Grand Canyon 2010 Trailer

Grand Canyon 2010 Trailer from Dan MacFarlane on Vimeo.

A short preview of our Grand Canyon 2010 trip. This video is best experienced with SOUND TURNED ON and played in Full Screen HD.

Grand Canyon - Day 11

Tuesday 5th October 2010 by Dan –

The rain continued into the night. I woke at 3am to thunder and lightning, heavy rain hitting the tent, and a gushing sound close by. I reached for the tent floor above my pillow hoping for the reassuring feeling of solid ground, but instead I felt a bubbly texture of water under the tent – much like how a water bed feels. The bubblyness was quickly spreading in all directions from one corner of the tent. In the darkness I grabbed for my head-lamp. We had a serious problem. The tent was now quickly filling with water. A flash flood from the heavy rains meant that our tent was now pitched in the middle of an overflow pond from the newly created stream flowing a few feet away. We were now both awake and on full alert. Erin’s first concern was for our boats on the beach. She left the tent and went running off into the storm to make sure they weren’t floating away. Crouching in the tent, between the floating platforms of our sleeping pads, I grabbed our blankets and stowed them into dry bags as quickly as I could, to stop them getting wet. There was now a good two inches of water in the tent. The rain was easing, but the flood was not. We evacuated the rest of our belongings from the tent. There were now quite a few people awake. We crafted a drainage channel to release the water from the newly created pond, and we got some help to empty the water from out tent and move it to higher ground. Thunder and lightning continued until morning as we lay trying to sleep on wet sleeping pads.

The next morning was cold and wet. It had been quite a night. We had been barraged almost continuously throughout the night by some seriously fierce storms. The storms most intense moment culminated with the brightest flash of lightning and loudest crash of thunder most of us have ever experienced, magnified further by canyon walls surrounding us.

We had breakfast at 6:30am and then a delay until out next move was decided. As the storm clouds subsided, the call was made to move out. We put on wet gear and packed up our stuff, including a very wet and sandy tent.

The first rapid was not far from our camp. It was Granite rapid (rated 7-8) at mile 94. The river here is especially fierce after the storm. The rapid runs down a steep 18 foot drop alongside the canyon wall and I had decided to try and run it. Wow! I have never experienced anything like that before! I followed Andy’s lead. We entered near the wall at the top right. There were big powerful waves coming from multiple directions. You need to brace into them or they will knock you right over. Andy flipped quickly and disappeared into the swelling water. I continued on, occasionally catching a glimpse of his upturned boat amongst the white water and breaking waves ahead of me. Then a lateral hit me from one side, then the other, and then in a flash I was upside down as well. I didn’t even know what hit me. Upside down in my boat the water was turbulent. I felt my boat being pulled forcefully this way and that. I waited a couple of seconds before trying to roll. I got a gasp of air, and then I was back under. I tried again without success. It felt like I was being circulated. Now was the time to pull the cord and eject. I surfaced holding my boat, but I’d lost my paddle. The fierce water and strong currents in the rapid were swiftly carrying me downstream. I caught a glimpse of my paddle in the swelling water and quickly decided to release my grip on my boat in favor of a chance to get my paddle back. I released my boat, but now I had lost sight of my paddle. I kicked my legs and grabbed into the water where I’d last seen it. To my relief, my hand made contact and I had my paddle back. Now I caught sight of Andy who was close by. He expertly maneuvered his boat into position and I grabbed for the handle at the back. He towed me out of the rapid and towards shore as I coughed out the water I had swallowed.

Erin had been on shore and had blown her whistle to raise the alarm. Michael had gone after my boat which was now out of view. Once on shore on river right I made my way across the sand and rocks downstream to find Michael and retrieve my boat. He had pulled into an eddy on the other side of the debris fan. After my boat was drained, I was back on the water. Wow! The adrenaline was still running. Granite Rapid was an experience that I will never forget. It was the most challenging rapid that I’d ever attempted. I was very glad I’d made the decision to try it, and also slightly disappointed that I didn’t make it through without swimming.

