Grand Canyon River Trip Aug 2013 Part 1

Normally this blog is reserved for trips taken in our travel trailer, but because our latest trip was such a special one albeit a non travel trailer one, I’ve decided to put in on the blog.

A couple of months ago I happened to watch a documentary on the Grand Canyon and was just stunned by the ever changing beauty of the canyon and its many opportunities for adventure—hiking, camping, mule rides into the canyon, or rafting through the canyon on the Colorado River.  While we’ve been to the South Rim three or four times, and the North Rim once it struck me that now was the time to go into the canyon.  Since we’re not in any kind of physical condition to hike in the canyon right now, and we have no desire to ride a mule to the bottom and back up,  that pretty much left rafting opportunities.

I started checking websites and found to my surprise that the cost was not nearly as expensive as I thought.  Next problem was that I’d heard you needed to make your reservation about a year in advance, and which of the 15 or 16 companies do you select?  About twenty four hours later I was talking with a friend and ask her what she’d been up to.  Amazingly, she said she took a seven day rafting trip through the canyon and it was one of the best trips she had ever taken.  Of course I peppered her with questions regarding which company she used.  She told me, and I took a look at their website and read about the seven day trip.  I then decided to give them a call just to see if by any chance they had any seven day trips with spots available in August, and I’ll be darned if they had a trip beginning on Aug 22^nd  and since they needed to fill spots they would reduce the cost by one half!! 

At that point, I told them to put Betsy and I down for the trip, but then called my adventure partner (Cousin John) and told him what I’d stumbled into.  As usual, when any adventure is offered, his immediate response is “let’s do it”.  We also mentioned it to other people but due to other commitments only one other couple from Green Valley were able to join us.

The rafting company provided a list of items to bring, but cautioned that everything you wanted to bring would have to fit in a soft duffle bag measuring 24 inches long and 12 inches high.  That was a real challenge.  The company would provide a waterproof bag for clothing; another would contain a sleeping bag and one sheet, along with a ground cloth.  A smaller waterproof bag (measuring 12x20 inches) and waterproof ammo can would also be provided for items you might want during the day.  In addition we were provided with a folding chair, sleeping cot, and a tent.

The rafts were 37 feet long by about 15 feet wide, and were powered by 25 horse powered outboard motors.  Each raft was manned by a boatman and an assistant (called a swamper).  Cold water from a large cooler, as well as fruit and snacks were always available.  Soft drinks were also provided, and if you wished to purchase beer before the trip began it was available.  The soft drinks and beer were kept cool by being placed in large mesh bags which were dragged along the side of the raft.  I believe I read that the carrying capacity of the raft was 30 tons, but normally the actual weight carried by each raft was around 5 tons.  That included people, luggage, kitchen equipment, and food.

On Thursday, Aug 21^st we met John and Elaine at the Page, AZ airport, had lunch, checked into the Lake Powell Resort, explored a little, and then attended a pre-trip orientation meeting where we met Zach, our lead boatman.  During the meeting we were told how to pack our clothing, the safety rules, and generally what we could expect for the next seven days.

The following morning we were checked out of the resort at 6 AM, and at 6:30 were picked up by two buses for transport to Lee’s Ferry to join up with the two rafts.  At Lee’s Ferry we were fitted for our life jackets, formed a fire brigade line to load our bags, and also met the other boatman and the 2 swampers.  We also met the remaining passengers that weren’t at the orientation meeting the night before.  We began our journey at about 11:00 AM.

Our group consisted of three Russians (a young man and woman who had immigrated to America along with the young woman’s Uncle who still lived in Russia), an absolutely delightful English father and son duo, two young people from California, a young woman who was born in Tucson but lived for 15 years in Australia, a husband and wife from New Jersey along with their 12 year old daughter and 10 year old son, a middle age woman from California, John & Elaine, Betsy & Jamie, and the additional Green Valley couple who had been on two previous Colorado River trips, a single young man from Boulder, and a young woman from NYC.  The age range went from 79 down to 10.

We were encouraged to switch from raft to raft, but for the most part Jamie, Betsy, John, Elaine, the other Green Valley couple, the young lady from NYC, and the New Jersey family stuck with raft #2.

