September '94 Newsletter

It's difficult to believe that nine months have passed since our last newsletter. Susan has been enjoying her return to college and is making the most of this educational opportunity. Her grades have been excellent so far and she even claims to be enjoying the rigors of algebra. Since she had weekly classes, we weren't able to travel much this spring. We did get free to backpack for a week by ourselves in Grand Canyon over the college spring break and we were able to enjoy summer travel time with some of you. Our limited time meant fewer group trips, so unfortunately we missed seeing many of you, something we hope to remedy next year. Bob worked on computer programs during the spring, developing a menu database for a Flagstaff concessionaire who supplies food packing for private rafting groups. The program has been running for them all summer with a minimum number of problems. It is an updated version of the food planning system which many of you have used on our trips.

As fall approaches, Bob is contemplating the purchase of a new, more powerful computer to support further database development, Susan is continuing with her college courses, taking English, psychology, and more algebra this time around. She expects her fall schedule to be consumed with studying. After numerous health problems this summer, she's again feeling fit and ready to take on the world. She has eight hikes planned for the Cities of Chandler and Gilbert including her new off-trail "bushwhacker series". We're both still active in the Central Arizona Paddlers Club. They organized a moonlight float on the Salt River a couple of weekends ago, which we joined. We brought one of our large rafts as a paddle raft. We're also helping to plan another CAPC hot springs canoe trip on the lower Colorado in November.

Friends, physical fitness, continuing education, computers, new software, travel, investments, and apartment management keep us extremely busy. When these aren't sufficient stimulation, we head for the movies. Theaters are a great place to beat the Phoenix afternoon heat. Forrest Gump, the Mask, and True Lies were our favorites of the movies we've seen recently. The Client was also good but somewhat anticlimactic after reading Grisham's excellent book.

1994 Trip Reports:

Grand Canyon Raft (4/9/94-4/26/94):

When one of our scheduled boatman had to pull out at the last minute, Bob was able to recruit his oldest son Robert to row. We felt lucky that both Robert and his wife, Margie, were able to take time off work to join us for the first half of the trip. They live in Albuquerque now and we don't often see them. Charlie brought his video along and narrated when he caught us in embarrassing moments. Unfortunately he dropped it around Nankoweap and wasn't able to record a lot after that. The water was low, 7000 cfs, which made some of the runs more challenging and downstream travel a bit slower.

The first few days of the trip were cold and rainy and just about the time we started to worry about running out of dry clothes and freezing our butts off, it got nice and stayed that way for the rest of the trip. Our permit holder, Dick, took an early swim in appropriately named Indian Dick Rapid. He pulled himself back into the raft almost before Jim and Randy realized he was gone. Three people traded in/out at Phantom Ranch. Due to the fast hike down with her heavy pack, Colleen lost both big toenails by the time we reached Tuck-up. She was a trooper; she and Tom still really enjoyed the trip even though their hiking opportunities were fewer.

Much to everyone's surprise, particularly his own, Bob flipped in the large hole at Upset Rapid. It was extremely active and his boat spiral rolled. Fortunately, he and Charlie were able to surf it into an eddy just below the rapid and Susan arrived in her raft to pin it to shore. The rest of our group saw what happened, immediately stopped their runs, and ran down the bank to assist in flipping the raft upright. Luckily, there were no horribly expensive lessons associated with the flip. Charlie's wet shoes got sucked off and lost, Amy learned to close up her dry bag more carefully, and Bob learned not to take that hole too lightly. Paul, in the other 18' raft, was also unable to avoid the hole but he hit it a little differently. His boat didn't flip but his crew popped out when they were doused with a wall of water. He recovered Carl immediately but Charlotte took a more exciting swim down to Bob's eddy. Susan had a particularly trashy run at Lava Falls and Charlotte popped out there for her second long swim of the trip. With the help of Colleen, she hung onto the boat through the entire rapid and was hauled in just past the death rock. The paddle raft crew made a lot of gutsy runs with no flips and no out-of-boat experiences.

Our friend Gary brought his 18 year old daughter Amy along. Much to Gary's chagrin, the women devoted considerable time teaching her about river etiquette, lack of manners, the concept of dick waving, etc. Zdenek, the paddle raft captain, blessed all of us with his offer to handle the groover detail every day of the trip. Everyone was only too happy to give him the job. By the end of the trip we got used to his soft voice gently polling while we were rigging "Did you go?" The last morning, Susan stuck a happy face of jelly beans on top of the pile for him.