The video below was shot by Erin and shows (at half speed) some of the action in the first part of the rapid. Andy is in the first kayak and I am in the second:


Erin put her boat on the water below Granite after portaging from camp. The next rapid of the day was Hermit Rapid were Erin swam after flipping near the top. I made it through unscathed; now with a taste for the big water. After Boucher rapid came Crystal (rated 7-10) rapid, and is one of the hardest on the river. Scouting took a long time. Lunch was followed, and then Tim, I and Jim took the sneak route down the right side and thereby avoiding the majority of the rapid. Max also took his raft down the right side and got stuck between two rocks so that he had to be pulled off.

Several more rapids followed, Tuna Rapid and Lower Tuna where I was flipped and managed to roll on my second attempt (was very pleasing). After a riffle or two, Sapphire Rapid (rated 6) was quite challenging, but I made it though. After Turquoise Rapid it was getting late and my arms were beginning to ache. We eventually found a campsite at about 6pm (30 minutes before sunset) at Emerald just above 104 Mile Rapid. After unloading the boats, I setup the tent which involved some creative guy lines to work around rocks, and Erin was on the cooking crew.


It was a great day. My best yet! I’m feeling more comfortable in my boat and in the rapids. Excellent! Now I just need to get some sleep for more tomorrow.

Grand Canyon - Day 10

Monday, October 4th - Day 10 - By Erin

Layover day! Today we were treated to a leisurely morning. It was a beautiful day and breakfast was served at 8am instead of 6am. Breakfast was scromletts – a delicious mix of scrambled eggs, potatoes, and lots of vegetables – with toasted English muffins. After breakfast, sandwich fixings were set out and everyone prepared their own sandwich for lunch.

It was nice to have a relaxing morning because last night was not a relaxing night! We had some fierce thunderstorms blow through camp. It is quite an experience to be in a small tent with rain pounding down and lightening flashes so bright that they can be seen through the thin nylon. The thunderclaps were loud enough to shake the very walls of the canyon!

Dan and I were excited to hike up into Monument Creek, so we joined Michael, David, and Jim who were also planning to hike. It was a fantastic hike up into the canyon with a spectacular section through a narrow slot canyon. We encountered several groups of backpackers on the way. From Monument Creek, we were able to get on a section of the Tonto trail going west. We hoped to hike further up for some views of the river and canyon. Near the top, we spotted a small hill on a ridge and decided that it would make a perfect lunch stop.


From the top, we had spectacular 360 views of the Canyon and the Colorado River far below.

The only problem was the looming thunderstorm to the south. The storm was moving fast and within minutes, we were in the midst of a raging storm complete with thunder, lightning, driving rain, and hail. We quickly hustled ourselves down off the hill and down the ridge as quickly as we could. We had climbed over 1,100 feet from our starting point at camp. We hurried down through hail and rain.
Occasionally, the rain stopped and the sky lightened up a bit which was nice and it let us dry out somewhat! With the rocks wet, their amazing colors really stood out – reds, purples, golds.

By the time we made it back to camp, the rain had mostly stopped and we even saw a patch of blue sky. I was just getting ready to do some laundry in the river when another dark cloud came over the canyon rim. Instead of starting laundry, I scurried around with everyone else to pick up gear and secure things that were left out. Once done, Dan and I grabbed some snacks and sought refuge our tent. It was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon and a good chance to catch up on my journal writing.

There were a couple of lulls in the rain, but this storm did not seem so keen on moving on and turned into a slow, steady downpour in the style of the pacific northwest. It was definitely not what any of us had expected! We postponed dinner a few times hoping that the weather would clear up, but it was not to be. At about 5:30pm, I geared up and went to see what was cooking. Fresh, hot spring rolls were on the grill, so I offered to provide tent to tent delivery service. I think it was a welcome treat for those still in their tents! It continued to rain throughout dinner prep and dinner. We managed to set up two shelters that kept the cooks and the eaters semi-dry. Kudos to the dinner crew for whipping a delicious dinner up in difficult conditions and with such a good attitude!

After dinner, we quickly washed and packed up as much of the kitchen gear as we could. We were concerned that we might get another massive thunderstorm like last night. At the time, it seemed unlikely that we would see more thunderstorms, but the rain was certainly not letting up anytime soon. Historically, this area of Arizona only gets about 1.6 inches of rain in September and 1.1 inches of rain in October. Talk about a rain event – I think we received the entire 1.1 inches in a single day!

