Grand Canyon Journals - Boats and Passengers

 I went the dory boat way over the rafts for several reasons. First I am somewhat of a purist and wanted to boat it close to how Powell and the original people did. Two, I wanted to feel the Colorado River in a deeper way and on its terms. I felt that a dory fulfilled that desire better than a raft three times the size. Finally third, I wanted a slower paced trip with lots of hiking on the side and idle moments spent drifting with the current. Motorized rafts boat trips didn't fill the bill here either. Although your chances of tipping in a dory are greater than a raft, I feel the adrenalin rush is also greater. Yes there are dangers if you tip over but so does the flat river without a rapid. We were required to wear life jackets and with a little bit of river safety, which the outfitters teach you before shoving off, you should be fine.

A dory boat only holds four passengers and one person manning the oars. In our group, we had four dory boats and two rafts. The rafts were used to haul general camp gear and two waterproof bags per person. The dories also carried smaller general camp gear and had enough room for some jackets, cameras, and other miscellaneous day gear that the passengers might have. In my trip, we had fifteen passengers to start out with, six oars people and two cooks for a total of twenty-three. The trip can be broken into three segments and you are able to run any combination of the segments or all of them like I did. At the end of the first segment at Phantom Ranch, we dropped off several passengers and picked up some news ones so that we had a full sixteen for the middle segment. At the end of the second segment, quite a few of the passengers disembarked for the helicopter rides out and we gained some new passengers. Among the new passengers (a family of four), one had heart problems later that night and they had to be dropped off the next day at an unscheduled point so we ended up with less than a dozen passengers for the last leg of the trip.

Of the three segments, the first one contained the most beauty; the second most of the big rapids, and the third didn't have a lot to offer that the first two didn't have. However, I still recommend doing all three simply for the sense of completion and the history. Only four of us ran the river from dam to dam and the other 'first times' who came in during the middle wished they had. The remainders were people who were once like the current 'first timers' and were coming back to do that gaps. So save yourself the trouble and just do all three the first time.

Tamarisk and Dories