Participants: Randy Bossard, Charlie Crabbe, Jim Cummer, Charlotte Ekback, Dick Elwyn, Susan Groth, Bob Marley, Margie Marley, Robert Marley, Carl Muller, Colleen Olivero, Tom Olivero, Amy Patterson, Gary Patterson, Dorothy Riddle, Paul Schmutz, Zdenek Skyvara, Marilyn Sloan, Char Taylor.

Desolation-Gray Canyons Raft (6/3/94-6/10/94):

Diane Basile hurt her back loading her new raft and gear the day before we left for Utah and was unable to join us for either trip. Desolation-Gray was Charlotte's debut as an oarsperson. Rowing Marge's boat, she successfully negotiated all of the rapids while maintaining a state of high anxiety. Wanda made her debut paddling her newly acquired paddle cat. Sandy was paddling a rented inflatable kayak and the two of them provided back-up and support for each other. We had two flat tires on the way in to the put-in but happily didn't have any on the way out. Susan, Wanda, and John drove the shuttle and flew back the following morning. It was Susan's first flight in a four seater; the pilot was gentle and she didn't turn too green. After he dropped them at the river he did a kamikaze dive off the edge of the mesa to entertain the rest of the group or possibly to show Susan what the ride could have been like.

Our two new traveling companions on this trip, Jeffrey and John, were enjoyed by everyone. John's private stash of chocolate bars were especially appreciated. Jeffrey caught on quickly to rowing and took the oars for Charlotte when she needed a break. Linda, who was apprehensive due to a previous bad river experience likened riding with Susan through the rapids to having a good pelvic exam. The men weren't quite sure what that meant. Joe brought dried morel mushrooms and served them up cooked in red wine and butter with the steaks the last night. The old three burner Coleman gave us trouble for the entire trip and we vowed to trash it as soon as we got home. But that saga continues, read on.

Participants: John Barbone, Charlotte Ekback, Susan Groth, Joe Johnson, Jeffrey Kopp, Bob Marley, Wanda Mattarocci, Linda Newmark, Sandy Newmark, Marge Padgett, Harold Schuck, Char Taylor.

Lodore Canyon Raft (6/13/94-6/21/94):

As soon as we got off of the Desolation-Gray trip we called to check the water level on the Green River through the Canyon of Lodore. It was 4300 cfs, nice and high. We didn't think to ask what it was going to be the following day and for many to come, 800 cfs, a rock garden. We reprovisioned in Vernal, Utah and completely rebuilt the old Coleman for the next trip. Our original plan was to put in at Flaming Gorge Dam and run all of the way through to Split Mountain. But with the low water we couldn't face a flat, buggy float through the Browns Park Wildlife Preserve. So we ran through Red Canyon and took out just below the Old Jarvie Ranch at Browns Hole. Using Dick's flat bed trailer, we were able to avoid completely de-rigging the rafts by stacking them two high and making two short trips on river access roads.

The BLM is in the process of restoring the Jarvie Ranch and the tour put on by the volunteer couple who lived there was both informative and interesting. Our group particularly enjoyed the blacksmith shop. They had many unusual, innovative farm tools that we found fascinating, including a Hog Nose Oiler. It was a scooped out metal wheel that the rancher would fill with grease. Hogs, being smarter than dogs, would turn it with their snouts thus oiling themselves up so they wouldn't crack.

We had on-going problems with the newly rebuilt old Coleman on this trip and finally had to borrow Fred's antique three burner Coleman that he inherited from his grandparents. Lodore was Fred's rowing debut, in Marge's boat, and he loved it. Charlotte was happy to have him take over as the water level was technical and she could let her anxieties subside. Aside from the sheer beauty of the Canyon of Lodore, its most outstanding feature was the abundant wildlife: sheep, marmot, pronghorn, deer, and what some of us believe was a badger. Mark took a fall early on and received excellent medical attention from Char and Dick. Kay graced us with some lovely songs. Cris developed a horrible rash on her legs the last day probably due to a combination of too much sun and bug spray. De-rigging, we found that a small mouse had taken up residence on Susan's raft. Charlotte relocated him to a safe area. (When we got home Susan traded the old Coleman for a rubberized rain jacket for Bob. What's that saying about one person's junk may be another person's treasure?)

