River Rat Chapter 48
| River Rat | |
|---|---|
| Chapter 48 of 63 | |
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| Time frame | March 24 - April 5, 2001 |
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Locations
- Grand Canyon - on the Park Service educational trip from Lees Ferry to Pearce Ferry on Lake Mead
- On the crew bus from Pearce Ferry back to the Canyon Tours office in Flagstaff
- The Burro in Flagstaff
Characters
Summary
Al drives Karin, Scooter, and Crystal to Lee's Ferry for the trip, and tells them "You three have fun. Just plan on washing that gas smell off when you get back." This was the first time any of the three of them had been on an 'S-Rig' (the term for a outboard-powered motorized raft). They discovered that Scooter's friend Jim was one of the boatmen on the trip.
They learned a lot on the trip, from the geology of the Canyon to Canyon Native American history and natural history. One of the instructors was an expert on the recorded history of the Canyon, another was a Hopi tribal chief.
Since the entire group was made up of raft guides, everyone pitched in with all the work, including running the raft. Scooter thought that it would be straightforward, but the raft bounced off a sidewall and swapped ends on a rapid. It didn't help that the raft handled about like a hog on skates, and a thirty-five horsepower outboard motor was nowhere near enough to bully it. Randy had once likened an oar raft to driving a concrete truck on an icy road; this was worse. One of the guides from one of the motor outfits had a worse time of it, and messed up on several rapids, including Crystal. Anticipating trouble, many of the group, including Karin, decided to swim Crystal.
Although the fast motor-rig raft trips are 4 to 6 days, this one took 10 because of the many stops for the long teaching / learning sessions. Due to the large size of the motor-rig rafts they could not be taken out at Diamond Creek, the trip ended up with a leisurely trip across 50 miles of Lake Mead until they got to the larger landing at Pearce Ferry. On the bus ride back, Scooter and Jim agreed to meet at the Burro for a beer the next evening.
