Coffee was called early and breakfast soon after that to get everyone up and moving, everything packed and down to the boats.

Stef, who will row the Susie Too through Lava, packed her heavy towards the front.  Even people who had not been in dry suits before were now, or were in heavier splash gear.  While not said, the old “dress to swim and rig to flip” was going through everyone’s minds: loads were redistributed and tied down extra tight.  Robb ties down Tony’s boat and every strap is so tight is almost <twangs> when you touch it.  Then he ties down his own boat.  Breakfast things are packed away and we leave.

We pass Vulcan’s Anvil, a large piece of columnar basalt sitting in the river and head down toward the scouting spot.  We pass the above-Lava camp site.  On the Sonoran Desert Museum trip I was on in 1988, we camped there and were treated to a great thunder and lightning storm, complete with wonderful waterfalls coming off every cliff, and a flashflood coming down the drainage, then went and ran Lava on a thick, muddly flow.  Today, while the water is still muddy from the Little Colorado River flow, it is not thick and the sky is clear and it is hot.

We reach the scout stop on the right and pull in and tie off.  Nate, Dave, and I will film and be picked up downstream.  At the scout location, we stand looking down at the rapid.  Craig starts pointing out lines the boatmen can take.  Dave, Nate, and I climb on to seek high points for the photos we want to take.  Nate pickes the high point in the middle, Dave takes a rock close to the first drop off where he can get photos all the way down the rapid, and I climb farther down to a large boulder just downstream of Cheese Grater Rock, a large black, columnar basalt boulder with a rough, sharp surface that is a must-miss rock.  I can see the drop-off at the top.  If a boatman picks the V-wave run I will get some air shots as the wooden boats crest the waves and have a good downward angle into the waves above Cheese Grater rock and a great angle of the end waves as well.  I can also see the top and the start of the “Dory Slot”, so named because if you ware willing to skirt the ferocious “Ledge Hole” on the right, you can go over one small wave and likely get an easy, relatively dry ride.

Robb goes first, with Natalie as passenger, and, as always, makes it look easy and eddies out on the right.  CeCe is next and her raft flies through and eddies out on the left near the waterfall.  Izzy is next with John as passenger and makes it looks easy and dry as they also hit the dory run.  The wooden boats come through: Greg in the Portola, who eddies out on the right, Stef in the Susie Too, who brings it under where I am sitting (both of us pumping fists), and then Craig, who makes a great run in the Flavell II and turns in right below Cheese Grater Rock to pick up Dave.

Our yellow boat friends arrived just after we started scouting and they came through in tight formation with no problems.  Tony follows on the cataraft and makes a great run, but finishes backwards, and he is followed by Doug, who comes through dry and grinning.

Nate and Dave scramble down safely over the very exposed rocky trail down to the water.  Dave climbs over Izzy’s raft to Craig’s boat, while Nate and I pack away camera gear and cases on Izzy’s boat and head off to the Son of Lava and Tequila Beach.  We break out the tequila and our yellow boat friends break out the Yukon Jack and an impromptu boat party ensues, with much laughter and high-fiving.  They head off to Mile 185 camp and we head to Whitmore Wash for the night.  Beers are passed between boats.  I take back the oars of the Susie Too to test my wrists and we enjoy the feeling of ABL, “alive below Lava”.  We still have 100 miles to run, but Lava is behind us, at least for this trip.

For the first time on this trip, our chosen stop, Upper Whitmore Wash, is taken by a group from Arizona River Runners and NPS archaeologists, who are on a monitoring trip.  We had been passed by them above Walthenberg Rapid a few days back.  We move down to Lower Whitmore Wash and set up camp for our layover day, our exchange of 2 people going out and 2 coming in, and 3 more people hiking down for the night tomorrow.

~Helen Howard

From Upset at mile 150 to Lava Falls Rapid at mile 180, the canyon opens up a bit and all the rapids are smaller.  We do about 23 miles today and pull into camp late, get set up, have a fast dinner, and off to bed.  The river is mellower, the rapids lower, and the scenery beautiful (as is it all).  But we know that tomorrow is Lava Falls Rapid, the “Big One”.  After Upset, I think all of us are worried about how we will do and how the boats will do.

