Thursday, April 15.
11 river miles + 6 HDT miles
We got moving pretty early this morning. It took a while to get everything packed up and loaded but we set sail by 9am, as planned. Jordan and I scavenged some avocado untoasted toast which made for a hearty breakfast for us. I also drank a lot of coffee which is weird since I’ve only been drinking one cup per day usually. Knew I was going to need it today I guess.
In case I haven’t conveyed it well enough yet: rafting is fucking awesome. In addition to being able to bring a full glamping set up, the actual rafting is so much fun. I was pretty nervous about rafting especially since we were heading into some more serious rapids. It didn’t help that a lot of people were wearing dry suits and helmets and kept talking about going for a swim.
We hit a few a class 4 and two class 6 rapids. This is apparently not the traditional rating for rapids. The regular grading for rapids goes up 1-6 but on the Colorado River it’s 1-10. The hardest rapid is a 10 and the others are rated in relation to that. I have no idea why. In any case, the 4s were totally fine. Kinda bumpy but more fun than scary.
The 6s on the other hand were right on the edge of my comfort zone for water. Enough to make me really nervous beforehand but still enjoy them during and after.
Jordan and I got put on a boat with the other older Tahoe guy. This was perfect for us. This was actually his 7th time going down the Colorado River so he knew all the rapids well. He had also been a commercial boater and guide for 40 years so yeah he was really experienced. The only issue with that, in his words, was that he was experienced enough to try to things that might scare us so that he could have some fun too. On the first class 6 he went straight into a big wave and we got drenched. The water was freezing and it was too early for the heat to build up in the canyon so I was shivering for a while after that. I thought that was just how those rapids were handled but after we ran them a few other groups talked about how they didn’t follow our line and took much drier/easier ways through.
Still, our captain (for lack of a better term) was an amazing rafter. It’s hard to describe how graceful and fluid he was in the water. He would smoothly maneuver the boat into the exact right spots, flowing perfectly with the river, knowing exactly where to be to have the current take us forward or to avoid crashing into the big waves (the first one excluded). On the first class 6, I looked up and some really menacing looking waves and braced myself for get splashed over and over or worse, go overboard, but he slowed or sped up the raft just right to ride right over them. Such a cool feeling.
We made a quick stop near some ruins for a little hike. I got to run for a bit on the Escalante Route, the trail we would have been on had we not been blueblazing. I mostly ran to try to warm up but also to really stretch my legs and clear my lungs after days of not hiking or pushing myself much.
The ruins were interesting. Basically just a lot of rocks stacked on top of each other in a little house shape. Not knowing much about the history of native people who lived here is something I definitely need to change. I would have appreciated it more with more of an understanding of the culture and history. There was a mortar stone there that was also cool. That I think stood out more to me because it reminded me of the way my mom made tortillas as a kid. Some long lost connection.
The views from up where the ruins where were beautiful. Could see up river from where we had come from and down to where we were going. So many of the layers of the canyon were visible. I almost actually know some of them (and not just the tapeats). Some layers millions of years old. Some billions. So much time in those rocks.
From there we went to another area with more ruins for lunch. I spent some time alone up near the ruins while the other had lunch. I was mostly trying to dry my stuff (and myself) off but also needed time to sit and be quiet and take it all in. With 11 people in the group, there’s always talking going on. Jordan is also a talker, as was our captain, and they spent most of the time while we were floating down talking. There we were, rafting down one of the most majestic places in the world surrounded by so much awe inspiring beauty, and they were talking about the price of wood going up during covid.
Another side story: yesterday during the hike two of the guys I was hiking with agreed to be on the “duckie” (the inflatable kayak) together. They had disagreed about who should steer it but eventually one of them relented and let the other be in the back and steer. During the first class 6, they flipped and both fell off the duckie. They lost a water bottle which I managed to grab from the river and one of them lost a swim bootie. The guy steering was wearing a dry suit but the other guy wasn’t. The guy who wasn’t swam to a little beach in what looked like panic though that was probably mostly from the cold. He ended up aboard our raft and didn’t seem too happy about flipping. Being submerged in freezing cold water will do that to you, I guess.
