TL Report: The kids start a 3 day kayak clinic with Endless River on Saturday to improve their river skills. Let's pray for some non traumatizing wet exits so we can start using spray skirts!! We are planning on bringing a kids kayak with us to GC, but we'll have to see how their skills develop. Even the "flat" water can be squirrelly, and it's important they have a positive experience. I really wish NOC would follow the great example Endless River is setting for community whitewater kids. Way to go Juliet and Ken!
EXCHANGE FOLKS: Next week is the week (Thurs, July 1st) that you need to make South Rim/Phantom Reservations for the trip. Don't forget!!
Mileage this week: River Mile 38-40: Marble Canyon is the site of one of the last great proposed dam projects on the Colorado. Proposed and investigated in the early 1950s, the proposal met substantial opposition, notably from the Sierra Club (see history below). The proposed dam was abandoned in 1968. Exploratory holes, which were drilled in the Redwall Limestone of the canyon walls in an early phase of the abortive project, can still be seen at Mile 39.2
Marble Canyon marks the western boundary of the Navajo Nation. In 1975, the former Marble Canyon National Monument, which followed the Colorado River northeast from the Grand Canyon to Lee's Ferry, was made part of Grand Canyon National Park, forever protecting this beautiful canyon from being dammed.
Dam adit site on river left. An adit is a horizontal shaft used to access mines or in this case, drilled to assess for dam viability in the rock. These adit sites are still visible, forever reminding us of what could have been lost.
GC History: David R. Brower (1912-2000) Brower was the first director of the Sierra Club. He played a major role in limiting the creation of dams on free flowing rivers in the US. In1954, in the battle to preserve the Upper Colorado River through Dinosaur Nat'l Park (see LA Times cartoon, right), Bower and the Sierra Club supported a compromise dam which would be built in lesser known Glen Canyon. The new Glen Canyon dam created Lake Powell, which flooded a vast canyon landscape, and thousands of years of indigenous culture and natural history under 540 ft of water. In a 2002 interview, Brower said his organization's support for Glen Canyon Dam, in return for the bureau passing up on other dams, was his greatest failure. As a result he worked diligently to protect what was left of the Colorado River, successfully launching campaigns to stop the damming of Marble Canyon and Grand Canyon as a whole. Widely considered one of the environmental leaders with the greatest global impact, David Brower was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Here's what the Sierra Club said of Glen Canyon Dam in 2000:
"In an act of callous disregard for the natural world that was unfortunately characteristic of the century just past, the Bureau of Reclamation erected a dam and drowned the glory of Glen Canyon— its arches, its Native American ruins, its rare and precious animals and plants, its fantastic sandstone architecture, and the swift serenity of its rapids-free river a hundred fathoms deep. The vision of the canyon that was, and that could be again, burns in our minds."
Equipment/Camp Check: For all you non river folks here's the scoop on carbiners. You want basic "biners" to clip on your stuff (ammo can, hat straps, waterproof bags) to the raft rigging. The biners to the right of the picture above are locking gate biners, you don't need these, only the regular ones on the left. Don't bother with the small key chain biners, get the normal size like these from REI. To distinguish your biners from your friends, try using duct tape (right). You are going to need about 3 each.
Recommended Reading: Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, "the noted author's most enduring nonfiction work, is an account of Abbey's seasons as a ranger at Arches National Park outside Moab, Utah. Abbey reflects on the nature of the Colorado Plateau desert, on the condition of our remaining wilderness, and on the future of a civilization that cannot reconcile itself to living in the natural world. He also recounts adventures with scorpions and snakes, obstinate tourists and entrenched bureaucrats, and, most powerful of all, with his own mortality. Abbey's account of getting stranded in a rock pool down a side branch of the Grand Canyon is at once hilarious and terrifying."
Next Deadline: $500 per person is due September 1st. If your trip status changes at anytime (ie, need to do a half instead of a whole trip), please let me know as soon as possible so we can fill your ½ space. This will lower your cost.
Comments, questions, concerns? Email me and I’ll include it in the next post. The comment link isn’t working correctly.