~Helen Howard

We are out of camp early with our lunches packed and ready for a lot of small rapids, followed by the big one, Upset, an 8 rating in all the guide books.

Kanab Canyon is about 6 miles down, where many of us have hiked before, then Olo, then “Matkat” (Matkatamiba Rapid), then Upset shows up and we park the boats about 500 feet above the rapid and walk down to scout.  There is a left run up against the left wall with a large rock at the bottom you have to miss, or would probably flip on.  The center hole is huge and is to be avoided, but right lateral waves are driving you straight toward it.

We all discuss and enter left and more right for the wooden boats.  Robb ran it first and picked the left run and hit it spot-on and eddied-out on the left.  Stef takes a raft on the right run and, again, does it perfectly and eddies out on the right beach below where Nate is filming.  Tony runs third and tries to move right and does not make it.  He takes the cataraft sideways into the big hole where it stops and flings Tony off upstream and then plops down on top of him and spins out of the hole on the right.  Tony soon surfaces and pats his head (the “I’m alright” signal) and heads downstream with Robb in hot pursuit.  They eddy out just around the corner.  Greg Hatten is next in the Portola and also does not make it around the center hole, slides in sideways and he and Leif are pitched out and swim right.  The Portola only rolls over twice and then flushes out, riding much higher than at Grapevine and with the hatches dry.  Stef rows off the beach in hot pursuit and they all eddy out within our field of veiw and we soon see the Portola upright.  Greg and Leif have been able to roll her over by themselves and have her bailed out.  Doug brings is his raft down on the right side and parks it at the right side and walks back and brings the Susie Too down as well.  CeCe jumps in to be safety there.

Our new friends from Alaska in five yellow rafts start through.  The first one flips in the center hole and the oarsman swims to the Susie Too and was pulled in.  The raft and passenger headed down to where Stef was and was pulled ashore.  The last yellow raft goes sideways into the hole and surfs for over two minutes with both onboard high-siding and finally getting an oar in the water and popping out.

Izzy brings her raft down with John as passenger in a perfect run, pulling right to avoid the rock.  Nate and I jump on with Doug and we row down to Stef and the upside-down yellow raft.  They are rigging a Z-drag.  Tony and Robb already have used the Z-drag to get the cataraft over and is repacking the raft.  We head out and make it to the Upper Ledges where we camp late, cook fast, and set out a lot to dry, which we have to put up wet when the wind gets strong and some things disappear into the river and not recovered.  Natalie Mortenson, Leif’s daughter, spends time following mice and kangaroo rats along the ledges at the back of our camping spaces.

~Helen Howard

This is another day with three big rapids and a number of smaller ones.  In some sections, they pile on top of one another and you have to be on your toes.

The first is Specter, where there is a right run next to a wall that misses a big hole.  Most of the rafts take that line, but Stef, who is back at the oars on Susie Too, sees a path on the left of that hole that will keep us off the wall and we dance down that line, catching some awe and having fun.  We arrive at the bottom with barely two inches of water in the boat and a lot of laughter.

Bedrock, my peronal nemesis, is next.  We land above and climb through the Doll House to scout and at low water and dropping, she looks nasty.  I flipped a raft here in 1969 by wrapping it on the Bedrock and then, when it came off upside-down, rode it in the left eddy while trying and trying to climb on it until it decided to do the left run.  This year, I elect to be picked up at the bottom and, given that Stef wants a lighter boat to do the run, both of us are happy.

Robb goes first and does a perfect run and he eddies out at the rock and sets up a safety with a throw bag.  CeCe is next and does a great job as well and eddies out on the beach I am on.  Tony comes next and is too far left entering the left side without touching the rock and we can see him upright and backwards through the notch.  The back side of the Bedrock catches him and puts one of the pontoons under water.  Robb, on top of the rock, shakes his head, but Tony high-sides and a surge washes him off upright – oars, gear, and boat all intact – and he eddies out on the left in sight on a small beach.  Izzy heads down and spins, almost wraps on the rock, but the pillow pushes her off.  We think it’s a certain flip, but she and John hold it, make it through the left side and also eddy out next to Tony.  Craig brings the Flavell II down and pulls and pulls and pulls and makes it around on the right with his steel prow almost touching the secondary rocks on the right side of Bedrock, with a huge grin and a wipe of the sweat of his brow gesture he has earned and to our applause.

