As a self employed photographer, it is sometimes hard to find time to write these blog posts. It’s been 18 months since I returned from this epic trip, work and travel this past year and half have kept me very busy, in a good way, but it’s finally time to show y’all how this trip ended. Spoiler alert, it was amazing. I just read an article in the NY Times about a group who recently (March 14th) took off the Colorado river after 25 days of isolation, to find out about the chaos that is going on in the world. It took me back to the day we got off the river and returned to life above the rim. Before we re-live that experience, let’s enjoy the last few days of river life together. Hopefully a welcome distraction from the Covid-19 virus that is bound to go down in the history books. Thanks to all the folks working in the health care industry right now, including our trip leader Anna, Deb, Heather, Gaylin, Pat, Michael and Brian.
AUG 12 RM 137.6 - 156.5
After a night of on and off rain showers, followed by clearing skies, everyone was a little slow getting chores taken care of, and we took advantage of our beautiful spot to soak up the scenery while having breakfast and coffee. Unfortunately, this awesome campsite came with a downfall, it was in full sun very early. By 730 AM we were all baking in the UV rays, and all of the previous evenings bathing became a moot point almost immediately, but at least we smelled “good” while we slept.
We got on the water around 930, our usual departure time from shore. I was kayaking again today, so Jim took over the oars for what I’m sure was an uneventful morning in the raft. We had a handful of class 2-4 rapids, which were of course much more exciting for me in the kayak, and lots of flat water to push before we came to the big water of the day at mile 12. Upset, a class 8 rapid with some serious holes in the main current, was the big excitement for the day, and the last major rapid we would run until Lava. We spent quite a while scouting here, mostly for the rafts, the kayak line was pretty simple - stay right of the mess that was in the middle and catch the eddy on river right at the bottom to set safety for our rafts.
Upset did not live up to its’ name, everyone made it through without issue. After the excitement of Upset, we continued on our way, the kayakers pushing ahead of the rafts on the last few miles of flat water before coming to our camp for the night at Last Chance, which we were very happy to see was empty, as it basically is the last place you can legitimately camp without everyone sleeping on the rafts above Havasu Creek, which was our destination the following morning.
Last Chance camp is not much of a camp. It has enough room to put up a kitchen and toilet, some chairs and a few sleeping pads, but we were happy to be there. Whoever was on dinner duty that night made up some homemade falafel, which was pretty tasty, aside from the first batch that were a little overcooked and ended up looking and feeling like hockey pucks. After dinner I took another near pointless bath in the river, washing my salt stained clothing at the same time. We made our plans for the morning, and slowly the group began turning in. I found an awkward place to put my hammock that was out of the way, spanning a large puddle, as you can see below. It was one of the more miserable nights I can recall - there was a hot upriver breeze blowing, which felt like someone had a hairdryer turned on high and just wouldn’t stop pointing it at us. Sleep was hard to find and when I did, it didn’t last long.
AUG 13 RM 156.5- 165
Thankfully there were stars to watch, so I relaxed as much as I could in my hammock and counted the meteors as they flew over our tiny camp, 1 mile below the rim. Morning came, and we were graced with zero direct sunlight for our load out, which was lovely. We ate breakfast and Michael briefed us on the must make eddy just a mile down stream that would be our only chance to get to hike Havasu Canyon.
With marching orders, we set out. I was back on the oars today, and the kayakers went ahead as usual to help guide our rafts into the mouth of Havasu Creek. Nate was first in line, Pat and I followed, at a distance to make sure we had enough time to not foul each-other up at the entrance to the eddy. Aside from a commercial motor trip, which was able to access Havasu creek from downstream, we were the first group to arrive, which was awesome. I can only imagine pulling into the mouth of the creek to find 20 plus rafts all tied up together, it would really suck. We tethered our boats off to bolts that had been drilled into the rock by the NPS, and geared up for a long, hot hike up Havasu canyon.
We didn’t have plans of staying long, as we did need to put some miles on the water today, but this place is magically stunning, and our group ended up hiking and swimming in the creek for almost three hours. A bunch of us set out to make the almost 7 mile round trip hike to Beaver Falls on Havasu Creek, but the heat and lack of time did not allow us to make it all the way there. Our bubble of isolation was once again broken at this scenic stop on the Colorado by a large group of hikers from the commercial trip that had beat us to the canyon, thankfully they were on their way out, and easy to avoid.
