McKenzie River Wood Boat Festival

When I was at Lees Ferry a couple months ago, one of the boatmen mentioned that the McKenzie River Wood Boat Festival would be held in Vida, Oregon while we were in the area for the Northern Oregon Gathering of fiberglass trailers. It was a bit of a tough decision, but I couldn't pass up a rare chance to see a whole bunch of wood dories, all in one place.

The Emma Dean replica was back from her recent Grand Canyon trip with a couple bruises showing. This boat was the only one at the Festival that was set up for the Grand Canyon with a decked cockpit and "waterproof" hatches. All of the others were set up for fishing on the local Oregon rivers. The fishing setups were nice because you could get clear access to the construction details.

There were a number of older boats at the show. McKenzie River wood boats were historically created from Douglas Fir plywood skins with Port Orford Cedar framing. Many of the boats were clear coated with varnish.

This boat was built by Keith Steele in 1989 and has been rebuilt a couple times since then. I really liked the green & grey color combination and the very clean lines. Keith is the man that built the hulls for the original Portola and Susie Too boats in 1962. Steele Boat & Trailer is now owned and operated by his son, Steve.

Details in these boats have been carefully considered. I liked the way the floorboards were shaped to provide a good purchase for the boatman's feet. The boatman's seat was typically made from rope while the clients seats had seat backs and sometimes a seat cushion. The forward (client's) seat structure was mounted on a slide so that the boat balance could be matched to the client's weight.

Some of the boats had some very interesting cosmetic details. On this one the outer gunnel was laminated from oak and walnut, creating a nice contrast. Many of the new boats are using Meranti for the skins since it is available as a much higher quality waterproof plywood than the Douglas Fir plywood that is now available.

The inner gunnel on the boat was oak, but they used walnut for the ends of the inner gunnel and for the spacers between the inner and outer gunnel down the sides of the boat. They even inset some walnut detail into the bow stem.

About the time I'd made my rounds of the boats that were sitting or parked on the lawn, a bunch more began arriving, drifting down the river.

I was looking forward to seeing Rob, who had taken his personal boat on the Grand Canyon trip, but was surprised to see Tony as well. Tony and I worked together with Helen to build her Susie Too dory a couple years ago, It was fun to chat with them about their recent trip - what worked and what didn't.

Oregon folks are prepared for the weather. It drizzled some, but didn't rain hard while we were at the show. I was impressed to see how quickly they got the tarp up and rigged OVER the hot barbeque.

One of my hopes was that I would find a source for some Port Orford Cedar while I was in the Northwest. We stopped in the town of Port Orford and got the name of a mill that might have some, but the wood is quite hard to find. All of my strip boats as well as Kathy's Knot Too Shabby, have some Port Orford featured, but I'm totally out of stock.

Even the new drift boats are still commonly using Port Orford Cedar for the ribs, seats, floorboards, etc. It's lightweight, stiffer than Western Red Cedar, and strong. Just what you want when building boats.

Rob introduced me to the right guy - more on that next time.

Paddle Fest

We headed out Carefree Highway with Gordon Lightfoot's song running through my head. The plan was to see how many of our paddling friends showed up at Paddle Fest at Lake Pleasant. It's clear across the other side of the Phoenix metro area, but miles never bothered us.

Many of the active members of the paddling community and vendor reps had camped the night before on the beach. There were all sorts of boats to try out - everything from rafts to sit-on-top creek boats to ...

When we got there about 9:30, there was 25 minute lineup just to get through the park entrance. I'm pretty sure they'd evaluated all their seasonal volunteer staff and put the slowest person available to work by themselves at the toll booth. It didn't make any difference - the beach was awash with people and paddle craft.

I thought the Arizona themed stand-up paddle boards were especially colorful.

Folks of all sizes were waiting their turn to take a canoe, kayak, raft, or stand-up board for a spin.

Many (most?) had no experience, but were having lots of fun.

Even Susie Too was there, still sporting some Colorado River mud from the Grand Canyon trip that she'd completed the day before. Susie didn't come alone - Helen was there, too, which was the main reason we drove out. We wanted to hear about her Grand Canyon trip. Sounds like it was another really fun trip.

I took lots of people pictures but this was one of the few that made the cut. I loved James' shirt. Pretty much sums it up!

Even Kathy's granddaughter came out and had to check out Susie.

Parking was a bit of a hassle with the crowds. Even the deputy had a hard time hitting the spot that had been reserved for him.

We did see several people that we haven't seen for years, so the day was well worthwhile. Glad we took the time. Now to finish loading...

Boats

The real reason I was at Lee's Ferry was to see a couple great river-rat friends off on their trips through the Grand Canyon. Izzy (from my GC trip a couple years ago) was River Lead for a group of folks, primarily from the Las Vegas area. They leveraged Moenkopi Riverworks to provide rafts, shuttle, kitchen equipment, and food organization.

The Moenkopi truck and trailer showed up with a couple guys who immediately got started unrolling and inflating the 18' rafts that would be their homes for the next 25 days or so.

