Grand Canyon Work Your Way

You've got to love last minute trip plans. I do: Three weeks ago I received a very quick phone call with an offer of a Grand Canyon "work your way" raft trip if I could make it to Phoenix by the following Friday. Work your way is a free trip as part of the crew on the rafts. The work is mainly helping with the tying up and launching of the boats, food prep and cleanup, loading/unloading boats, etc. I'd taken a trip a couple of summers ago that had a couple of work your ways and was fairly confident I'd be OK with the camp duties, I've always helped out on my other trips anyway. The tiny bit of concern I felt was for my ability to navigate up and down the moving boat, as my previous experiences had basically just been the "sit down and hang on" variety. It didn't give me too much pause though. I wanted to go, and go I would.

Unlike the other trips which started out with a restful night in a hotel and a smooth comfortable ride to Marble Canyon to meet the rafts, this time I found myself at the crew trailer taking a freezing cold shower at 6am, being instructed to borrow a vehicle to go pick up hot coffee from a local convenience store, then help myself to grits from the pan on the stove that should be ready by the time I returned. Coffee in hand, I ate my fair share, and glad I did, as the next several hours were spent rigging the rafts. First ice: tons of ice, loaded in the bottom of giant coolers, shortly followed by food deliveries, produce, dairy, meat, and bread. Then drinks; sodas, cases of them, and giant jugs of fresh water, as well as chips, candy, cereals and other groceries. After all the consumables the sleeping kits are loaded (not forgetting to procure a sleeping mat and bag for myself), and tied down, topped off with rolled up side tubes that would later be inflated and attached to the boats, and the all important giant bags of life vests. When everything is secured into road travel mode, the two massive fully loaded rafts are gassed up and winched on to a converted car carrier trailer.

The crew piled into the sleeping bunks of the truck and tried to nap for the trip to Marble Canyon. But the day's work was not yet done. At Lee's Ferry, in the full heat of the day, the rafts are winched into the Colorado River, side tubes inflated and attached, and the rafts re-rigged into river travel mode. It was a long, hot, dusty day and I was ready for a shower, good dinner and an early night! Next day, the first task was to relocate the rafts down to the launch ramp in anticipation of arrival of the passengers. So here it is, my moment of nemesis. Am I strong enough to actually assist in moving the heavily laden rafts back off the sandbar they had stranded on overnight? And would I be able to get back onto the raft after it was pushed free? Well, the boats came free, though I'm not sure my effort made much difference. Getting myself back onto the raft? Well that was a whole different story. I leaped for it, and was almost on, but would never have made it without the assistance of Riley, the trip's swamper and an awesome young woman who practically grew up on the river, and would be showing me the ropes (literally, in the case of tying up the boats) for the next week.

The passengers arrived, and we set off down the river. I spent the first day riding with Travis, and it's a whole different river from up there in the swamper's seat. The swamper's seat is a boat seat strapped to a cooler or row of large ammo cans. It's next to the driver, (and the noisy engine), and it's the highest point on the raft. You don't get splashed as much as on the main boat, I was in for a hot and fairly dry trip, and if I thought some of those rapids looked scary from the main boat I was in for a heck of a ride!

It was during the initial short run to our lunchtime beach stop that I realized I was not going to be able to keep my camera close enough by to take my usual 700 or so canyon shots, and still be able to keep the camera protected and dry. I was also still rather concerned about being ready to jump out of my seat, run down the side tubes and jump off the boat to tie up without getting caught in a multitude of straps. Keeping my water bottle close by seemed more important than the camera. Consequently there are not as many photos of this trip.

We stayed the first night at North Canyon, and had an interesting tent raising experience for an hour or so, but everyone eventually got settled. The food has always been good on my river trips, and tonight was no exception. Dinner was great, even though I had to play a part in cooking it myself.

Next morning it was a 4:45am start, with Riley providing the jet blaster alarm clock when she started the morning coffee water. We stopped for hikes at South Canyon, and a brief wander in Redwall cavern. After lunch at Buck Farm we cruised past Nankoweap beach and saw three mule deer right on the beach where I had slept last October. A short while later we saw a coyote on the river bank, but my camera was not close by at that time.

After a night at 60 mile canyon, we set off for the short ride to the Little Colorado and hiked up to the flume to play. On the right is a picture of the passengers "diapering up" for the ride in the flume, and below is the first few brave souls to test the water. After getting the flumers started I took a little walk up the river bank, enjoying the clear blue water and red rock formations.

The day was overcast, and continued that way as we passed the Hopi salt mines and pulled in to Carbon canyon for lunch and a hike up the canyon. Late afternoon, after a short river day and some good hiking we pulled up on the big beach at Tanner Canyon for the night. It was early enough for cold baths in the river while the sun was still shining. During this process we discovered a small rattlesnake curled up in the rocks by the river.

And then the rain came! It started right after dinner, and turned quickly into a massive storm, with high winds and very close lightning. Those of us that had not yet put up a tent had a very wet start to the night while dealing with that issue as quickly as possible. By the time the tent was up I was wet and cold, but snuggling down in the sleeping bag helped warm me up. The wind got harder, threatening to flatten the tent, or blow it off the boat, and the lightning got even closer and brighter in the early hours of the morning. Judging by the proximity of lighting to thunder, it appeared the strikes were below the canyon rim. Even more surprising was that the storm and rain lasted all night, and was still raining next morning. I was expecting to see some very unhappy people the next morning, but everyone took it in good spirits, and the rain eased off as we prepared and ate breakfast.

