Riverbend Journal

  April 17, 2000 I awoke to a beautiful crystal clear bottom of the canyon morning and was in good spirits. Today was going to be a long hiking day for several of us and it would be overland instead of just going up a canyon. After a breakfast of burritos, eggs and lots of hash browns, I packed up a sack lunch and hopped into the dory for a quick splash down to Tapeats Creek where six of us and some crew were dropped off. We started hiking up Tapeats Creek and had to cross it twice with a lot of difficulty due to high fast moving currents. Another person and myself had to anchor ourselves in the middle of the worst part and form a "chain" for smaller people to hold onto and walk behind us in our eddies. As it was, I had to lean into the current at almost a 45-degree angle and could still feel my feet slipping on the rocks at the bottom of the riverbed. We made it safely and nobody was flushed downstream but several people were a little bit spooked. We came to the intersec...

  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 ...

  Camp was always made on a big sandbar formed by the river and usually located near the mouth of a side canyon. One of the things that most amazed me was how clean the surrounds were. No trash, cigarette butts, discarded soda cans, etc., the typical stuff one finds these days when visiting a national park or 'drive-up' scenic setting. Much is this to do with the river guides who take people through the canyon. All of them love their jobs and want to preserve the beauty of the canyon. They make sure every piece of scrap, theirs or from previous groups, is picked up and hauled off. It's amazing at how I have become so accustomed to seeing litter everywhere that it is immediately noticeable when there isn't any around. When the boats pulled into camp, there was a mad rush as the guests raced into the rocks and tamarisk to stake claim to their site with a few of their belongings. Most wanted to be near camp and wanted a place to set up a tent. I on the other hand, preferre...

I awaken for unknown reasons in the middle of the night and watch the moon set over the downstream rim. I've seen lots of sunsets but few moonsets. Beautiful. When I awoke the second time, clouds had moved in but would leave again by mid-morning. Trip leader Bronco was cooking breakfast this morning to let the two cooks sleep in for a change. For a half hour or so it was just the two of us greeting the morning over the smell of frying bacon. Frying bacon always greets me well. Almost immediately after starting down the river, I saw a coyote scurrying for cover on the rocks overhead. They look smooth and graceful in the rolling hills of Southeast Iowa but here on rocks, they look out of place and slightly ungainly. We pushed through Forster, Fossil, Specter and Bedrock rapids all of which had nice waves. Dubendorf Rapids was a real dandy and we pulled into an eddy below for a half-day layover at Stone Creek. Stone Creek was a good example of Mother Nature's force having been sw...

When I was just deciding on what time frame I wanted to go on my boat trip in the Grand Canyon, I had two criteria that I was searching for. The first was to go during off-peak times and the second was to try and hit the wildflower season when the desert is transformed from reds and browns to a full palette of colors. It turned out the first part of April met both my criteria. The dory season gets to start two weeks before rafting season and since most people see the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon in huge inflated rafts that race through with little time for other things like hiking, I would get a two week head start with just our group. (I would only see two small private rafting groups the entire trip because they are excluded from the boating regulations for the Grand Canyon.) Mid-April is also the peak in wildflower season and it shows if one looks through my picture collection. I took over a dozen rolls of film during the trip and probably a third of my pictures are of wildflo...

  April 15, 2000 I woke this morning to a sky filled with clouds but rapidly clearing out. By mid-morning, they were gone. After breakfast and striking camp, we shoved off for a day of mild whitewater, comparatively speaking of course. The hard black schist and granite are behind and we are now in the softer Topeats layer that tends to smooth out the rapids. Around mid-morning, we pulled in near the mouth of Elves Chasm and after switching into footgear, set off up the canyon. The mouth of the canyon is arid desert and has been painted in colors of gray and brown. Inside the canyon proper, much brighter colors were used and it was a lush green dotted with lots of wildflowers like yellow columbine (the yellow version of my personal favorite flower that I love in blue), globe mallow, scarlet monkey and red orchids. Columbine Flower Perhaps 95% of the people who visit Elves Chasm only visit the main falls and don't go any higher. Most likely that figure is even higher and that is jus...