Greg has been practicing putting his stern on rocks just for this rapid and we laugh about a small steeper rock that the water is just splashing over.  I tell him I want his picture with the Portola stern just over that rock and he laughs and says that he does too.  His run is perfect with his stern going on the left side of all the right side rocks and he ends up the farthest from Bedrock and with his stern only five or six feet from that sleeper rock to great cheers from all of us.  Stef brings Susie through a little closer to the rock, but safely and with a lot of fun.  He picks me up below Bedrock and it’s off to Deubendorf Rapid, which we do a read-and-run, then a half-hour stop at Stone Creek to top off our water supplies.  I set up the solar chargers to see if I can get any of the batteries up enough to use my laptop.

After we pump fresh water, we head on down the river with Doug Freeman at the oars of Susie Too.  Tapeats Creek has been one of my favorite camping spots on several trips down the Bill Hall trail past Thunder River, down Tapeats Creek, along the river high on the cliffs to Deer Creek, and then back out across the esplenade and back out.  Today, the whole river is pulling into the rock pour-over at the top.  Greg makes three big pulls and goes right of the rock.  Doug is pulling for all he is worth and goes up and over the rock, sliding off to the left as both of us high-side so we keep her upright.  He grabs the oar he has lost on the left and we make it through the rapid with no more than three inches in the bottom and we both bail to see if there is a hole or other damage.  We think we hit with the area under the forward compartment, but instead find we have cracked the wood in the rower’s footwell in two areas.  It does not appear to be leaking and we haave other swirly water to worry about, so we wait for camp.

Jeffe Aronson, a dory boatman for Grand Canyon Dories, who does a great blog called “Stories From the Big Ditch”, just did a blog about repairing wooden dories and used several photos of dories being pulled out of the water by rolling them on thwarts (the inflatible center tubes on paddle rafts, which are not used with a rowing frame).  We camp at “Football Field” below Deer Creek and roll the Susie Too out on two thwarts and all the wood boat builders look at the cracks, determine that the cracks aren’t through the fiberglass, are not leaking, and none of the ribs are damaged, and we just need to take care for the rest of the trip.  It only took four of us to move her out of the water and back in – much easier than lifting her.  Thank you Jeffe and Craig Wolfson, who had the thwarts and brought them in; a few pumps of one of our air pumps and they were ready to go.

~Helen Howard

Today was a long day with good weather, no wind, and a lot of fun.  Little rapids (below 4’s), with Fossil (a 5), Forster (a 5), and Walthenberg (a 6) being the three bigger ones to run today.

Robb is rowing Susie Too in the morning and Tony takes his first turn at the oars in the afternoon.  We are trying to make up some time so we can still do our layover day at Staircase for some great hiking.  So we pack lunches to eat on the river, rather than stop and lay out our lunch on a Roll-A-Table, which takes an hour to set up, eat, and take down.

We reach Elves Chasm and spend half an hour exploring and also meet up with two other groups and discuss camp sites.  Looks like we need to head to below Fossil.

Forster and Fossil rapids today are just read-and-run, although Fossil is a nice S-shaped rapid with some rocks in strategic places that require pulling on the oars to miss.

Walthenberg has some big waves and Robb runs that perfectly.  Susie Too dances up and over everything she is aimed at, catching air when she can, and having her riders laugh a lot.  Sometimes she is a dry-rider.  If there are lateral waves at the bottom that come over the sides, then she fills up and the pump goes on and we bail and between the two, we get her emptied out in a couple of minutes.  But full or empty, she is very stable and a joy to be in.

While we are at Elves Chasm, a small trip pulls up that had been scouting Walthenberg and we talk dories, how Susie did, and he tells us that seeing a dory go through a rapid had been on his Bucket List.  So, he was a happy camper to have watched this.

We get to below Fossil and set up camp, enjoy a great dinner, and get to bed.  The almost-full moon comes up in a notch across from us and sets just after midnight behind the cliff behind us, but the moonlight reflects off the east cliff all night and it is bright and still.

~Helen Howard

[We have had problems with the batteries recharging so there has been a delay in getting these out. Days 12 through 16 were sent out with Pam and Kammy Wolfson who will post them as soon as they get them transcribed from my handwritten journals. We had a full day on the beach at Whitmore Wash on the day we exchanged people so my laptop is up and functioning and Leif’s laptop is up and functioning and the cell phone with the data program is up and functioning.]

