“Gazing upon this
view, one is struck by the canyon's vastness. The mind struggles to comprehend
it. Try to describe the canyon's size in words. Try to measure in your mind the
canyon's depth, width, and length. Measurements like 1 mile deep, 18 miles wide,
and 277 river miles long leave us scratching our heads. Perhaps the best we can
do is just feel the canyon's enormity. Measure yourself up against it. We are
minuscule in comparison, but still, through the keen receptivity of our senses,
we can appreciate Grand Canyon's immensity.”
I spent 9 days & 8
nights trying to find words to describe this experience, and this
sign, atop Bright Angel Trail, does it perfectly. We didnt' just visit the edge of this vastness though, we were living in it. Carving our way through our planets history each day. More than 86 miles traveled, over which time we descended thousands of feet into the Canyon. Each day the walls got higher, the colors more brilliant, and the stars more bountiful. There were tons of laughs, and new friends made, and plenty of excitement to go around. While it'd be impossible to fully capture this experience in words and pictures, this posts purpose is mainly to set the stage, document a few great moments, and trigger memories that I never want to forget......which I don't think will be a risk :)
How did we get so lucky? For me, I married well. Maura's uncle Glenn has been a full time raft guide for almost 40 years now, and won a lottery for a 21+ day private permit. Since there was no way to do all 21 days, we took the first 9 days, 8 nights, along with her sisters and a few others. There were 16 of us in total, and 9 of us would take out at Phantom Ranch and hike out, while 9 others hiked down to take our places.
The River Family:
Glenn (Trip Leader), Me, Maura, Sarah & Melissa (sisters), Suzie (Glenns girlfriend), Jim & Donna (Suzie's BFF & Hubby, from SE Michigan!), Andrew (Glenn friend/co-worker from Avl), John (Suzie's cousin), Bruce & Braydon (father son boatman duo), Rob, George, & Brett (all fellow boatman friends of Glenn) and Diane in a Kayak (friend of Glenns)
Camp Schedule:
"Blaster" (propane burner) wakes you up around 5:45-6:00am. "Coffee, Hot Chocolate, and Teas from AROUND THE WORLD" would be announced loudly by Glenn or whomever was on cook crew that morning. Instantly, zippers started opening up and zombies would slog down to the river to fill the cup of life. Most days there was a communal bottle of baileys to go with it :).
 |
| Me making coffee the morning after our layover day. Sunrise in the background. |
We ate, packed up camp, loaded all the boats and were off shore by 8:30-9:00am. We'd either hit some rapids, or just float for a bit, and then dock up for lunch and a hike. Hikes always had an element of an amazing view, amazing history, or both. A few of my favs below:
 |
| Red Wall Cavern - could easily fit 5,000 people. |
 |
| So we did what anyone else would do in this space...BOCCE! |
 |
| Top of Eminence hike. Amazing view |
 |
| Maura keeping tradition alive, even though her center of balance is off :) |
 |
| From Nankoweap Ruins. Granaries on upper right that date back to 1100AD. Furthest point down river in this pic is ~4 miles away. |
 |
| Most of the time, the layers are horizontal, but here, you can see them folding in on themselves, creating a vertical formation. Mind, blown. |
  |
| Native American women would sit in this "birthing chair" (first pic) to give birth. Maura was not allowed near it. In the second pic, you can see a drawing of a person with a "cord" going to another person. Wild. |
 |
| Atop Unkar Rapids, and checking out some ruins that were built to be an overlook up river |
 |
| Clear creek hike |
Usually after our lunch, we'd pack up again, and hit some more rapids or float, and arrive at our camp site for the night around 3:45 or 4:00pm. We'd unload the boats, setup the kitchen, bathroom, hand wash stations, fire pit, and our individual camp sites. We'd cook, eat and clean up, and then relax around the fire pit, drinking, chatting and watching a beautiful sunset over the red rocks above us, before a million stars and a faint Milky Way would take it's place. The running joke was that 8:05 was the allowable bed time. No sooner. Which was harder than it sounds. "Is it 8:05 yet?" "It's 7:00". HA!
