| Grand Canyon Whitewater Rafting
Trip
Randee Dawn 5/23/03 - 5/30/03 |
The raft from the booklet. Basically, darned accurate. A quick guide:1) Mesh bag. Full of beer (or coke, there was one of each, at least). Kept cold in the river. The cans got somewhat scraped clean by the material in the water, and often they expired before being hauled out to drink. Known then as "dead soldiers." Spare cans were kept in the well space under #5.
2) Our Driver. Or, in the case of one raft, two drivers. Erica mostly made food, but did some driving; Dale and Dwayne did the main steering. None looked quite as forest-rangery as the handy-dandy Drawn Driver.
3) Our Stuff. Where the big bags (and biggest bags, full of our sleeping bag/pillow/sheet/bedroll/tarp) were belted down for the day.
4) Rehydration. Cooler of lemonade (its opposite was full of water). The lemonade, Crystal Lite, tasted good the first day. After that, it was degrees of flavored water. And sometimes warm. Ergh. Next to 4, not pictured here, is a cooler of Granny Smith apples and oranges, available for eating at all times. Secret: It's hard to peel an orange all in one peel, but it can be done. Then, you get a wish. I taught this to the college kid sitting in front of me most of the trip. He got into it.
5) Seats. Wet seats. Uncomfortable after approximately 46 minutes.
6) Optional, much better seat. Inflated presumably as a spare in case one of the other tubes (the blue areas of the raft were tough industrialized inflated rubber) went bust; it also covered the "split" in the raft so the thing could bend in rapids. It set you up high so you had a great view and didn't get too soaked.
7) The main section of the raft exterior, these were also used as seats when, in minute 47, you couldn't stand to sit on those "padded" interior seats. Not always an option in all rapids.
8) The wettest spot on the boat. During some rapids, water could geyser up through that spot. The first day, I was on Dwayne's boat, and the Frat Foursome set a small daybag in that spot, to keep the geyser down.
9) Ribbed metal platform. In 100-plus weather, you better wet that sucker down before touching it. Ouch.
10) Another seat. Very dry. Very uncomfortable. Very boring; it's like you're in a hole.
11) The Potty. So, you're on the river, and you've been chugging the bear and drinking the lemonade and water and there's water rushing everywhere, what if, while immersed in Nature, Nature calls? Well, you go over here and you sit on a little metal piece and you drop trou and you do what you have to do. Barring a pit stop or parking for the night, the River is your bathroom. Yee ha!

Our mighty steeds in real life. That's Trey standing in the center, Dale on the left. The vans actually drove us to Marble Canyon -- we wouldn't see the Grand Canyon for at least 2 full days.