About a month before we were here, there was a flood in Havasu Canyon, that forced the evacuation of over 200 people who had been camping way upstream at Havasupai falls. We found remnants of tents and other camping supplies that had been washed down stream with the torrents from that flood. We were all aware of the danger of hiking this canyon in monsoon season, but being there in the morning, when it is much less likely to storm, gave us a feeling of safety.
At a certain point we realized that making it to Beaver Falls was out of the question, so we opted for a smaller waterfall on the creek and spent some time swimming and enjoying the warm waters of Havasu, before heading back down to our boats for our afternoon paddle to camp. On our way back to the boats, we had to hike down the middle of the creek for a quarter mile or so, to avoid some big horn sheep that were grazing right along the trail.
Some folks were lagging behind, so I decided to take another dip in the creek at the boats while we waited. What an amazing place. There were at least 3 other groups of boats tied up at the mouth of the creek when we were leaving, we contemplated eating lunch here, but decided it would best for us to clear out so other boats could use the space we were occupying. So we geared up and headed down stream to find a spot for lunch.
JD - Our first boat out of Havasu, got hung up on a shallow rock in the middle of the river, and we were all pretty concerned that it could possibly flip during the attempts to dislodge it, but thankfully JD and his passenger were able to figure it out before to long, and we were on our way back down stream quickly after this little snafu. We found a beach just downriver to anchor up, enjoy our lunch and make a plan for the rest of the afternoon. Since we had spent more time than we had anticipated at Havasu, we decided to change up our camp spot for the night. Pat took over the oars for the rest of the day, and I sat back and relaxed with my camera, enjoying my chauffeured ride down the Colorado.
Our total mileage for the day was only nine, but we did spend almost 4 hours hiking one of the most beautiful canyons ever, so it was a good tradeoff. We spent the night a huge expansive campsite called Tuckup Camp. A commercial trip pulled in to share the space, and it was so large, we barely even noticed them.
We had curry chicken for dinner, and it was delicious as usual. As we ate, we watched the sky down river turn moody as late evening thunderstorms rolled in. We could only hope they wouldn’t head our direction, being camped almost at the mouth of a side canyon. After dusk, Jim and I took a hike up to the mouth of Tuckup canyon. We were tempted to hike directly up it, as there is supposedly a natural bridge a mile and half into it, but the threat of storms kept us at a safe distance. We instead climbed the ledge that was right near the mouth, and sat back to watch the people of canyon prepare for the evening. The commercial trip even had a fire that cast an eerie orange glow on the canyon walls.
AUG 14 RM 165-178
I recall someone in my paddling circle say once how they explained to folks, who hadn’t experienced a self support trip on the canyon, what is was like. I’m of course paraphrasing, but it went something like this: “Every night, after you get home from a long, hot day at work (that you really love), take your kitchen, living room, bathroom and bedroom out of your house, and set it up on your front lawn, then throw sand all over everything. Drink heavily, eat more than you should, wash your clothes in a bucket, go to bed early, shit into an ammo can that you share with 15 other people, wake up even earlier, eat again, put all of your belongings back into your house, including that shared toilet, and get back to work.” We did this everyday for 15 days in a row, and I loved almost every minute of it. Today would be no different. We made it through the night without any precipitation, and woke early the next morning to the calls of “hot coffee” coming from our river barista, Michael. Our crew mobilized and we were on the water by 930, and once again, we were lucky enough to avoid the sun while packing our floating houses with all of our belongings.
Pat once again volunteered to take the oars for the day, and I glady obliged. I kicked back with my camera, the river map, and played tourist while Pat rowed our boat, gently down the stream.
Some of our kayakers took the day off, and got some time on the oars as well. We had nothing but class 2-3 riffles all day, it was a great day for our boatmen to sit back and drink beer while being shuttled to the next camp.
We checked out a few potential camps on our way down river, we ended up picking one called Above Anvil, about 1.5 miles above Lava rapid. We opted for the quiet and calm this site provided, vs getting closer and hearing the ominous roar of the most intense rapid on the river all night long. Just as I was tying up our boat to some of the trees along the shore, I was scared shitless by a snake that had just caught itself lunch in the brush. Neature! We sat and watched at a distance while this poor lizard was eaten alive, rear end first so he was aware of what was happening the entire time. We also spotted what we think was a golden eagle soaring near the edge of the rim.
