River Chronicles #10

Trip number ten down!! This was a really fun one. It helped that it was a fun trip because I'm kind of beat after ten trips. The trip was with twenty really great guys from Sweden. The trip was organized and brought all together by two extremely talented and adventure loving gentleman. Let me just say that this was probably the most rowdy group I've had all summer. These guys knew how to party and you couldn't help but to join them. Two ukulele's were brought on the trip and they added a musical feature that I've never had before. Great songs were sung before and after dinner from both Sweden and the U.S. and it was a really fun time to hang out and to get to know everyone. The weather was pretty good but it threatened to rain almost everyday. The little Colorado was muddy but we swam anyway. I mean, I only have so many times I can swim there, right?! The food turned out great and the guests were really happy with it. A couple of the nights there were more than a few bottles of whiskey opened and drained before bedtime as the whole group sang songs and told stories. I really believe that this was one of my most memorable trips. The people were great, the crew was great and the work was easy. This was my last motor trip for a while. I have another trip coming up on Sunday but it will be in row boats and that will sadly be my last trip for a couple years. I love the river and I love the opportunity to work for the greatest company down there. I'm so stoked I have one more trip left and that it's slow and long so I can enjoy the canyon for as long as I can. Another adventure awaits and there are more rapids to be run! Wish me luck! Sorry I don't have any pictures yet, I'm hoping to get some from the swedes. When I get them I'll post them up for you all to take a look.

River Chronicles #9

Another trip down, and it was a pretty important trip for me. After years of training, I finally got my own boat for a trip!!!! It felt great to be on a trip where I had control of what went on on my boat. Jake Skeen was our fearless trip leader, Kevin Honeycutt was our trainee, Jake's friend, Tyson, was one swamper, and I got to bring my wife!!!!! I was so excited! I've had to leave her alone all summer so it was nice to finally be able to bring her with me. We also had my aunt Lorie with us too. She helped a ton and was there to take pictures for the company. The trip went well, the people were really nice and the weather was great. We still had high water, and the side canyons, Little Colorado and Havasu, were clear and blue. There really wasn't anything too crazy to report. It was a great trip and I was sad to see it end. BUT, before I finish, I have to tell you about the 9 year old spawn of Satan that was on the lower end of the trip. I've never seen a more horrible little kid in my life! He screamed at his parents, and would not stop asking to do things that he already knew he couldn't, like asking to get on the boat before he was supposed to and asking for lunch before it was done. The last night, he had a full blown melt down and what did his parents do??.....NOTHING!! Their friend who was on the trip finally did something and took the kid away from the group. I'm not going to go into detail about all the stuff the kid screamed at his parents, but I was blown away when the next day his mom asked me if anyone else on the trip had noticed and was annoyed by the kids behavior......HELLO!!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!!! No one wanted to even ride on the same boat as the little demon!! Well, the trip ended and it ended up being a sweet trip. Here's a few pictures Enjoy!

Brooke and Lorie

 

Cover up from the sun

Elves Chasm

Havasu

Me and Brooke at the top of Deer Creek

Brooke hanging out in the middle of the prickly pear

Floating through the Little Colorado

The crew in the AWESOME suburban Jake is taking the picture

River Chronicles #8

The whole crew in hangin at Havasu

Back in the grand canyon!!! It felt great to be back in the Grand Canyon after being on the Cataract! Rafting there was great, but there's something that hits me hard to be in the Grand Canyon. I got to run with Joe one more time as our fearless trip leader, and my main man Russ as second boatman. I also had my brother in-law, Cory, on the trip to help out, and one of Joe's friends, Ramsay. With this crazy crew, we had a great trip with no real issues. We hiked, sang, told stories, ate, rafted, and laughed our way through the trip and I was sad to see it end. I honestly finished the trip happy but super sore...I think the season is finally catching up to me physically. Ugh!! But I have a week off so I'll be ready for the next trip no worries.

River Chronicles #7

After two days off from my last cat trip, I headed down again to Moab. For guess what?? ANOTHER SCOUT TRIP!!!This time it was a little more mellow. We had fifteen people and it was me and Joe as guides with two j-rigs. The weather was great, and the boys had fun and were safe.I think the only major thing that happened was that Joe caught a cold and was down for the count for a couple days. He worked through it though and we got everything done and the people had a good trip. We got off the river and headed down to Fredonia to rig another trip in the Grand Canyon!!