Gorge day. What can I say? The rapids came thick and fast, and I was right about those rapids being scarier from the swamper seat! We made a quick stop at Phantom Beach for fresh water, then continued down to Ross Wheeler camp for the night. Next day we stopped at Elves Chasm, Randy's Rock for lunch, Blacktail Canyon, and Deer Creek before making camp just upriver of Olo canyon.

The evening above Olo was wonderful. There was a little time to chill before dinner, and Elkanah brought out his guitar and played and sang for us all for the remainder of the night. It was very relaxing and we all seemed to stay up quite late.

Next day we hiked up Havasu Canyon for a couple of hours, then continued downriver, stopping at Stairway for lunch. I had been very nervous about landing here, as I remember how bumpy the landing can be inside the rapid, and this is the only place I have seen several flips and stranded boats on various trips. When we pulled up in the second raft Riley was already scaling the rocks looking for a suitable chock to tie to, and I was pretty certain I wouldn't be comfortable or safe following her. Elkanah came to my assistance though, and jumped off his raft to tie up ours as soon as his own was secured, and I got to sit safe on the raft until we were tied up. In my anxiety I seem to have neglected to take the camera out of it's bag all day today. Typically, because a hummingbird buzzed the boats and landed several times on bright objects posing for those with their cameras ready, then late in the afternoon, after great runs in Lava rapid, we pulled around the corner to a beach for what we thought was to be a short break, and came across a bobcat sitting on the beach lunching on a snake. Unfortunately our "oooh a bobcat" exclamations scared him into the brush before cameras could be retrieved. Our river day ended a mile or so later at Fat camp around mile 200.

I obviously wasn't paying attention that morning, because we stopped early to take a small hike up a canyon to some petroglyphs but I have no idea where we were! Lunch was eaten at Pumpkin Springs, where several people played jumping off the rocks into the river, but I just helped prepare lunch. Today was my first very frustrating experience tying up the boats, as I couldn't find a suitable rock to tie up to, and I was rather nervous when everyone started jumping from raft to rocks without being tied up. Everyone survived though, and I got over it.

Later in the day, approaching Diamond Creek i got very hot and drowsy up in the swamper's seat. In fact I think I dropped off to sleep up there. Guessing that would not be a good place to "drop off" I made my way down to the front of the boat for a few minutes of cold splashes to wake me up. Shortly after, we stopped at Travertine Canyon for the short hike up to splash in the Grotto. After a thorough soaking and the rope ladder assisted climb back down to the rafts, we cruised through our final rapids of the trip and into our final beach at Gneiss Canyon. This was a great campsite, but judging by the heat still retained in the rocks on this spring day, it might be a little hot and uncomfortable in summer. Riley and I handled dinner while the guys reshuffled everything in the rafts in preparation for derigging the boats in the morning. We cooked meat and veggie spaghetti with lots of great assistance from our volunteer kitchen crew. It was thoroughly appreciated. You know who you are!

During and after breakfast the side tubes were removed and re-rolled, and the boats strapped together for the final part of the journey. Everyone gathered for group photos and we all piled onto the rafts for the last time together. The two drivers took turns driving and reading to the passengers as we continued downstream to meet up with the jet boat. When it arrived we all said our good-byes and they were off on their high speed conclusion to the trip.

We, however still had a long hot day ahead of us to cover the same distance at a much slower pace. Early in the afternoon we rounded a bend to find another unloaded raft stranded on a sand bar. We all jumped off to help push it off but it was stuck pretty fast. Eventually our raft and another were used to pull the grounded raft back out into deeper water. Unfortunately for me, I was on the shallow side of the raft pushing when it finally broke free. Leaving me now stranded on the sandbar! I thought someone would come back for me but was just told "swim", so jumped in and swam to the nearest raft where two big strong young men grabbed my upstretched arms and manhandled me upward onto the raft. My first swim in the Colorado!

At the end of a long day we finally approached Lake Mead and the end of the river. Half an hour later we were tied up on the dock at South Cove, and very shortly after that, sound asleep.

The final day was a blur of activity. Very early we moved the boats around to the unloading ramp, and back onto the awaiting truck. It was here that I finally managed to fall off the raft and into the water just as we were loading the second raft. Fortunately the water was only 3 or 4 feet deep and I landed on my feet. No harm done.

When the truck was loaded we once again all piled in, and in a repeat of the first day attempted to nap in the sleeping cab of the truck. About halfway back to Flagstaff we stopped at IHOP for breakfast. I confess I have never eaten steak and ice-cream for breakfast before, but it was good! Back at the warehouse in Flagstaff we spent several hours in the reverse of the rigging process: emptying coolers and water jugs, removing and sorting food, sleep kits and tents, and washing down everything. It was very efficient and accomplished fairly quickly. As we were de-rigging, who should stop by to say hi? TJ and Trey, the two drivers from my very first canyon trip. It seems like I just came full circle!

This was an awesome trip. I loved experiencing the entire process from start to finish. Even though it was quite hard and tiring at times, I would go back in a heartbeat. I can't thank my crew enough for the patience they showed dealing with my questions and inexperience, nor the passengers who willingly held out hands, shoulders and heads for me to grab on to for stability when runnning up and down those side tubes, and for all their help getting me and my ropes back on the boat after stops. Thanks also to Arizona River Runners for allowing work your ways along on trips, but the biggest thanks of all go to Elkanah for being willing to put up with me for a week and extending the invite for the trip.
Until next time......


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