reputation and fills to the top of the boxes.
The dories and Doug, with Nate and Dave aboard to film, make a short stop at the Boulder Narrows and climb high while we bring the wooden boats through to duplicate a film shot from the 1962 run with the original boats and head down to North Canyon to camp.
We run 2 rafts through and the dories, with Susie Too going first. On the original trip, Pat Riley always led off in her followed by the other two. One long tongue of green water and a hole, another wave to go over, another hole and then lesser waves and holes until the rapid disappears in swirling water. Susie Too dances well and I feel well protected. We pull to the side, river left, and wait for the others. Whistles blow and we look upstream, ready to assess the situation, and see what help is needed. Leif Mortenson has attempted the rapid in the Jackson Fun Runner and has flipped and swam, becoming the first member of this trip to join the Colorado River Swim Team. He has his paddle and is making for the right shore where he can walk back up and join a raft; the kayak, upside down, is floating in eddy currents on the right side of the river and Craig Wolfson and I both move to intercept it. I take a position towards shore and he takes one further out; he snags the kayak and brings it on board the Flavell II and ties it down. Everyone else makes a good run and we head downstream for lunch and more whitewater fun.
There are a number of smaller rapids and then House Rock Rapid, which can eat boats. We climb to scout and are silent. This rapid has a 90 degree bend at the foot of a solid wall and some large rocks sticking out into the rapid, one of which is next to a huge hole. Robb and Izzy leave to set up the safety boats at the bottom of the rapid and to film, both making good runs. I run the first of the wooden boats through. I make my initial line and, into the drop before the turn, the river takes the left oar out of my hand and sends the handle outward. I am now leaning out of the boat to the left to try to grab it while still pulling backwards on my right oar to try to stay out of the wave train that leads to the huge boat-eating hole. We do 3 smaller holes and 3 smaller waves before I get the oar and pull hard and turn her just as the BIG hole flashes by on my left. I have missed it by feet and gotten a better look at it than I had ever wanted to see. Most people thought I would flip, but because I was leaning in just the right spot to try for the oar, I kept the boat balanced and she did the rest. Comments from others watching, that someone had been watching out for me, echoed my sentiments exactly. I finished the run backwards and full of water and spent 10 minutes at the bottom bailing with a large bucket, while the sump pump we had installed labored to clear the load. Everyone else makes good runs, although the Flavell II lives up to her wet reputation and fills to the top of the boxes.
The dories and Doug, with Nate and Dave aboard to film, make a short stop at the Boulder Narrows and climb high while we bring the wooden boats through to duplicate a film shot from the 1962 run with the original boats and head down to North Canyon to camp.
Day 1 in Grand Canyon cont.: Condor Revisited
So, when I went back to review the last blog post, I realized that while I referred to condors in the first line, I did not say anything else about them.
Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the population of condors fell so low that the decision to capture all of the remaining condors in the wild was made and done. Captive breeding programs were established at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and a few other locations that had successfully bred endangered species, and the population slowly grew until the 1990’s when several breeding pairs were released in a few safe locations away from civilization and where there were areas where there would not be any interference from people or hunting using lead shot, which is poisonous to a lot of wildlife, but especially to condors who eat carrion including animals that have been shot but not retrieved by the hunters.
So, once again, there are condors flying over the Grand Canyon and every once in a while you would see one. They have a massive wingspan of almost 10 feet and to see one close up is really awe-inspiring. The scale of the canyon is pretty massive and sometimes it dwarfs these impressive birds. They hang out at the Navajo Bridge, which crosses the Colorado River at Marble Canyon, and a really fun place to see them is to walk out on the old bridge and look down to the support structure and sometimes you can see 2 or 3 of them sitting there. Their talons are as big as the bolt heads used to hold that bridge together. They sit about 3 feet tall. The breeding success rate for new fledglings is pretty good and Peggy, our ranger, told us there were 4 new fledglings hanging around the Marble Canyon bridge still being fed by their parents. These birds are long lived and they have detailed records of the parentage of all the birds . All the captive released birds hade shoulder tags to identify them and fledglings when they come into the original release site, which can be baited with food to bring them in are also tagged.
So there are 4 new condors this year and one was sitting on top of the cliff, about 400 feet east of the Navajo Bridge and it looked almost as big as our friends who were standing on the bridge watching us go under the bridge. We saw condors soaring over the canyon yesterday as well when we stopped to scout Badger Rapid, and they were soaring with a red-tailed hawk, which is a big bird but looked sparrow-sized when compared with the condors. They are always amazing to see and was a highpoint in a day filled with highpoints on Wednesday.
Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the population of condors fell so low that the decision to capture all of the remaining condors in the wild was made and done. Captive breeding programs were established at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and a few other locations that had successfully bred endangered species, and the population slowly grew until the 1990’s when several breeding pairs were released in a few safe locations away from civilization and where there were areas where there would not be any interference from people or hunting using lead shot, which is poisonous to a lot of wildlife, but especially to condors who eat carrion including animals that have been shot but not retrieved by the hunters.
So, once again, there are condors flying over the Grand Canyon and every once in a while you would see one. They have a massive wingspan of almost 10 feet and to see one close up is really awe-inspiring. The scale of the canyon is pretty massive and sometimes it dwarfs these impressive birds. They hang out at the Navajo Bridge, which crosses the Colorado River at Marble Canyon, and a really fun place to see them is to walk out on the old bridge and look down to the support structure and sometimes you can see 2 or 3 of them sitting there. Their talons are as big as the bolt heads used to hold that bridge together. They sit about 3 feet tall. The breeding success rate for new fledglings is pretty good and Peggy, our ranger, told us there were 4 new fledglings hanging around the Marble Canyon bridge still being fed by their parents. These birds are long lived and they have detailed records of the parentage of all the birds . All the captive released birds hade shoulder tags to identify them and fledglings when they come into the original release site, which can be baited with food to bring them in are also tagged.
So there are 4 new condors this year and one was sitting on top of the cliff, about 400 feet east of the Navajo Bridge and it looked almost as big as our friends who were standing on the bridge watching us go under the bridge. We saw condors soaring over the canyon yesterday as well when we stopped to scout Badger Rapid, and they were soaring with a red-tailed hawk, which is a big bird but looked sparrow-sized when compared with the condors. They are always amazing to see and was a highpoint in a day filled with highpoints on Wednesday.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Day 1 in Grand Canyon: Launch Day
March 5, 2014
There is a condor on the cliff at the skyline on river right and 300 feet up.
Today was launch day so we all had to have everything we were bringing with us on the River Runners Beach just downriver from the Lee’s Ferry Boat Launch Ramp by 9 A.M. for the ranger orientation. Long time ranger Peggy, who had met a good number of both groups launching, was our assigned ranger for the talk, which usually lasts a little over an hour and serves to reinforce what we already know about keeping the Grand Canyon clean and safe for all of us. Pam Mortenson puts out sweet rolls for everyone and we do the last minute packing and loading of the rafts and wood boats, making sure everything is tied down. There is an old adage that anyone who takes up rafting or kayaking hears often: "Rig for a flip and Dress for a swim"; in other words, be prepared not to lose what you have loaded on the raft and dress safely so you won’t get caught with loose clothing or flapping lines - anything that you could get caught in and drown if your raft flips in any of the rapids we will begin running today.
We have the 7 drivers from Bullhead City who will be driving our vehicles and trailers back to Meadview and Bullhead City where they will be stored until we come out on the 29th of March. We have people who have been on past river trips and friends and spouses who have come to see us off. We get everything tied down and push off shore and head downstream. The first riffle is where the Paria River comes into the Colorado River, and at higher water it can sometimes be a problem, but today the flow is low and it just contributes an "au Latte" look to the river because it is carrying a heavy silt load. This is a nice little bounce and most of the friends and family are waiting on the beach at the Paria Riffle to see us go through. John West is there taking photos so some of you have probably already seen us on Facebook. Then we run the 4 miles down to Navajo Bridge, going though a few small rapids and there are our friends waiting to see us pass under the bridge.
