Colorado River Project: River Report Summer 2003

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Interestingly, Powell wore a life jacket during his excursion as well, though his was made from cork. Life jackets are now mandatory for boating on the river. Thinking I would start off on the motor raft until I got a better feeling for the way the trip would operate, to my delight, I was asked to paddle on the paddle raft and accepted. After fiddling around with my life jacket, I noticed all the boats with the exception of the paddle raft were already floating down the river as the other six members of the raft stood waiting patiently for the "newbie" to get a clue. Then together, moving in unison like legs on a centipede, we carried the raft into the river and hopped aboard. Seat belts in boats are a bad idea since you want to be able to swim quickly from underneath a raft should it overturn. Feet were secured underneath the pontoons. Waterproof jackets and pants were cinched tightly. And then, under orders from the boat captain of, "Every- one forward," we commenced with our journey downstream into the "Great Unknown." The paddling was pleasant and soon after the start, everyone settled into a uniform rhythm, sides alternating motion under calls from the boat captain for "left forward," or, "right back," positioning the boat best for the river current. "Are there any safety procedures I should know about ?" I questioned sheep- ishly. "Stay in the boat," someone quipped. As we bobbed along in the river, I came to realize there is no controlling the river from the standpoint of a boater. For a while, I grappled with that lack of control. You can steer the boat, but there is no brake to stop if you make a wrong turn. You can only try to "read" the river, pick a line, and try to steer the vessel accordingly. It takes a great deal of patience and time to learn how to decipher this hydraulic language. Interpreting it incorrectly can be dangerous. Rapids are created by a drop in altitude of the river — the sharper the drop, the greater the rapid. From Lee's Ferry to Lake Mead, the river drops about 1,900 feet. Rapids are formed by the geologic features beneath the river that contort and change the direction of the flow. Rapids are not necessarily permanent features and can be altered when sediment input from a river The paddle raft crew is all grins (author, third back on the right). 6 • COLORADO RIVER PROJECT • RIVER REPORT • SUMMER 2003 tributary leaves large debris deposits during a flood. Within a rapid are a number of features that are used by river runners to describe the rapid in great detail. I received a quick lesson in rapid features from the other more experienced boaters in our raft. All rapids have at least one "tongue" which begins at a pool of water just before the rapid and is then funneled into the top of the rapid. A rapid can have more than one tongue and hence, there are one or more ways to enter the rapid. Within the rapid are "waves" formed by the river passing over rocks. "Holes" form when the surface of the river plunges suddenly downward, below the surrounding surface of the river. Often, the force of the water entering a hole is so strong that is has been known to trap boats and people, holding them by sheer power of the current. "Eddies" occur where the banks of a river cause the current to move in a stagnant, circular pattern and can actually hold a boat in place. At mile eight, we shot our first set of rapids of the trip and our last of the day — Badger Creek Rapids. I saw the white - capped waves rolled out before me as the raft approached. I gripped my paddle tightly and scrunched my feet as firmly as they would go underneath the front pontoon, excited and nervous simulta- neously. The river was deceptively calm before it plunged into mayhem, and suddenly I had my first face full of water as the river welled up on all sides of the raft and we were rocked in all directions. The crew paddled vigorously under direction of our boat captain, and I was vaguely aware that at times I was paddling mere air when the raft was launched out of the water by the waves. The raft bounced vigorously up and down as white fist after white fist rose in front of the raft to greet us with a wet punch before sending us down into a dramatic