Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

From June 28th through July 3rd, I had the privilege of being on a raft on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. This was part of a family trip “for the guys.” On a trip put together by my father-in-law Allan, his two sons, me (a son in law), my three sons, two other grandsons, one grandson-in-law, and one great grandson spent five days and five nights on the Colorado River. These blog posts are part of the story.

Five days and five nights on the Colorado River means many things – one is that we slept on the shore five nights. We went camping!

I’m not sure why I threw in that exclamation point, but it seemed the right thing to do. Each evening as we were moving to the shore, Jake the trip leader would shout, “Let’s go camping!” Hence, the exclamation point.

One of Our Campgrounds

I had never been camping before. My thought: camping is okay, but camping with 30 other people is maybe not so okay.

Here is a photo of one of our “campgrounds.” We pulled off the river onto a sandy beach, and that was that. Everyone had a cot, a sleeping bag a sheet, a tarp, and a pad. I tried the pad one night, but it was too hot. I had to use the tarp one night, but that is a story for another post. Sleeping bag? Too hot. Sheet? Too hot at dark, but okay at 2 AM.

We camped 14 hours a day. The first time I thought about it, 14 hours sounded too long, but it is correct. We left the river at about 6 every evening and returned to the river about 8 in the morning.

In between, we

• unloaded the rafts
• set up our cots
• the crew cooked
• we ate snacks
• we ate dinner in folding chairs
• we sat in folding chairs (see this photo)
• we went to bed at dark (9 PM, what else are you going to do in the dark?)

In the photo are (click to expand and see everyone):

• son #3 (just barely visible)
• son #1
• nephew #2
• father-in-law
• brother-in-law #2
• son #2
• brother-in-law #1

There are two non-liquid things in the Grand Canyon – rock and sand. We camped in the sand. Sand is nice in its place. Sand isn’t so nice in your clothes while trying to sleep.

That wasn’t so much of a problem as I didn’t do much sleeping. At 9 PM, it was about 90 or 95 degrees. I lay waiting for either relief from the weather or simple fatigue to take its course. At about 2 AM, a cool breeze would arrive. I would pull by sheet over my legs. That was enough cover.

As the saying goes, “I probably slept more than I thought I did.” As the other saying goes, “It wasn’t a restful sleep.” I hurt every morning.

At about a quarter to 5, it was light. By 5, it was fully light. Roll off the cot, put on the sandles, and try to find a place to set my camp mirror so I could shave. I was one of the few men to shave every morning. Someone once told me that doing something like that was a great aid to morale. It seemed to work for me. After shaving and brushing my teeth, I wrote in my journal for about half a hour. Coffee was ready before 6 (I never thought Folgers coffee could be good, but for five mornings, I thought it was good), with breakfast shortly after 6.

Eat, pack everything, load the rafts, on the water by 8.

All in all, camping was pretty good, even with 30 other people.