In Search of the Good Life...: The Ditch (Grand Canyon Rafting Trip) Part 2

As much fun as I had writing the last post, I was a little disappointed that I didn't progress the trip account far enough to actually get us on the water, but I am pretty confident I'll get us on the water in this one.

3/28 Launch Day - Lee's Ferry to Soap Creek Camp (mile 11.3)

We woke up at Lee's Ferry to a lovely grab-and-go breakfast prepared by Ben, at which time we also got to witness the art by which he swung the large metal coffee carafe to settle the grounds--a feat Andy would replicate for the next 15 days. Breaking down personal gear and getting the boats reloaded took longer than expected (LTE count: 2), so we didn't actually launch until noon (I think? Cory or Brad, check my math on this one).

We're on the water--woo!

Steve on his deluxe rig complete with sunshade

Photo credit: Cory Inman

Rio in his duckie

Phot credit: Chris Inman

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I should point out that the length of Grand Canyon river trips can very pretty significantly. From the NPS website:

Lees Ferry to Diamond Creek River Trips (commercial and noncommercial) - Motorized and non-motorized whitewater rafting trips which launch from Lees Ferry and take-out at Diamond Creek vary greatly in length. Motor trips usually take a minimum of 7 days to reach Diamond Creek, but half trip options are available for those who wish to hike in or out at Phantom Ranch. Individuals can choose between commercial and noncommercial trips.

3 to 18 Day Commercial River Trips. These are professionally guided raft trips, available to the public and often reserved a year or two in advance.
12 to 25 Day Noncommercial River Trips. 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.

Ya'll, I don't know what sort of fancy protein shakes the boat operators are chugging to make it 225 miles in twelve days, but everyone on our team agreed that 16 days--the length of our trip--was on the shorter end of short. Our itinerary was complicated by the fact that we absolutely had to make it to Cremation/Phantom Ranch area (mile 88) by April 1/2 so that Rio could hike out, and with strong headwinds and a slow current, we were fighting for miles the first several days of the trip.

Back to Day 1 on the water. It's also where my memory gets a little fuzzy because all of this happened ~20 days ago. I remember the first day on the water being pleasant but a little chilly, and our pace was slow--1-2 miles an hour (when we had planned for 4-5!). The nice thing about the first few miles of river is that there aren't too many significant features, so the primary boat operators (all of us rowed at some point or another) had a chance to get used to rowing 18 foot rigs that probably weighed about 1,000 lbs (more? someone correct me on this). These rafts are the tanks of the water--they don't turn particularly fast, but with momentum, they can cut through most waves if you are T'd up to the wave (hit the wave perpendicular (bow aligned with wave). Most rowing advice I saw prior to getting on the water was "T up to stuff" and that rang very true for nearly every feature. That is not to say that you can't flip an 18ft rig. More on that later.

We crossed under the Navajo Bridges (mile 4.5) in the afternoon, which are 470 feet above the Colorado River. Upstream bridge opened in 1929 and cost $385,000. Downstream bridge opened in 1995 and cost $15 million (source: RiverMaps).

View of Navajo Bridges.

Photo credit: Cory Inman

We continued to cruise (slowly) down the river, fighting a slow current and headwind, until reaching our first significant feature: Badger Creek Rapid. Doug swam out of a duckie on an early rapid, but I don't remember which rapid and we were able to resolve the situation without much effort.

For those of you less familiar with rapids and rapid rating systems, this is from Paddling Magazine:

"Around the globe, the International Scale of River Difficulty (ISRD) is the most commonly used system of rating whitewater rapids. This scale was created by American Whitewater and uses roman numerals on a I to VI scale to indicate the level of difficulty and consequence of a rapid. There are other established systems—for example, the Grand Canyon rating system using a rating scale of 1 to 10—however, the ISRD is the most widely used."

Badger Creek is a 5 on the GC rating system, so right in the middle of difficulty. That said, we learned very quickly that there's no just thing as "just a blah blah blah" rated rapid. Even the lowest rated rapids can wreak havoc on an unsuspecting raft. We learned this lesson the hard way a few times, starting with Badger Creek.

From a risk management perspective, it's important to have a plan when facing features in the river; understanding how to read water, having a rowing plan to navigate that water, and having a "if shit hits the fan" plan in case there are swimmers (folks ejected from their boats) or issues with a raft (flips, pins, etc.). I don't pretend to be an expert in swiftwater mechanics--far from it--so you'll have to rely on Avery, Brad, Cory, & company for the nuts and bolts of risk management in swiftwater, but I'll try to explain things at a level that most folks can understand (and I hope I don't screw it up).

For our team, we scouted all major rapids and/or rapids that were recommended to be scouted from our river resources. Scouting usually requires parking the rafts on river right or river left and physically getting out of the boat to either walk the length of the rapid from the land or getting up to a high enough vantage point where you can see the entirety of the rapid. It can be helpful if someone in the party (in our case, it was often Avery in his kayak) can run the rapid in advance of the other boats to show which line to take, or sometimes there may be another party of boaters ahead of your group and you can watch them run the rapid to get a sense of what to do or what not to do.

In addition to scouting the rapid, the team will generally set an order of boats from first boat to sweep boat so that folks can be positioned in the river, often in an eddy*, to be able to rescue people, gear, and/or boats if necessary.

*eddy: "a place in the river immediately downstream of an obstacle, such as a rock or stump. The water seeks to back-fill the lower-pressure area behind an obstacle, forming a pocket of upstream current" (source: teamriverrunner).

I'm not gonna list order of operations for EVERY significant rapid that we ran, but since we had an incident on Badger, I'll report what I can remember. Avery went first in the kayak (I think?), followed by Cory's raft, then Steve and Joe's boats, followed by Brad's boat as sweep. Rio was also somewhere in the middle in his duckie. Things were going well, until they weren't.

Above Badger Creek Rapid (5)

Photo Credit: Andy James

Scouting Badger Creek Rapid
Photo Credit: Cory Inman

Joe got ejected out of the back of his raft, took a tumble, ended up under his raft, and essentially swam the entire rapid before being rescued by Rio in the duckie. The raft luckily didn't flip and Joe was uninjured, but it was a good wake up call for all of us.

Sidebar: a note on River Names

I wasn't sure if I was going to include River Names in my posts, but I was encouraged to do so (and selfishly, I want to make sure I have a record of them). If any of my 2 readers are familiar with Trail Names, it's the same concept. For folks that have thru-hiked major trails (e.g. the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, etc.), they often have a name bestowed upon them by other hikers based on a specific experience or their personality. A person can't choose their own trail name or river name. It has to be given. And agreed upon by a quorum.

On the first day of the trip, Cory was given his river name by Steve: "Major Tom"--fitting because Cory was the leader of our crew and also showed up to the trip with a full astronaut suit, helmet included.

Cory AKA "Major Tom"

Photo Credit: Andy James

Not to be confused with the other Major Tom.

Or the OG:

David Bowie in "Space Oddity"
Photo credit: the internet

After swimming Badger, Joe also earned his River Name. What started as "Honey Badger" became "Humbled Badger" became "Tumbled Badger." Tumby, for short.

After getting Joe back in his boat and warmed up, we continued to make our way down the river to Soap Creek Camp (11.3). The first day was long and fulfilling and eventful. Soap Creek Camp I remember being a pretty good camp. Dinner at Soap Creek: (Grill)--Grilled Steak and Salmon with Baked Potatoes. At this point, we were a little behind our projected itinerary, but folks were happy and safe.