We unloaded our boats, and set up camp for the night, then the majority of us quickly returned to drinking and inventing games to play on our beach. There was definitely more jump roping, as well as a new game we came up with that we dubbed Bocce-bowl. Basically corn hole with bocce balls, where we dug out backstops for balls, and a hole in the middle that was the target. It clouded up that evening, and we hastily erected a tarp over the kitchen area so we could prepare dinner with out drowning it. This was the first rain we had that most folks broke out there rain coats for, it was definitely the most persistent precipitation we had on the trip. Nate, Anna, JD and I were on dinner duty, and we grilled up hamburger patties for the crew as they hid under beach umbrellas and the kitchen tarp. Jim decided after dinner that we needed a pick me up, so he built a small fire on our grill and we all drank and discussed our anxious feelings about running the biggest rapid on the river in a few hours. The rain died off, and we all had a peace-full nights rest.
AUG 15 RM 178-191.5
The following morning we were, as you could guess, up early to get to the days chores. Tensions were a bit high on this morning. I shared a dream I had that evening with Jim and Brian. I had dreamt about running lava in the dishwashing buckets we used everyday. Brian quickly chimed in that it meant clean lines through the rapid - a good omen.
As we were passing Vulcans Anvil, a commercial trip motored by, we exchanged well wishes and got back to pushing water. 1.5 miles down river we pulled over on river right to scout the rapid we had all been thinking about for the last 3 days, if not the entire trip. We spent our entire morning here, watching debris float through, judging the speed of the current, hoping another group would come by and run it while we watched - that didn’t happen. Our friends in the yellow boats caught up with us at the scout and listened intently to what our experienced boatmen were considering. Heather and Gaylinn decided, with no judgement from the rest of us, to hike around the rapid. I went down river with Anna, Nate F, one of the women from the yellow boats and posted up on right near the cheese grater rock at the bottom of the rapid, incase one of our kayakers got into trouble in that area, we had ropes ready, well I had a camera, and a rope.
Nate took the lead through Lava, and was flipped over early in the rapid by one of the first diagonal waves. He had a few solid attempts to roll, but the chaos of the rapid won, and he eventually swam once he was past us. It was quite a show. A successful run through Lava only lasts 20 seconds, Nate’s wasn’t much longer, but I’m sure it felt like an eternity upside down.
Jim followed Nate, and was quick to catch up to him after his swim. He got him safely to shore, and signaled to us waiting below that he was ok. Michael was next, then Eric who went after Nate’s boat, which was quickly heading down river with out a captain.
After our kayakers had all made the journey and were safe in their boats, or on shore, we made the long rough hike back up to the area the rest of the rafting crew was scouting from. The exception to this journey was Anna, who after watching her husband chase a boat downriver by himself, decided to hike down to make sure he was ok. Eric’s a lucky guy, she missed out on the biggest rapid on the Colorado to make sure he was ok, or perhaps to yell at him for going off on his own, only he and Anna know the truth. He successfully rescued the boat and had it waiting for Nate at Tequila beach. After a 20 minute struggle, we made it back to the scouting area and finalized the order and plans for our lines. Brian would be taking the lead, without a passenger since Gaylinn decided to walk, followed by his son Zack with Abby as his passenger. The rest of us would watch from above to get a better feel for our chosen lines.
Brian was looking good, untill he hit a large hole, slightly sideways and actually got washed out of his boat. Thankfully the boat stayed upright through the rapid, and he was able to swim along side it. Jim was ready below and towed him to the shore on river left, Michael was on his A game, and quickly paddled to the abandoned raft, some how got out of his kayak, into the raft, pulled his boat onto it and guided it through the class 4 rapid directly below lava. He did this all inside of a minute, and won the hero of the day award with that move.
With our nerves now even more frayed, me, Nate F, and our passengers made our way back to our rafts to gear up for our run. We decided to take a slightly different approach to Brian’s line, and enter the rapid with our bows facing river right, avoiding the top right hole, and paddling forward away from the boat eating ledge hole as we entered the rapid. The plan was that our sterns would kiss the edge of that ledge hole and it would help turn our boats straight down river. Nate and Deb went first, while Pat and I followed from a safe distance. I stood in my boat and watched as Nate entered the rapid, just like we had discussed, and it worked perfectly. Then he was knocked out of his boat. Shit. He was some how able to climb back into the raft before Deb even knew he was gone, and get the boat through the rapid safely. Pat and I were pushed facing downstream by the ledge hole, just as Nate and Deb were at the bottom.