This routine repeated itself for 9 days. Coffee, sunrise, boat, lunch, hike, boat, dinner, drink, sunset, eat, star gaze, sleep. Repeat. You could probably throw "drink" in a few extra times after coffee :)
How does this all work?:
Ceiba (Say-Buh) is a river outfitting service that does just that, they provide everything you'll need (except booze) to make this trip amazing, and also allows for zero impact to the environment. They picked us up in Flagstaff, took all our gear (camping stuff) and our booze, and loaded it onto their huge trailer, which also had our boats, food, kitchen, bathroom, etc. and drove us to Lees Ferry. Looking back now, I still have no idea how it all fits, but each boat is mapped out by meal and day, or function (kitchen, bathroom, supplies, etc) which makes it work out. As a supply chain guy, this part really fascinated me. To be as zero impact as possible, and still be as small as possible, and keep things dry....not easy.
 |
| Ceiba picking us up |
 |
| 16 peoples boats, gear, full kitchen and bath, water system, food (with apps and zerts), theme night supplies, pumpkins for Halloween, and of course.....alcohol! Notice Andrew, sitting on a mountain of beer. He duct taped for an hour, just to give you perspective on how much beer gets consumed in 21 days (we had 2nd half-ers beer with us too). I took 72 beers myself, and still had a bum a few towards the end. |
 |
| Finished product. Gear in back, piled high, supplies on sides of frame and under front seat, and boatman sits on the cooler. 3 people in total per boat. Braydon rows single 16' himself. |
Jobs:
To make this whole thing work smoothly, we rotated jobs throughout the week. We were either on cook crew, camp crew, or groover duty (heh heh, duty). If you cooked, you cooked dinner that night, breakfast and lunch the next day. Then went to Camp Crew, where you helped setup hand wash stations, dish wash area, fire pit, and general setup. Groover duty meant setting up toilet and taking it down the next day. "Everything goes with you down the river", even poo. Then you'd have a few days off, and the rotation would start again. Let's talk Groover again, it deserves it's own section......
The Groover was a metal box, with a riser, and a toilet lid. You pee in a bucket (which gets dumped in river, which is fine) and poop in the box. Placement is key. It got the name because before someone realized you could attach a seat, you sat on the riser, and your butt would have "grooves" in it when you got up! Classic.
Out of sight is preferred, but with a gorgeous view regardless. There's a hand wash nearby, and a "key" (boat cushion) that is left there when unoccupied, and is taken with you when using so ppl know it's occupied. Taking the key, and leaving it at the Groover is a major party foul. I don't think I'll ever be able to poop in such peace ever again.
Food/Meals:
I don't eat this well at home. Nearly everything was prepared from scratch, by us. We had an ingredient list, and instructions like a cookbook. We "shopped" off the boats for the stuff needed, and prepared in teams of 3, and served the rest of the group. Steak, salmon, fish tacos, bacon, omelets, jambalaya, it was all amazing. All with an apps and 'zerts!! I witnessed Maura make a fricken cheese cake in a dutch oven, and it was cold when she served it.
 |
| Melissa and Glenn cooking lasagna in the dutch oven at Awutabi Camp |
 |
| Sarah, Donna, and I making fish tacos at Cardenas before our Halloween Party. |
The Water:
Had 2-3 "Big Days" with one of them being our last day. Most stuff of note was between class 4-9 (GC scale 1-10). Glenn would use a metal spoon and draw out the rapids in the sand each night and go over the "moves" of each. Sometimes I'd listen, it was amazing hearing his thought process and memory. But, if you've done this trip 40+ times, I guess you'd remember things in detail. Sometimes, ignorance was bliss though, I didn't want to know if we were in trouble or not!
 |
| Glenn and Bret talking about House, our first big rapid on Day 3 |
 |
| 6 drawings representing the rapids we were hitting on Day 6. |
"Oh shit" story #1: First decent rapids were Badger and Soap. Badger wasn't as bad as I thought so coming up to Soap I pulled out my phone to try video. Maura cautioned me on that and I agreed to put it away. Next thing I know, we hit our first big wave and I hear Bruce yell "oh shit!" and I look back and our right oar had come out of the oar lock! (where oar pivots on the frame) I turned around and jumped back onto the frame, and had to help grab and re-thread the oar back through the oar lock while Bruce tried to keep us stable finishing out the 16' total drop. It was exciting, and also a reminder that, no matter how good the boatman, shit can happen!