Seeing the different interpersonal relationships play out was pretty funny. So many different personality types, most of them pretty strong, with so much potential for conflict. Two guys were complaining about each other, one about the other being too stubborn to learn about rafting, the other about being micromanaged. One girl was uncomfortable with how high her captain kept getting but not knowing how to get him to stop, the captain complaining about being nagged by her. Godspeed to all of them and I hope they work it all out.
It did make me appreciate my friendship with Jordan a lot and how despite our (at times) conflicting personalities, we can do trips like this. Jordan definitely pushes me outside my comfort zone and helps me accept things that make me anxious while I think I reign him in a little and help him be more practical and make safer decisions. Seems to work for us.
After lunch, we went down another class 6 rapids. I made the mistake of looking at it from above during our break and it freaked me out. The water looked so choppy and I was a little shaken by how cold I had been after getting splashed on the first one. Our captain let me use his dry suit top which helped a lot but I was still nervous about the rapids. They weren’t as bad as the first. I tried making it clear how nervous I was and our captain seemed to take an easier line that wasn’t too bad. Still got soaked again but with the dry top on it was much warmer.
We hit two more class 4 which felt like child’s play by then. I was even sitting without death gripping the raft. I’ve been impressed by how comfortable everyone seems on the rafts, jumping around and moving on them without too much worry. I chalked it up to everyone having had a lot of boat/raft experience beforehand but I think if I was doing this for a few more days, I might get to that level. Maybe. Probably not.
The last serious rapids were class 5 but with a big drop. I could see the water just suddenly drop down a few feet and we headed right for it. It was a fucking blast. Just like the feeling you get when you’re about to hit the first big drop on a roller coaster. Except there’s no restraints and if you fall off you might drown.
We docked right after that on a little beach near the trail. We helped unload then sadly said our goodbyes to everyone. They all seem like legitimately good people and I loved rafting with them. It was so ridiculously gracious of them to let us join them for a few days, let us ride on their rafts, camp with them, and eat their extra food. That was without a doubt the highlight of this hike and one of the highlights of my life. Two of the most fun days I’ve ever had.
The good times kept rolling after that. The trail we were supposed to get back was right above the beach we docked in. We had to do a little ledge scrambling to find it but we made it up easily enough. Except that at one point it cliffed up a bit and we couldn’t figure out the way up. There was a steep chimney that may have gone but felt too technical to be the right way. We ended up having to do some spicy class 4 moves (climbing class 4, not rapids) to get up. A few mom-don’t-look kinda moves but we topped out and found the real trail.
The trail meandered for a bit near the river shore past another rafting group. It was actually the commercial group of geologists Jack and Jordan had talked to back at Nankoweap. We figured they must have also had a layover day yesterday. We didn’t feel like talking to them though since we around 8 miles to do and only a few hours before dark so we just hurried through their camp which was next to the trail.
At that point we hopped onto the Tonto Trail, a long well groomed trail that traverses across a loooong ledge on south rim. We gradually climbed for a few miles getting further and further away from the river. It honestly made me kinda sad to be getting away from the river. The past two days were so much fun and it was a bummer to leave the river. It was also a bummer to not be close to water and have to lug 3 liters up.
The Tonto Trail is so nice compared to the scrambling and bushwhacking of the past few weeks. Just perfect single-track weaving it’s way across the south rim. Mmmhmmm. I’ve hiked on it before with Kay during one of our winter road trips and it reminded me a lot of her. Very nostalgic and sentimental trail.
I got a bit ahead of Jordan and ate dinner while I waited for him. Caught a beautiful sunset on the canyon walls. Not quite alpenglow but still a warm pretty color. He caught up and had dinner then we hiked a bit more to a creek where there were a few people camped. It was getting pretty dark by then and we found a pretty good campsite near the creek so we called it a day there. We had initially planned to make it to the Horseshoe camp and the junction with the Grandview Trail but it wasn’t that much further to there. We can definitely knock that out early in the morning. Would give us more time to let cars show up for a hitch too.
There’s maybe some frogs near the creek croaking so loudly. The sound of them is echoing through the canyon making it feel like it’s all around us. Hopefully it dies down soon because not sure how well I’ll sleep if they go all night.
I miss the river already but I’ll definitely be back to raft the whole thing some day.
Plants Outside 