Grand Canyon - Day 9

Sunday, October 3, 2010 - By Erin

Strong winds blew through camp last night! A lot of gear was tossed around and it generated quite a bit of excitement. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a lot of headlamp activity around camp. There was so much going on that I thought maybe I better get up as well to check on things. Everything seemed ok in our area, but I did tighten up the rain fly just in case!

For breakfast we had a real treat! The outfitter had sent us off with several dozen loaves of white sourdough bread. No one was very keen on using the white bread for sandwiches, but someone had a fantastic idea – make French toast instead! Wendy confirmed that there were adequate eggs for this special treat, so Dan and the cooking crew made fresh French toast for breakfast – complete with real maple syrup and granola – yum!

After the usual camp pack up, we set off for our first big rapid of the day – Horn Rapid. Horn was less than a mile downstream, so it didn’t take long to get there. We stopped to scout and spent awhile contemplating the options. We had been told by several raft guides to start left of center, come in on the tongue just to the right of the horns and then pull hard to get back left. It didn’t look impossible, so we came up with a game plan and got started.

I decided to join Dan S. on his raft because Dad and Wendy planned to walk around the rapid on river right. Dan and Tim opted not to run the rapid and instead ferried across the river and carried their kayaks down river left to set up as safety boaters at the bottom. Jim portaged down on river right. With several kayakers in position, we set the raft order and prepared to head out. Martie had also decided to walk around, so John rode with Sam, Alison with Larry, and David with Max. Max and David were up first. Dan S. was interested in seeing their run, so he was in position on the rocks to see how things went. Max started just to the right of the horns as we had been told to do by several river guides, but they ran into trouble pretty quickly. Max had little opportunity to pull left and was pushed hard toward river right – directly into a large rock in the current’s path. Max and David highsided against the rock. The raft was momentarily pinned before Max was able to push it off. The raft had flipped.

All of this happened in just a few quick seconds and most of us could not see any of what was going on. When Dan S. gave the signal that Max and David were against the rock, Andy and Michael rushed to their kayaks and quickly ran through the rapid to help any swimmers and to corral the upside down raft. After seeing what happened to Max, the other oarsmen changed their line and ran the route through the horns. Dan and I followed Max and split the horns. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a good clean run! All of the other rafts also made it through the horns without problem.

Once we were all at the bottom of Horn Rapid, it took another hour or so to get everyone together and on the same side of the river. After much discussion, the flipped raft was carefully moved across the river and flipped right-side up. It was a stressful morning, but we managed to get everything back where it needed to go. The only causalities were a broken oar, a lost umbrella, and a lost tow rope.

We got back on the river and headed out with plans to stop at the first good lunch beach that we saw. We had a long lunch and relaxed a bit after the events of the morning. After lunch, we ran through Salt Creek rapid and paddled into a fierce headwind before arriving at Granite Rapid. When we arrived at Granite, Andy decided that this might be a great stop for a layover day. Since we were already there, we went ahead and scouted the rapid. Several kayakers ran through for the fun of it. Andy and Michael had clean runs down the right. Tim, on the other hand, was hell bent on taking a left run around the bottom hole. So much so that he ended up running right through the bottom hole – upside down and backwards. It was a great show!

After dinner, several of us started a card game. I eventually crept off to bed, but the card game continued well into the night. Everyone was definitely looking forward to having a layover day!

Grand Canyon - Day 8

Saturday, October 2, 2010 - By Erin

As a member of the cooking crew, I woke up early to help start the hot cereal and to get the hot water started for tea and coffee. Despite my best efforts, I am still never the first person up in the morning! While we were packing food for lunch, I found another scorpion in the lunch cooler. It was right on the rim of the cooler. Tim thought he could carefully blow the little bugger off the cooler and into the sand. Unfortunately, when he blew, it looked like the scorpion dropped into the cooler, so Tim and Michael started emptying out the cooler. They had emptied the cooler about halfway when we spotted the scorpion still on the edge. We were a little bit more careful with the scorpion relocation the second time and managed to move him a safe distance away.

We set off down river at around 9:30am. It was Scott and Marshall’s last day on the river, and we were all starting to realize how hard it would be to say goodbye to two members of our group.

We went through three quick rapids on our way to the boat beach at Phantom Ranch. After the rapids I did some roll practice and completely lost it! My roll had been going so well and then kaput it was gone!