Just as Brian had predicted from my dream, clean lines. When we got to the bottom of the rapid, Jim was waiting in his kayak to direct us to pick up Brian, who was now on river left, just above Lower Lava rapid. We snatched him from shore and made our way through the sweeping right hand rapid, into the huge eddy created by it and onto Tequila beach, to celebrate our victory.
We waited with beers in hand while the yellow boats, followed by JD made their successful journeys to Tequila beach, and then we drank, and ate a much deserved lunch. Since Jim had lived up to his nick name of Safety Jim, and been the only person who had rescued anyone from the water, those lucky folks got to drink a booty beer from his shoe. Nate B, Anna and Brian all were privy the flavor of his river funk to appease the river gods. Anna did not swim here, but had earlier in the trip, and had yet to do hers. Nate F also downed some a beer from his shoe, for a swim and self rescue. He also managed to splinter one of his oars in the chaos of Lava, a good souvenir that he carried out of the canyon with him. JD still refused to drink a booty beer.
After about an hour of celebrations, the wind kicked up real hard, and we decided it was time to push on. We had 10 more miles of river to cover until we got to our chosen campsite for the night. After about 5 miles, the sky was getting incredibly moody, and I couldn’t keep my self from getting my camera out. Pat kindly offered to paddle the rest of the way so I could take in the scenery.
After a very long afternoon of flat water paddling we finally made it to camp, much later than we normally would’ve. We set up the kitchen and our sleeping quarters while it rained on and off. The campsite was wide open, with views for miles, it was much different down here than it had been the previous week or so. From here on out, the canyon widened, and it was like a slow emergence back into the world above the rim.
Rain showers continued off and on through the night, and I actually had to put up a tarp to keep dry. It had been a victorious day, and everyone was exhausted. We mostly went to sleep early, due to the rain and lack of energy.
AUG 16 RM 191.5 - 207
We were graced this morning with clouds, and zero sunshine while loading gear, which was very pleasant. The day ahead was all flat water, except for one class 6 rapid, which was at the end of the day.
Since we had nothing but flat water today, many of our kayakers hopped onto rafts to enjoy the ride, and help with pushing these beasts downriver. Jim sat up front with Pat in the morning while I guided us slowly down river.
Just as the sun came out, we stopped for lunch at 202 mile camp, had a nice swim in the eddy and took a hike to look for petroglyphs. It. was. so. HOT. Jim found some, I did not. I lost interest quickly once I had run out of water.
Jim took the oars for the afternoon shift, while Pat and I relaxed upfront. I took over the oars at the only rapid of the day, a class 6, so we had some excitement just before camp.
We made it to our camp (Indian Canyon) by early afternoon, and it was one of the best camps we stayed at the whole trip. It had shade, a great spot for bathing, lots of room and even some safe hiking.
After a bath, some laundry, and some delicious spaghetti, Jim and I set off for an evening hike to find the bundy jars. I don’t really know much about them, but they were apparently in this canyon, and we set off on a hike to locate them. After sweating like pigs for an hour or more, we gave up on finding the bundy jars, sat down and rested for a while. I took some shots of the camp from above, and we decided to take a “short cut” on the way back down. On our way back to camp, only 500 yards or so from our site, we found the illusive bundy jars, they were very unexciting, and I’m pretty sure one of them had peanut butter in it. Not sure those were what we were supposed to find.
We made our way back to the camp, and found most everyone was already asleep. We sat down and enjoyed a beer together before picking up all the empties that had been left laying around and then turned in ourselves.
AUG 17 RM 207 - 222
Today would be our last full day on the water, it was disappointing, but exciting at the same time. I was back on the oars, Jim decided to kayak his last day. With no significant rapids to speak of today, and lots of booze left, we started the party early. My first beer was cracked at 930, and most folks joined in shortly after.
We had a liquid lunch today, and kept pushing water to get to camp as early as possible. We arrived around 2pm, laid out a buffet of left over snacks and food, and continued drinking. This afternoon buzz generated some great ideas from the group. The best one was our attempt to make a slip and slide out of paco pads.
As the afternoon wore one, storm clouds began to gather all around us, and threatened to rain on our parade, thankfully they all moved down river and didn’t open up on us.
After a lot of afternoon napping, the crew put together what food we had left over into a makeshift dinner. We had canned chicken, couscous and canned asparagus (which is disgusting, FYI). We cleaned up, and lit a fire in our fire pan with wood that previous groups had left behind, then sat 25 feet away from it, because it was so damn hot out already. Even though the heat was unnecessary, it was quite pleasant to have the ambiance of a real fire while camping again.
