82 Days To Go - Tuckup



Golden Light at Tuckup Canyon



TL Report: Today I received in the mail our official permit (below). Included in the NPS envelope was the River Orientation DVD that EVERYONE is required to watch. All trip members who are launching at Lees will watch the DVD in Flag at the River house. Everyone hiking in, you will need to do so before you come out to the South Rim. You can watch the four NPS segments on YouTube:


Orientation video 1                                Orientation video 2
Orientation video 3                                Orientation video 4



Official Permit is here

 I also received passes to waive the park entry fees for the Exchange hikers coming in at Phantom. Unfortunately, they are for July 4 and 5th, not the 3rd when you guys will be coming in. I have a call into river permits to see if they can be amended.


What the Grand Canyon forums are chatting about this week: Another possible government shut down. Not good for river runners, because if there is a shutdown, any trips scheduled to launch will not be able to so since the road to Lee's Ferry will be closed, and there will be law enforcement there to make sure no one enters. I hope for the folks, who have waited so many years to do this fabulous trip, that the government gets their flippin' act together. Oy Vey.

 Canyon sets closure plan



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS azdailysun.com
Posted: Friday, April 8, 2011 5:05 am

A federal government shutdown due to a budget impasse would include Grand Canyon National Park, a federal official said Thursday.

"We're hopeful there will not be a government shutdown, but if there is, all 394 national parks will close," said Park Service spokesman David Barna.

All nonessential employees will be sent home as well as those who work for park concessionaries.

State Highway 64, which runs through the park, would remain open to vehicle travel, but all hotels and facilities within the park would close, Barna said. All hiking trails, lookout points and parking lots would be blocked off.

If the park shuts down, the gates to the Grand Canyon couldn't simply be closed. About 1,500 people live there and not all work for the federal government. Water treatment and sewer facilities would need to be maintained, and a cadre of law enforcement and security will be on hand, Barna said.

Mona Mesereau, a spokeswoman for park concessionaire Xanterra Parks and Resorts, said it would contact guests in the event of a government shutdown and either reschedule trips, refund deposits or refund any unused portion of their trip.

The Park Service will not, however, search for anyone who is rafting or hiking in the canyon's backcountry, Barna said. "For practical purposes, we won't have enough resources to search for someone."

A weekend closure in April could mean the loss of $110,000 in entrance fees to the Grand Canyon, said park spokeswoman Shannan Marcak. A week of entrance fees in early April amounts to nearly $487,000. The Grand Canyon hits its peak visitation in July with about 20,500 visitors per day.

The closure would not impact access to the Hualapai and Havasupai tribes that call the Grand Canyon home and are outside of the park's boundaries.

Also in the Flag news:

Man banned from Canyon for illegal river run



By DAILY SUN STAFF azdailysun.com
Posted: Thursday, April 7, 2011 9:13 am
The U.S. Magistrate Court judge in Flagstaff has banned a St. George, Utah man from Grand Canyon National Park for kayaking on the Colorado River without a permit.


According to information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Dean Woods Jr., 24, has been banned from the park for three years while he is on probation for pleading guilty to conducting a river trip without a permit.


According to National Park Service investigators, on July 7, 2010, Dean hiked into the Canyon with an inflatable kayak in the remote Tuweep area. Rangers, working on a missing-person report, found him on a beach on the river. Dean admitted, remorsefully, he knew a permit was required to kayak the river.


The maximum penalty for the offense is six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.



Tuckup Camp



Mileage This Week:  River Mile 162-165. At this point in the canyon, we are just floating along. No large rapids for several miles, but plenty of miles to make down river. After Havasu, it's all about getting in higher mile days while still enjoying ourselves. On river mile 165.1, we'll pass Tuckup Canyon. I don't think we'll hike this one, (we may have spent a lot of time at Havasu), but you never know.

GC History: Check out this compilation (called the Shaman's Panel) of the pictographs way up Tuckup Canyon.

The Shaman's Panel in Tuckup Canyon - alas, too far a hike for us to see!

We won't be able to hike as far from the river as these incredible wall paintings, but you can hike to them ( a very long day hike) from the north rim. Here's a link if you'd like more information. 

Equipment/Camp/Info Check: What are Eddys and why are we concerned about them?



Eddys can be your friend,.... or not. Getting out of an eddy can be zero fun and exhausting.

What is an eddy? In simplest terms, it's a place where the current of a river slackens suddenly, or even reverses itself. Eddies are characterized by turbulent circular flow patterns. A whirlpool is a kind of eddy, but the eddies that most paddlers know best are the ones that form on the downstream side of obstructions in a river.



Eddy Diagram


So, why are we concerned with eddys? Because they like to grab rafts, cause chaos and separate rafts on the trip. 

Most of our experienced boatmen (sorry, Jim and Mike) will know how to manage eddys on the river. But inexperienced river folks may underestimate the power of swirly eddys. IF you catch a tube in a strong eddy, it will pull the raft in and cirulate it upstream. This can be difficult for the boatmen as it requires a lot of rowing and energy to get the raft back out in the current and can subsequently separate the rafts on the trip. Even in calm water on the grand, I have seen rafts dip a tube on an eddy line and dump out innocently reading passengers (you know who you are) resulting in a pretty scary swim (as their head bumped along the bottom of an 18ft raft).