Colorado River Project: River Report Summer 2003

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FEATURE Continued from front page more complex and challenging puzzle for me to comprehend. When one spends such a lengthy amount of time on a particular subject, one thinks he understands. But during all this time reading, writing, and studying about the Colorado River, I came to realize that I had actually never touched the river itself. I stood on top of Hoover Dam and saw the river pooled A famous view of the Colorado River from the Anasazi graneries. behind it. I stood on a bridge overlook- ing the Colorado River and saw where the river crosses the international boundary into Mexico. I stood on an alfalfa field in the Imperial Valley being irrigated with its water. I drank tap water in San Diego, Phoenix, and Denver. I have seen thousands of images of the river in pictures, read a thousand descriptions and etched in my mind the cartographical points of its geographical course from headwaters to ocean. But I had never dunked my head beneath its frigid waters, felt its undulations beneath me, or heard its chatter as it coursed along its 1,400 -mile route to the sea. In fact, I realized that I had never experi- enced the Colorado River as a river. So how does one gain that experience of getting as close to the river as Possible, of feeling its gravitational pull? While there are those thrill- seekers who have, in fact, swum great distances in the white- capped rapids of the Colorado River, I was convinced that trying to float on the water might be a better course of action. The most popular white water boating trip of this river (and possibly in the entire U.S.) is the section of the Colorado River that flows through the Grand Canyon. Here the river follows a channel right through the 277 -mile- long, 18- mile -wide Grand Canyon — one of the great natural wonders on Earth. Most boaters "put in" at Lee's Ferry — just upstream from the dividing point of the Upper and Lower Basins (Lee Ferry), float down the river, and "take out" at one of several locations before the river enters Lake Mead. Most trips run by commercial outfitters can cost between $1,200 and $2,000 per person, depend- ing on the company and other factors such as the duration of the trip (partial trips tend to cost less money). To my good fortune, the Grand Canyon River Guides — a non - profit association composed of people from the river boating community dedicated to protecting the Grand Canyon and supporting the boating community — was having its annual training session and I was invited to join. I accepted. And thus it was decided by my benefactors and the Foundation that I would be sent floating into the great unknown to write an article on the recreational white water boating industry for this issue of River Report. A Colorado RiverVirgin The day started early for the first of my eight days on the river. I was up before the sun and on a pre- arranged shuttle from Flagstaff to the "put -in" for 4 • COLORADO RIVER PROJECT • RIVER REPORT • SUMMER 2003 the trip at Lee's Ferry, just 15 miles downstream from Glen Canyon Dam. I was to float down the river for eight days, about six days short of the time it would take to complete the 277 -mile river run from Lee's Ferry to Lake Mead. But the first 90 -miles would be nothing to scoff at. There would be many challenging runs filled with excitement and guaranteed turbulence. And because it was early April, the water would be a refreshing 48 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit — cold enough to kill a person in a few, short minutes. It came to my attention during the two- plus -hour ride that I was the only person in the van of six that had never boated down the Colorado River. Make room for the Colorado River virgin! River running, as it is called among those who seek the challenge of boating down a white water river, exploded onto the scene in the late 1960s and has been gathering steam ever since. The first commercial trips were started in 1938 by river running pioneer Norman Nevills and from there continued to grow in popularity. Before 1950, it is estimated that fewer than 100 people ran the stretch of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in any given year. Today, that number ranges from 22,000 to 23,000 annually and has created a multimillion dollar industry to support the demand. The Colorado River is one of the premiere white water runs in the world, in large part because it is so long. While many river runners are happy to get in one full day of white water runs on a river, the run on the Colorado through the Grand Canyon can take up to two weeks — and longer, if the desire is there. Aside from the water element, the river is situated in what is considered one of the great natural wonders of the world: the Grand Canyon. We arrived at the sandy beach at Lee's Ferry to seeming chaos. Trucks and vans were being unloaded. Piles of gear littered the beach. The experienced group seemed to have it all under control so, feeling completely ineffec-