tom@rlgvax.UUCP (07/13/83)
Well, after hearing too many rumours, I did a little research myself.
I am scheduled to kayak the Grand Canyon in August with commercial
raft support (the only way, it seems, that I will be able to go before I'm
too old). So I called the commercial raft company and asked for the scoop.
At no time was the Canyon closed to boaters (though perhaps they had to
walk parts). The releases are now down from the veryvery high levels to
around 50,000 cfs; I believe normal summertime peak levels are around 35,000.
The raft company said the problems generally were the results of turkey
boaters being in the wrong place when running rapids -- either they couldn't
read the water or handle their rafts properly. Some rapids were bigger,
some smaller, but it wasn't that much more horrendous than it usually is.
The biggest problems were in not overshooting your campsites.
As to how this applies to other parts of the Colorado or elsewhere, I don't
know, but the story probably is similar.
- Tom Beres
{seismo, allegra, brl-bmd, mcnc}!rlgvax!tom