One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the Worlds, the Grand Canyon is the result of erosion which creates one of the most complete geologic columns on the planet. Geologically it is significant because of the thick sequence of ancient rocks that are beautifully preserved and exposed in the walls of the canyon. These rock layers record much of the early geologic history of the North American continent.
A private rafting trip like this is not easy to come by. These are self-guided raft trips, sometimes referred to as private river trips. Permits for these trips are made available to the public through a weighted lottery. Prior to 2006, non-commercial permits for the Lees Ferry to Diamond Creek section of the river were distributed through a waitlist system. Demand for these permits vastly exceeded supply, and wait times for those at the bottom of the lengthy waitlist grew to an estimated 25 years.
It took 15 years for the group to get another private permit to raft the river after 1992. Thankfully with the changes put in place after 2006, the group received another permit option for this year! They only had to wait 8 years.
I have never been to the Grand Canyon.
I have seen all of the photos and heard about all of the adventures. In 2007, the idea of rafting for 20+ days down a river just didn't really appeal to me - 20+ days of rafting and camping still does not. But in the last few years, I have had a new love for adventure. A new passion for creating bucket lists, trying new things, and experiencing life to its fullest - especially those experiences that are once in a lifetime. There is an option with this adventure to do half of a trip and that I could handle.
So when we got the call from my father-in-law last year with the news that they had received another permit option, we signed up to raft the first half of the trip. Nine days on the river starting at Lee's Ferry and hiking out at Phantom Ranch to the South Rim.
I was a mix of emotions. Excitement - what an amazing adventure that not many people will ever get to experience. Fear - as a mother, I have a new found respect for preserving life.The idea of being at the bottom of a canyon, cut off from the world and it's securities (like hospitals and medical attention) while jumping in a rubber boat and letting the water carry you over rapids and currents can be a little unnerving. Especially, when help is hours away. Overwhelmed - Handy Man and I have never both been gone for eleven days together. Our life that we have created together is anything but simple! We have two small children and many animals that need cared for on a daily basis. March can be one of the busiest times of the year for my business. But thank God for two of the most amazing grandmas in the entire world, we made it happen!
Months of planning and with everything finally in place, Handy Man and I pointed our car west.
We were to arrive on that first Saturday at the Grand Canyon in order to leave our car at the top of the South Rim. We needed to make sure we had a vehicle there when we hiked out to get us home. The plan was to park the car and then catch a shuttle to Flagstaff, AZ where we would catch up with the rest of our group.
We were a few hours early getting to the South Rim. Handy Man humored me and we spent about an hour doing the tourist thing before the shuttle arrived. We pulled off the main road and went to the Indian Watchtower at Desert View. The four-story structure, completed in 1932, was designed by American architect Mary Colter. The tower was designed to resemble an Ancient Pueblo Peoples watchtower.
This was the spot where I was able to see the Grand Canyon for the very first time, with my very own eyes!
It's vastness is over whelming. The longer I stood there, the more it looked artificial. How can anything be this huge? This amazing and grand?
We were here! We were ready! Bring on the rapids!!!
Sunday morning we waited for Professional River Outfitters (PRO), the service we hired to provide us with our boats and some of our equipment, to pick us up from our hotel and shuttle all of our stuff to Lee's Ferry.
It takes a LOT of stuff to raft down the Grand Canyon for 20+ days. All of which must be stored in a waterproof box or dry bag.
The PRO guy finally arrived about 10 am and we were off... on a two and a half hour drive back up towards Page, AZ and Lee's Ferry.
I think I was a little unclear on what to expect on that first day. I assumed we woke up, hitched a ride to Lee's Ferry with PRO and the boats we rented would be waiting for us. We would secure our personal belongings, push off and start our adventure. This was far, FAR from reality.
We arrived at Lee's Ferry only to spend hours sorting through and assembling everything ourselves!!!
I was completely lost! I didn't know the lingo, the gear or what the heck I was doing. Handy Man had warned me that this was a big trip and required everyone to pitch in the whole time. I found myself just standing there in awe and not knowing what to do.
So, Handy Man gave me a job...
I can now add Official Raft Blow Up Girl to my resume.
It's a technical job really. I mean the entire success of our trip depends on the buoyancy of those rafts to safely carry us down the river. There are five chambers to each boat and I had three boats to blow up - with my electric pump thank God!!