Our day would start at 5:30 AM with thick, rich coffee and then breakfast.  We had eggs (either scrambled or fried), biscuits and gravy, bacon, ham, French toast, cereal, milk, tea, orange juice.  I think one morning we had breakfast burritos.  We would all bring our chairs to the “kitchen” area and eat and talk.  After breakfast we would pack our bags, fold our cots and chairs and put them into bags, and pile everything on the beach next to the rafts.  All the kitchen tables, aluminum Dutch ovens, propane tanks and burners, pots and pans would be loaded into the holds of the rafts, and then our big dry bags would be placed onto the center of the rafts and covered with a mesh tarp.  Everyone was expected to join in and participate in the fire brigade loading and unloading line.  I might add that before eating everyone was expected to wash their hands.  There was a 5 gallon plastic bucket with clean water and a bottle of liquid soap.  You would put soap on your hands, rub it in, then using a foot pump, transfer water from the clean water bucket thru a length of tubing to a rinse bucket.  This was absolutely mandatory.  As one of the crew said, “We’ve had trips were people got sick and it affected everyone, and it’s not pretty”.

Another task we were expected to do was wash our dishes (yes, we ate off of Corel dishes and real silverware), and help with washing whatever pots, pans, or Dutch ovens were used in the meal.  I noticed more than once that vegetables would be cooked and served in stainless steel buckets.  The wash area consisted of a bucket with river water where the small particles of food were rinsed off, a bucket of clean hot soapy water for washing, another bucket of hot clean water for rinsing, and finally a bucket of clean cold water with a little bleach added for final rinsing.  Many times a voluntary crew would form and do everyone’s dishes and silverware.

We’d usually be on the river by about 8:00 AM and travel for an hour or two and then beach the rafts for a potty break or hike to a particular destination.  We stopped at Anazasi granaries, slot canyons, petrogliph sites, waterfalls, etc.

Around noon we’d beach again and have lunch.  We’d have cold meat sandwiches, tortillas with a killer tuna mix, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cookies, trail bars, etc.

Then back on the raft for a couple hours until another hike.  The hikes were voluntary and most people opted for them.  Many times Betsy would find something to sketch so she would stay behind.  Everyone always wanted to see what Betsy had done and were very complementary.

At about 4:00 PM the boatmen would find a sandy beach and we’d stop for the day.  Off came all the bags, the kitchen equipment, the dish wash table and buckets, the hand wash station, and the potty station.  In a few minutes the various stations would be set up and while that was being done the passengers would be selecting their camp sites.  There was really no set procedure for finding a site.  Whoever found a flat spot for their cots would claim it.  One night it looked like rain so tents were handed out and most people slept in their tent (it didn’t rain after all), but all the other nights we just slept on our cots with sheets over us.  We got lucky and had a full moon on our trip so many nights it was unusually bright, but absolutely beautiful.

After setting up our cots, and hanging wet clothes on a nearby bush or tree, we’d take our chairs to a central location and have an appetizer (clams or oysters, chips and dip, a soft drink, beer, or cocktail) and talk about the day’s events.  In about an hour, dinner would be ready and boy did we eat well!  We had pork chops, steak, prime rib, chicken, Mexican, boiled potatoes, killer mashed potatoes, vegetables, spaghetti, garlic bread plus other stuff I can’t even remember.  After washing the dishes we’d listen to a portion of John Wesley Powell’s journal, or listen to one of the kids from CA play guitar, or just talk.  About 8:30 PM the “old folks” would head to bed and the “kids” would party on.  John mentioned that he was going to bring ear plugs just in case, so we did too, and they came in handy a couple of nights.  No big deal.

Now we come to the subject of bodily fluids.  Grand Canyon National Park rules state that all urination must be done IN the river. That means guys have to stand in the water and pee and women have to squat in the river .  In the beginning of the trip everyone was frantically searching for a bush or rock to hide behind, but at the end we’d just walk into the river or stand/squat at the edge of the river and pee.  If you saw someone “exposed” you just turned away.  At night the crew would set up a toilet facility for #2 in a secluded spot.  It was a large ammo can with a toilet seat attached.  There was also a pee bucket for night time use, but most of us just stumbled to the river.  In the morning the pee would be dumped into the river, but the other stuff would be taken with us for disposal later.  I can’t tell you how odd it felt to be sitting on the pot looking at the most magnificent view of the lower Grand Canyon or Colorado River.  When you went up to the potty area you would take an old boat cushion with you, and that told the next person the potty was occupied.  When you were through you’d put the cushion back at the potty hand washing station and the next person would know that the potty was unoccupied. Simple, but it worked.