Over one billion years of the earth’s history, great beauty, and adventure await those who are lucky enough to raft through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River.
Most of our adventures start with a fair amount of forethought. Our 18-day raft trip through the Grand Canyon was an exception. It started with a phone call from our friend Tom Lovering.
“Curt, you need to jump online right now and sign up for a chance to win a lottery permit to raft the Grand Canyon.” It was more in the nature of a command than a request. Tom was plotting. There are relatively few private permits granted every year in comparison to the ton of rafters who want them. Floating down the Colorado through the Canyon is one of the world’s premier raft trips, providing a combination of beauty and adventure that are rarely matched. Tom figured that the more people he persuaded to sign up for the lottery, the better the chances of getting a permit. He’d made the request to several friends.
I would have probably skipped the opportunity. We were in the midst of wrapping up a three year exploration of North America and were seriously looking for a place to light— a semi-wilderness home. We were closed to settling on Southern Oregon. We had an hour to meet the filing deadline and the chances of winning, as I mentioned, were close to zilch. Plus I was woefully out of shape and 67 years old. I wasn’t sure that my body would have a sense of humor about the journey. Floating down the river on a private trip actually involves a substantial amount of work and everyone is expected to do their share. Rightfully so.
My child bride Peggy, however, who is seven years younger than I am and loves everything related to water, went straight to the site, filled out the required information in my name, filled out another in hers, and hit send. Fine, I thought to myself. That’s that. We can go merrily on our way and report back to Tom that we tried.
What I wasn’t expecting, as those of you have read my blogs about the trip know, was waking up the next morning and finding an email from the National Park Service announcing that I had won a permit. “Woohoo!” Peggy yelled. “Oh crap,” my fat cells responded. Tom didn’t believe me when I called him from somewhere in Nebraska. It took several minutes to convince him. And then he got excited. Here’s the actual permit:
My first task was to make sure that Tom would do the majority of the work in setting up the adventure. We didn’t have the time and I didn’t have the expertise for a white water raft trip. My experience was in organizing and leading long distance backpack and bicycle adventures. Tom, on the other hand, was an experienced white water enthusiast who had run the river several times and had boundless energy. Plus, he had volunteered. “There is a fair amount of paper work for you and certain responsibilities,” he mentioned in passing. Paper work, as I recall was a 40 page document, maybe it was 400. The responsibility, I learned was daunting. If we screwed up in some way by breaking the Park’s environmental or safety rules, I was accountable and subject to a large fine.
The raft trip in 2010 was the first blog series I ever did. I reposted it in 2018. Since I have already blogged extensively about the journey, I am going to use this and my next two posts as a summary of the trip and include many photos I didn’t use before.
I will note here that while the trip was even more physically challenging than I expected— and there were times I could have strangled Tom (and vice-versa, I’m sure)— I owe him a debt of gratitude for the opportunity. I love the Canyon and have explored it in many ways over the years including five backpacking trips into it. The river trip provided a whole new way to experience the beauty. Traveling with a great group was icing on the cake.
Tom had plenty to keep him busy in preparation for the trip. Finding qualified raftsmen and women was first up. The Park insists. Running the river is no joke. There are world-class rapids to negotiate. Food was another major item. River runners have a tradition of eating well, if not gourmet. He had a total of 54 meals to plan. Tom and his partner bought the nonperishables before coming. We bought the rest when we joined him in Flagstaff, Arizona, our base for the trip. Between Costco and Safeway, we packed our 22 foot Pleasure Way Van, twice.Tom and I in Flagstaff getting ready to go on the trip in 2010. Do I appear a little dubious?Large, specialized containers were required for the food. Each was labeled for what it would contain.Huge ice chests were necessary to keep perishable food cold for the 18 day journey. Our room had been the central storage point for food. Minus the Kettle Corn, the bed was covered with our camping gear for the trip. It would soon find its way into a large, waterproof dry sack. Things we would need during the day went into ammo cans like the yellow one on the right.Tom had other responsibilities as well. He’s getting his new “do” here, coloring his hair for the trip. Roald Dahl is one of his favorite authors. Tom likes weird, a trait I share. But coloring my hair isn’t one of them. Neither is painting my toenails.The results.One thing we were required to do was paint our toenails. River lore is it protects you from flipping your raft in rapids. “I won’t let you on my boat unless they are painted,” Tom warned ominously. I painted two of mine on each foot. We didn’t roll over in Tom’s boat when we went through a major rapid. But he did lose an oar. I might have felt guilty but it’s rumored that Tom travels through life without an oar. We had one more major responsibility: Get Bone ready for the trip. Tom and I had discovered him hanging out