We'd like to go back and run Lodore another time on higher water. It's a tough river to get a permit on but well worth the effort.

Participants: Dan Bench, Cris Brown, Fred Brown, Charlotte Ekback, Dick Elwyn, Susan Groth, Mark Jennings, Bob Marley, Wanda Mattarocci, Marge Padgett, Char Taylor, Kay Threlkeld, Rick Weber.

North Rim, Grand Canyon (7/16/94-7/23/94):

We got everyone out of Tinsel Town financially intact and headed for less populated places. Our first stop was Pipe Springs National Monument. We spent a couple of hours there having lunch and checking out the historic fort. We had our first campsite, Marble Canyon Overlook, to ourselves except for two young men from the mid-west. We invited them for dinner but they joined us only for apple pie. Our new four burner propane stove arrived just in time for the trip and was extremely popular with the entire group. No more pumping and cursing! Laverne celebrated her 71st birthday mid-trip and we made a Dutch oven cobbler complete with candles and champagne. We saw quite a bit of wildlife but by the last day, we were still in quest of the North Rim's illusive wild turkey. Denise taught Laverne to gobble and both of them practiced daily trying to call in our bird. Finally after we'd given up all hope, leaving Toroweap on our last day, two wild turkeys crossed the road right in front of us.

All but Laverne saw white tailed Kaibab squirrels repeatedly from day one. It took quite a bit of looking and shouting to locate one for her but she finally did see one. On the gravel logging roads we learned where the expression "high tailing" comes from. We had frequent close calls with small rodents who held their tails high while dashing across. When we arrived at Point Sublime, and later at Toroweap, we camped with a young French Canadian couple, Frank and Marie Jose, from Quebec, Canada. They joined us for dinner and we taught them to play Hearts. I guess we taught them too well as Frank won both evenings we camped together. From our Pt. Sublime campsite we located the eleven windows of an Anasazi granary complex that has eluded us in past years. We didn't have time to explore it on this trip but are determined to go back. A few years ago, with Diane Basile, the three of us had searched high and low for this complex for the better part of a day, in vain as it turned out.

The North Rim elevations around 9000' assured us of seeing many beautiful wildflowers. Magnificent thunderheads soared into the sky each afternoon, sometimes resulting in brief, intense afternoon rainstorms. The gravel logging roads were in good shape but never-the-less we were able to flatten a tire on the second day. This made Bob somewhat nervous because the repair appeared to be less than satisfactory. Fortunately, no further tire damage was done even on the extremely rough, ungraded Pt. Sublime road. Toroweap was much warmer but the views were terrific and a developed spring that Bob knew about allowed all of us to have daily showers and plentiful water within walking distance of the campground.

Participants: Vesta Downer, Susan Groth, Mark Jennings, Bob Jones, Laverne Jones, Bob Marley, Denise Mills, Mike Mills, Blue Stringer.

Grand Canyon Raft (8/1/94-8/15/94):

We decided in May to either hike in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado or raft the Grand Canyon in August to escape the summer tedium of good old Phoenix. In late June we were able to obtain a call-in permit to raft the Grand Canyon so we took our second trip of the year down the Colorado. The trip was conceptualized as a clothing optional, preferably absent, trip so we went alone to avoid frightening our friends. The August weather was excellent with afternoon cloud and some light storms as the trip progressed. Non-desert dwellers would have probably declared the trip hot but we found the shade from the canyon walls and cloud cover plus the frigid 45-50° water temperatures allowed us to cool off easily. If we wished to avoid hopeless sunburns, it was necessary to cover up with long sleeved shirts and pants from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM. However, this requirement eased as the trip progressed and we acquired tans where the sun doesn't normally shine.

The checkout ranger at Lee's Ferry told us there were plenty of call-in permits available in August which no one claimed. No one launched the day after us and two days later that situation was expected to repeat. The water levels were much higher than those of our spring trip, the oppressive summer desert heat increases power demand from all of those air-conditioners in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. We had virtually no upstream winds so neither of us ever had to put our back into rowing. The fast current plus our light forward ferrying was always adequate. During a storm one day we had 30-40 miles per hour downstream winds, which really made our boat sail.