Arnie Richardson is at the dirt road overlook another 3 miles down river and calls out to us as we get ready to run Badger Rapid - the first one that requires climbing out of our boats and climbing a small hill to get a good look at the rapid and decide how we are going to run it. We have a few new boaters with us so we discuss the relative merits of each feasible route there is, make our decisions, and make our way back to the boats. The raft carrying the photographer goes through first to get into position and Dave Moretnson hikes from the scout point, which is 75 feet up on a rocky hillside, down to the upper beach to get into position. Izzy also goes through first to get into position, rowing the raft through and then setting up. We three rowing the wooden boats (Greg Hatten in the Portola, Craig Wolfson in the Flavell II, and myself in Susie Too) float loose and tighten our PFD straps and then float down, sideways at first so we can pull and push on the oars to get the bow into final position to make the entry we want. The tongue goes into a hole over a ledge or rock and has a large standing wave breaking into that hole, which could stop forward momentum and flip a boat, so we decide to enter on the left side of the tongue just right of some large black rocks sticking out of the waves. I face right - position is exactly where I want to be - and pivot to face downstream and drop into another smaller hole. Susie’s bow rises up immediately as I push the oars forward and we are off with 3 or 4 good waves to go over, and then the lower end of the rapid with 2-3 foot waves coming latterly from both sides, which rock the dory sideways as well as up and down. We are dancing across the water just as she was intended to do until the upper part of the beach where I must land, so I pivot her right sideways and pull hard for the left shore against a strong current heading right. We make it with an assist from an upstream eddy, but I land with an elevated heart rate for the excitement and short, hard exertion. She took in about 3 inches of water – not enough to trigger the sump pump, but enough that I must bail and sponge for several minutes to get her dry. The rear seat hatch also has water for the first time so I had to sponge that out and will have to spend time working on her hatch gaskets. Greg Hatten makes a perfect and exciting run and later says that that was much better than his first run here two years ago and he is pleased.
We set up camp by unloading all the group gear and personal gear we will need for the night. I am on the toilet team so Leif Mortenson and I assemble the 3 pieces that make up the "groover" and go locate a nice scenic and private place to set it up, assemble the seat on the solid waste can and the smaller seat on the pee bucket. The word "groover" comes from what your butt cheeks looked like after sitting on the ammo can that the early river runners used here - even with the addition of a comfortable toilet seat mounted on a metal flange that fits the ammo can securely, the name and history has followed the equipment into modern usage. Ask anyone who has ever been on a river trip what a groover is and they can immediately tell you.
The cook team assembles a meal of salmon cooked over an oak firewood coal fire served with rice and roasted vegetables, after a first course of cheese soup and a fresh salad bar and warmed bread. We will all sleep well tonight.
There is a condor on the cliff at the skyline on river right and 300 feet up.
Today was launch day so we all had to have everything we were bringing with us on the River Runners Beach just downriver from the Lee’s Ferry Boat Launch Ramp by 9 A.M. for the ranger orientation. Long time ranger Peggy, who had met a good number of both groups launching, was our assigned ranger for the talk, which usually lasts a little over an hour and serves to reinforce what we already know about keeping the Grand Canyon clean and safe for all of us. Pam Mortenson puts out sweet rolls for everyone and we do the last minute packing and loading of the rafts and wood boats, making sure everything is tied down. There is an old adage that anyone who takes up rafting or kayaking hears often: "Rig for a flip and Dress for a swim"; in other words, be prepared not to lose what you have loaded on the raft and dress safely so you won’t get caught with loose clothing or flapping lines - anything that you could get caught in and drown if your raft flips in any of the rapids we will begin running today.
We have the 7 drivers from Bullhead City who will be driving our vehicles and trailers back to Meadview and Bullhead City where they will be stored until we come out on the 29th of March. We have people who have been on past river trips and friends and spouses who have come to see us off. We get everything tied down and push off shore and head downstream. The first riffle is where the Paria River comes into the Colorado River, and at higher water it can sometimes be a problem, but today the flow is low and it just contributes an "au Latte" look to the river because it is carrying a heavy silt load. This is a nice little bounce and most of the friends and family are waiting on the beach at the Paria Riffle to see us go through. John West is there taking photos so some of you have probably already seen us on Facebook. Then we run the 4 miles down to Navajo Bridge, going though a few small rapids and there are our friends waiting to see us pass under the bridge.