  April 14, 2000 The sky was completely socked in when I woke up this morning but the clouds were starting to roll out over the far canyon rim. I was the only one up for awhile but soon the cooks joined me and it would be a long time this morning before the others rolled out of bed. Cloudy mornings have a tendency of making people hunker down in bed for just a little longer than normal. As the sun started to come up and the skies started clearing, I watched as wave after wave of clouds turned a brilliant reddish orange and disappeared over the rim into lands unknown. Beautiful. Cloudy Sunrise After breakfast of melon, grapefruit, pancakes and sausage, I packed a lunch and headed off for a hike since we had a day off from the river. I hiked up a nearby hill and over a pass, dropping down into Shinumo Wash. When I reached Shinumo Creek, which I had been assured the night before was has lots of "foot dry" crossings, it was about mid-thigh deep and a deep brownish red in color. ...

April 13, 2000 I awoke to a spectacular sunrise and a large pit of butterflies in the center of my stomach. Today would be the biggest day for running rapids so far and included the most dangerous rapids of them all; Crystal Rapids. After packing my gear, possibly for my final time, I carried some camp water for Heidi the cook and then read from Edward Abbey's "The Hidden Canyon" until everyone else got up. After a big breakfast of melon, eggs, bacon and English muffins, we packed up camp and shoved off again into the unknown, at least it was for me. The first big waves were at Salt Creek Rapids but were just an appetizer when compared to Granite Rapids. Everyone got out and scouted the rapids, the guides looking for a way through the turmoil and everyone else looking for the calm eddies where our drowned bodies would wash into below. But eventually the guides had their plans and like doomed men walking to the gallows, we got into the boats and headed for the heart of the...

April 7, 2000 It was a beautiful night sleeping under the stars and just a sliver of a moon. The temperatures only dipped into the upper 60's, so sleeping inside a sleeping bag was just too hot. I ended up sleeping on top of it along with the scorpions and other desert fauna. I awoke up with the first streaks of gray that would not become light for yet another half hour. Despite being a paying client, I helped the crew when possible, as it is not my nature to sit around while other people wait on me hand and foot. I still ended up doing my fair share of sitting and watching our two wonderful cooks prepare a breakfast of sliced melons, toasted English muffins, eggs and slabs of bacon. I had packed my gear before the others had awaken so after breakfast while everyone else was packing, I wandered around camp satisfying my shutterbug desires. I helped load the two baggage boats and then caught a ride with Bronco in the boat "Phantom." The first rapids was Big House Rock Ra...

I stepped out of the airport into a brilliant white light that I hadn't seen all winter long back in Iowa; sunlight. I quickly shed my jacket and stuffed into my already bulging duffel bag containing all my gear for the next month. It felt good to be free of the 'canned' air that I had been breathing most of the day. After all, I was a mountain man and mountain men weren't supposed to be riding in airplanes but rather going on wild dory boat journeys down the entire length of the Grand Canyon. Being unfamiliar with the Flagstaff, Arizona airport, I waited for a half hour at the taxi sign before it occurred to me that traffic might be so light that one wasn't going to come unless I called. I wandered back inside, found a phone and dialed myself a ride, which showed up about a half hour later. I threw my gear into the back of the cab and we took off, heading for a motel on the other side of town where my odyssey would begin. After awhile, the cabbie broke the silence...

  April 12, 2001 I woke up shortly before dawn, packed my gear, and wandered down to the deserted beach to watch the sunrise and wait for everyone else to wake up. I hoped that it would be a long time before the latter happened but all too soon, the camp was humming with life and after the morning rituals, we shoved off down the river. There was general excitement in the air because we were to encounter the second of the three signs of civilization since the journey began, Phantom Ranch. After a week of being away from civilization, I was looking forward to experiencing some of the missed creature comforts once again. Upon arriving, we disembarked the boats and walked down well worn paths smelling of donkey piss to a little cantina where we all purchased and mailed postcards back to friends and family. As I sat down to write some little bit of humor on that back of each postcard, I started to notice the atmosphere around me. The air conditioning felt dry and canned, almost steril...