The Grand Canyon

A week ago Saturday I returned from my rafting trip down the Grand Canyon. I have taken notes and decided to blog the trip. I did not have a camera with me but I have stolen a few from Adrienne’s mom. I know it probably sounds crazy to go on a trip through the length of the Grand Canyon without a camera. I figured there would be 15 other shutter bugs on the Grand but only one camera to record our one month old. I will post by days to give the account. Today’s post actually covers the first two days on the trip, but before we actually got on the water.

I started out on the trip on the morning of August 15, 2010. It was sad leaving Adrienne and the children, especially knowing the sacrifice that Adrienne was making on my behalf. I’ve been joking over the last year about building up my good husband karma so that I could go on the trip. I think at this point I’ve burned through my cumulative lifetime total and then some.

I made the drive to my Mother-in-Law’s house in American fork where we were meeting. We loaded the gear onto the trailers and then hit the road. The Drive to Lee’s Ferry was fairly uneventful. We stopped for a last meal in page and then drove to the put in. I must say that the weather at the put in was hot, scary hot. The campground had been baking in the sun all day. It really made me hope things would be better close to the river. In that campground my sleeping bag was superfluous at night, I could only imagine what daytime would bring.

We were told that that we would not be able to rig until at least 10:00 AM the next morning. Fortunately we received word early Monday morning that we could unload our equipment and start rigging immediately. I was also told that rigging is usually an all day affair, but thanks to the efforts of our trip leader and several people who went to help early the days before we were able to finish rigging before we even ate lunch. From there we rowed our boats down to the private boaters’ beach and had the rest of the day off.





























That gave us a chance to do a few fun things. We visited the ranch at Lee’s ferry and took the self guided tour. We also drove to Navajo Bridge a few miles downstream. The bridge goes from rim to rim in that part of the canyon. There is an old bridge and a new bridge. The old is open to foot traffic and provides a beautiful view of both the canyon and the river below. It was kind of daunting looking down at the river and watching the currents and eddy lines. I knew in a few hours I would be passing underneath, and once on the river there would be no turning back.

One nice thing about Lee’s ferry is that it now has cell service. After dinner I was able to call Adrienne and talk for quite a while. It was so nice to have such a long pleasant conversation with her before being separated for so long.