We start out today knowing that we will be running three big rapids with scouting and filming and and still hoping to make decent times and get into camp early enough to make dinner before everyone crashes. We did it, but a strong afternoon wind that hit three miles from our camp site selection, in an area with no other camp sites available, made that part of the trip very hard.

First rapid we came to was Granite Rapid at the mouth of Monument Creek. Monument Creek Campsite is one of my favorite places and is accessible from the Tonto Trail on the Hermit Loop. It has a nice clear spring running through it and the scenery is dramatic. I have taken many photos of the monument itself and one of them won several awards in multiple contests, including the Arizona State Fair, and has been published several times in various calendars, books, and magazine articles. There is a revegitation project going on there where the National Park Service is getting ready to remove an invasive species, the tamarisk tree, or the remains of the tamarisk trees, after the tamarisk beetles get through killing them. They are planting several native species to provide shade and privacy screening for all the people on river trips who stop there, and all the people who hike down to Granite Rapid from the rim. So they have left buckets and a watering log to ask us who are coming through on river trips to water these 200 plants. There has been some mortality since they put the plants in last year, but a surprising number of them have survived and appear to be leaving out. To build up really good karma for our group, instead of scouting the rapid (since I am not rowing today), I take a bucket out of the Susie Too and haul about 25 buckets of water from the river to the plants on the north end, and about half of the plants on the south end before everyone comes back to run the rapid.

I am riding with Nate today, our official photographer and videographer, who always seems to have a camera in his hands. He was down here in a kayak two years ago and is very familiar with the river and we have a lot of fun today on the raft. CeCe and Stef are taking the Susie Too down, rotating our rowers through the wooden boats to get them familiar with them and give them a turn at the really active way they handle. And I get to get photos of what she looks like dancing through the waves.

Hermit Rapid is next and is a read-and-run, with us having a great time in all of the successive waves being more fun than the last. We all looked out for number 7 which was indeed the best (most challenging), depending on your point of view. Craig and the Flavell II obviously catching air on several of the waves. Then on to Crystal where we spend two hours scouting the rapid and discussing the lines. There were three that we ran. The left run that most people thought was un-runnable was run very well by Robb and Tony, who hardly got wet and made it look easy. The left hole that looks so hard did not even slow them down. Most of the others ran the classic right run, missing the center hole and not hitting any of the rocks on the right shore. Stef, running solo in the Susie Too ran a center run and hit the center hole straight on, was stopped momentarily, and popped right out and danced through the rest of the rapid and lower Crystal as well. Nate and I ran up and took the raft down and went right and had a great run. Son of Crystal is a little more technical and many of us spun once or more in getting through.

The gems were next and that was a rapid or riffle every quarter mile or so: Agate, Sapphire, Turquoise, Ruby, Serpentine, and then two miles farther, Bass Canyon and Hotauta on the left, which was a great sand dune camp with some ledges. We have made up barely 22 miles at this point and many of us are hoping that the schedule can be adjusted so that we can have the layover day at Whitmore Wash in a week.

~Helen Howard

We wake to a clear and already warmer day.  We rush to get breakfast done and the gear loaded and leave to make for a slightly earlier start.  We have Zoroaster Rapid and 85-mile Rapid, which are bigger ones, and numerous ones that are substantial riffles that some we suppose might not even be there at higher water.  There are rocks exposed in lots of areas that those of us who have done this only at higher waters have not seen.  The guide books we have list all rapids as a 3 or higher on a rating scale of 1 to 10.  With Lava being the 10, House Rock Rapid being a 7, Hance and Granite being 8’s, and some of them having a double rating with a higher water rating and a lower water rating.  Most of us are running with the guide book open next to us on our seat or tucked into a map case or just under a strap. All are printed on waterproof paper, so we hang them to drain overnight on a convenient bush or tree.

We are also lucky that we have Craig Wolfson with us, who has run the river professionally and privately for over 30 years, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of both what the entrances are and the must-make moves in each, and which we can read-and-run, which involves getting close enough to the top so that you can stand up in your boat and look at the whole rapid and determine your moves.  In all cases, you position your boat facing one way or the other, depending on which way you think you might have to pull on your oars to move backwards since you have much more power in a pull stroke than a push stroke, and hitting a rock or a wall or getting your boat wrapped on a rock are things we want to avoid at all costs.