Arnie Richardson is at the dirt road overlook another 3 miles down river and calls out to us as we get ready to run Badger Rapid - the first one that requires climbing out of our boats and climbing a small hill to get a good look at the rapid and decide how we are going to run it. We have a few new boaters with us so we discuss the relative merits of each feasible route there is, make our decisions, and make our way back to the boats. The raft carrying the photographer goes through first to get into position and Dave Moretnson hikes from the scout point, which is 75 feet up on a rocky hillside, down to the upper beach to get into position. Izzy also goes through first to get into position, rowing the raft through and then setting up. We three rowing the wooden boats (Greg Hatten in the Portola, Craig Wolfson in the Flavell II, and myself in Susie Too) float loose and tighten our PFD straps and then float down, sideways at first so we can pull and push on the oars to get the bow into final position to make the entry we want. The tongue goes into a hole over a ledge or rock and has a large standing wave breaking into that hole, which could stop forward momentum and flip a boat, so we decide to enter on the left side of the tongue just right of some large black rocks sticking out of the waves. I face right - position is exactly where I want to be - and pivot to face downstream and drop into another smaller hole. Susie’s bow rises up immediately as I push the oars forward and we are off with 3 or 4 good waves to go over, and then the lower end of the rapid with 2-3 foot waves coming latterly from both sides, which rock the dory sideways as well as up and down. We are dancing across the water just as she was intended to do until the upper part of the beach where I must land, so I pivot her right sideways and pull hard for the left shore against a strong current heading right. We make it with an assist from an upstream eddy, but I land with an elevated heart rate for the excitement and short, hard exertion. She took in about 3 inches of water – not enough to trigger the sump pump, but enough that I must bail and sponge for several minutes to get her dry. The rear seat hatch also has water for the first time so I had to sponge that out and will have to spend time working on her hatch gaskets. Greg Hatten makes a perfect and exciting run and later says that that was much better than his first run here two years ago and he is pleased.
We set up camp by unloading all the group gear and personal gear we will need for the night. I am on the toilet team so Leif Mortenson and I assemble the 3 pieces that make up the "groover" and go locate a nice scenic and private place to set it up, assemble the seat on the solid waste can and the smaller seat on the pee bucket. The word "groover" comes from what your butt cheeks looked like after sitting on the ammo can that the early river runners used here - even with the addition of a comfortable toilet seat mounted on a metal flange that fits the ammo can securely, the name and history has followed the equipment into modern usage. Ask anyone who has ever been on a river trip what a groover is and they can immediately tell you.
The cook team assembles a meal of salmon cooked over an oak firewood coal fire served with rice and roasted vegetables, after a first course of cheese soup and a fresh salad bar and warmed bread. We will all sleep well tonight.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
There are trips and then there are trips
There are over 30,000 people who do a trip on the Colorado River through Grand Canyon each year and this is very heavily regulated to allow the maximum number of people to enjoy this wonderful resource with the minimum amount of damage to the fragile environment. The boating season goes all year long. If you want to try for a private permit to run your own river trip there is a process that is detailed on the Grand Canyon National Park Website under the Weighted Lotteries section. It is a lot of work to do a private trip. As you are reading this you may think that you would love to do this but you don't want to do all the work. There are several really good companies that can outfit for you everything that you will need to row your own trip, Moenkopi Riverworks, Canyon REO ( who I used to row for occasionally) PRO and others. The vast majority of visitors who experience the trip of a lifetime talk to one or several of the licensed river companies and make their selection based on the trips offered that fit their own schedule. You do not have to build your own dory to do this trip ( Yes, I know, I am crazy- my friends love me anyway) A dory is the sports car of the river and Grand Canyon Dories in the OARS family of adventure travel is one of the best there is.I do my family San Juan trips with them every year so I get a chance to enjoy the trip as well and not work it from dawn to dusk. They do regularly scheduled trips and you will probably have to book that trip a year in advance but it is oh so worth it to show up with your gear and let the guides do the packing and unpacking and the cooking and the rowing and you just get to enjoy. There are also companies that do all rowing trips in rafts and companies that do motorized trips of a shorter duration. There are companies that do split trips where you only do part of a trip and either hike in or hike out at certain points.A Grand Canyon River Trip is an amazing thing to do- This is number 10 on the water for me and I will keep doing them as long as I can afford them and can handle the rigors of such a trip.They are easier than hiking the Grand Canyon and I have more than 80 of those under my beoot. Enjoy.
Controlled Chaos
So 16 people who are making this Grand Canyon trip arrive on the river's edge at Lee's Ferry on the Colorado River on March 4th. The Ranger gives us permission to rig our rafts, launch our 3 dories and we all start unloading the gear, the food, the required equipment and what we will take with us into this large cleared area that soon starts looking smaller and smaller as we fill it up with stacks and piles and occasionally lone items.
