Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Swamper's Delights: First Round on the Grand Canyon with AzRA

Adam guiding the paddle raft

This Grand Canyon trip really began a year and a half ago when I met Adam Mills Elliott in Lijiang, China, preparing to set out on the now-dammed Great Bend of the Yangtze. We met then, later falling in love over the seething eddylines and boils of the Salween.

Adam and I at the source of Thunder River

There he told me about the canyon in a way no one has spoke of it before to me.

Charlie soaking up a waterfall in Stone Canyon

I've heard from other kayakers about the river, the hikes, the daily life. But Adam's words spoke of details, true knowledge of a place. The kind of knowledge that develops over time spent living on the river.

And lucky me, he took me along for a couple of rides this summer.

Rinsing off the muddy Colorado in one of the many side streams

I begin by noting that the Grand Canyon is beyond the English language. That being said, I will do my best to fit in nouns, verbs and adjectives to fit the deep canyon and powerful river.

The hike down into Gallaway Canyon from Stone. Just shimmy down that crack in the Tapeats. No biggie.

Swimming in Havasu's fluorescent blue waters

Although days bleed into each other, I believe it was day 4 that I fell into complete silence drifting beneath the tiered and colorful canyon walls growing higher around me. Before this I was impressed, but for some reason something else hit me that day.

Exploring side canyons never gets old.

The highest walls stand back, solid and steep, quietly reminding the rafters of the depth at which they travel. The youngest in the canyon, these walls also must see the action of the river from the greatest distance.

My favorite picture...ever. Hiking down Havasu. Photo by Adam, of course.

Narrowing the canyon slightly, the tall faces of Redwall Limestone appear impenetrable just below. A closer inspection, however, reveals their increased susceptibility to the floating aquifers pushing through the rock layers. Deep caves speckle their aspect, eroded by water slowly dissolving the rock. We pass one such cave at river level several days earlier. Cool sand, hidden from the heat of the inner canyon, our group is hypnotized. Several hours of rest and we move on.

Redwall Canyon break

To a guest, running a commercial trip down the beyond-stimulating Colorado River appears like the coolest job in the world as well as the hardest. They might be right.

Fun group. Everyone loves life.

It is a marathon.

No, it is an ironman triathlon for the amateur adventure enthusiast, run by the professional adventure enthusiasts.

Kitchen on night 1 near Sheerwall

We eat, we pack, we paddle, we hike, we climb, we swim, we run, we eat more, we jump, we float, we unpack, we eat yet again, we sleep.

Sometimes we relax, listening to the nearest rapid crash in the darkness illuminated only by the stars filling in the night sky.

I can't wait to do it again in another 3 days.

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