September '05 Newsletter - Trip #1

Grand Canyon Rafting (7/5/05-7/22/05)

Any resemblance between the trip that was discussed and arranged last spring by the permit holder and myself and what actually happened this July was purely coincidental! Our friends and we became the victims of some folks with a permit who seemed to be hunting for a cheap Grand Canyon trip while conveniently forgetting about the NPS guidelines requiring self-sufficiency and self-actualization on a do-it-yourself, work and cost shared non-commercial trip.

With the waitlist closed for over two years now and the cancellation system currently an abject failure (see comments at the end of this trip report), there appears to be no way for the self-outfitted public to experience a Grand Canyon raft trip except to find someone who has been on the waitlist for a decade or longer - someone who has a permit and is willing to include others on their trip, sometimes not for the best of reasons. If a permit holder (PH) is experienced, he or she frequently has all of the folks needed for the trip and there is no room for our family or friends. So we've found ourselves occasionally going with inexperienced strangers, not too successfully we might add.

Of course the PH and I agreed pre-trip that anyone included on the trip should love camping and the outdoors (perhaps I'm at fault for not including they should perversely enjoy 120 degree heat, sand storms, and other forms of hardship). So of course he brought his wife to be, who seemed to absolutely hate the outdoors, spent much of the trip scowling, and ticked off many of the participants within the first couple of days. Her idea of group compatibility was presented to one of our friends as "I didn't come on this trip to ride in a raft with people I don't know". She quickly made us aware that she was a $200,000/year accounting firm partner and accustomed to getting her way. Most of our group, even some of her friends, learned to ignore her and went about having a good time.

The PH also included and fawned over an obnoxious college professor friend who spent considerable time arguing with anyone he perceived to be competent. This was not particularly helpful to the group since this Ivy Leaguer's total knowledge about boating was flatwater college crew. So we found ourselves burdened with one individual who didn't want to be there and was not getting her accustomed level of service and another denied the respect and prestige he normally enjoyed since he didn't have a clue about what we were doing.

Compensating for this lack of experience and questionable attitudes was the fact we were able to get both my son Scott and his wife Tennille on the trip. Scott has been rowing western rivers since he was nine years old and has paddle guided commercially for many seasons on rivers in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. A close friend from Tucson and two kayaking buddies of ours also joined us. Four skilled oarsmen (Susan was rowing her 14' self-bailer) and two kayakers eventually proved to be more than enough competence to keep the truly clueless out of harm's way. The one remaining raft was committed to learn-as-you-go.

The trip began well with some Black Canyon City neighbors helping us get all of the gear and folks from Black Canyon City to Lees Ferry. While rigging, many of us were surprised by a diamondback rattler during our restroom visits. It was a chilly night in the boaters' camp; one everyone would remember with great fondness downriver. Just past Navajo Bridge, during our first on-river lunch, we spied not one but three condors observing us from the rocks above. We scouted Badger rapid carefully but still had our only out-of-boat-experience when the no boating experience team in their PRO rental boat lost the tongue that four rafts ahead of them navigated and instead dropped over the right side mini-falls. The fact there wasn't an immediate flip was a tribute to the stability of the 16' Sotar rental. Soap Creek was our first night's campsite.

We boated down through the Roaring 20's to Silver Grotto the next day for some fun in the upper chambers running the wall around the pool. There seemed to be more groups on the river than during our May trip but the rapids seemed easier to run on the July high flows, our downstream progress was faster, and we weren't having any problem getting our desired campsites. Within the first few days of the trip, we spotted several grazing bighorn sheep and deer along the riverbanks.

Buck Farm and Nankoweap were both wonderful campsites featuring excellent hikes to the attractions. In between we took the short hike up Saddle Canyon to the waterfall at the chock. We experienced no campsite or attraction site conflict problems with commercial users but eventually began running into many private trips. At the Little Colorado another private and we were both targeting the Carbon Creek camp to do the Carbon-Lava loop the next morning. Since neither of us was willing to give up Carbon and we had already been at the LC playing in the turquoise waters for a couple of hours when the other group arrived, we ended up with Carbon while they played at the LC and eventually camped somewhere upstream of us. Three of us took the five rafts down the next morning to Lava Creek, while the remaining 13 hiked the loop. This other group, along with several commercials, had exchanges to make at Phantom, so we agreed to hang back and left plenty of space for them in the Inner Gorge.

