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2017: Grand Canyon Bound

Uncle_Skwid

Uncle_Skwid

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Canooing Peeple:

Well, I failed on my lotteries for the Selway, Middle Fork, Rogue and Salt, but today I won a GC launch date for Monday, January 2, 2017. A self-supported canoe trip down the Grand.

And thus the countdown begins.

Pretty stoked.
 
That sounds epic. Would this be a solo venture? I assume given the lottery they control numbers of paddlers per day?
 
Solo venture indeed. That's the plan anyway. (I'm not opposed to others, but neither am I counting on them to see it all through.) And yes, the Colorado through Grand Canyon is indeed heavily controlled. There is no "off season," as there are for most Western Rivers. You must win a permit to launch and run from Lee's Ferry - Diamond Creek on any day of the year. During the summer, the park service allows six launches a day. During the winter there is only one launch permitted a day. I've heard boating solo through the canyon in the winter feels like having the Grand Canyon to yourself....
 
Did you apply for a January permit or was it just luck of the draw? If permit dates are luck of the draw are you allowed to trade permits with other parties so you can both get a more beneficial date?

Sounds like a great trip, have fun!

Alan
 
Each applicant puts down five potential dates, ranked in order from first to last choice. (This is true at the annual lottery and at subsequent follow up lotteries throughout the year.) And no, there is no exchanging or trading of dates permitted. This is also what they call a "weighted lottery"--which essentially means your name goes into the hat more times in accordance with how many "points" you have, from 1-5--in order to give those who have not run the canyon in the past 5 years a better chance of pulling a permit than someone who ran it last year.

On the application there is a spot for a "Potential Alternate Trip Leader" (or PATL), but unless there is someone listed as a PATL on the initial application, the trip will be forfeit/canceled without the presence of the applicant. (So I can't get a hundred friends to apply for me unless they plan on running Grand Canyon.) So yes, I clustered my dates around Christmas and New Year's, with a couple drifting out into March and April, thinking (correctly, apparently) that I had a better chance of winning around the American Holiday season. But now on this side of the process I'm glad I won a Jan. as opposed to a Dec. trip: I'm only counting down 10 months and not 22!

I'm certainly tickled as this has been a multi-year journey to a permit for me.
 
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Congrats!

My wife and I approve of this message haha

Winters a good time to go, commercial trips are done for the year and traffic is fairly light. We pick up left over winter permits when we don't get a trip in warmer weather locked on. My wife is funny in that she prefers to do 20 plus day river trips on the big white water when it's warm and you don't cook every meal in the dark and I miss her when I go dutch haha

Self supported solo, you will want to have a dead solid combat roll, you do not want to get separated from your boat when you dump, you may not see it again untill you claim it at the South Rim land fill and get a bill for the helo trip hahaha, The water is cold and even though most of the river is pool and drop, the pools are big and if you can catch the boat swimming it to shore leaves you in the water too long. The current is very strong with crazy eddies that will have your boat stuck someplace you can't swim too to get it back, lots of places you won't be able to climb ashore anyway and it will be a long swim to get ashore. It's very much like swimming a rocky ocean coast line.

Winter trips always leave you wondering how to dress, it's sunny and warmish and you sweat in a drysuit, but when you go harry side down there's almost nothing that will keep you warm very long.

We're working on an early fall trip right now :- )
 
Nice pics. Looks, as you say, "sporty."

My goal is definitely to stay connected to my gear the entire float. For certain! And try not to break a leg hiking some couple four miles from my boat. That would spoil a nice sunny day in a heartbeat. As for the long nights, I've always liked the idea of hibernation. I figure I'll catch up on my reading and sip a lot of hot tea and sleep blessed sleep.

And from my perspective, summer in the canyon would be a much tougher time to dress than winter. I always dress for the water, but wow that would be tough in the summer with 100*F temps and 49*F water. Talk about heart attack or schizophrenic temps or being under-dressed for a swim! I'm guessing summer in Grand Canyon is probably one of those situations where an old school "wetsuit" is probably in order. Just roll over when you get too hot. (Lordy how I hated wearing wetsuits.) My thought is that in the winter I'll be halfway comfortable in my dry suit both in and out of the water (50*F in a drysuit is very tolerable), and, whether I go lighter or heavier underneath the suit will depended upon what rapids I'll be running on any given day.

