The Ditch (Grand Canyon Rafting Trip) Part 11

4/6 Layover Day at Lower Tapeats (134.5)

(written on 5/13)

It’s 3:19am and I’m at the SLC airport. It’s too early to check a bag with a gate agent so I figured I’d bang out a blog post. I pulled my computer out to start typing, only to discover that it was dead, so cell phone it is. I also just discovered that I left my Rubik’s Cube at home and I am DEVASTATED. I really hope there’s an overpriced one in the airport. 

(Editor's note: first thing I bought in Spain--pleased that my Spanish is functional enough to purchase a Cube!)

It occurred to me a few days ago that I am about to be in the position of having 6 more GC posts to compete while starting a new adventure as part of the Westminster University May Term Study Away (MTSE): Trekking the Camino de Santiago (Spain). If you’ve perused my blog prior to this year’s posts, you’ll note that most entries post 2010 are from study abroad programs. But I’m not in Spain yet—gotta get my shit together and finish the GC first! Note: “Get your shit together” was a frequently quoted reference from Rick and Morty. 

We’d quote most of this scene:

Rick and Morty: 

Back to the Grand. Oh man, we’ve reached layover day. Our one glorious layover day on the entire trip. And we made the most of it. While some of the crew wanted to use the layover day to max and relax, upon Captain Brad's recommendation, Doug, Andy, Joe, Brad, Cory and I went out on a hike to see Thunder River, the second largest spring on the north rim. Learn more about Thunder River here.

I'm gonna do a spotlight on Brad before giving him a hard time.

Photo credit: Chris Inman

Photo credit: Cory Inman

I have so many names for Brad. Captain Brad. Coach. I spent more time on Brad's boat than any other boat. At first, when I was assigned to Brad's boat, I was a little nervous because despite 20+ years of river guiding, Brad had never rowed an oar rigged boat. My fears were quickly put to rest. Brad is a meticulous reader of whitewater. This guy knows what he's doing, and he took to the oars very quickly. In fact, he's the only boat operator that didn't swim somebody. All of our boat operators were competent and took their roles seriously, but being in Brad's boat definitely brought me a sense of calm, particularly during some rapid scouts where I really needed it.

Brad is a lot like me in that we both talk a mile a minute and our brains are always in overdrive, and man, it was so much fun to get to know him over the course of this trip. Brad is witty and creative and loves what he does for a living. I'm hoping I can bring him in as virtual guest speaker in one of my courses in the future--this guy knows outdoor program business operations, and it was cool to learn about his problem solving processes and visions for growth. He loves sharing his knowledge of whitewater with others. I learned a ton from Brad (hence why I call him "Coach") and I'm excited to continue our friendship. And our Rick and Morty quoting.

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I may have mentioned in an earlier post that I'm supposed to be writing a book on heuristic traps in outdoor leadership. We got to experience the Expert Halo heuristic trap on this particular outing, and this is where I'm going to give Brad a hard time.

Brad, who had done trail before, said it would be about 500 feet total elevation gain and probably about 2 hours. In Brad's defense, none of us consulted our readily available maps to confirm the plan and/or identify other features on the trail--such as river crossings, waaaay more than 500 ft of elevation gain, and a much longer hike than anticipated. So while our ignorance was a group effort, we still gave Brad some good natured shit over it and awarded him the river name "AllTrails."

I gave Brad an opportunity to fact check his spotlight before I posted it, and in his defense:

"the trail alignment between river and the Thunder/Tapeats Confluence had been significantly rerouted since I hiked it in April 2013. To date, the official NPS GIS data repository for GCNP does not have any data reflecting the new alignment of the trail. I was still a bit off on my estimate of elevation gan but the new alignment requiring climbing steeply from the river on the west side of Tapeats and the two freeform creek crossings were all new to me."