I was up at 2 am to use the rest room, and grabbed the camera to get some last shots of the stars and milky way from below the rim.
AUG 17 RM 222 - 226
Our last day on the river began very early. Everyone was up around 5AM to begin the load out. We were due to meet our outfitter at 9AM to head back to reality, so getting on the water early was a priority. We gathered for one last safety meeting, expressed how grateful we were to one another for this incredible experience, and watched JD do the worst booty beer anyone has ever done. Props to him for finally doing it though, he swam on day 1, and finally did his penance on day 15. As was customary, he drank it, or rather poured it down his chest, from Jim’s shoe, the person who rescued him from the water. Maybe because it was breakfast time, but for some sick reason he chose to do this with a peanut butter porter.
We were on the water by 830 that morning, by far the earliest we ever were mobilized. We floated the next 4 miles of flat water, and soaked up our last few miles on the Colorado. When we got to diamond creek takeout, we were informed by the Hualapi Tribe that the storms that had missed us the previous night had flashed diamond creek. The creek bed doubles as the road, so lots of repairs needed to be done for it to be driveable, this is a common occurrence and they usually do the work quickly. So, all we could do was sit around and wait while the road (creek bed) was repaired enough for our drivers to get to us. We hung out in the eddy above the take out and since we still had beer left, we drank!
Once the take out was cleared of trips leaving, we pulled in and began the arduous task of de-rigging the boats. It was quite the process, and Pat and I finally found some of the skittles that had been spilled all through our boat about a week ago. Our rides thankfully made it down the road, and showed up around noon, we had all our gear off loaded and ready to toss in the back of the truck. After another hour of packing, we were finally on the road, which was almost an hour of incredibly rough bumpy creek bed driving, it was painful being crammed into such a small metal box after having been out in the open for the past 15 days. We stopped at the top of diamond creek road, and had a lunch prepared for the first time in 2 weeks by other people. Our drivers brought deli meats, cheese and salads for us to chow down on. Across the street was a lodge for the Hualapai river runners, and they had a bathroom, with toilets! It was a strange feeling to not stand in knee deep freezing water to pee, and to wash your hands with hot running water that was full of sand and wasn’t operated by a foot pump. After lunch we got back on the road, and arrived back in Flagstaff around 6pm. The driver of the box truck helped us unload all our personal gear here, while we waited for the crew that had driven to pick up their cars. When they arrived, we loaded it back up into the personal vehicles, and headed to the house we rented for the night. We ordered pizza, got some fresh beer and liquor, and proceeded to have one last hurrah together before we all said our goodbyes. I almost forgot, showers, we all took showers and it was amazing.
AUG 18-21 Arizona - Pennsylvania/Maryland
We were up early as usual, but instead of loading boats this morning, we were loading cars for the long journeys home. Good-byes were said, hugs were doled out, and Jim Nate and I headed off to have breakfast with our Flagstaff buddy Larry, before hitting the long road home at 10 AM. We made it as far as Trinidad, CO where we couldn’t find public land to camp on, so we opted for a state park, and a terrible campsite, but it was just a place to sleep. It was also freezing.
After a quick cold sleep, we were up and on the road again by 7am. We drove straight from Colorado to Pennsylvania, only stopping to eat and get gas. It was a miserable time, but we were all ready to be off the road and home. We did get a 2 hour break from driving at 4am, on I80, when an accident halted traffic. Watched the sun come up just outside of Ohio.
After my stint of sitting in traffic, someone else took over and Nate and Jim collectively finished the drive home to PA. We arrived around 2pm, unloaded our gear one last time from Nates truck, hugged our road trip buddy goodbye, and spent some time with Jim’s family, before going to bed super early. The following day, I loaded my car, and finally made my way back to Maryland. Home finally. Including my trip back and forth from Maryland to PA, we drove 5032 miles, and sat in the car for 89 hours. Many people say this is the trip of a lifetime, and I would agree that for most it would be, but I will most certainly find myself floating down the Colorado river again, I don’t know when, I just know I will make it happen again. Cheers to all the folks who made this journey possible, our families, significant others and loved ones that allowed us to go play in nature for almost a month, what a gift. As I sit here 18 months later, with a pandemic raging across the US, I am so grateful to have the photographs and memories of this trip to reflect upon now. Stay healthy out there folks.