The Hester's Grand Canyon River Trip - 453 days to launch, but who's counting?

Hey all, as I was getting my thoughts together on what I wanted to write for our Grand Canyon trip this week, it occured to me you may or may not want my GC ramblings filling up your email on a semi-regular basis. And that being so, I decided to start a blog so you can check in at your leisure. This way, I can post things I think will be of interest to you, deadlines, photos, rapid info, menu ideas, links and the like, and you, as a trip guest, can be incredibly interested and entertained (or perhaps blow it off completely, like Elaine :-)). It's up to you. I've got a few things I will be including each week until launch (and as my brother in law, Mike, said, "Ah, that's an awful lot of weeks", (oh, well, I'm excited) and you can post comments, questions or observations. So here goes.

Trip Leader Report: Since learning that we recieved a permit, I've been in contact with all four of the private equipment outfitters. I've input all their fees into a big spreadsheet to see which is the best outfitter for our trip. So far, each outfitter is running within about $50 per peron of each other. My goal is to keep this trip under $1000 per person and that looks very realistic at this point.

What the Grand Canyon Private Boater Forum is chatting about this week: I caused a bit of a stir this week simply posting if anyone had any experience getting the the National Park Service (NPS) ranger to give the 1 hour orientation talk on rigging day (June 28, 2011) instead of launch day (June 29, 2011). I read about this possiblity on one of the outfitter pages (PRO). I thought this could give us an earlier launch if we didn't have to wait on the ranger for the "chat". Well. After a lot of discussion, some weird racial slurs against Mormons, and 20-odd posts later, I got an answer from one of the River Permit rangers. No, the NPS won't do this unless the ranger has a medical emergency on launch day. Huh? That didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. What sort of medical emergency could the ranger anticipate on a Tuesday to not give us the talk on a Wednesday? Weird. No worries though; launch day is launch day, which means it's all good.

Mileage this week: All full trip participants will need to meet in Flagstaff, AZ on June 27, 2011. The following day, we'll take a 3 to 4 hour shuttle to Lee's Ferry, the put in for the Colorado River. Each week in this blog, I'm going to break down the mileage of the trip starting from the top of the river. This week is Lee's Ferry to Mile 3.  

Lee's Ferry is considered to be mile 0 for Grand Canyon river trips, but is actually located 15 miles below Glen Canyon Dam. Boats are unloaded and rigged (this takes 3 to 4 hours), then floated down to the launch beach just downstream. After dinner at one of the nearby lodges, the boatmen will spend the night on the boats and the rest of the trip will camp at the river runners campground close by. The next day, after the River Orientation talk by the NPS, we will launch. There are no significant rapids in the first three miles but we will go through the Paria Riffle at mile 0.3 (riffle is a western river term for small waves). Double click on the map for a larger version.

GC History: John Doyle Lee (right), a Mormon, moved to the confluence of the Colorado and Paria Rivers in 1871 and established Lee's Ferry. He and his family built the ranch houses and planted the orchard (now owned by the NPS) downstream of the boatmen's ramp. The ranch was originally called "Lonely Dell" by Emma, Lee's 17th wife. John Lee was executed by firing squad in 1877 for participation in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In the massacre, 54 white men and 300 Indian allies attacked a Missouri-Arkansas wagon train, killing all 120 adults and older children. Lee was the only one of the 54 men ever brought to trial. Emma continued the ferry business after her husband's death.  Across from the put-in is Lee's Backbone, a giant slanted rock leading down to the river. If you cross the river, there are wagon wheel ruts dug into the rock from the 19th century wagon trains. Lee's Ferry was an important Colorado River crossing from the 1890's to 1928, when the Navajo Bridge was constructed just downstream.

Equipment check: Check out the equipment list on the page link to the upper right. As I mentioned last week, REI has a really good deal on dry bags, REI dry bag link. You will need a large dry bag and it helps if it has backpack straps. I can rent on for you from the outfitter, but it's almost as expensive as just buying one.

Next deadline: $100 deposit per person due on  May 1, 2010. Also tell me if you are doing a full or half trip, and if half, which half, Lee's Ferry to Phantom Ranch, or Phantom Ranch to Diamond Creek.

Any feedback? Anything you'd like covered? Any questions? Sock it to me.