Today we get through the morning and head up to Phantom Ranch, only a day later than planned.  John Schroeder and I head up to the ranch fast on a sentimental journey.  Friend Linda McClure was the manager here in the late 1980’s, and her husband Dennis McClure also worked at the ranch in a variety of capacities.  For their 3-year tenure, I kept a sleeping bag and pad in their cabin; even if I could not get a permit to hike in the corridor, I frequently called up to see if they needed anything purchased in Phoenix that I could bring to them and would drive up, pick up a pass at the transportation desk, and head down at first light for one or two days at Phantom Ranch.  One of the projects I was involved in over the course of one Fall in ’86 or ’87, was to plant trees here to replace the cottonwoods which were aging and dropping limbs in high winds.  Several friends and I planted about 17 trees in various locations; somewhere I have a photograph of a couple of us hugging one of those trees that is barely as tall as I am just after we got it into the ground and watered it.  There is a wheelbarrow in the background with soil enhancements and shovels in it and we are wearing work gloves.  When last I was here in 2002, it was a tall sapling and I want to see how that one tree has fared.  We see several that I know I planted and I give each a hug.  We see the old fig tree next to the shower house that I have eaten so many figs from over all the hikes I did down here, and then head up to the mess hall and beyond to the tree which is now 30 feet tall and just leaving out.  I can get my arms around it still and stand there with tears running down my face that it has survived and appears to be thriving.  John records the moment for me to savor over the years with his camera and with mine.   So many great memories from all the time I have spent here in my “Church of the Canyon”.

The rest of the team fills the water bottles we need refilling and heads to the ranch for postcards, stamps, lemonade, and souvenirs.  Phantom Ranch has special tee shirts designed each year, one usually with a hiking theme and one with a river theme.  The river theme is a Bruce Aikin design of a dory approaching Nankoweep and the dory is white with the suggestion of a green stripe on sunset-shadowed water and it is beautiful.  I have one in my pack to bring home and wear proudly. It is as if he designed it just for me to find.

We round up and everyone heads back to the boats to get ready to run Horn Rapid.  This is another serious rapid, rated a 9, and is the one that most of us have been dreading.  It is in the shade and we climb high on a talus slope on the right side to get a look at it. We run some of the rafts through to be safety boaters and then the wooden boats go.  After Greg Hatten drops over the edge, we do not see him in the rapid like we have the rafts until he pulls up in the sun on the beach at the bottom left.  Doug Freeman is washed out of his raft on the way down and self-rescues, but loses his favorite hat.  CeCe and I take off and she hits her line, breaks through the left lateral waves and rides the rapid down on the outside of all the big holes, dancing up and over and down and through.  We come through the rapid with barely 2 inches of water in the boat and again I have the sense that we have someone else in the boat guiding our route.  Craig Wolfson is last of the wooden boats and fills to the brim, so Dave Mortenson has another bailing job.

Because we have tarried so long at Phantom Ranch and Horn we stop for lunch at 3 and are passed by 2 other raft groups, which are heading for the camp we had planned on so we stop at above Salt Creek camp for the night and spread out and set up camp and really enjoy the lamb chops and scalloped potatoes for dinner.  We head to bed to enjoy the almost-full moon and the incredible stars… a sleep well-earned.

~Helen Howard

Today was the day we all demonstrated that we understood the importance of working as a team.  We were able to do so and do so well when Greg Hatten and the Portola, with Dave Mortenson as a passenger, got into serious trouble in Grapevine Rapid.  We had to rescue both of them from the water, as well as an upside-down Portola.  As I write this at 9 p.m., everyone is fine and the Portola is a little the worse for wear, but serviceable.