We read a lot when it was hot, played gin and cribbage with Susan winning most of the time. She shows no mercy in these one on one card games. We only saw two bighorn sheep, neither of them rams, but other rafters were seeing several times this number. We ran Lava Falls with AZRA and had lunch with them in the shade just downstream. While eating, Bob was introduced to Louise Teal. Having just read her new book, Breaking into the Current, both of us enjoyed talking to her in person. This was our third solo (one raft) trip. Other groups in the Canyon are so friendly, both commercial and private, that solo rafting can be as safe as a larger group trip if you are reasonably experienced and use good judgment. If you are alone, every group will agree to let you join them at the bigger rapids. This is important because the biggest risk isn't flipping but the loss of your raft downstream while you are swimming out after a flip. Boatman and passengers don't always come up beside the raft. Sitting on the bank with a sad look on your face as your boat disappears around the bend, or into the distance, probably isn't much fun.

Donnie and Caroline Dove, our friends at Canyon REO arranged our shuttle again. Their driver arrived a couple of hours early, so we quickly loaded up, headed for Flagstaff, and reached home in the mid-afternoon. Our old reliable Toyota truck (150,000 miles) carried the monstrous load one more time.

Participants: Susan Groth, Bob Marley.

Book Review by Susan Groth

Breaking into the Current, Boatwomen of the Grand Canyon by Louise Teal.

Louise interviewed dozens of commercial boatwomen researching this book and had the difficult choice of narrowing it down to eleven whose personal stories she would write about. Reading her book made me long to read the notes of the rest of those interviews. Louise begins with a history of women guides in the Grand Canyon, a history of Canyon river running and eventually tells the stories of eleven early women guides who paved the way for women working in the Canyon. She also includes a chapter on the uncertainty of the high water year 1983. Her last chapter addresses sexism and the hurtles that women are still encountering in Grand Canyon river running.

I enjoyed sharing in the many humorous personal adventures these women related and was enthralled by the passion their stories radiated. They are involved in a love affair with the Canyon, an affair with which I'm personally familiar. The exhilaration of rowing big water; seeing places few others see; awaking to pink morning skies over high canyon walls; listening to the silence; waking in the middle of moonlit nights. "It's the place. It just wraps its arms around you," said boat woman Suzanne Jordan.

We had the good fortune to meet and have lunch with Louise below Lava Falls on our recent Grand Canyon raft trip. She graciously entertained questions about her book and feelings. We found her to be a delightful, interesting woman with not only a great love for the Canyon but an equally great affection for people. Her book is a bargain priced at $14.95 (University of Arizona Press, Tucson 1994).

1995 Trips:

We've included two supplements and two outlines for our 1995 trips. The remaining supplements will be in the December newsletter, please send a request with an SASE if you want them before then. If you have any unanswered questions regarding our '95 trip plans, please give us a call or write us a letter. We are always happy to hear from each of you.

Our newsletters have been published quarterly for the past 6-7 years. Since Susan was busy with school this year, we planned fewer group trips and we didn't publish either a March or June issue. In '95, we plan to return to September, December, and March newsletters. We will also continue to communicate unique travel opportunities by 'special mailings' to those who travel with us frequently and who have a previous mailing application on file (we've included a '95 application with this mailing so you can help bring our computer records up to date).

We plan to be on the river for several weeks in June and August of next year. If you are interested in our river plans, drop us a line to see if we have space for you. Those who've done river trips with us or who've previously expressed interest in this type of travel will receive our '95 river letter within the next two months without any action on their part. Private river trips require some participant involvement prior to the trip so during the fall we'll be instructing interested individuals about the private permit process. The regulatory agencies (NPS, BLM, NFS, etc.) allocate scarce river opportunities through permit lottery systems. As we are always telling our friends, it's as simple as this: if we all apply for a permit, one of us will likely draw, and then we can go rafting next year. While you can always go commercially, that type of trip is several times more expensive and considerably less gratifying than successfully navigating a river yourself. Self-reliant people are essential on all private trips but this quality is even more imperative on private raft trips.

Best of luck in your adventures whatever they are and wherever they may be. We hope you can make time to join one of our '95 trips and look forward to traveling with you soon.



Susan & Bob



Updated on Thursday, December 8, 2006 @ 4:30 MST
© 1995-2006 by Robert R. Marley