Travelogue

Last dayI couldn’t believe this was it - the final morning waking up on the river - the last call for Coffee, the last delicious meal cooked by our amazing guides, the last time taking down our tents, the last fire line to load bags onto the boat (Thank God), the last run to the groover, and the last time one of our guides would gather us together for a river story or poem, a plan to run a rapid, or just general words of wisdom.

This morning before departing downriver for the last time, Robin, our trip leader, read us a very humorous, and far too real, description of how to prepare for a 14-day rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. I wish we had known this before we signed up for the trip - just kidding. I wouldn't have missed this trip for the world.

I won’t read all of them, but here are a select few:
The Lower Canyon Gang

• One week before the trip, have a yard of sand delivered to your house. Sprinkle liberally in bed, dresser drawer, kitchen and bath counters. Fill your salt shaker, cereal boxes, sugar bowl and use as usual. Place a garbage can lid with sand in front of fans and run them continually at maximum speed.
• Have your friends form a long line and systematically pass the contents of your home out the front door of your house. Later on, repeat the entire process in reverse.
• Between your mattress and boxspring, place 2 or 3 medium-sized rocks. Try to sleep as usual for 14 nights
• Sit on the hood of your car while driving through the carwash
• Twice a day practice changing while your neighbors watch.
• With 22 friends standing in the shallow end of a swimming pool, practice looking nonchalant as you carry on a conversation and pee simultaneously

Leonard in the doryThat pretty much sums it up.

Ok, time to get on the boats and cover those last 10 miles.

Oh, but first, the group photo, or more correctly second group photos, since half our group had been “exchanged” at Phantom Ranch. Herb, the appointed photographer, lined everyone up on the beach, set up his tripod, hit the timer photo button and ran into the picture. We had to repeat it several times to get it right, but I think we finally got a good one.

Me in dory and Diamond PeakSince this was Herb’s and my last chance to ride in the dory, I asked Leonard, who had taken over the dory after Wes’s evacuation, if we could ride with him today. He gladly accepted us as passengers. Wes would have been proud of me.

Despite Leonard telling me it was a very chill day in terms of rapids (apparently “chill” is in the eye of the beholder, we did have to run a 6 called 217 Mile Rapid, which can get pretty dicey with rocks at this water level. Leonard handled it like a pro.

Funny how at the beginning of this trip, these would have been scary for me. Now, I actually rode through some of them in the dory yelling the occasional “WooHoo!”

Cleaning the raftsWe knew we were definitely close to the end, when Diamond Peak came into view, a beautiful 3,512-foot-high, pyramid shaped peak that reminded me of a cinder cone (but it wasn’t).

It looks tempting to climb, but the approach to the summit consists of sharp bands of unreliable limestone, making reaching the top very difficult. It was sure nice to look at though.

It’s located at the mouth of Peach Springs Canyon, where Diamond Creek meets the Colorado River, which is also where we would be meeting our bus to take us back to civilization, also known as Flagstaff.

Loading the truckWhen we got to Diamond Creek there was a lot of work to do unloading all the equipment and supplies from the boats, dismantling and cleaning them, and loading them onto a truck where they would be brought to a warehouse until the next trip down the river.

I can’t believe all the stuff that came off those boats. Apparently, a lot of stuff is needed to keep 20 passengers and 8 guides fed, entertained, and safe for 14 days on the river.

Once everything from the boats was loaded, we were loaded onto a bus which would take us back to Flagstaff. The first half hour of our 3 hour drive, which took us through the Hualapai Indian Reservation was very bumpy and slow. Then we were back on I40 (Route 66).

ice Cream stop in civilizaitonIt was a bit of culture shock for us after being in peace and solitude with incredible natural beauty for 14 days. Not so sure if I was ready for civilization yet.

However, the ice cream stop in Seligman reminded me that civilization did have some benefits.

I had many mixed emotions about ending our life on the river. It was really only hitting me now what an incredible, life-changing experience it had been.

Now the challenge was going to be to keep that spirit of the river with us after we returned to our “normal” lives.