The boat beach at Phantom Ranch was packed with four other groups, also doing exchanges, and over twenty rafts! Once we got the rafts parked and the kayaks grounded, we took advantage of the perks offered at Phantom Ranch. There was a water pump located near the boat beach so we were able to top off all of our water containers. This might not seem like a big deal, but 16 people go through a fair amount of water in a day and when you are dependent on filtering all water for drinking and cooking, it can quickly become a time consuming task.

A number of us took advantage of the stop to walk into the small settlement at Phantom Ranch. The National Parks Service maintains a small grouping of stone cabins originally built in the 1920s. These can be reserved by hikers for overnight stays. In addition, there is a small general store where sundry items can be purchased and mail can be picked up and sent, a small canteen, restrooms, and several pay phones. Dan and I had hoped to get some ice cream at the canteen, but unfortunately, ice cream was not on the menu that day. Not surprising given that all supplies must be hauled in by mules or flown in by helicopter!

Phantom Ranch was a happening place! There were numerous hikers coming and going on the trails and large groups of people hanging out throughout the area. It was weird and a little overwhelming to suddenly have so many people around. Dan and I did not spend too much time at the ranch and quickly made our way back to the boat beach after posting the post cards we had prepared.

Back at the boats, other groups were starting to trickle off and there was increasing anxiety about where our new group members were. It had been estimated that the hike down from the South Rim would take about 7 hours. Alison, Brad, and John had planned on leaving at 5:30am, so we expected to see them around 12:30pm. As 12:30pm came and went and it moved on to 1pm then 2pm, we were all starting to get worried. To add to the mood, dark clouds had rolled in and we were getting intermittent bursts of rain and gusty wind. We had lunch. We hiked up to the suspension bridge. We watched for a group of three hikers. And we continued to wait.

In a flash of inspiration, we realized that we could make use of the delay by sending a group back up to Phantom Ranch to purchase fresh ice for our lunch cooler. Wendy produced a huge duffel bag and David, Michael, and Jim set off for the Phantom Ranch canteen.

At around 2:30pm, Tim’s brother John sauntered on to the now empty boat beach. The downhill hike had proven harder than expected and Alison and Brad were still a bit behind. Andy and Dan grabbed some Gatorade and snacks and set off back up the trail to help them with their bags.

Once all of the newbies arrived, we got them fed, set up with gear, and then we packed up and set off down river for the next camp. It was strange to have three new people join the group and interesting how it changed the group dynamics. It also had to have been hard for the new people. They did not have the advantage of having spent the past week learning the ropes of river life together and had to jump right in. They did a great job and within hours were actively participating in all things camp life!

We still had a few rapids to navigate before the end of the day. Bright Angel Rapid was relatively tame, but Pipe Creek Rapid had a few surprises in store for us. Luckily, Andy led the kayaks so we had a chance to see a probe go through and were able to make some adjustments to avoid flipping. We camped at Below Pipe Creek which is fronted by quick moving water and a barely there eddy. It was quite a job to get all of the rafts in and tied up securely. In addition, the camp was perched above a steep, rocky bank so we used a fire line to quickly unload gear.

We had a tasty spaghetti dinner prepared by our new cook crew of Dan, John, and Wendy with the usual suspects pitching in. Although it wasn’t a long day from a mileage perspective, it was still tiring. We did manage to fit in quick game of hearts, but it wasn’t long before everyone found their way to bed.

Grand Canyon - Day 7

Friday 1st October 2010 by Dan -

After 6 days of paddling and covering 75 river miles, and with a day of big rapids ahead, we decided to take a break from kayaking today. We secured our kayaks to the rafts and rode as passengers: Erin with Sam and Martie, and myself with Larry. It was a different perspective on the river and it was good to give the arms a rest. We entered the inner gorge where sheer rock faces line the river. We got to see some big whitewater with some massive waves. I tried rowing the raft for a bit on some flat water, and it is hard work! It gave me a new appreciation for how hard the oarsmen have been working.