The lightly treed Rattlesnake campsite is definitely not preferred during the summer but we elected to stay there anyway so we could hike up to the Tabernacle. Reflecting upon this decision later, I wished I had chosen to hike in shady 75 mile Canyon that afternoon and taken one of the high walled camps in that area. The afternoon heat was overwhelming. After a horridly torrid evening, many of our group rose early the next morning and hiked high above our camp, only to be greeted by smoke obscured views from rim wildfires. While the hike was enjoyable, it would have been much better if the weather had been cooler and the visibility higher.

After successfully running Hance and the Inner Gorge rapids above Phantom Ranch, we pulled the beach under the bridge to find two more private trips there and one more led by Richard Martin scheduled to pull in shortly. For the first time in my Grand Canyon boating experience, our group was clustered with three other private trips in the same place on the river. Oddly enough, the private groups for July 3, 4, 5, and 6 launches were planning to run the campsite deficient stretch from Phantom to Bass Rapid on essentially the same schedule. By the time the commercials and all the privates had decided where they were going that night it seemed our group had few choices left since we planned to be the last off the beach. Each competing group told us where they were going as they left and then asked where we were going. Of course this left us with few options.

We thought we might have to run as far as Crystal before making camp. However, we passed the folks who said they were going to Granite on a different beach. We assumed they had changed their minds. We'd had a long day and it was definitely time for us to stop, so when we found the Granite camp open, we took it saving half of the beach for another group if one should appear. Around 5:00 PM we were surprised to see them straggle in. They were initially upset with us for not honoring the 'agreement' we had no voice in making, but then made the best of their situation. At a powwow that night we decided it was going to be continuous conflict if we stayed in this wave of private boating groups so we elected to do something I would normally prefer not to do, layover at Granite. The next day a few of us bouldered downriver to the cross-river fault between Granite and Hermit rapids and then climbed out the fault canyon to the Tonto Trail, observing a magnificent buck along the way (3' tip to tip antler spread with lots of points). Others in the group charged up Monument Creek, sighting another buck, and then caught the Tonto Trail over to the Hermit Creek saddle, bumping into us along the way.

The layover plan worked perfectly. Richard and the other groups were now a day ahead of us so when we successfully ran Granite, Hermit, Crystal, and the Jewels we found the Lower Bass campsite open. Dang it was hot there. The previous day the Phantom Ranch bulletin board said the temperatures were 114 degrees and higher temperatures were to be expected. Ice in the coolers was melting at a prodigious rate and would ultimately run out days before the end of the trip. Up early the next morning, most of the group dayhiked in Shinumo Creek for a couple of hours. A late launch from camp gave us Shinumo Falls to ourselves after the baloney boats and commercial oared trips had gone on. We continued down to Elves Chasm for a couple of hours and finally ended up at a partially shaded campsite just above Forster in Conquistador Isle. That day it was not only hot but the humidity was rapidly increasing. Clouds offered some shade but everyone was sweating even while doing nothing.

We carried on downstream, hiking a bit at Spectre, lunching at Stone with a trip up to the falls to cool off, and finally camping at Tapeats Creek. Our high profile accountant laid into Susan upon arrival there when Susan not too politely suggested the raft she was on might more easily get into the camp if they pulled in their giant sea anchor (75 beer/pop in a dunk bag?). Susan had been sick with a sinus infection for 4 days by then but had been working just as hard as ever. She'd had enough at that point and repeated an infamous Tapeats, 10-days out, go-f**k-yourself routine that I think I saw on one other trip. This resulted in the accountant weeping by the stream for hours and the permit holder appearing pretty upset with both of us. The trip seemed to be rapidly descending into 11-12 folks who were having a great time and 4-5 folks who were pretty unhappy with the trip leader's "bossy" wife and perhaps even him.

I think about this time our professor decided it was important that we know he felt he had blown a wad of cash on this trip and in his estimation wasn't getting the hiking in that he had expected and besides that there was insufficient food. Most of us thought the trip had been pretty inexpensive, we were all dying from heat exhaustion, it seemed we'd been hiking our butts off, we were more interested in throwing up than eating, but this marvelously healthy, large-brained humanoid wasn't happy. We'd all failed the poor guy. The rest of us came to dread loading our rafts each day while this attention-starved, arrested adolescent collegian sang 70's songs in a mind numbing, simpering, falsetto voice. Our poor accountant also seemed especially grumpy that day, probably because of the relentless heat. Continuing on, those who wished to make the effort saw all of the great places one normally visits such as: Whispering Falls in Kanab Creek, Matkatamiba in the Muav, Havasu Creek, and even National Canyon in the afternoon and morning. However one of these two, or their significant others, always seemed committed to making the rest of us pay in some way every day. Fortunately most of us were able to ignore them.

