The Grand Canyon (Day 10) - Calling Home!

The following post is from the journal I kept of my recent adventure upon a 21-day private river rafting trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon from Lee's Ferry to Diamond Peak (about 230 miles) that took place between April 18th and May 8th, 2012.

April 27, 2012 

It was a good day! That sums it up! Finally, I can say the best day yet! I knew that after yesterday, today would be great. I'm not the kind of person that has two bad days in a row. Today had to be good!

This morning started with two parts awesome and one part amazing. First off, the weather this morning is so much more awesome than yesterday. Then, only minutes after leaving camp, I got to paddle the Grapevine Rapid and I have to brag that I did it awesomely! It was my biggest and most technical rapid yet. Then, at about mid-day, we FINALLY made it to Phantom Ranch and that was amazing!

My excitement when sky high when I saw the landmark bridge across the river just before the trail head to Phantom Ranch, which is a campground, ranger station, intersection of hiking trails between the North and South Rims, etc. at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Butch asked that we limit our time here so we'll be able to make good progress down the river. I know he wants to get past Horn Rapid sooner than later for several reasons. As soon as I stepped off the raft I set out to accomplish as much as I could physically handle.

First, I found the bathroom. A real bathroom with running water. I urinated in the urinal and washed my hands in a real sink twice. Then I saw the toilet and couldn't help myself so I took a spontaneous, on-demand, dump right there on the spot! Then I washed my hands some more in the real sink with running water. Hey, did I mention there is running water at Phantom Ranch???

After my bathroom stunt, I saw that Robert and Athena were on the pay phone. There are two pay phones here. One is at some bathrooms near the river. The other is about a mile up the trail at Phantom Ranch. I decided to run that mile and it is during this run that I decide that some day I shall return here with Jenny and trail run the Rim to Rim (Bright Angel Trail to Kaibab Trail or South Rim to North Rim). It's a beautiful scene with mature cottonwood trees nearly 100-years old planted all along the path. When I get there I see the pay phone is open so I jump on it, dial Jenny's number (after figuring out how to use a prepaid phone card) and when she answers the phone I choke up for words. Hearing her voice almost makes me cry. She even asks what is wrong with my voice. I pull myself together and spend about 30 minutes catching up with her. I learn that everything went fine with her getting home from Boston and the house and pets are OK, but most importantly I get to speak with Jenny and tell her I love  her and I miss her. She tells me some local and family stuff and it's good to hear news from home. I was so thankful that no hikers were waiting on me and that we were able to take our time chatting.

After the phone conversation I see that Andy and Cathy are on the phone so I have a few minutes before heading back knowing that at least I'm not the only one Butch is waiting for up here. I walk into the Cantina and make a few purchases including the famous lemonade with real ice, a post card for Jenny that I leave in a mule saddlebag that will be mailed after being hauled out of the Grand Canyon, and a candy bar. The lemonade is so cold that I even eat the ice after finishing it as I walk back down toward the river.

We leave Phantom Ranch and hit the river for the roller coaster of rapids laying ahead of us that climax with Horn rapid. We scout the rapid before running it and are lucky enough to be able to watch another group go ahead of us. Robert gets to paddle it and we end up "splitting the horns" as we pick our line. Robert does very well, probably even cleaner than Butch although his boat is very stern heavy with an extra cooler.

Tonight we are camped at Granite rapid. It's the best camp in two days mostly because the weather is agreeable. Robert, Athena and I are making lasagna for dinner in a dutch oven! Bring on Day 11!

Athena's co-workers back in Portland, Ore., actually sent her a care package at Phantom Ranch and this blow-up killer whale was inside. I think it compliments our "Flower Power" boat quite well!

The Grand Canyon (Day 9) - May I please have some more sand!

The following post is from the journal I kept of my recent adventure upon a 21-day private river rafting trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon from Lee's Ferry to Diamond Peak (about 230 miles) that took place between April 18th and May 8th, 2012.