But let’s start with the first part of the day.  Hance Rapid at low water since September of 2012, is one nasty rapid.  The left run has been totally covered up with rock, debris, and mud.  At low water there are a lot of rocks, a lot of strong currents that keep you from going where you want to, and only a few ways to get from the top to the bottom, now all on the right side.  We set up to photograph and CeCe Mortenson, who is again rowing the Susie Too with me as a passenger, wants to watch the first 4 people make the run.  She watches from the rock flow at the edge of the water; I watch from the beach we are parked on.  It looks to me like every one of the first 4 make a different entry and she confirms that.  Tony rows the whole rapid backward, using his more powerful strokes to make it through with no damage, but getting very wet.  Craig Wolfson with Pam Mortenson runs almost every hole and his boat is soon filled with water to the gunwales, and Pam spends a lot of time bailing the boat out with a bleach bottle with the bottom cut out.  Robb starts out where he wants to be, but does not make it to the pathway and hits a few rocks.  Then it is our turn and CeCe starts out too far right and never manages to make it left of some big visible rocks that she was going to do, so we make a right run in very tight quarters, mostly run backwards, mostly run full of water with our wonderful pump trying to empty her out, and the next wave filling her up again and with me moving from one side to the other (called “high-siding” to balance the boat and keep it from flipping).  We go sideways, fully loaded with water, into a large rock and tear away 6 inches of outer chine and 8 feet of metal strip protecting the chine from the left side.  We also crack the inner chine.  A few minutes later we come down hard on a rock with a big <thunk> which cracks the floor in the sump pump compartment.  Neither of these is causing leaking, but do cause concern.  I spend time at the bottom of the rapid bailing her out with a bucket and smaller quart milk plastic bottle with 2 sides cut away, and then sponge to get the last of the water out and check for damage.  The last 2 rafts with the photographers come down with very wet rides for their passengers and rowers.  Nate, one of the photographers, has captured our run well including hitting both rocks and that we were indeed backwards for the entire upper part.

Most of us are wearing drysuits today with closed feet under water boots and gaskets at wrist and neck to keep us from getting wet and cold.  The canyon is deep and it is cloudy so it feels a lot colder today.

We do a read-and-run of Sockdologer Rapid next and enjoy the bouncing through the waves and haystacks where water comes together from both sides in lateral waves, causing lots of high waves in the center.  As we finish Sockdologer, the group of kayakers doing the same trip in 13 days pass us.  They are trying to go 30 miles today and we exchange a few words as they have to pay strict attention to all the swirling eddy currents that can so easily flip a kayak, but not our larger boats.  We had seen them first at Unkar where they went down the rapid first and then camped at rattlesnake camp to hike in the ruins and above.

We get to Grapevine, which Tom Martin’s guide says to avoid the left side and go right but avoid the pour-overs in the center.  The rafts head left and the wooden boats head right with Craig Wolfson in the lead and getting a wet ride.  Greg and Dave head through next and disappear beyond a pour-over.  We see Greg’s head above the water and it is not moving away as we expect.  CeCe does very strong pulls so we do not take the same line and we flash past them with a few feet to spare on their left, with no way to get to them.  They have water from the pour-over filling their boat and washing out over the downstream edge and it looks like they are trapped in the current and the boat appears to be shaking but stuck.  Greg is yelling at Dave to high-side, a move to shift the balance to the upstream side in hopes that the boat will move and break free.  I use my whistle strongly downstream to stop everyone and alert them that we now have a water emergency and everyone pulls to the side.  Cece and I bail our boat because it too is full of water and we know we may have to take a passenger on board.  CeCe also pulls at the oars upstream to stay as close as possible to render any assistance we might be able to.  One of Greg’s oars blushes out first and we see that the Portola is now upside-down and see one swimmer and then the other after about 4 minutes of the beating water.  We move into position to intercept the first swimmer, who is Dave Mortenson on his back, coming down head first and not moving much.  Leif gets a throw rope to him first; he hits a couple of rocks while holding onto the rope.  We reach him and Cece and I pull him on board and put him in the rescue position and hold onto the throw rope as Izzy’s  passengers pull our boat to shore and tie both of our boats off.  The Portola finally breaks free just about the time we get Dave on board and we yell among ourselves as to who is going to intercept Greg and who is going after the Portola and make sure they have the gear at hand to take the still-upside-down boat under tow.  Greg is pulled on board and the Portola is grabbed and tied off and both of those boats head to shore just downstream from us.  We get Dave into dry clothes and get hot water into him and then untie and drift down to the next cove where the Portola is now upright.  We see two other oars on shore, and Tony and John are going over the boat looking for damage.  Greg is wrapped up in dry clothes and we pass the hot water to shore for him, and CeCe sends over the last of her morning coffee which is still hot.  We still have rapids to run, but it is clear that we will need to make camp sooner and Craig Wolfson suggests Clear Creek, which we head for.  We talk to both Dave and Greg and do a medical assessment: Except for bumps and bruises, and the possibility of a cracked rib for Greg, we are all worse for wear.

