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!

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.

Day 24 - Mile 264.8 Camp to 279 Mile Camp

March 28th dawned a bit cooler than most of our nights had been. Some people avoided getting up

but everyone greeted the day with a grin, even if it was the last full day on the river.

Those that did get out of bed wasted no time in finding a hot cup of coffee. Helicopters started flying about 7:30 waking even the last stragglers.

The famous Hualapi Skywalk was visible shortly after we started down river.

It's located quite a ways from the river on a small branch canyon.

Like yesterday, there was a lot of boat swapping going on. Elmira rowed the Flavell II while Craig caught up on his rest.

Once he was rested, he restored his energy with Chips Ahoy cookies.

We stopped as close as we could to Columbine Falls. Many of the folks located the trail and walked to the falls. Very different from my visit in 2000 when I was able to paddle the kayak directly to the base of the falls.

While at Columbine, Helen and I decided that the dark shelf paper had been on the inside of Susie Too's splash guard long enough. It came off surprisingly easy, exposing the beauty of the quartersawn oak.

The Grand Wash Cliffs at river mile 277.1 marks the western end of the Grand Canyon.

We made camp on the river bank - a location that would be over 100' under water if the lake was full. One last night together before returning to civilization.

Day 23 - Spencer Canyon to 264.8 Mile Camp

We left Spencer Canyon about 9 a.m. but some of us didn't get far, stopping in an eddy almost directly across the river to look for the Buzz Holmstrom mark from 1939 when his group was one of the last to run Lava Cliff rapid before it was submerged by Lake Mead. It took awhile and most of us had given up, but Greg found it somewhere near the arrow.

After yesterday's wind and threats of rain, the day was looking pretty nice.

We were hoping for a fair amount of distance but also realized that the trip was quickly winding down so there was lots of relaxing by the full trip folks while the Diamond Creek crew rowed.

I was back on Izzy's raft today. Elmira rowed part of the time, I rowed part of the time, as did Izzy.

As we got closer to Quartermaster Canyon, we were passed by the Hualapai snout rigs on their daily whitewater charters from Diamond Creek.

There were lots of shoals and sandbars in this section which we managed to avoid, unlike some of the boats in our group.

I counted 8 helicopters within a one mile area and think I identified at least five separate helipads in the Quartermaster Canyon area. The helicopters are flying tourists from Las Vegas and from the South Rim.

With the level of Lake Mead over 100 feet below "full pool," the river has cut down through layers of silt, looking sort of like a layer cake.

We were last to arrive at camp - what's the rush? The river edge was very muddy and slippery and built up quickly in shoe treads making it tough to keep a clean boat. The kitchen was set up in a clearing on a ledge

while most of the group hung around on the boats, enjoying the end of another fun day on the river. One boat tried to get away but was quickly caught. Its line had been burned through by an ember from the fire.

Day 22 - Separation Canyon to Spencer Canyon

We were able to launch from Separation Canyon by 9 a.m., hoping to get a head start on the forecast winds and rain. We has a pretty strong tailwind for the first 2 1/2 miles.

I rode with Tony on the cataraft. A great seat for taking pictures with nothing in your way.

I wasn't the only one taking pictures.

Most boats had one of the newbies rowing,

and they were doing a good job,

even after we turned the first corner and the wind started to come up.

Eventually, we started getting enough breeze that Natalie decided she'd had enough of paddling her kayak so she got a lift.

When we turned the next corner, we had a strong headwind, making it tough to make any progress. We tied up at Spencer Canyon to see if the wind would change direction or let up so that we could continue. Meanwhile, lots of dust in the air!

Although the clouds started to break, strong wind gusts would blow through. They were strong enough to blow over the only kitchen table that was set up and scatter cans of food and dry bags around. In spite of the forecast, we didn't get any measurable rain. We ended up staying the night, hoping for better weather in the morning.