But we all know how well plans work out: they never survive the first enemy encounter.


​
 
Well played sir :- )

It GC tradition for some to name the boat in reference to the first rapid it gets flipped haha

Last trip a crew flipped right below 'Indian Dick' rock, a large phallus shaped formation haha

The rapid is a no-namer in the guide books, but has some big laterals bouncing off the wall. Anyway flipped his 18' round boat like it was a pool toy :- ) and bent his frame and mashed his drybox beyond repair.

I brought up said tradition while were splitting up the group chow into other boats dryboxes and he got cranky about incorporating 'Blue Dick' into his boats name haha

He should have come up with something, it would have been better than what the kayakers come up with haha

You keep reading the vintage stuf Sqwid and next thing you know you'll get the wood boat itch. I scratched it and moved on, but I'm thinking I need another Grand Canyon dory
:- )
 
I've watched a few dories come down through the New River Gorge, and they certainly have a sort of regal elegance. Not been bitten by any bugs to oar anything yet, however, though I've done a wee bit of oaring. Mostly my time at the oars ends up with me in the water or me under an upsidedown mound of gear, looking for a way out.

Just read about a professor from NYC who soloed GC this year. In an inflatable kayak. Talk about ballsy. Wow. After about a dozen flips he stopped counting. His boat looked really, really overweight. I suspect he named his boat Paria. Har har har.
 
A speed run was done this year and a record set by a guy in a sea kayak. Good story if you haven't already checked it out.

Running the GC in a duckie isn't on my short list haha if I had that in mind I'd do it in a Dagger Katana 10.4 or another crossover kayak. The SOAR inflatable canoes are pretty cool too, but probably not something I'd buy. I'm not quite done with white water kayaks yet :- )

If I did a GC solo, I'd probably just row my 16' Aire Jagaurundi cataraft and not do the 'light weight backpacking in a boat thing. It would have to be a winter trip though, my bro's that have invited me on trips would all get invited on an 'in season' trip :- )

That said, I could swing a 16 dayer in my Supernova easy enough. My San Juan 13 day load is under a 100lbs with a camping hammock, aluminum dutch oven, small cooler, lots of fresh chow and off river hiking gear for my lay over days. I launch Thurs :- ) I really like going solo in good hiking areas and the SJ is one of the best in the SW

The group dynamics are about half of what makes a GC trip interesting to me. I get a kick out of boating with new folks, it's fun to cross pollinate. It would have been interesting to trip with some east coasters. There's definitely a different mind set going on out there :- ) About as close as I've gotten is doing the GC with some Maine paddle raft guides, they were a hoot :- )

My wife says when she draws it will be just us and that will be a good time too haha
 
Yes. I certainly did read the speed story. Two separate speedsters broke the "emerald mile" record twice in three days! (Which included a night swim of Lava?? Sheeeeet...) Humans are nothing if not driven.

I've pretty much parked my whitewater kayaks. For the same reason my wife has never allowed me to own a motorcycle. My injuries were getting more and more serious. Im no longer 20 years old. So im saving my hits for the elegance of the canoe, which I've come to absolutely love.

Enjoy the San Juan! The old man won a follow up trip for April 28. I can't go but if you wanted back to back trips, I'd certainly put the word in for you. And ask that you keep an eye on his crazy self, since I can't go... He's entertaining as heck....
 
Yea I think he swam laps in Lava sometime around 11-12 pm, good times right there :- )

Thanks for the invite but I won't be able to swing that :- (

Wife's working two shifts poaching a Yampa-Dinosaur, Cataract or Green River Desolation-Gray permit for our next 'us' trip this summer (apparently she has a burn for that neck of the woods haha) And of course, like good SW river hippies we got a couple three irons in the fire for this years GC trip :- ) Probably going to do the GC in Sept. we could do a May trip for sure, but we need to get some work done before summer.

I would like to do Yampa-Dinosaur as a canoe trip in the 'off season'.
 
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