Tony and John go over both the Portola and Susie Too and discuss if repairs are needed and it appears that nothing is leaking yet so we dry everything out and do a wait-and-see to see if there is any leaking we need to address.  Izzy spends the afternoon cleaning out Greg’s boat and laying out his supplies to dry in the dry air.  We set out the solar panels even though it is cloudy and they start to charge.  Izzy and John take on the kitchen duties and make a vegetable and meat pasta that is really good after a salad and chicken noodle soup.  We do our evening briefing of tomorrow’s run and all head to bed and are soon snoring quietly as I come down from the excitement of the day and the pleasant knowledge that we were ready, willing, and able to work as a very effective team when needed to.

~Helen Howard

When we leave a camp, it means that everything we have taken off the boat to use has to go back on the boat and has to fit in the space it is allotted. This is done, in part, by having things come out of boxes that are made to fit on the rowing frame each raft is fitted with.  We also have small crates that a lot of the fresh vegetables were originally stored in and they have been moved from my forward hatch into the now first week cooler, which is empty.  We originally had 5 twenty-pound bags of charcoal in the forward hatch, plus the 2 crates and it was full.  I asked several dory boatmen how they loaded their dories to make them both efficient and balanced.   According to them, they wanted some more weight forward to start and then balanced later in the trip.  Brad Dimock, boat builder extraordinaire, historian and writer stated – and I am paraphrasing – that the dories started out over-loaded at Lee’s Ferry, were about right by the time you got to Phantom Ranch, and were downright sport by the time you got to Lava Falls.

We have used 40 pounds of charcoal so far, so I now have room to take a couple of my smaller bags and put them into the forward hatch so that Tony Wrigley does not have to row them down the river anymore.  As we use more charcoal, I can take more of my own stuff back.  My personal camp setup (tent, sleeping bag, extra fleece sleeping bag liner, pillow and sleeping pad), takes one large dry bag with shoulder straps – so, like a backpack – I can carry it to the place I want to camp from the boats in one load.  It won’t fit into any hatch, however, so that will remain on Tony’s boat for the duration of the trip.  He also has my 2 large York Packs (plastic waterproof boxes) in which I have a lot of the dry food for the special dishes, or whole meals I am doing, and for the deserts with the Dutch ovens – the cobbler cake mixes and the cans of fruit to make the cobblers.  My Dutch oven lifter, the liners, and aluminum foil I use to keep the Dutches a bit cleaner than if I used them without those (you can use coffee grounds or wet sand to clean out a Dutch, never soap; but if you are using river water and wet sand that water is really cold – in the 40’s and it physically hurts to spend the time with your hands in the water to get them clean).  And then you have to oil the Dutch so it won’t rust and to keep the non-stick surface, so there is a bottle of cooking oil in the box as well.  You get the picture.

Most of the rafts have rowing frames with drop bags that go down into the inside of the raft and oddly sized things go there: the 5 propane tanks, the dish washing pails (stack of 4), the groover boxes, and the daily dry food boxes.  We also have 3 tables that are 18 inches by 6 feet, 4 feet tall with folding legs, and then a few Roll-A-Tables for putting lunch together on a beach.  We have 3 major first aid kits and at least 5 minor first aid kits with all the things specified by the NPS and then some.  We have several bags with ropes and pulleys and other things to turn over a flipped boat or raft.  We have chairs.  We have a fire pan and a large fire blanket to put under the fire pan all in a 24 by 24 by 14-inch packing box.  We have a heavy duty tarp that forms the floor of the kitchen we set up every night.  Craig Wolfson’s boat, the Flavell II, has 4 large metal boxes on it that holds all of our cooking utensils, all of our plates, bowls, cups, serving and prep pieces, a lot of food, silverware and everything else we need to take care of feeding 16 people.