The Havasu day was especially enjoyable. Arriving at noon and staying until 3:00 PM, Susan and I hung out in the shade of the stream mouth, reading and talking to Richard Martin and other boaters. Some of our group walked as far as Beaver Cascade while others lounged at their favorite pool along the way. An oared Diamond trip was also in the mouth and we heard the full rattlesnake bite account that the ranger alluded to at her Lees Ferry presentation. Apparently Leslie Diamond was handling the snake (she is definitely not male, not 18-25, and wasn't drunk). She held onto it a bit too long so her customers could snap better pictures. The result was she got bit on the thumb near it's base; her thumb and then her arm swelled up within a couple of hours, and she had to be quickly evacuated. Treatment included numerous anti-venom shots at thousands of dollars each, resulting in a hospital bill approaching $100,000, which was apparently covered by workman's comp. Leslie was very friendly with the non-commercial folks hanging around that day and eventually gave us some ice downriver.

Lava Falls treated everyone kindly this trip. Bob was thrashed in the v-wave but this time Susan escaped with a relatively soft hit. She and Jill were delighted to both still be on her raft. With the far right edge of the infamous hole partially filled in at the higher flows, Scott and our Bob K pushed left and away from the v-wave with remarkably good results. One went all the way across the river making the quickest full right to full left run above the haystacks we've ever seen. We joined Hatch River Expeditions in the shade on the ledge below Lava. They were just finishing lunch and we were just starting. It was the last day of their trip, so they gave us what fresh veggies they had left in addition to a bunch of nuts and goodies. Diamond River Adventures pulled their four oared rafts in briefly as we were packing up to go down to our planned Whitmore Wash campsite. Even the commercial trips were low or out of ice earlier than they normally would be, so any sharing on their part was quite magnanimous.

The takeout at Diamond Creek was expected to be extremely busy after 10:00 AM. At least three commercial trips and two non-commercial trips would be derigging on the ramp. We reasoned that at 4:00 PM the previous day there should be no legal reason why we couldn't de-rig. We would be much later than the Hualapai 10:00 AM stay-off-the-ramp requirement, there would probably be no one on the ramp that afternoon, it would be a lot cooler since it was cloudy, and the worst that could happen might be a one-day camping fee. We derigged quickly and moved all of our gear far from the river so as not to be in the tribe's way the next morning.

After holding my tongue for much of the trip, I finally blew up at our endlessly trouble-making professor after dinner that evening. Shortly thereafter the skies clouded, perhaps complementing my foul mood, and we were treated to brilliant cloud-to-cloud lightning strikes but no serious rain. The trip broke up with some people never wanting to talk to or see each other again and some excellent new friends made. I guess one might call it another successful Internet trip: no flips, great food, well set up rental gear from PRO, and no significant injuries.

I learned some things about the NPS administration of the resource on the trip that seem to warrant complaints to Superintendent Joe Alston. At one time the river staff at Grand Canyon was very proud of their successful non-commercial cancellation program that assured 100% utilization of the allocation (commercial companies used a pool to achieve the same goal and still do). I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the NPS seems no longer committed to filling every summer non-commercial date. I reviewed the 35 or so days posted on the board at Lees Ferry and wonder of wonders - there were 5 unused dates (around 15%). How does that happen when there have been no cancellation trips offered since spring? Secondly, new staff at Lees appears to be significantly under trained and even worse unfamiliar with NPS regulations. I repeatedly told the one-month-new Ranger that she was not empowered to collect full social security numbers from us. It became obvious we were not going to leave Lees Ferry without giving her that information. The regulations require first 7 digits only as identity theft is endemic in America. 7 digits, my name, and address are more than adequate information to clearly know who I am for waitlist purposes (as if any of us could ever get on the waitlist).

Steve Sullivan (the NPS non-commercial permit manager - both hiking and rivers) responded to my concerns stating the July information posted on the board was incorrect (a convenient answer after first responding that I didn't understand) and there was only one open date in July (must be interesting for those Lees Ferry rangers to find 4 groups rigging on the ramp when no one is scheduled to be there) and that the new ranger should only be taking the first seven digits and has been appropriately informed.

Participants: Brian Aubin, Susan Groth (Suz), Bob Kerry, Bob Marley, Scott and Tennille Marley, Thuy Nguyen, Ron Youngs, a couple of new friends, & others

Return to September 2005 Newsletter