Photo credit (various pictures in the Grand Canyon series of posts) to David Bogle, Robyn Cantor, Art and Jillian Cook, Cathy Cox, Sheila Reiter, Leslie Reuter, Steffen Saustrup, and Sheila Torres-Blank
After a hectic, but at least dry, morning of packing, breakfast, briefings, and raft loading, we were finally on the river.
Let's do this thing!
Right off the bat there's a class 1 "riffle". The Grand Canyon rapid rating system goes from 1 to 10. This is different from the rating system we're used to, where a 5 is quite big and challenging, and I'm more of a class 2 kind of gal. Class 1 on the Grand Canyon = barely worth mentioning, but that didn't keep us from celebrating our first "rapid" :)
Next was a class 2 at Cathedral Wash, a spot John and I had hiked down to previously. Again, easy. Especially in the big 18' raft. Most of my river experience has been in a variety of small craft including canoe, kayak, packraft, kick board and inner tube. The only thing remotely comparable was the Sanpan canoe in Eco-Challenge Borneo, in that it has a lot of momentum so it can take a lot of work to steer. Also fairly indestructible. This I can appreciate.
Jimmy rowing under the first and last road bridge we'll see from river level, while Art demonstrates how not-tippy these things are:
Everyone was snapping pictures during the start of our adventure, including me. Hello, John, Cathy, and Robyn!
Jillian brought a nice camera and took some great pictures. I'm amazed that her camera held up through all the upcoming rapids - she must have taken good care of it:
Randall was excited to paddle an inflatable kayak down the river. I thought he was very brave!
Our first lunch stop - which was kind of a cluster - which was mostly on me. I was in charge of pulling all the items for the cooks to compile meals. Beth had reviewed the process with me, I had a good sense of where everything was, but... I didn't realize that some of the stuff would be covered up with dry bags and other things would be almost as equally hard to get to. We all learned a lot that first day.
Regardless, lunch was delicious!
We ran Badger Creek Rapid, our first class 5. Robyn and I were in the front of John's raft, chattering about waves and hanging on and avoiding whatever obstacles we might imagine were in front of us, but in the end we probably just got wet. I don't recall this rapid specifically, so I'm just guessing that's what happened because we did that pretty much the whole way down the river. Thank you John for not minding!
Sheila T-B took a turn at the oars on Jeff's raft - go Sheila!
Sheila R also learned how to row. I was impressed how they both stepped up right away to take turns on the flatwater sections. Rowing can be a lot of work, no reason just a few boat captains need to do all of it.
Tenmile Rock, a slab of sandstone that fell in the river and is sitting on its side. Must have been quite a day when that happened.
Jillian did a superb job of spotting wildlife, especially the bighorn sheep on the banks. I tried to pay attention to whatever the people in her boat were looking at. Hello sheep!
Leslie always looks like she is having a splendid time, even while doing some work:
After another class 5 rapid (that I'm sure Robyn and I were relieved to get through), then we landed at Brown's Inscription camp. It was our first chance to figure out how to make this all work. It would take a few days to set up systems and adjust to life on the river, but this was a decent start.
Day 1 haiku:
Challenging boat prep
Class 5 rapids - not too bad??
Lunch - let's do better
The morning of day 2 - Mark had talked about the "Roaring 20's" rapids as an early test and learning opportunity. Robyn and I were rather worried.
But first! Time to poop. Seems like the correct order of things.
John was the Groover Man, finding a place for our toilet system (called the groover because you used to sit directly on the can which resulted in grooves on your butt) at each camp. He set it up, kept it stocked, and disassembled and cleaned it for transport the next morning.
Dave helpfully took a few pictures of our system. Here's the "key", containing toilet paper. John set it at the start to the path heading toward the groover. If it was sitting there, you knew the toilet was free, so you picked it up and carried it with you. And remembered to bring it back when you were done. Somewhat incredibly, I don't recall anyone forgetting this part. I had to remind myself every single time, otherwise that easily could have been me.
A scenic and private little spot to sit:
Super Grover guarding the groover:
Other morning tasks included breakfast (cooked up by our excellent breakfast cooks), packing up gear and tents, making sure I had all the lunch stuff pulled or at least accessible this time, and reloading the boats.