When we left Chuar Canyon yesterday, we continued to follow the Palisades of the Desert cliff until we got to Desert Watch Tower in the far distance on the rim, and then even that fell behind.  This section is very open and the tall cliffs are far away from the river.  There are 2 major rapids in this section and several minor ones.  The first major one is the Unkar Rapid.  At higher water this is a more difficult rapid (for some of us, we would consider that a more fun rapid).  Susie likes it and dances down the long length of it beautifully and I have film to prove it.  Today at the lower water level we are running, this looks a lot easier.  Unkar Rapid is also an important one in that the original Flavell II  boat met her demise at Unkar in the early 1970’s when the boatman and wonderful photographer, John Blaustine, got hit in the face with a wave, which washed his contact lenses out.  He could not see to row and rowed into the rocks at the bottom and, in hitting them, essentially broke the boat in two.   Martin Litton was supposed to have said that the boat had had that much damage before but not all at the same time.  After that trip, the boat was destroyed in a fire, but Dave Mortenson was able to locate 2 of the original boxes in the Old Grand Canyon Dories yard in Hurricane, Utah and, with permission, collected them and still has them.  This boat was built from a 14-inch scale model of the boat that had been built after the original Flavell II was built.  After drawing plans from the model and getting the measurements from Dave for the boxes, Craig Wolfson went to work building the boat from the inside out (the opposite of how boats are normally built).  When the replica boxes were brought down by Dave and Pam, they fit with about ¼ inch of clearance.  We have to be careful not to bend them so they will continue to fit every time we take them off and put them back on the boat.

Craig Wolfson is our head boatman and is responsible for setting the order of running each day and telling us the best ways to run the various rapids we encounter each day.  He is very happy that the Flavell does so well and suffers no damage in this rapid.

The second major rapid for the day is Neville Rapid, named for Norm and Doris Neville who started running the San Juan, the Green and the Colorado Rivers through Glen Canyon, Cataract Canyon, and Grand Canyon (respectively) in the 1930’s and 1940’s and whom several of the people who built the original ones of our small boats got their start rowing for which gave them the experience and the love of these canyons and started them on their quest to build ever better boats for their Grand Canyon trips. This is a long one with a pour-over in 3 places in the middle of the run that you can’t see until you are almost upon it.  A pour-over is where the water pours over a large, mostly hidden large rock that would do serious damage to our wooden boats and might flip a rubber raft if run the wrong way.  CeCe Mortenson is rowing the Susie Too today.  I spend the day in Craig Wolfson’s Flavell II to get some photographs of the Susie Too dancing on the waves and it is so beautiful to watch her.  Today is sunny and life is good.

~Helen Howard

News from the river, thanks to a phone call from Craig Wolfson while at Phantom Ranch:

The Portola flipped in Grapevine Rapid yesterday (March 13th) with Greg Hatten at the oars and Dave Mortenson on board as passenger.   The boat was subsequently stuck in the rapid for several minutes, an oar broke, and both Greg and Dave suffered minor injuries.  Thankfully, all are okay and are able to press onward after some recovery time.  The group is now a day behind schedule, but plan to nix the second layover day in order to be at Whitmore in time for the first passenger exchange.  They arrived at Phantom Ranch today (March 14th) and plan to camp at/near Crystal Rapid tonight.

The Flavell II, in its maiden voyage, is running well and Craig is loving the way it is performing (he noted that it handles a bit different than the Susie-R, which he rowed two years ago).  Only two minor mishaps with it thus far: The chines got a little beat up while parked at Badger camp, and Helen, at one point, accidentally ran the Susie Too into it.

Aside from the three injuries, all are having a good time!

A note on photos: Due to satellite phone limitations, photos from the river will be unavailable until the end of the trip.  However, a group of us will be hiking down (if the road in is good) at Whitmore where I can, hopefully, transfer some of the river trip’s photos onto a USB drive to upload for you all, mean while I’ll be playing an awesome new virtual game a got in the trip, to be honest I wasn’t really sure how to play it but I did some research, you can Know more and get more info like me and then just enjoy the ride !!!

An additional note on how the blog works for those who may not know: Helen Howard is writing the blog.  She then transfers her report to Leif Mortenson’s computer, which he then emails to me via sat-phone connection, which I then upload here to the site.

~Kammy W., blog manager