Once the rafts were inflated, we had to strap the heavy metal frames to them. I can work a belt on my jeans and towing straps for securing hay on a trailer - therefore I caught on quickly and was able to successfully help strap the frames down to the D-rings on the raft.
Before we could start loading the boats, we pushed them into the water and waited for the park ranger to come by and inspect our gear.
You would be surprised by the kinds of mandatory things we had to take with us down the canyon. Each boat had to have a first aid kit, including one super sized first aid kit that included splints and other (hopefully) life saving and stabilizing supplies. We had to have a hand washing system. Life jackets for each person and a few extras just in case. Water purifying system. Water jugs - we carry all our own drinking water on the trip. Satellite phone. River maps. Toilet system...
Fun Fact: Speaking of toilet system, did you know that the park requires you to pee in the river and carry all of your feces out with you? That's right, no cat holes allowed. It all has to be hauled out with you (same with all your trash) to prevent the limited beach and camping spaces along the river from turning into public toilets and trash cans.
We got final approval from the ranger to start loading our boats after producing all the necessary gear and documentation we were required to bring. Success!! Handy Man and I start looking for our gear and he turns to me and says, "We are going to take the poop boat over there. Take your dry bag over there and we will start loading our gear."
"Excuse me the what????? What boat are we taking?"
"The poop boat. We are going to be in charge of the ammo cans and the toilet system for the trip."
"Wait. Why? Why are we volunteering for poop patrol?" Did I miss drawing straws at dinner last night?
Calmly he said, "Because I have never had that job yet and we should volunteer."
"That's great but it's my first trip. Why do we have to be in charge of the poop this trip? I mean seriously!" I was given a warning look that basically said I was whining and being a total girl at the moment. So I smiled big and said, "Yeah! The poop boat! I can hardly wait! This is going to be awesome!!"
And that was that. We were the volunteer waste management couple of the trip. Mr and Mrs Ammo Poop Can. Forget the fact that I would not be showering for 9 days and living in a wet suit, squatting by the river and having to use the ammo cans myself, but now I was in charge of them. Their set up and removal each day and their transportation.
Let the fun begin!
Meet the poop boat!
We filled up all of our water jugs. Loaded the boats and hopped in!
We pushed off the beach and Lee's Ferry, Handy Man rowed us about 100 yards down river and pulled over, back to the shore. We had reached our first camping sight of the night. Say what???
Yep. News flash first time rafter! We spent the entire day just assembling our boats and it was already evening by the time we pushed off from the launch area. We were to camp at Lee's Ferry the first night. Apparently, we had a 9:00 am orientation meeting with another park ranger that went over all of the rules and safety regulations before we could actually depart.
It was a crash course in the craziness I had just signed up for. Ten minutes on the river and we were unloading all of our bags, pitching our tents and setting up camp. It was just crazy to me! I mean we JUST packed this crap on the boat!! The only silver lining was that we still had access to public bathrooms, 100 yards away, and we were able to take my father-in-laws truck into "town" and eat dinner at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant one last night.
In the morning, we packed everything back up and enjoyed a comical and sarcastic 45 minute orientation meeting by the ranger. Spirits were high and we pushed off in search of a grand adventure!
We rafted about 11 river miles on our official Day 1.
Our party consisted of three boats and 8 passengers. The wondrous poop boat was manned by my handsome husband and (I would soon learn) VERY accomplished oarsman, my father-in-law, Matt, and myself.
Matt's two childhood and fellow adventure-seeking friends, Craig and Kenny, each manned one of the other boats. Craig, from South Carolina, brought his two sons this year for their first trip down the canyon, Ben and Josh. Ben and Josh live in Colorado with their families. Kenny - a real life explorer - lives in Minnesota in the same area where Matt and Craig grew up together. He invited a man from India, Oken, to join our adventure. Oken owns a travel and expedition company, Aborcounty Travels & Expeditions, in India. Kenny met Oken years ago while exploring India's very remote areas.
Just the eight of us for nine days.
I couldn't help but feel like Snow White and the Seven Rafters.
Our first day was pretty laid back. A few riffles - which I quickly learned were in fact just baby waves and about the only think I felt comfortable trying to row through other than flat water.
The start of our trip, we were in the 230 million-year-old Kaibab Limestone formation. Technically, this stretch of the Colorado River is in Marble Canyon, which marks the beginning of the Grand Canyon.