April 26, 2012

I must admit, I'm a little bit down today. I can't believe I'm smack dab in the middle of one of the most awesome places on Earth and I'm in poor morale. My only issue is that I miss my fiance, Jenny. That's it. Since I'm a glass-is-half-full kind of guy I tell myself that this is excellent news and I would have a real problem if I didn't miss her at this point. Still, that doesn't really help. I had my mind set geared toward today being the day I could make a phone call to her from Phantom Ranch. It's kind of like running distance for me. If I have my mind set that I'm going to run a 50k then that's what I'm going to do and it's really no different of a mind set than setting out mentally to run a 5k. I was mentally prepared today to call home and it didn't happen because we didn't get to Phantom Ranch yet. Blah...

We're currently hunkered down at the Grapevine Campsite. It's a wonderful campsite in the Inner Gorge that has a long narrow beach that is abreast to a shear wall of vishnu schist and zoroaster granite. There's an amazing contrast between the nearly black schist and pink granite that intertwines together. It looks like freaking "Middle Earth" or something. Most people never get to see this part of the Grand Canyon because unless you raft the river it is difficult to get to from either the North or South Rims. It's also super SUPER old in geological time. The Vishnu Schist is nearly 2 billion year old rock. Absolutely insane to think about! Today is also Athena's birthday. And, I say we're hunkered down because we're experiencing some foul weather. It's extremely windy with intermittent rain showers. The wind is causing a horrid sandstorm on this otherwise beautiful beach. We stayed here in 2008 and it was hands down my favorite campsite. Right now it seems like a little bit of hell.

Don't get me wrong. We are making the best of our situation. Tonight we plan to celebrate Athena's birthday by baking her a cake in a dutch oven. It's also hamburger night, which I'm totally stoked for and everyone is pretty much in great spirits while pretending to ignore the blowing sand that has found its way into EVERYTHING. I think I'm the only one struggling with morale right now. Other than Bob, who is a lot more used to being alone on the river, I'm the only one without their significant other.  I went for a hike alone a little bit ago for two reasons. First, I wanted to climb to the top of this section where I turned back in 2008. It overlooks the campsite and requires a little technical climbing (see the above panoramic I took from the top). And secondly, I don't want to bring down my fellow river rafters with my morale issues. I think it helped, but I know I'll be back to normal and better after tomorrow when I'll at least have a chance to call home and make sure Jenny got home from Boston (Marathon) OK. That's the last I talked to her.

Ahhhh.... anyways. Enough of that feeling sorry for myself bullshit. I'm here to have an adventure damnit! Here's how we ended up here today. The weather pretty much went to sh*t  almost as soon as we entered the inner gorge this morning. It was like the Grand Canyon was saying, "so you want to have some fun on my world class rapids? You must first earn it by enduring the wrath of Mother Nature!" When this happened Butch quickly made the call to stop early (around 1 p.m.) to strategically set us up better for tomorrow. If we had continued today we would have faced some dangerous rapids late in the day. This way we'll be facing Horn Rapid first thing tomorrow morning. If something goes wrong then we'll have all day to address the situation, rather than dealing with it in the dark. There also aren't many campsites in the inner gorge and this is one of the best. I think that played into the decision as well.

We did run Hance, Nevilles and Sockdolger today... all of which are f*cking serious rapids, but Robert ran them all. He did great too, with no mistakes. I actually think he ran them better than some of the veterans in our party. This is probably because Robert and I are so damn scared of them that it's making us super safe. I've decided that I do not like going through these larger rapids as a passenger. I need to be in control. I'm very conflicted because I trust Robert 100-percent, but I think my personality needs to have control. Tomorrow I'm going to ask to run some bigger rapids starting with the Grapevine rapid. It's only a few hundred yards down river from our campsite and I've already scouted it from the top of the bluff I climbed up to earlier. I really need to cheer up! Seriously, what's one more day before being able to call home. We've been in the wilderness for 9 days and I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've ever gone without any outside contact, electricity, cell phones, air condition, running water, etc. Bring on day 10! I'm ready for anything this canyon wants to throw at us! 

 Athena makes a wish (hopefully for the sandstorm to stop) and celebrates her birthday with a dutch 

oven baked chocolate cake!

 I laughed my ass off when I first saw this picture. It's Bob, Robert and myself trying to make a human shield against the blowing sand for Butch while he grills our burgers.