At camp tonight there was quite a bit of wildlife activity. It was almost dark and Erin didn’t have her headlamp, so she was going back to the tent to get it. As she was walking across the sand in the dim light, she noticed something move across and down the slope towards her, not more than a couple of feet away. It turned out to be a young rattle snake! When they are young, they are most dangerous as they are more likely to bite and release their venom. It was a close call! The snake was chased off into a nearby bush, and Jim wisely shifted his camp bed that was close by in the opposite direction. As this was happening, a rather large spider was spotted in the darkness crawling past the kitchen area. “Wow, that’s a large spider!” someone said, and on closer inspection it turned out to be a tarantula! So the tarantula had to be chased off as well. Not long after that, and there was another commotion as Erin spotted a scorpion on the trail to the facilities. Then, as I was heading to bed, I hear a rumor of a ring-tailed cat being seen in the shadows. It seemed everyone was on edge – however I was glad to be sleeping in a tent tonight and not out on the ground like some of our group!

Our camp is at Zoroaster, which is where we are carefully positioned a couple of miles upriver from Phantom ranch. Tomorrow morning we will paddle down to the ranch where we will stop and exchange 2 of our existing group members for 3 new ones. Scott and Marshall will leave, and we will be joined by Brad, John, and Alison.  It’s been a week since we have seen anything resembling a building, let alone a ranch, so I’m excited to see what a ranch at the bottom of the canyon is like.

After Phantom the river holds more big water which is worrying after what we saw today. Hopefully the day off will have been for the best and we will be feeling good in out boats tomorrow. My apprehension and nerves for the big water are mounting.

This place is like nothing else. The scenery is amazing. I can’t quite believe it is real.

Grand Canyon - Day 6

Thursday 30th September 2010 by Dan –

We packed up camp and crossed the river to explore the mouth of Little Colorado River. All the mud and silt in the LCR water made it a chocolate brown color, a sharp contrast to the crystal clear water that we had become accustomed too. It also felt mildly warmer. Andy noticed from the rocks alongside the river, that it looked like the water level had recently been much higher, an indication that a storm had passed further upstream in the river’s watershed. Where the two rivers joined there was a clean line between muddy water and the clean water. We crossed the line and continued downstream where the newly colored water was a novelty.

 Not long after setting off downstream, Andy and Wendy caught us off guard when they casually flipped the Grabner in a riffle. Fortunately they swam to a rock face on river left and were able to recover themselves and their gear with the assistance of a raft. Andy did lose his hat in the excitement, but I spotted it floating downstream and was able to pluck from the brown water and return it to its rightful owner.

It was another good day for me. I did not swim, nor did I need to execute my combat roll. My roll, however, did stop working in practice, which was frustrating. It was probably due to trying to improve it and changing things.

After lunch we took some time away from the river and hiked to the top of a butte where we were greeted with amazing 360 degree views of the canyon and river around us.

Here's a map showing our hike on Day 6. It's best viewed in Google Earth or directly in Google Maps by clicking the link below:

View Larger Map

The hike led to the top of a steep cliff overlooking Unkar Rapid which was around the next bend of the river. The cliff was high, and according to my GPS it was about a 350 foot (100 meter) sheer drop down to the river below. Even I, who am not usually afraid of heights, was feeling a bit queasy near the edge of this one. The rapid and waves below looked surprisingly small from the top.

After our hike we paddled the short distance around the bend and stopped to scout Unkar Rapid (rated 4-7) from river right. Looking upwards we could clearly see where we had hiked to earlier, however now all the attention was focused on the river itself. The waves looked bigger now and it was surprising how deceiving it had looked from above. The rapid was increasingly fiercer towards the cliff wall on river left. It looked like most of the water was pulling towards the wall and there were several holes that needed to be avoided. It looked dangerous! For this reason the kayaks chose to take a sneak route on river right that would hopefully mean we could avoid the places we didn’t want to be. The trick would be lining up the approach and avoiding the submerged rocks in the shallower water on the right.

Michael went first, followed by Tim, myself and then Erin, and then Jim. The sneak worked out well and the rapid passed without incident. We paddled on several miles further until we reached a suitable campsite for the night. The sun-shower was rigged and provided a refreshing rinse off. It was surprising how good a small dribble of clean water felt after almost a week without washing.

We are only one day away from Phantom Ranch now. There are big rapids coming up tomorrow. Erin and I plan to take a break and sit them out on the rafts.

We had soup for dinner and margaritas prepared by Sam. I like my margaritas strong.