Grand Canyon - Rigging Day

Friday 24th September 2010 -

It was an early start this morning for tea and a breakfast of fruit and toast. The group had planned to be up and ready by nine, but it seemed like we were all a couple of hours ahead of schedule already, perhaps due to the anticipation of starting our adventure. I was feeling tired and still having trouble remembering everyone’s names. We had a couple of hours to kill waiting around for the outfitters bus to take us to Lees Ferry. It was a cool dewy morning and the rising sun felt good. I was ready now and just wanted to get this trip going. I was feeling ready; however I needed to tell myself to just relax and let things happen.

The bus eventually turned up and after our non-river gear was separated, we loaded our personal gear and hit the road. The drive from Flagstaff to our put-in at Lees Ferry (36° 51.9'N 111° 35.2'W) was pleasant. Leftover pizza and snacks were served for lunch after a brief pit-stop at a gas station along the desert road. After several hours we stopped at the Navajo Bridge where we got our first glimpse of the Colorado River while walking across the old bridge which is now for pedestrian traffic only. It also gave us our first taste of the hot Arizona sun and I think we were all glad to get back into the air conditioned bus.

It was a short drive from the bridges down to the Lees Ferry boat ramp where we were to partake in our first rigging of the rafts. We had 4 rafts in our group, each with a captain, also known as an oars-man, and a passenger. In addition to this we had 6 kayakers including Erin and I, bringing the total number up to 15 for the first part of the trip. The rigging process involved loading all our personal gear and supplies required for the next 21 days onto the rafts. It was manic. There were a lot of people who didn’t know what they needed to do, and over a period of several hours in hot sun, had to figure it out the best they could. In addition there was another group rigging their boats alongside us who seemed even more clueless than we did. It’s lucky this was a practice.

We setup camp several hundred feet downstream from the boat ramp, before the bus drove us to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Good food and beer was consumed by all.

I was excited for the day tomorrow, still trying to stay calm and relaxed, but apprehensions were building. We could hear the first rapid from where we sleep.