TL Report: We are on vacation for the next two weeks. I'll pick up the blog for the Friday 8/20 installment. May I suggest SI's Gator College Football page if you are looking for some replacement reading. 
As you can imagine with the summer heat and the time span of this trip, cooler maintenance is going to be a big deal. We want to preserve as much ice as possible for as long as possible. The boatmen will be responsible for draining their coolers daily. Sloshing water melts ice, so we don't want water in the bottom of the coolers. The only other person allowed in the coolers will be the designated person on the cook team that night. They'll have a list of food stuff they need from which cooler. Then it's basically a wham,-bam-thank you ma'me! sort of scenario, grab the stuff and get in and out quick. The coolers weigh up to 300lbs so they stay on the rafts, usually under a Paco Pad for insulation.
Mileage This Week: River mile 54-56. At river mile 56.3 we have Kwagunt Rapid (class 5 out of 10) (above). This is a 7-foot drop with a large pour over (water pouring over a big rock for the non river people) in the center of the top of the rapid. The rapid is formed from rocks from Kwagunt Creek coming in on river right. This is also camp 4 (below).
GC History: About 56 miles downstream from Lees Ferry, the Colorado River flows over yet another boulder strewn debris fan at the mouth of a large side canyon. It is Kwagunt Rapid. For many river runners, that is all they need or want to know about it. But some people may have wondered, where did that funny sounding name come from? Perhaps you happen to be one who knows that it was named after a Southern Paiute man who once roamed that part of eastern Grand Canyon in the mid-to-late 1800's. If so, did you ever wonder what kind of man he was and why his name is attached to that canyon?
His name is spelled variously as Kwagunt or Quagunt or sometimes simply Quah; it is an anglicized version of his Paiute name, Qua-gun-ti, which means "Quiet Man". He was born sometime in the first half of the 19th century, probably in the 1850's, and for the first years of his life, he lived with his family around several springs in House Rock Valley. The family traveled seasonally into Grand Canyon to gather "yanu" (a clonal species of agave) in the springtime; in the fall, they moved up onto the Kaibab Plateau to hunt deer and gather pinyon nuts and other wild foods. According to Southern Paiute oral tradition, Kwagunt, along with a brother and sister, discovered the canyon that now bears his name while trying to hide from Apache raiders. The brother and sister lived there for a while, and after their deaths, Kwagunt claimed the area as his own. They say he discouraged visitors to the valley "because he wanted to keep the sage seeds to himself". He was still using the area when John Wesley Powell undertook his topographic survey of the Arizona Strip in 1871-1872, and it was probably while accompanying Powell and H. C. Demotte on a reconnaissance of the Kaibab Plateau in August, 1872 that Kwagunt informed Powell of his claim to the area. By the mid 1870's, however, most Southern Paiutes had abandoned efforts to live off the land in the traditional manner and had moved into settlements adjoining the Mormon communities at Kanab and Pipe Springs, leaving Kwagunt to eke out a lonely existence without the support of family or friends. Eventually, Kwagunt gave up trying to live on his own in the traditional manner, moved to Kanab, earned meager wages chopping wood and doing other chores for whites, and died on the Kaibab reservation as he had lived - quietly.
Equipment Check: Handwashing. Here's a short video on low impact camping in Grand Canyon. Half way through is a good hand washing orientation. We will have a two bucket system. Clean water on one side, a foot pump to pump water into a "dirty" bucket. Handwashing is required :-) post groover deposit, before setting up the kitchen, and before food preparation. Again, this is a long trip and no one wants to get sick or get others sick, so hand washing often and well is crucial.
Kayakers vs Raftguides
Two hotshot kayakers boarded a flight out of Reno. One sat in the window seat; the other sat in the middle seat. Just before the take-off a raft guide got on and took the aisle seat next to the two kayakers. Once in the air after the three had exchanged pleasantries and river interests, the rafter kicked off his shoes, wriggled his toes, and was settling in when the kayaker in the window seat said, "I think I'll get up and get a coke."
"No problem," said the guide. "I'll get it for you."
While he was gone, one of the kayakers picked up one of the rafter's shoes, hawked up from deep in his throat, and spat in it. When the guide returned with the coke, the other kayaker said, "Hey, that looks good. I think I'll have one too."
Again, the guide obligingly went to fetch the coke. While he was gone, the other kayaker picked up the second shoe and did as his companion had done. The guide returned, and they all sat back and enjoyed the flight exchanging those "Oh, shit, and there I was" tales. As the plane was landing, the guide slipped on his shoes and, as he did not wear socks, knew immediately what had happened.
"How long must this go on?" the guide lamented to himself. "This competition between our respective river passions? This animosity? This contempt for one another? This spitting in shoes and pissing in cokes?"
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.
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