March 14, 2014

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 …

March 11, 2014

Because I planned one spectacular dinner that required a turkey and some additional time, Pam Mortenson, who did all the food scheduling, menus and most of the purchasing, placed that meal for today because we had a layover day to rest and hike in Chuar Canyon.  We started the day with green chili, crustless quiches, and lots of bacon, coffee, and tea.  CeCe and Stef took off early for an all day …

March 10, 2014

On Day 5, I did not mention the wonderful dinner that that night’s cook team has done: hamburgers with all the fixings and brats (bratwurst), plus the first of the Dutch oven cobblers which we actually end up eating for breakfast.  We have 5 large ice chests that we are getting into only once a day and only 1 at a time – our fresh food is divided into 4 chests with …

March 9, 2014

We leave Buck Farm Canyon fairly late, about 10:45, and head down to President Harding Rapid. This was named by one of the early survey trips who supposedly heard about the death of President Harding while they were working in the area.  Dave wants to film the dories going through this rapid to match it to film he has of the original  boats going through the same rapid.  Izzy takes the oars …

March 8, 2014

We cook breakfast and load up the rafts and dories.  CeCe, Stef, Natalie, Doug and Shy leave early to do a loop hike involving leaving one raft at Fault Canyon and leaving another raft at Shinumo Canyon, where they will hike and rappel back to, then pick up  the second raft and follow us down the river to Buck Farm Canyon where we will all camp. Those 11 leaving earlier have a …

March 7, 2014

Today is an 8-mile day, taking us through what is known as the roaring 20’s – a series of bouncy rapids, all about a class 4-5 and all about half a mile apart.

CeCe Mortenson rows Susie Too today and I play back seat passenger and sometimes back seat driver, as she sometimes takes a different line than I would have.  Susie Too offers a short learning curve to an experienced paddler …

March 6, 2014

We leave camp fairly late and row for 12 miles. There are a few riffles that are bouncy today and then there is the first bigger rapid at Soap Creek, which we scout; Nate, Izzy and Dave film and take photos of the rest of us running it. While scouting, a couple of us turn around to watch 2 condors and a red tail hawk soaring the cliff lines, while standing against …

So, when I went back to review the last blog post, I realized that while I referred to condors in the first line, I did not say anything else about them.

Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the population of condors fell so low that the decision to capture all of the remaining condors in the wild was made and done.  Captive breeding programs were established at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and a …

March 5, 2014

There is a condor on the cliff at the skyline on river right and 300 feet up.

Today was launch day so we all had to have everything we were bringing with us on the River Runners Beach just downriver from the Lee’s Ferry Boat Launch Ramp by 9 A.M. for the ranger orientation. Long time ranger Peggy, who had met a good number of both groups launching, was our assigned ranger …