"Oh SHIT!!!" story #2: Hance was first up on our "Big Day" of Day 6. Class 7-9, and a 30' drop. Glenn actually pulled us over before it, and we hiked up to an overlook so they could scout it out, and talk through the moves. At the top Glenn yelled "oh my god" and we all stopped in our steps. Crap, what are we in for???? Nothing, he was kidding, and just wanted to get a reaction....which he did. We had a semi specific line to take to avoid the holes and big drops. We started in perfectly on line, push left into the "duck pond" where we'd start pulling towards the center around the big hole on the left. At the first drop I heard it again, "OH SHIT PIN BROKE" and I look back, and this time, the left oarlock pin had snapped completely, and had come out of the post. The "Y" was somehow hanging onto the oar, flapping around and sliding up and down the loose oar. I immediately jumped back onto the frame edge behind Maura, grabbed the oar lock pin with one hand, and held onto the post with the other, trying to get the pin back in the post hole as fast as I could. "hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!!" Bruce yelled and I heard Maura scream as I braced myself on the edge, back turned to the massive hole we were about the hit. A wall of water crashed into my back and over my head. It felt like we crashed into a wall, which I guess we did in a way. I got the pin dropped back in and Bruce was able to get us over to shore. Bruce needed a minute, Maura had "deer in headlights" and tears coming down her face, and I still don't know how I stayed in the boat. I had a blast.
Some Favorite (sharable) Memories (outside of the "oh shit" ones):
Getting to row a little through some little rapids and yelling to Maura "I'm quitting my job and we're raising our family in the Canyon"
Standing on the bow of a boat, the morning of layover day, watching the sun come up over the walls in front of me. The warmth of the sun coming through my flannel shirt, and the faint, noticeable laugh of Maura behind me on shore cooking breakfast. I remember looking back to her, and sharing a smile......we both enjoyed seeing the other enjoying this as much as we were individually.
 |
| Sunrise at Cardenas |
 |
| Sunrise at Emenence |
STAR TALK!! Oh my god this was the BEST THING EVER!!! Mind = melted. During mid-day on layover day, Glenn laid out a bunch of 5x7 cards around the fire pit, each with either a zodiac on it, or a planet. The fire pit was the sun, and everything was arranged based on that nights placement. Glenn went on to describe the universe from Earth on out to the universe and multiverses. A mix of Astrology, and Astronomy. The different planes, the rotations, how time and placement effected star charts, and even some great stories about the origins of the constellations. I felt like I was 7 years old listening to "Adventures Beyond the Solar System, Planetron and Me" but with more appreciation of the scale and our placement within the universe. Like I said, mind = melted.
 |
| Glenn: Mind melter..... |
 |
| Anyone else have this book/tape as a kid? |
The smile on Glenn's face when he had Melissa and Maura in his boat for the day. You could tell he really loved having them there, and it was cool to see that.
Going through Sockdolanger, watching Braydon go into a hole sideways, and fall out of the boat. Me: Oh shit, Braydon's out! Bruce (his dad): "Oh cool!" I laughed my ass off at that one. Somehow he climbed back in and made it through. A beer was lost, though.
Putting on a headlamp to go down to river to pee in the middle of the night, then turning it off and enjoying the stars whilst relieving. Teeth brushing was like this too, which I guess is odd to enjoy both like this....not at the same time.
"Murder-Wink": A game of "who done it" while on the river. I drew the "murder card" and had to wink at people to kill them, without anyone seeing me. Victims had to stage a fake death within 10-20 min of being winked at. If someone suspected me, they stated "I have an accusation" and if seconded by another, and they both picked the correct person, the game was over. If everyone was killed before murder was caught, he won. I won. I killed a few, and when an accusation was made by Melissa, and not seconded, I knew she had to go too. Done. My raft might as well have been a white Bronco. Since I was making dinner, and was serving people, I went on a murder spree before anyone could catch me. I'm not proud of what I had to do, but competition is competition.
Halloween!!!! I almost forgot! We celebrated Halloween the night before our layover day, after I killed everyone! A time to cut loose since we didnt' have to pack up the next morning, and no one had to row. Everyone had some form of costume, and an Irish Carbomb party broke out shortly after dinner! It was the latest night I stayed up of the whole trip, and well worth it. We all had on glow stick necklaces, and bracelets....it was so much fun. I paid for it the next day though. I don't recommend hungover hikes in the desert.
 |
| Me, Glenn and Suzie |
 |
| Melissa, Suzie and Glenn |
 |
| Halloween dinner, with two hikers we met near our site. They went back with a story!! |
The "windy night": Our 5th night, we stayed at Awutabi. Winds were picking up as we went to bed after listening to the Cubs on the AM radio. By 10pm, winds were gusting easily 40-50mph sustained.....the whole night. From our tent, we laid with clothes over our faces because sand was blowing up and under our rain fly, and raining down through the screen. We heard the kitchen tables go over, and I had to get up 4 times to re-stake our rain fly. People lost rainfly's and clothes out drying. Some found, some not. The sand created a "white out" view for me through my headlamp view when I got up to pee in the middle of the night. Very little sleep that night.
