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Thread: Grand Canyon river trip

  1. #1
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    Default Grand Canyon river trip



    In later April, I was able to launch on a private river permit for the Grand Canyon with 7 other people. Although the permit allows for 20-something days if you want, we planned 18 days on river, not including the rig day and camp at the launch ramp. I've done 2 previous float trips down the big ditch - one in 1999 and one in 2009 (I think those are the years). FWIW - I also spent quite a bit of time in the canyon between those two trips as the field site for my graduate research and thesis was also in the canyon - in other words, I think it is beyond a special place. Our group of 8 had 4 boats (three 18' that were provided by the outfitter that helped with food planning and prep, and my personal 16' (well really 15'6" due to the diminished tube design) which was really just the beer boat and some overflow personal items. As you can imagine, its not easy to capture the experiene of floating for 18 days through the canyon for 226 miles with 5000' walls around you and hundreds of rapids etc. Try not to overload you with pics here - just a few to make me smile...also, I currently only have pics that my wife or I took, so most of the good whitewater pics where taken by others from the bank and may be a bit before they get passed along to me....

    Rig day - gotta carry all your food and beer for 18 days, and of course, carry all your waste out.
    The blue rocket boxes carry 2 days worth of food each, plus some other extras. The brown ones behind them, well...you can figure out what they bring back.


    I prefer to bring liquor for these kind of trips as a little bit goes a much longer way - but still gotta have some beer - our beer-rimid was relatively tame compared to some I've seen - we probably only had about 1200 cans or so.


    Tranquil evening along the river


    Marble Canyon section


    Hiking to the Nankoweap Granaries (the classic photo)


    How many evenings are spent
    ___________
    James Orofino
    1970 CJ5
    1958 Willys Wagon

  2. The Following 4 Members Say Thanks to FINOCJ For This Post:

    goSlo (May 16th, 2021),Java (May 19th, 2021),speedkills (May 15th, 2021),Tom (May 15th, 2021)

  3. #2
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    Default Re: Grand Canyon river trip



    The blue waters of the Little Colorado River - both my previous trips had signficant rain events before getting to the LCR and thus it flowed muddy brown, so it was quite the treat to see the famous blue waters


    scouting one of the big rapids (Granite)


    Water flow through the canyon is mostly controlled by the Glen Canyon Dam - typically the flows have a daily surge based on electrical power demand...typically for this time of year, flows would be between 8-12,000cfs. Changes in flow take time to 'flow' down the river, and thus high vs low daily flow times are different depending on how far down the river you go - there is a 'tide chart' based on the time of typical flow changes, but usually its not a big issue, and without any form of communication etc, you never really know what is going to happen. Flow was cut back significantly at some point (afterward we heard there was dam maintainence going on), and the timing of the very low flow reached us during the night, and we woke up to find our boats high and dry - at over 1000lbs for each rig, its a lot of work to get them back to the water. We waited for 4 hours to see if a surge would come, but it never did. This boat was fully floating when we went to bed.


    Jen hiking up through the Muav slots of Matkatimba Canyon


    Obligatory Lava Falls shot - for those that know it, the flows were too low to sneak the left side, so right of the ledge hole and stay off the big diagonal curlers was the line. We all stayed upright...


    and one more to remember the good life:
    ___________
    James Orofino
    1970 CJ5
    1958 Willys Wagon

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    Default Re: Grand Canyon river trip



    Awesome. I had a blast when I went on a trip through there. Would love to again someday.

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    FINOCJ (May 15th, 2021)

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    Default Re: Grand Canyon river trip



    That looks like a blast! My wife would love doing a river trip like this, unlike her dislike of wheelin....

    glad you got to get out with friends for a fun and memorable adventure on the river! Thanks for sharing!
    ___________
    2005 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon TJ
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    Default Re: Grand Canyon river trip



    Aluminum can arm curls

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    Default Re: Grand Canyon river trip



    16 ounce deadlifts..
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    In a never ending search for the proper mix of dirt & rock !

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    Default Re: Grand Canyon river trip



    Little Colorado was mud when we were there also. The main channel was almost clean when we got there then the rest of the trip was mud water rafting from the Little Colorado flow.

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    Default Re: Grand Canyon river trip



    One of our trip members ran most of the big rapids in a kayak and thus was able to get on shore and take some nice action shots in the big rapids...thought I'd post a few. The photographer cropped most of the photos down a lot which makes for nice action shots frozen in time, but the scale and context of the rapid and river as a whole is lost a bit. Although I was on the oars for all these biggest rapids with Jen riding front (which is the scariest place to be), she did row some pretty big rapids.

    I believe this is Horn Creek - I kind of screwed this one up a bit and couldn't pull the boat far enough river left and we took a big hole. I think you can see Jen in the first pic with a bit of an OMG look on her face as she realizes what's about to happen - she just told me she thinks she is taking a big breath in and getting ready to hold it for a bit...


    Our 16' boat (and Jen) completely underwater as we took the hit - jen is under there somewhere. It stuffed the front of the boat and the back end came around, but I got the boat far enough left the back end missed the solid hit and we were able (lucky?) to wash through.


    A very nice line in Granite - going down into a wave trough, but no wall of water to bury the front...


    Cresting a big wave in Hermit - feels like an almost 1000lbs boat is about to fly:


    And finally Lava...taking the right entrance - the ledge hole to the left is maybe the most infamous hydraulic in all of the whitewater world....for raft carnage video just google Lava falls ledge hole.


    And even after you avoid the ledge hole, there are some big waves down below:
    ___________
    James Orofino
    1970 CJ5
    1958 Willys Wagon

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    Java (May 25th, 2021)

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    Default Re: Grand Canyon river trip



    Outstanding photos. The water looked beautiful.

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    Default Re: Grand Canyon river trip



    Nice
    ___________
    In a never ending search for the proper mix of dirt & rock !

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    Default Re: Grand Canyon river trip



    Nice pix - Thanks!


    FINOCJ previously posted:
    "It stuffed the front of the boat"

    Did the front hit ground?

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    FINOCJ (May 25th, 2021)

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    Default Re: Grand Canyon river trip



    Jim previously posted:
    "Nice pix - Thanks!




    Did the front hit ground?"

    No...it's deep!
    ___________
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    Default Re: Grand Canyon river trip



    Definitely the best of times. Great pics and memories.
    Thanks for sharing them with us.

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