in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in 1977 and he has been wandering around with us and others ever since. He had to have a life vest. Finally everything was packed and the participants had arrived. We loaded the truck to the brim with what seemed like a ton of equipment, drove over to our starting point at Lee’s Ferry and unloaded the truck, all in 100° (38°C) plus weather. My body had some unpleasant, unprintable things to say to me about being out of shape. (Photo by Don Green, one of the participants and a long time friend of ours.)Next we had a quick lesson in rigging boats and went to work. (Photo by Don Green.)Dave Stalheim and Peggy pose on Dave’s boat. Dave was to be the first boatman that we traveled with. Dave came from the state of Washington where he worked as a county planner. The plan was to ride with different boatmen each day. Protocol involved that we ask for a ride and help in loading and unloading the boat.A bottle of tequila was slipped in among the oranges. It would be saved for drinking at Tequila Point, just below Lava Falls, where it would be needed! (Photo by Don Green.)That night we moved a couple of hundred yards down from where we had rigged and loaded the boats to a campground I had found. We went out for dinner and came back to a major wind and dust storm that was whipping our tents around and making them difficult to find. With the heat, wind, and dust, I was reminded of our trips to Burning Man. Here we are, ready to begin our adventure. Ranger Annie is down on the end. She’d been by the day before to check our gear. When Tom introduced me as the ticket holder, I commented, “We have an excellent leader in Tom.” She had looked at me steely eyed and said, “You are responsible.” My muttered response was, “I’ll try to keep Tom in line.” Yeah, like that’s possible. She came back that morning to remind us of all the safety and environmental rules.
That’s it for the preparations. Now the ‘fun’ begins. The wind was back! We spent our first day fighting headwinds with gusts up to 60 miles per hour. If my dreams of a leisurely float down the river hadn’t already been demolished, they were now. We actually took turns with our boatmen rowing double. All of the photos were taken by either Don, Peggy, or me. I’ll note which ones are Don’s.
This map, which I took from the book The Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, an excellent guide by Larry Stevens, isn’t as clear in reproduction as I would like but still serves as a good reference for this and my next two posts. Our journey over 18 days would take us 280 miles down the Colorado River from mile 0 at Lee’s Ferry to mile 280 at Pierce Ferry, just this side of mile 300 at the beginning of Lake Mead. We finished putting the trip together in Flagstaff (lower right) and then followed Highway 89 up to Lee’s Ferry (upper right).Don Green and boatwoman Megan Stalheim double rowing to counter the strong head wind. Megan is David’s niece and, like me, was a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa. While rowing a raft was a new sport for Megan, her experience as an Olympic level white water kayaker gave her excellent knowledge of how to read and run a river.This photo of boatman Jame Wilson is a good example of what our fully loaded rafts looked like.
My post next Monday will take us from Lees Ferry to just below Phantom Ranch. Thursday is Halloween, however, and Peggy and I have a special treat for you, a tour of Dracula’s castle in Transylvania that we visited 2 1/2 weeks ago on our Danube River trip.
__What a rich delight it was to open my emails and find this wonderful presentation of our trip down the Grand Canyon. My memories fade too fast, so there was much of the “Oh, yeah, I had forgotten that!!!” experience for which I am very grateful. I’ve often told stories of experiences, like Burning Man, but a raft trip down the Grand Canyon is the only one I tell almost everyone they should try to experience because it is amazingly awesome. And even better, of course, with good friends. It seemed impossible that I would ever get to go on a private raft trip down the Grand Canyon, slower and with more stops for the delights along the way than the commercial trips, but thanks you & Peggy, and Tom Lovering, there I was! __It’s also a delight to have some of the pictures I took merit inclusion. Thanks for that too.
Thanks, Don. You are absolutely right and your comments appreciated. There are many more great photos of yours coming. I am so glad that you shared them with me to help tell the story.
I am amazed at the amount of preparation it takes to put these river cruises together! Wow! I am not so fond of water so I think I would be on the shore waving to you all and then going in to eat a lot of comfort food…keeping the fat cells alive is my goal in life! Thank you for your wonderful trips and photos! I feel blessed to have met you and Peggy! As they say…God’s speed!
Yes it was, G. Even though I’ve covered it before, I was ever so glad to use it to kick off the Great River Series with new photos and an altered approach. There is much more to enjoy.
I would absolutely love to experience the river from a boat, but not as part of a big operation like this. Too many people and too much stuff going on. I would be so stressed out. I’m content to join your story instead. ❤
Laughing, Crystal. I’ve sometimes thought of how I would plan it. The main difference would be to simplify it. For example, I get the food tradition in rafting but I would make my meals much simpler. The people part was good. Several of our friends were along and the people we met for the first time were great. The beauty of the Canyon made up for any of the hassles involved.