This hike was a top 3 highlight for me from the trip (am I out of top 3 slots?). There was so much varied terrain, a little bit of light scrambling, some run river crossings to trouble shoot, two big horn sheep that absolutely refused to yield the trail, and an incredible waterfall payoff at the end. A two sentence blurb doesn't do the hike or the experience justice.

Cory had Chris’s phone after Cory’s phone fogged up due to a brief dip the first day. Cory received Chris’s phone with 83% charge and returned it dead (D.E.A.D. dead) after taking pictures and videos of everything on this incredible, spiritual, magical hike. Photo credits: Cory Inman

Thought I could use a new faculty profile photo :)

Joe on one of two river crossings

This hike had a few scrambly bits

Views like this the whole time

The crew after team river crossing #2

Andalf the Grand - All shall pass!

Majestic big horn sheep

Majestic waterfall

Majestic friendship

Majestic view

After realizing that the trail was a bit longer than expected; we decided to mix in some trail hop, skipping, and jumping to keep the crew together as we crossed some of the flatter sections of the trail. This was super memorable because it really captured the spirit of the trip to that point: To be free and playful as much as possible. 

I mentioned river crossings. These were unexpected and posed an opportunity for me to 1) get on my high horse about "wet feet lifestyle" because you waste a ton of time taking your shoes on and off before river crossings and it's dangerous and 2) it provided Andy with what might be the best river name of the entire group! Andalf the Grey Grand. For a brief moment, Andy suggested that he wouldn't cross the river and he'd wait for us until we got back--good thing we didn't do that because it would have been HOURS--but after agreeing that "all shall pass" and finding a really big stick/wizard staff, Andy very much embodied the part of Andalf the Grand. Also river crossings that require teamwork are my favorite!

Big horn sheep. Dang. Those things are super cool. And also, kind of scary if you piss them off! We kept trying to give them a wide berth on and around the trail, but these suckers just kept pacing with us. 

The waterfall itself was stunning and totally worth the extra effort to get up there. The cascades of the waterfall were at least a mile long--it's still surreal to think about that much water in the West when it feels very scarce in most of Utah.

I asked Cory to share his perspective:

Sitting at the bottom of the falls was a mystical experience as we peered up at spring water shooting out of two holes in a red cliff deep in the Grand Canyon. There was even mention by someone on the crew that the Supai tribe considers this place like a portal to another world. The mist felt perfect after a long hike and we took a moment to soak it all in as a group. One of the really special things about our crew is that everyone was clearly savoring the experience in their own way. It was refreshing to savor these special, hard-to-reach places with new friends. 

(Still Cory): I also had a funny experience after spending some time mediating near the waterfall as others headed back down the trail. As I was wandering back to catch up with the crew that had headed down, I came upon a solo backpacker who I hadn’t seen before on the river or anywhere else. I asked the backpacker if he had figured out a way to get to the top of the waterfall where the water was shooting out of the cliff side. The backpacker said there was, it just required one exposed move with a big jug handhold. Thinking to myself that was a bit of risky move for a solo backpacker, the next thing that happened was even more surprising. After sharing his free solo experience, the backpacker suddenly asked “Hey, are you Cory?” Having never met this person, I was pretty shocked and briefly felt like I was meeting some messenger from some place. Turns out the backpacker had just run into the rest of the crew, but perhaps I was in just a bit of a mystical mode after my meditation near the bottom of the falls. 

(Back to me) We just sat there at the waterfall for a while, savoring nature. Did a light scramble to get an even closer view of the falls. I was especially grateful for the opportunity to spend time with our mini group of Doug, Joe, Cory, Brad, and Andy. 8ish hours of trail time gave us all an opportunity to connect with the people who didn't regularly ride on our boats. Dinner; pesto pasta, Italian sausage, garlic bread.

Okay, so...this will be the last Grand Canyon post for a while because I'M IN SPAIN!! I'm going to document our Camino de Santiago experience in mostly-real-time, but I WILL come back to the Grand Canyon to finish up. Cheers!