Photo: Eric Evans

Rigging for a Grand Canyon trip is always an anxious experience; everyone psyched to be getting on the river, trying not to forget any essentials, curious about what the water will be like depending on the Glen Canyon damn release, what the weather will do, or who the passengers are that we will take down the river for the next two weeks.

The logistics of the October 2-16th 2001 trip involved 5 of us guiding 5 rafts to carry 17 passengers, and 4 other guides-in-training to share the 2 gear-only boats (one being the 'crap' boat, which carries out all our waste and garbage over a 2 week period. Passengers don't ride on this boat for obvious reasons, and it doesn't tend to be the boat of choice for the gear boat rowers, but everyone has had to do it at some point...).

The guides had the rafts ready-to-go and rigged when the 2 vans showed up with the passengers and Scotty, our crazy, entertaining, legendary trip leader. He told us that our passengers were a group who used to live together in a hippie commune in the 1970s. I knew right away it was going to be an entertaining trip...

After a safety speech and briefing, we set out on the Colorado, 186 miles of Grand Canyon below us before Whitmore Wash, where the passengers helicopter out to Bar 10 Ranch on the North Rim. Any river guide expects to have a few standard pieces of info ready to answer expected questions on the 1st day- the river depth ranges from a few inches to over 100 feet, width from 76-150 feet, water temperature from 46-50 degrees F (yes, its cold), river speed is 3-10 mph depending on the drop, which is 1,709 feet to Lake Mead (25 times that of the Mississippi), etc. This type of information answers your commonly asked questions, but a river guide often feels licensed to answer off-the-wall questions however they want.

Some of the questions I have heard include, "at what elevation do deer turn into elk?"; or "are there any undiscovered caves around here?"; or "how far below sea level are we?"; or "how do we get back up to where we started from?"; or "what's behind the rock?". It is difficult to answer these questions seriously instead of telling them the rock is all a Disneyland facade, or that to get back to where we started I have to row back up river, or that the Grand Canyon goes in a big circle. However, I usually am pretty good and just explain that we have a shuttle system, or that we actually are not below sea level. River guides usually do go into Geology, Archaeology, History, Flora, Fauna throughout the trip, and in the Grand Canyon there is a rich, fascinating plethora of information on all these subjects.

"The thing about Lava Falls is there are brutal consequences and gnarly spots you must avoid all over the rapid, and every guide on the trip has witnessed or experienced some Lava carnage."

However, this first day I found myself not talking but listening to these x-hippies talk about the commune, intrigued by the dynamics of what was going on, as they brought back their memories. There were some attention-grabbing events that happened in the commune that they hadn't spoken about until this reunion, which were quite intriguing as they unfolded in the conversations. Asking about how the commune started or about the power/authority situation sparked some interesting debates. The passengers were all fascinating people, ranging from avocado farmers to a gold medalist. One passenger lived with his wife and three sons on a sailboat, and invited me to live on the boat at any time during their next expedition to the Carribean and Central America. One woman on the trip was a psychotherapist and had a 'gift' that the other community members spoke of. She asked if she could 'work' on me and told me about my energy field, and I still don't believe or understand how she knew so many facts and details about myself and my childhood.

The community they lived in was centered around spiritual beliefs and Yogananda, so they would meditate together every morning as we packed up the kitchen, toilet, and rigged our boats with gear and bags. The entire group began to interact and reminisce more and more until it seemed like they all felt like they were back in time again- 20 years younger, dancing and laughing and running around- and it pretty much stayed this way the entire trip.

We float down through sedimentary layers day by day and ran some fun rapids- House Rock, the roaring 20s, President Harding. We stopped at the confluence of the Little Colorado river where turquoise waters flow into the Grand Colorado river. We ran Hance, a class 8 (on a 1-10 scale, which varies with water level), and luckily all 7 rafts avoided the 'rubber magnet', a pour-over rock that seems to draw boats toward its large face. A fellow guide and friend of mine was postage-stamped to that rock for 9 hours earlier in the season.

We begin to see pink Zoraster Granite and black Vishnu Schist that is 1.7 billion years old. That's old. Older than we can conceptualize. The Grand Canyon has a way with its huge canyon walls and powerful rapids of making you, as a human being, feel rather small. To the rock we are just a speck in time, a fleeting moment of existence.

We float into the Upper Granite Gorge and encounter more large rapids- Sockdolager that nails you from both sides, Grapevine, and Horn Creek, a class 8, with an entry splitting 2 horn-like pour-overs at the top. After some great stories around the campfire that night and a fajita dinner, we get up, eat French toast and bacon, and run Granite(class 8+), Hermit (class 8), then the jewels- Crystal (class 9), Sapphire, Turquoise, Emerald, Ruby, then Serpentine and Bass.

Below is Elves Chasm, a paradise of clear pools, dripping moss and ferns, Blacktail canyon, Bedrock and Dubendorf rapids, and the famous Surprise Valley loop hike ending at Deer Falls. We camp at Poncho's kitchen and wrap up another great day around the campfire.

An entire day is dedicated to exploring Havasu. Some people relax by the turquoise pools, others of us charge up to Beaver Falls, where there is the green room, a secret cavern tucked under a ledge, and paradise on all sides. Our hippies are still feeling 20 years younger, having 'experiences' as we call them where they feel life changing things happen in some canyon or secret side pool where water trickles off maiden hair ferns to complement the song of the canyon wren.

We reach night 12 before we know it. The next day we run Lava Falls (class 10), so this evening always seems to be filled with anticipation. The guides definitely build up the suspense. The passengers notice the guides not partying as much, perhaps going to sleep earlier, and feel a level of anxiety that is not normally detected. The thing about Lava is there are brutal consequences and gnarly spots you must avoid all over the rapid, and every guide on the trip has witnessed or experienced some Lava carnage. Flipped, maytagged boats and people having huge, scary swims, the list goes on and on.

Lava is not only a powerful rapid, but deserves utmost respect. River guides are very superstitious, especially when it comes to a rapid like Lava that could love or hate you that day. Plus a lot depends on your mental state- its like a game. Scotty (the trip leader) has been rowing the Grand Canyon for 25 years, but the last 3 trips had ugly Lava runs. This is only because he psyches himself on the fact the rapid is going to kick his butt like it did last time. So at the scout he says the last 3 trips he has seen a girl he wanted to kiss but didn't do it, and he thinks I need to kiss him if he is going to have a good run. After I deny him this request, he says if he has an oar impaled through his body, raft wrapped on the bottom black rock, he hopes I at least blow him a kiss as I float by. I shake my head and go to my boat. I enter 2nd in the line up, behind him, and see an oar fly, and his boat spin backwards, but he is through fine. We eddie out below and of course he blames his unattractive run on me.

However, all boats get through the rapid unscathed, and boy is there a happy party around the fire that night, comparable to the ABC (Alive Below Crystal) party earlier in the trip. Everyone tells stories and takes turns around the fire telling what the trip meant to them. Many tears are shed and much laughter is had and I realize this trip really meant a lot for these people, and will stay with them the rest of their lives.

I fall asleep on the deck of my boat, see a shooting star and gaze at the autumn starry sky, feeling that this was a great trip to wrap up the season with as I get ready for winter.

by Renee Jack, WetDawg Correspondent
Check out Renee's bio on her WetDawg Ask the Pro page. If you have a question about rafting or kayaking (especially on the Grand Canyon), ask her a question!