I have no idea what the question was, but Jimmy doesn't seem to have an answer:
Mark giving some last-minute instructions before we set off:
This sums up the morning for me and Robyn - and John is just too cute:
Robyn took a turn on the oars while we were still on flatwater. We don't want John too tired out for the big stuff!
Our first big rapid, like "for real" - House Rock, at class 7. The water flows left and then curves to the right past the wall, which wouldn't be a big deal except for the "holes" at the bottom. A hole is where water flows over an obstacle like a big rock and then drops and swirls backward on itself. Generally this river is quite deep and we don't see what is causing the hole to form. So we don't have to avoid the rock, but it would be nice to still avoid the hole it creates.
We parked and the boatmen went over to scout the rapid. Hi John, but aren't you supposed to be looking downstream instead?
Mark explained that we should paddle hard across to the right side and try to break out of the main wave train. Then the raft should miss the biggest waves. John accomplished this perfectly. At the same time, Jeff ahead of us didn't quite get far enough across, and his raft had a much bouncier ride. So bouncy that Jeff came out of the boat! To top it off, he went over backward, with his legs sticking straight up in the air in the "V".
It's hilarious now to think back on it, but I'm sure at the time we were quite worried about them. Sheila R noticed Jeff's departure and jumped on the oars. Nice job Sheila!
While they were fishing Jeff out of the river, our raft slid right... next... to... the... holes - wow, those look really big from up close! Nice job John!
Well that was exciting.
There was a reprieve before the Roaring 20's got going, thankfully. Jillian got to practice rowing on the calm water:
The kayaks, with Randall in the yellow one, Mark dressed in black, and Thomas with the red boat:
The 20-mile rapids started with 5's and 4's, and there weren't a lot of cameras out for most of it.
Until we got to Georgie. Mark was rightfully concerned about this one, because the river level was on the low side. Apparently there's not much to this one at higher water. From our vantage point it looked more like a spill-over dam.
Scouting Georgie:
Great news - we can walk this one if we want! Robyn, Sheila, and I were completely happy scrambling over rocks to watch the rafts take on the challenge.
Charlie came at it a bit off-center and tilted, but had no problem getting through.
John went down the middle of the pour-over tongue and made it look easy (I still don't regret any of the walk-arounds I did though):
Cathy sat calmly in the back and proclaimed she was having a blast. John got more of a workout as he had to get the raft to shore to pick us up - thank you John!
And... Jeff was in the water again. Legs up in the air, the whole deal! Sheila T-B took over the oars this time. Good thing everyone has been practicing the rowing.
I'm sure Jimmy made it look easy, probably the kayaks too.
The rest of the afternoon involved rapid after rapid, 6's and 5's. I don't remember anything about them, possibly having blacked out the memories :) Vaguely, I think I said "it's OK!" a lot and Robyn replied "Is it? Is it really?" each time. We probably got splashed and wet and I think most people had fun.
At some point, Randall came out of his kayak and into the water. Although it happened more than once over the 3 weeks, he was always calm about it. Mark and Thomas made sure he was reunited with his boat, and we were grateful to have 2 safety kayakers along. Thank you Mark and Thomas!
John, John, he's our man! He's just a little shy...
Finally we made it to camp at Shinumo Wash, yay! And phew!
Mark told us stories about the Silver Grotto that was just around the corner from camp. Right off, it looked like "not your normal hike", as John clambered up the first obstacle:
There was a reason Mark had told us to wear helmets and lifejackets:
Fun and interesting little adventure, as we all helped each other up the narrow canyon. I'm pretty sure this was the first time (of several) that I asked John to go retrieve a rope to help us get back down.
We made it, ladies! What a unique place:
Day 2 haiku:
Jeff and Randall swim
Sheila and Sheila row boat
Big Day - we did it!
The first several days were filled with a lot of things - learning, adapting, taking pictures, experiencing our new reality. Things will start to calm down in the coming days, and I think my Grand Canyon blog posts will start to get a little more condensed! At least, that's the plan...
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