Wow, is the only word that comes to mind, Curt! 🙂 What a journey! I was thrilled to experience white water rafting on the Deschutes River for the first time in 2014, class 3. Exhilarating! But my little boat ride down the river pales in comparison. I’m not comparing though, just joking. This adventure is a phenomenal opportunity! By the way, the green toenails are awesome!
You liked those toenails, eh. 🤪 They are known to work. 50% of the river runners who paint their toenails never flip, or at least do so only rarely. Grin. It was quite the trip, Lauren. Revisiting it has made me appreciate the beauty of the canyon even, the adventure and my companions even more.
That looks to be a massive, once in a lifetime undertaking. But well worth doing. Many years back I had a friend who was an avid rafter, and I joined him and some of his buddies to privately raft the Snake River/Hells Canyon a couple times. That’s about as close as I’ve come to that level of preparation, and that was only for about four days!
Wandering through Time and Place 
Whoa, this is a far more intense undertaking that I realized. It looks very daunting.
Indeed, Diana. It goes way beyond let’s throw the boat in the water and go rafting for a day. Grin.
Ditto on what Diana said. I had no idea so much was involved.
It had all the flavor of a major expedition, Ray, and it ways, it was.
__What a rich delight it was to open my emails and find this wonderful presentation of our trip down the Grand Canyon. My memories fade too fast, so there was much of the “Oh, yeah, I had forgotten that!!!” experience for which I am very grateful. I’ve often told stories of experiences, like Burning Man, but a raft trip down the Grand Canyon is the only one I tell almost everyone they should try to experience because it is amazingly awesome. And even better, of course, with good friends. It seemed impossible that I would ever get to go on a private raft trip down the Grand Canyon, slower and with more stops for the delights along the way than the commercial trips, but thanks you & Peggy, and Tom Lovering, there I was! __It’s also a delight to have some of the pictures I took merit inclusion. Thanks for that too.
Thanks, Don. You are absolutely right and your comments appreciated. There are many more great photos of yours coming. I am so glad that you shared them with me to help tell the story.
I am amazed at the amount of preparation it takes to put these river cruises together! Wow! I am not so fond of water so I think I would be on the shore waving to you all and then going in to eat a lot of comfort food…keeping the fat cells alive is my goal in life! Thank you for your wonderful trips and photos! I feel blessed to have met you and Peggy! As they say…God’s speed!
Sincerely,
Wendy in Olyland
Thanks, Wendy. Much appreciated. As always, Peggy and I feel privileged to share our adventures. My fat cells took quite a beating on the trip. Grin.
What a phenomenal journey, Curt!!
Yes it was, G. Even though I’ve covered it before, I was ever so glad to use it to kick off the Great River Series with new photos and an altered approach. There is much more to enjoy.
I’ll be here!
😁
Amazing! We did this with the kids a long time ago. It is one of their most favorite trips.
How could it not be? Good for you. Was it on a commercial trip or private trip, Cindy?
I doubt David Livingstone did that much preparation.
Laughing, Andrew. I did less for my 10 week 750 mile backpack trip down the Pacific Crest Trail.
I would absolutely love to experience the river from a boat, but not as part of a big operation like this. Too many people and too much stuff going on. I would be so stressed out. I’m content to join your story instead. ❤
Laughing, Crystal. I’ve sometimes thought of how I would plan it. The main difference would be to simplify it. For example, I get the food tradition in rafting but I would make my meals much simpler. The people part was good. Several of our friends were along and the people we met for the first time were great. The beauty of the Canyon made up for any of the hassles involved.
Wow, is the only word that comes to mind, Curt! 🙂 What a journey! I was thrilled to experience white water rafting on the Deschutes River for the first time in 2014, class 3. Exhilarating! But my little boat ride down the river pales in comparison. I’m not comparing though, just joking. This adventure is a phenomenal opportunity! By the way, the green toenails are awesome!
You liked those toenails, eh. 🤪 They are known to work. 50% of the river runners who paint their toenails never flip, or at least do so only rarely. Grin. It was quite the trip, Lauren. Revisiting it has made me appreciate the beauty of the canyon even, the adventure and my companions even more.
That looks to be a massive, once in a lifetime undertaking. But well worth doing. Many years back I had a friend who was an avid rafter, and I joined him and some of his buddies to privately raft the Snake River/Hells Canyon a couple times. That’s about as close as I’ve come to that level of preparation, and that was only for about four days!