 |
| The lil' circle of tents before the winds kicked up! |
The Cubbies!!! This might be one of the coolest things ever. I'm not a baseball fan, but Jim had a HAM radio that he could get AM stations on with a long, wire, antennae. We listened to game 5, 6, and 7 after dinner. That was our only understanding of the "outside world" while we were down there. Game 5 was the "windy night" and game 7 was our last night on the river. The beach camp site had many small levels creeping up the hillside dotted with dimly lit tents, the canyon walls creating a jagged, black, backdrop from which a cloudless and starry night rose above us with a great view of the Milky Way. When the tying HR was hit in the 8th, the groans echoed from our site :). Same as the cheers when the Cubbies won later on in the bottom of the 10th!
That damn hike out........conclusion, or as I like to call it, The Encore!:
The hike out was 7.5 miles long up the Bright Angel Trail to Bright Angel Lodge where 9 of us "half trippers" were hiking up to and staying the night before heading out. The elevation gain was 5,000 feet. We started at 8:10am. Rob and I started out in front together, with Maura, Melissa, and Sarah slightly behind us, Andrew behind them, and Jim, Donna and Suzie behind him. Rob and I stopped to chat with the 9 people replacing us as we met them on their way down. I wanted to beat them up, take their clothes and place back on the boats, but we let them by.
The views were actually amazing. All this time we had been experiencing the river from the bottom, and now we were getting to see it from a steady climb up to the rim. Once Maura and the girls caught up to us, the 5 of us stayed together until the top. Maura led a lot of the way, because she's a bad-ass, and we frequently motivated ourselves by saying "thumbs out" which was what Donna had told us would help bring more oxygen to our lungs when we were tired.
 |
| Rob and I after Indian Gardens |
 |
| Rob and I when we stopped for lunch on the trail |
 |
| Meeting up with the girls for the rest of the trip up |
 |
| Thumbs out for Donna!! |
The pace slowed, the motivation deteriorated, but we finally made it to the top in just under 5 hours. Not bad considering the grade, and the frequent stops we made to rest and eat. Walking around the grounds of Bright Angel was a weird feeling. It started with the busy parking lot, and all the buses and people walking around. It was a bit overwhelming. Then, going into the lobby, electricity and lights, more people bumbling around. We checked in, but room wasn't ready for another 2 hours. BEER TIME!! We all went to the bathroom before heading into the bar and all had the same reaction coming out: "did you look in the mirror?" Odd, but think about not seeing yourself for 9 days. Every morning most of us brush teeth, wash faces, contacts, etc....you catch a glimpse of yourself. It caught us all off guard. "Why didn't you guys tell me I looked this bad"
 |
| Me, Melissa, Maura, Rob, and Sarah. |
 |
| Draft beer at a temp below 45.....so refreshing, even if we weren't! |
During one of my "check ins" another couple caught me in the lobby and said "you made it!" (the lady recognized my river hat with colored laie on it) "Yes, I replied, did you just get in? Did you see a lady in a pink hat anywhere along the way?" She confirmed she had seen Donna and Jim at the 1.5mi (to go) mark and she was struggling but moving along. I ran back to tell the others, then ran out to the rim to see if I could see them. Considering the distance out and down I could see, I was hopeful.
There, on the edge of one of the switch backs, I spotted Donna's pink hat!! "DONNA!!! THUMBS OUT!!!!" I yelled. I got a lot of odd looks from around me, but then I saw her look back, and stand up, and I could see Jim too! "You got this girl, almost there" I yelled again. I heard them yell something and wave, and then Donna popped up, and started trucking up the next set of switchbacks. Walking sticks cranking the whole way! About that time, I ran back and met up with Maura, Melissa, Sarah and Rob, and we got to the trail head just as Donna and Jim were making the last turn. She was soooo happy, and deservingly so! Lots of hugs, lots of Ice Tea, and then back to the bar!
 |
| You go girl!! |
 |
| New River Family Pic! |
 |
| Rob still sporting the laie, Jim with the Manhattan he'd been dreaming about |
 |
| Melissa, Maura and I at the bar before dinner.... |
 |
| With Andrew, Sarah, and Rob. The smiles say it all! |