At the water's edge, John from Moenkopi Riverworks lays out the 4 18 foor NRS rubber rafts and inflates them using a large electric compressor designed for rafts and points to those of us who are there to start carrying the metal raft frames from the trailer and placing them onto the rubber and start strapping them down. We add an additional frame at the back of each with a heavy duty drop bag for storing things in covered with a metal cover. We add oar stands and oar locks, We strap on 2 spare oars per boat. We add the straps for the gear bags that will hold our personal waterproof duffels called dry bags.. Individually each raft is taken to the back of the trailer so a very heavy very large ice chest can be slid into the raft and straped down.
Pam Mortenson and have purchased the food for the trip and it is now organized into the coolers. We will use each cooler for 1 week so the meat products have been frozen into them by Moenkopi in their large walk in freezer. We will have one opportunity per day to get into the cooler for that week. The dry goods have been organized into numbered rocket boxes and they are loaded. Additional rocket boxes, now holding firewood but soon to hold all the human waste that our group generates are loaded. The toilet seat and supplies are loaded ( 1.6 rolls for every 10 people per day of the trip or 3 rolls per day for 21 days, and 5 rolls for each of the last 4 days and a few spares) Our major and personal first aide kits are loaded and strapped in. The kitchen boxes and dish pans and soap are loaded/ The strainers that we will strain the dishwater through as we pour it out are loaded. the floor of the kitchen that we will carefully clean off after cooking to keep from leaving micro-trash at our campsites is loaded. Our hand washing stations and water purification system is loaded. The cameras and tripods are loaded.
All of the gear is either loaded or put back into the trailers as we realize that we have brought too much stuff or there is duplication. After all, what is on the boats has to be rowed 288 miles down the river. We can leave nothing in wayside dump stations, There are none. Dave Mortenson makes the final decision as to what we need to take of group gear. Lists are made and saved of what went into what raft. Pam has the food organized the same way.Our drivers are ready to take all our vehicles to the end of the trip and park them/.We move the loaded dories down to the river runners campsite and tie them up for the night. I get off the shore first, rowing over several items gravity loaded into my rower's foot well for the short trip down that I have to find room in the hatches for tomorrow. We have a dinner to attend and the last packing of our personal gear at a motel tonight. Susie Too is home on the river and I will be as well tomorrow.
At the water's edge, John from Moenkopi Riverworks lays out the 4 18 foor NRS rubber rafts and inflates them using a large electric compressor designed for rafts and points to those of us who are there to start carrying the metal raft frames from the trailer and placing them onto the rubber and start strapping them down. We add an additional frame at the back of each with a heavy duty drop bag for storing things in covered with a metal cover. We add oar stands and oar locks, We strap on 2 spare oars per boat. We add the straps for the gear bags that will hold our personal waterproof duffels called dry bags.. Individually each raft is taken to the back of the trailer so a very heavy very large ice chest can be slid into the raft and straped down.
Pam Mortenson and have purchased the food for the trip and it is now organized into the coolers. We will use each cooler for 1 week so the meat products have been frozen into them by Moenkopi in their large walk in freezer. We will have one opportunity per day to get into the cooler for that week. The dry goods have been organized into numbered rocket boxes and they are loaded. Additional rocket boxes, now holding firewood but soon to hold all the human waste that our group generates are loaded. The toilet seat and supplies are loaded ( 1.6 rolls for every 10 people per day of the trip or 3 rolls per day for 21 days, and 5 rolls for each of the last 4 days and a few spares) Our major and personal first aide kits are loaded and strapped in. The kitchen boxes and dish pans and soap are loaded/ The strainers that we will strain the dishwater through as we pour it out are loaded. the floor of the kitchen that we will carefully clean off after cooking to keep from leaving micro-trash at our campsites is loaded. Our hand washing stations and water purification system is loaded. The cameras and tripods are loaded.
All of the gear is either loaded or put back into the trailers as we realize that we have brought too much stuff or there is duplication. After all, what is on the boats has to be rowed 288 miles down the river. We can leave nothing in wayside dump stations, There are none. Dave Mortenson makes the final decision as to what we need to take of group gear. Lists are made and saved of what went into what raft. Pam has the food organized the same way.Our drivers are ready to take all our vehicles to the end of the trip and park them/.We move the loaded dories down to the river runners campsite and tie them up for the night. I get off the shore first, rowing over several items gravity loaded into my rower's foot well for the short trip down that I have to find room in the hatches for tomorrow. We have a dinner to attend and the last packing of our personal gear at a motel tonight. Susie Too is home on the river and I will be as well tomorrow.
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