About the time the crew got the rafts inflated, the shuttle bus pulled up with all of the trip participants

who immediately formed a bucket brigade to unload the rest of the gear, finish the boat rigging, and get the gear loaded.

It was an interesting experience to watch the process. As the Moenkopi staff would pull an ammo box off the truck, they'd tell the folks which boat and which location on the boat. Their planning was complete to the level of mapping of each boat for the food, emergency gear, groover boxes, etc. Pretty impressive!

There were milk crates of veggies that went into some of the hatches. Once all of the boat gear and outfitter provided food and equipment was loaded, the stowing of personal gear could commence. I left out the picture of the mountain of canned beverages that were considered essential to the trip.

The next morning (it's almost always a two day process at Lee's Ferry,) the boats are tied off at the beach just below the launch ramp, and the last of the overnight camping gear is arriving to be loaded and secured.

At 9 a.m., the ranger starts the briefing process by checking each individual's photo I.D. against the list of passengers. During the winter season, there are usually two private trips launching each day. Private trips are limited to no more than 16 individuals.

Once every person is accounted for, the ranger begins the briefing. Even though some of the participants have done the trip multiple times, the briefing is considered mandatory.

After the briefing by the ranger, and then a briefing by the trip's River Lead, the last gear is tied down, PFDs are zipped, and the trip heads through Paria Riffle to begin their trip through the Grand Canyon.

The day after Izzy's trip launched, five historic replica dories and a modern, decked version of a McKenzie River dory arrived to prep for their trip. This trip was limited to wooden dories. I was especially interested in the historic replica double-decker boat trailer hauling the Flavell and Susie R.

Helen, and her version of Susie Too was going on this trip, along with Tony to share rowing duties.

Most of the boats were floated off their trailers. I was wondering how the Flavell was going to launch but it quickly became apparent!

Dories are the sports cars of river craft, but generally don't have space for the monster coolers that form the core of meal planning for raft trips. There was a whole lot of dehydrated food prep going on at Helen's shop before this trip!

Rob's McKenzie River dory had beautiful lines and a very logical deck design, while the historic boats sported historic colors.

The Emma Dean is also a replica of the original Susie Too - for this trip sporting the second name the original boat wore. The third name of the original is Music Temple. The original boat is in the collection of the Grand Canyon National Park.

The following morning found Tony stowing the rest of his camp gear in the rear hatch of the Susie Too with his trademark grin on his face.

This trip got off to a stressful start. Craig's Flavell II had somehow become untied the night before and drifted away. It was spotted up against some rocks just above Badger rapid - the first rapid of significance in the canyon. Craig and Dave got permission to leave with the Susie R before the briefing to try to get to it before the river rose as it does everyday when they demand more power from Glen Canyon dam.

Reports are the boat did not receive any significant structural damage. It's going to be interesting to hear the rest of the story when they all come off the river!

Hiding in Plain Sight

As much as we enjoy the canyon, this trip had a somewhat different goal. I wanted to see the original Susie Too to see how close we came with the replica that I helped build. The original resides in the Park's boat collection, carrying the Music Temple name that Martin Litton gave it when he started using the boat for commercial trips in the canyon.

The collection is now housed in one location but is not on public display. The nondescript warehouse located amazingly close to the heart of south rim tourist activities gives no clue to the treasures inside.

Inside, twelve boats are stored under cover on bases designed to retain their shape. Since I was specifically interested in the Susie Too, that's where I started with the helpful museum staff.

 In general, I think we got it right. The safety rope and mount points were smaller than we thought, and the back seat was dimensioned differently, although not significantly.

The most noticeable difference was in the boat's rocker. On the replica, the hull has a 4' flat spot in the middle which matches written documentation. The original clearly has a much longer flat area, extending aft from the center of the boat. It wasn't immediately clear if this was a result of years of storage or if it had been modified /repaired at some point.

It was especially nice to note that some of the "modifications" resulting from our recent river trip were simply trying to keep the replica as close to the original as possible. It too had numerous areas of chine damage.

I really enjoyed the quick visit and hope that someday this entire collection will be able to be displayed. It represents an incredible history of exploration, boat development, and adventure.

They had two early canvas canoes and two early kayaks in the collection as well - none that I would care to use in a replica trip!

Day 25 - 279 Mile Camp to Pearce Ferry Ramp

It was the last night on the river and I stayed in my sleeping bag until someone else fired up the blaster for hot water. People were sacked out all over the place, including the kitchen.

There were quite a few on the boats again last night.

Possibly the last time that these three boats will be on the water together.

I couldn't resist a selfie to see how scruffy I was after 24 nights on the river.

It was only a mile and a half to the take-out at the new Pearce Ferry ramp. Family and friends were there to greet us.

The crew from Moenkopi Riverworks was there to collect their rental rafts and equipment. All the frames and hatches came off the rafts, the rafts were washed, and eventually deflated and rolled up for return to Flagstaff.

Speaking of deflated - I think quite a few of us, although looking forward to seeing family and friends, were deflated to leave the river after a wonderful trip.

I'm very thankful that I had the opportunity to join the group and experience the canyon from the inside. I was privileged to team up with a delightful raft captain who shared her knowledge and experience with me. The trip was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.