Well this is it. The last trip of the season. This post has taken forever to get done because I moved to Florida and had a little bit of a bumpy time. This last post will be a little different than my others. I'm gonna do the post the post journal style instead of just giving a brief summary at the end and see which one I like the best.
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| pretty picture |
Thursday September 22nd 2011
It's day five. I've already cooked for the second time cause we're doing cook crews and switching off. I have the night off and we're camped at Rattlesnake Camp and we only came a few miles today. We hiked to Hill Top Ruin, wandered around the Unkar Delta and saw Ancestral Puebloan foundations and pottery shards. We got to camp early and Mark and Kevin took a few people on a hike to a large mesa called the tabernacle, while my dad, joe and ron cooked lasagna : ).....as for me....I'm just hanging out. That's another thing that is amazing about this place, the sound of the river, the usually perfect temperature in the evening, and the scenery make Grand Canyon a great place to just enjoy life. There's no cell phones or other distractions, it's just relax. I love this place! It's a great place to just think and love life. As for enjoying life, we go into the gorge tomorrow.. BIG WATER!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Wow! Today we ran granite, hermit, crystal and the gems. Granite was interesting. I had a good line but I felt out of control. I went through and hit the big stuff head on and made it through with no real issue other than my boat was FULL of water. Hermit was a different story. I've never screamed in excitement so much in my entire life. The waves were HUGE in a row boat! I always thought the ride was big in a motor boat, but it's just nuts in a row boat. I liked my run. I hit everything straight on and we made it through safe and sound. That last ride in was definitely a highlight of the summer! Crystal.....my run pretty much sucked and I feel like I got pretty lucky. It all started with me going sideways through the right shoulder of the hole....I'm happy I didn't flip. Then, as I think I'm out of the through, I'm heading down the right channel and end up going over a rock sideways.....I'm stuck, we high side, and start bouncing on the boat to shake it loose and I'm screaming every four letter word in the book.....not one of my proudest moments. We came off a few seconds later and I scream "GET ME OUTTA HERE" as I grab the oars and start to push out of the rapid. We made it through alive and upright so that's a big plus. It wasn't pretty getting through there but it could have been a lot worse. Me and Mark cooked some sweet salmon for the folks and life is good. The trip is going great and everyone seems happy. We still have a long way to go but oh boy am I glad crystal is behind me!
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| Ron punching through a killer wave in Hermit, what a ride!! |
Thursday 29th 2011
Today was CRAZY! It started like any other river day. Wake up, eat breakfast, load the boats, stop at Fern Glen for a hike, row to Lava Falls, stop and scout.....we get set to run. Kevin Jo is the first in line with me next, then my dad, Butch, Joe, and Mark running sweep. We all scouted together and we all knew the run that we wanted. There was tension in the air but everyone was confident...I personally thought I was gonna have a heart attack and die, but I kept my cool : ) We got in the boats, and pulled away from the shore. Kevin Jo was first with me second, my dad third followed by Butch, Joe, and Mark Jo. Kevin got set up, went down the slot and dissapeared out of sight. Three seconds later I saw kevins boat upside down spinning in the ledge hole, I yelled "KEVIN IS OVER! KEVIN IS OVER!" to the other boats and I panicked a little, completely forgetting what was going on and started to freak out I yelled "WHAT SHOULD I DO!!" Which looking back is ridiculous cause I was literally just about to enter the rapid at this point. I couldn't hear it, but my dad was screaming "JUST GO!!!" but what snapped me out of it was my bailer Ron, He yelled "PICK A SPOT AND GO!" I snapped out of it and hit the slot, went past the hole and made it through ok!! We were soaked and full of water but we were freaking upright!!! Now that we were through it was time to start looking for people and keep the trip going. We were headed down stream and we heard that Butch got thrown out of his boat, and that his wife Nancy came floating by by herself with their boat. Then Joe came floating by on top his boat with both of his frames hanging off either side of the boat with no people in it.....We headed down stream and began helping Joe put his boat back together while Mark got Kevin's boat back together. We had a bunch of help from two other companies A.Z.R.A, and C.R.A.T.E they picked up one of our passengers, and helped get Kevin and Joe's boats over to shore. The rest of the group came down a little after, and we had lunch on the beach. We made it through without anything serious, Kevin and Butch were cut up a bit but nothing too serious, and others had some bumps and bruises. We didn't lose anything that we couldn't really stand to lose and some straps and oars broke. It was by far the most carnage that I've seen on the river and I hope I don't see that much again! But that was it! My last trip for the season!! We made it through ok, and it was a trip to remember! To finish up, I just wanna say to anyone who went on the trip that has read this, that if anyone has more info about any of what went on during the trip feel free to add it in the comment section. : ) So that's it for this season I loved every minute of it and I can't wait till the next season!
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| All my passengers after the flips in Lava |
