dyons@houxa.UUCP (N.MITRA) (01/16/86)
>From: ihnp4!k.m.austin > >Nilo, > > Hi! I'm interested in hearing about your GC experiences. >Please send me mail, or post to net.travel. I'm sure there are >many others who are interested. > >Kim Austin >ihnp4!npois!kma As there have been many letters to me on this subject, I am going to consolidate my responses here and answer some specific questions as I go along. Also please bear with the somewhat disjointed style of this writing. I went on a 9-day raft trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon (about 350 river miles) towards the end of July 1985. The temperatures in the GC are in the range 100 F - 70 F, but the extreme dryness helps greatly. Also there are no bugs to speak of, so one doesn't have any of the usual outdoor camping discomforts. I went with Grand Canyon Expeditions of Kanab, Utah (address to follow later), one of the many river- running outfits. It was recommended by a friend and, in turn, I highly recommend their service. I stayed overnight at Las Vegas. On the evening before the trip, we met our guides/pilots and were given waterproof bags (2 of them) and an "ammo" bag. One bag is for the sleeping bag that they supply, the other for one's personal belongings, and the ammo bag for cameras etc. There is little need for much clothing. I spent most of the day in swimming shorts (as did most people) whilke in the evening one "changed for dinner"as it were into cotton shorts or perhaps slacks. I do not have this problem, but those of a lighter hue should certainly bring lots of suntan and long- sleeved shirts for comfort from the sun. EVERYBODY must have hats or caps, preferably several because one is sure to be blown away... Anyway, the next morning at about 4:00 AM we set off for a 6-hour ride through extremely scenic country to reach Lee's Ferry where all the river expeditions start. The trip ends at Lake Mead and we were driven back to Las Vegas. >From: ihnp4!seismo!harvard!macrakis (Stavros Macrakis) >Sounds exciting, but what's the excuse for the $1200 fee? That comes >to something like $130 a day. If you calculate, say, 10 to a raft, >with one guide, and expenses (food, insurance, raft) of maybe $40 a >day (I can't see how to get a higher figure), the guide/company is >getting $900 a day. Seems steep. For $100/person/day you can go to >an excellent hotel with a large room, three meals, private beach, pool, >... on the Riviera. I'm not saying that one is better than the other, >just wondering how they can justify such incredible prices for a >camping trip! True, Stavros, but all I can say in their defence is that there is no way to do it cheaper. To run the Colorado, as we river-runners call it, you have to get permission from the Nat. Park Service. It is difficult for an inexperienced group to prove that they have the skills to navigate a river that I can only describe as FEROCIOUS, though not unkindly so. One's only chance is to go with registered outfits. As for their expenses, they do provide equipment (one might not want to subject one's sleeping bag to wear and tear, for instance), lots of stout, hearty food, a continual supply of soft drinks, beer, orange juice.. As for the hotel-like atmosphere, one does have private beaches, one can loll about as much as one pleases (clinging on tightly while going through a rapid, of course), have one's meals served at regular hours...and so forth. Ofcourse, when taking a vacation like this , one is naturally the sort who prefers a non-Riviera atmosphere. Also, the Riviera is so passe and the fact that one can dine out on one's experiences for months on end is surely worth some money :-) >From: ihnp4!tektronix!tekcbi!jimb >.........................................................I heard that >there are some great swimming holes and waterfalls to play under and >water slides (natural) etc. Is it true???? >How about snakes???? >How about water and air temps in summer???? > >Jim Boland >tektronix!tekcbi!jimb Quite right, Jim. As we went down the river, we stopped frequently to see the major "sights". Usually this was a climb up a side canyon following the stream that trickled down to reach it's source. Usually this lead to a benign waterfall, where one could bathe at the pool underneath. At one such place, called Elves Chasm, you could climb through a tunnel under the falls, climb up to the ledge and jump into the swimming pool. We never tired of this. Then, at the meeting of the Colorado and the Little Colorado , we cruised up the little C - a quiet stream - where one could swim in the lower reaches, while those more daring floated down very small rapids wearing their life jackets. Incidentally, wearing life j's is mandatory when one is on the boat or near water. There are also hikes up the canyon walls to see Indian ruins, pictographs etc. There need not even be any particular reason for taking a hike...one just did itbecause every view was different and unique. If you have an interest in geology, you can impress your fellow canyoneers with your knowledge but I warn you that the river boatmen have a lot of knowledge too. As for snakes, yes, rattlers abound I'm told though we never saw any. I did see a long red snake called a racer which I was assured was not poisonous. I'm dead scared of snakes, but the possibility of meeting them is so rare that I wasn't uncomfortable in the least. Ditto lizards etc. >From gargoyle!shallit Mon Jan 13 20:12:44 1986 remote from ihnp4 From: ihnp4!gargoyle!shallit (Jeff Shallit) >Yes, I'm interested. Is such a trip available for, e. g. March 20-27? >Who do I contact? Does one need to know how to swim? (I don't). > >Jeff Shallit >...ihnp4!gargoyle!shallit No, you do not have to know swimming to go on this river trip. The Colorado is icy cold (because of Glen Canyon Dam) and the river flows at a very high velocity with strong currents, rapids and whirlpools. Should one fall in, swimming is no use: one usually passes out due to hypothermia. If not , one usually is bashed into rocks or sucked underneath....I think you get the point. The other pleasures of swimming at waterfalls and so forth, I think a non-swimmer can usually forego. This raises the question of baths and so forth...At camp, one carried out one's ablutions as best one could at the river bank by wading a little bit and splashing. Portable toilets are carried. If you write to these people, they'll be able to provide you with specific dates. I believe that August is the rainy season in the canyon while April is springtime with desert flowers in bloom. I'll be glad to answer further questions, if any. Grand Canyon Expeditions P.O. Box O Kanab, Utah 84741 Phone: 801-644-2691
bhuber@sjuvax.UUCP (B. Huber) (01/22/86)
In article <900@houxa.UUCP> dyons@houxa.UUCP writes: > > No, you do not have to know swimming to go on this river trip. The >Colorado is icy cold (because of Glen Canyon Dam) and the river flows at >a very high velocity with strong currents, rapids and whirlpools. Should one >fall in, swimming is no use: one usually passes out due to hypothermia. If not one gets bashed into rocks or sucked under the water... (Sounds like the river guide's $900 profit is spent on life insurance :-) These impressions of the River are common among people new to whitewater, and although not usually reinforced by guides, are at least not dispelled: it makes guides and other river-runners look quite heroic. As a matter of fact, these statements are gross exaggerations (I mean no offense: I shared the same opinions once). "Icy cold" amounts to a summer temperature range of 46 deg. F to 52 deg. F (the water warms up over its 240 mile course to lake Mead). An unclothed swimmer can do quite well for fifteen minutes at least in such temperatures; it takes longer to "pass out". The "very high velocity" is a rather uniform 4 mph. Certainly the water is faster in the big rapids. It might reach 15 (some reports go as high as 25) mph. This is no faster than many rivers I have seen (New, Gauley, Cheat, Hudson, Ottawa for example). Now that Glen Canyon Dam is filled, summer water flow is consistently high. There are virtually no exposed rocks in the center of the river (where rafts and swimmers pass), and only a few along the banks. And, since water tends to flow in the deepest channels, it's actually quite difficult to get "bashed into rocks". There are a few places where the recirculating, turbulent water can pull one under (and keep one there). They tend to be near the shore, in the middle of the big rapids. As rafts never venture near these places (one of the things boatmen are paid for is to know where not to go!), they present little hazard. There are dangers. The waves in the largest of the rapids (Lava, Crystal and maybe in a few others) are so large, and the rapids so long, that a panicky swimmer can have real trouble breathing. People have drowned, although I hasten to add that their number is incredibly small, especially compared with the eleven to sixteen thousand who pass along the river corridor in boats every year. (It's worth pointing out that all