River Chronicles #6

Another cat trip!! But this time with THIRTY SCOUTS! The trip was huge! There were seven crew, four row boats, a paddle boat, and two J-rigs. The trip went great and the food was pretty good. It was cooked by the scouts so things in the kitchen got a little crazy. We got through the rapids okay. We did have a interesting time in big drop two when the paddle boat went into the claw and everyone in the whole boat got washed out. We picked them all up without any real problems except the one boy who bit through his bottom lip. We got to camp shortly after and patched him up and he was back messing around a little later. And that's pretty much it. A fun trip, mellow and a great time to hang with a bunch of great crew and scouts.

River Chronicles #5

Well, I came off the Grand and went straight from there to Cataract Canyon. Nate and I headed down to Moab to meet Jake who had been rigging the trip by himself. We drove all freaking night and got to Moab at 4:30 am.....We walked in the room and found all the lights on with Jake fully clothed passed out on the bed. We slept for an hour and a half, woke up and cruised to the warehouse. After throwing all the stuff on the boat we headed for the river. We put in at a place called Gold Bar and wouldn't you know it, we got stuck in the mud. The end of the boat was five feet from the water and the trailer was pushing mud.....We had no shovel....We had no way to dig.... So what do we do?? We use salad bowls and our bare hands!!!!!!  We dug enough to get the trailer out and we got the boat in to the river! The trip was great. We had a lot of time to float because of the high water so that meant getting to camp early, and some good time to chill. The last night we got a special treat. We got to see our oldest guide, Dave Stratton, do his Chuck Norris look alike roundhouse kick on a loaf of bread. I don't think that I have ever laughed so hard in my life! Here's a few pictures of what happened on the trip.

Killer wave!

 

Jake attempting the Chuck Norris roundhouse

Obi Dave Kanobi Jedi master making contact with a loaf of bread!!

 After all the crazy, the trip went great and we had huge water! The river was still flowing 65.000 cfs and the rapids were massive! We saw a flash flood and "Chuck Norris" in action. The trip ended and I went home for a week to be with my beautiful wife.

Rock art

Ancestral Puebloan pictograph 800-1000 years old

Group who hiked to the doll house! Super fun hike!

River Chronicles #4

Well I gotta say....I had more fun on this trip then I've had in awhile. It was over the fourth of july and it was really cool to be in the canyon with people from all over the country. We didn't even miss the fireworks. The day was great and I don't think anyone really missed all the noise and smoke that usually comes with the holiday. Nate Haldeman even said, "The stars that night were our fireworks."
     Everyone was great and with a younger crowd I was able to make some good friends. The trip was like almost any other but I was with my dad. It was nice being with him although I realize in my old age I'm just as hard headed and stubborn as he is. We usually got past our differences with little issue though and the trip went on. A few highlights were great scenery, lots of rain, good crew, and 28 really great passengers. If any of them read this, thanks for the great trip! You all made it awesome! Come see us again!
The major highlight for the trip was the massive rain storm that hit us on our fourth day. We had just finished a stop at Havasu and the clouds began to close. We motored for a while and the clouds slowly began to look a little more threatening. I thought, "I'll just get my coat out just in case it rains." I got out my rain coat and no sooner had I put it on a massive gust of wind came up the river and smacked us down. Then came the rain! It began to pour and with the major gusts of wind the drops stung if they hit your bare skin. We pulled over to the side of the river and waited for a bit to let the storm pass. After a while, the rain mellowed and the wind calmed. We went down river only to find waterfalls coming out of every drainage and off of almost every cliff. We passed two canyons that were gushing mud and water out into the river. The spray that came from the massive waterfalls spread all the way across the river. The air smelled like mud and silt. It was an incredible sight to see, and I believe that everyone knew they were getting to see something special. We ran lava falls and came through clean and safe and had a great last night together. The trip ended up without any issue and afterward Nate and I went on to Cataract Canyon to run our next, hopefully just as successful trip!