Regardless of the rock formations we were in, the scenery was gorgeous!
It became very apparent that first day on the river that you lose scale in your pictures unless you gave a boat or person in them.
A very mild first day on the river, we soon approached our first rapid about 8 miles in. Badger Creek Rapid, a class 4-6 rapid. Badger Creek is the first significant rapid in Marble Canyon with a large pour over in the center right. All rivers are rated on a "class" scale to help you determine the size and technicality of the whitewater. Rapids in the Grand Canyon are rated on the older "1-10" system. So in a Class 4-6 rapid, we were expecting to see waves at least four feet high Possibly long, difficult rapids with narrow passages, turbulent water that requires precise maneuvering and sends hearts racing.
Typically, any rapid that was over a Class 5 and the guys would pull over just before the rapid and scout their routs. Sometimes they easily negotiated their course and plan of action in less than 15 minutes. Some of the other rapids, we would spend over 30 minutes analyzing - not me, I just took pictures and prayed Handy Man knew what the heck he was doing!
It typically looked something like this:
Boats tied to the shore and the guys climbing up on rocks and talking about holes and curlers and hidden rocks.
And then we got in the boats, I made sure my oh-shit-straps were all within reach and let the butterflies fill my stomach as Handy Man pointed the boat down stream and I prayed to not go swimming.
Badger Creek offered nothing more than a cool splash of water and laughs all around. I totally had this rafting thing down!
Our first real camp was at Soap Creek.
My first real experience setting up a full camp.
Our camp consisted of our little space for the night. We shared a
What is the ladies potty you ask? Why that little gray bucket next to our tent. Safety first! It's not always safe to be squatting on the shore in the evening with the ever changing tide levels and currents in the river. My amazing father-in-law bought this gem for the trip! It has it's own custom seat/lid top. Each day I would add an inch or two of water in the bottom, tote it up to our camp sight and I had my own private bathroom! In the mornings, I would haul it back down to the river and rinse.
Ladies you know you are jumping in line to sign up for a rafting trip!! But honestly, it was a life saver! I was successfully able to minimize the number of times I had to hike off down shore in order to find a little privacy. The only challenging part was retraining my brain NOT to drop the toilet paper in the bucket. All toilet paper had to be placed in a zip lock bag and carried out of the canyon with the rest of the trash. I may or may not have struggled with this once... possibly twice.
Cleanliness was an oxymoron. But it was very important to wash your hands (in river water) with soap and then follow up with hand sanitizer before meals. This was our state of the art hand washing station.
Welcome to our kitchen! We actually ate like kings! Burgers, spaghetti, steaks, pork chops...
We washed dishes by the bucket system - right to left, cold rinse, warm soapy wash, hot rinse, cold bleach rinse for disinfecting. Those who do not cook - wash dishes. Josh, Handy Man and I were the resident dish washers.
After dishes were washed, we had to strain each bucket into the river and keep any debris left over as trash we packed out. We learned pretty quick the importance of not wasting food and cleaning your plate. Thank goodness we had a couple of hardy guys with big appetites!
We even had to rinse out the cans we used before crushing them and packing them away with the trash.
The kitchen and living room were the two most important locations we always designated first at a new camping spot. When all the work was done, we sat down and chatted about the day and our adventures while getting to know each others lives. Matt packed a camping guitar and some nights Oken would play a few songs for us under the stars, the river noises in the background. It truly was relaxing then and amazing.
Okay just kidding.
Placement of the Groover was also a very critical. It required a prime piece of real estate, as I soon learned. Groover is rafting term for my lovely responsibility - the ammo poop can. I had every intention of just getting this piece of my day done as quickly as possible and moving along. Ohhh no. Handy Man instructed me that it has to be a private location with a view. Preferable a river view is most desirable.
Seriously?
Dead serious!
I am pretty sure we often scouted a groover location with more effort than we did our own tent site.
We had to have a Groover Orientation meeting the first night at Soap Creek. I will spare you the details but lets just say it was way more than I anticipated on my "vacation."
A lot of work went into that first camp. But as we sat around listening to Oken play that first night and I looked up at the stars and the canyon walls, I was very excited for the next week of adventures.
Like my trip to Italy in 2013, I want to make sure I capture all of the memories I can. Preserve our adventure as well as I can. So this will be a work in progress this week to share our adventure rafting the Grand Canyon!
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