people, non-swimmers and strong swimmers alike, are the same when it comes to swimming rapids like these. Your life jacket keeps you alive; your own forces are absolutely nothing to the force of the water. It moves you where it will.) I kayaked down the Colorado this August with a party that included a rather inexperienced kayaker, who wore no wetsuit. At one point after a flip in a rapid, he had to swim for almost ten minutes before we could tow him to a safe beach (It's easy simply to pick up a swimmer and haul him into a raft. No beach necessary. But our raft support was ahead of us). Along the way, he swam a minor rapid, encountered about ten "whirlpools", and traveled about a mile. At the end he was cold and a little tired, but unharmed. During the same trip, while resting in an eddy near the upper portion of Lava (yes, there are eddies there), I watched two people get thrown from a thirty- foot pontoon raft as it tried to leave the eddy. They were in some of the worst turbulence for a while, thirty seconds perhaps, before their raft turned around and picked them up again. I'm sure those two will be talking for years about their death-defying (:-) exploit. I am spending some space writing this to keep all you prospective river-runners out there from being turned off by the apparent dangers of whitewater. The dangers are there, but in a well-guided trip,they are minimal; one is probably safer than in Philly rush-hour traffic (no (:-) for this one). This is the trip of a lifetime: there are few such magnificent places in the world as the Grand Canyon. Floating the Colorado gives a perspective that cannot be had by any other means. Let the Riviera wait.
keith@telesoft.UUCP (Keith Shillington @spot) (01/26/86)
Add a couple of other things about rafting the Colorado:
1. Don't go in an oar raft without wet-suit booties!
2. If you go in July be prepared for rain (but it's nice and
temporizes normally hot weather). The weather gets consitently
warmer as you head downstream and drop in elevation.
3. Most expedient tourists take large motorized "rafts"-- more
like barges -- Lots of people, beer and noise.
4. It takes 12 days to go in an oar boat from Lee's Ferry (at the
top) through pretty much most of the interesting rapids and terrain.
The closer you get to Lake Mead, the more the rapids are "backing up"
as more and more water is flooding the rapids. If you can't spend 12
full days --or don't want to-- you can arrange to either get off
at the middle and hike up Bright Angel trail to Grand Canyon National
Park (NOT for the weak of stamina --SERIOUS hiking without a mule) OR
you can hike down the Trail and meet them. (It's still serious going
down but gravity is a mighty partner).
5. I can highly recommend a group called Wilderness World based in
Flagstaff. The guides are "mellow", really know the canyon and the
FOOD IS GREAT!!!
6. There is a lot of hiking and you pretty-much should really
like to camp......if you know what I mean.
That's all I can think of for now....
Carolyn Chase
Posting for Carolyn...
--
Keith Allan Shillington telesoft!keith@SDCSVAX.ARPA 619/457-2700x388.ATT
{ucbvax!sdcsvax,celerity,bang}!telesoft!keith.UUCPix1037@sdcc6.UUCP (Christopher Latham) (01/29/86)
> Add a couple of other things about rafting the Colorado: > 1. Don't go in an oar raft without wet-suit booties! > > 5. I can highly recommend a group called Wilderness World based in > Flagstaff. The guides are "mellow", really know the canyon and the > FOOD IS GREAT!!! > > Carolyn Chase > > Posting for Carolyn... > > Keith Allan Shillington telesoft!keith@SDCSVAX.ARPA 619/457-2700x388.ATT > {ucbvax!sdcsvax,celerity,bang}!telesoft!keith.UUCP I strongly agree with Carolyn Chase on her recommendation of Wilderness World as being a good company with which to travel down the river. In addition to the things she mentioned above I feel that from my observations that they have some of the best equipment on the river. The rowing frames and rafts seem to be of higher quality than the other oar powered raft companies' rafts. Most companys had rowing frames constructed of bolted together wooden 2x4s and WW has rowing frames made from welded aluminum. I went on trips through the CANYON two summers in a row with this company. As for the wet-suit booties that is a matter of choice that I didn't find necessary. Incidently my first trip was in the first half of September and the second in the second half of July. Christopher Latham U.C.San Diego Dept. of Applied Mechanics and Engineering Sciences ..sdcsvax!sdcc6!ix1037