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.

This was a rafting trip, so let’s finally talk about being on the raft.

The Raft as Seen from the Front

These are impressive machines. The foundation is a 40-foot raft. Somehow attached to the rubber (I think neoprene is the proper term, but rubber expresses the idea) raft is a steel floor. In the middle of that floor sits all the camping supplies (cots, chairs, kitchen, duffel bags, ice chests). This pile is covered by white tarps and held in place by straps.

Strapped to the top of the sides of the raft are large rubber tubes. These extra tubes make the raft practically impossible to capsize and sink. These tubes also provide the young and young at heart a place to straddle and ride the rapids like untamed horses.

The first first photo here was taken from the front of the raft looking back (click to enlarge). Prominent in the photo are the white tubes strapped to the tops of the sides of the raft. The people in the center of the photo are sitting on the supplies. In the photo are left to right brother-in-law #1, nephew #1, nephew-in-law, nephew #2, Andy, and Scott.

The second photo shows the Tour West rafts pulled up to the shore for a night of camping. This photo gives a different view of the base raft (light blue) and the large white tubes strapped to the raft.

We spent about six hours a day on the raft. I sat near the rear. Actually, I sat on the porta-potty all day. I liked the seat as I was facing forward. Had I been sitting on one of the large white tubes, I would have had a sore neck from turning to look forward.

The Tour West Rafts

While on the raft, we couldn’t access the majority of our possessions. They were stored in a waterproof duffel bag in the center of the raft. We did each have a bag made of clear but thick plastic. That bag was pretty much water-proof. In it I kept my camera (iPhone), Tylenol, Altoids, bandannas, sun block, aloe vera, and other such sundries. I also kept my water bottle with me. We had one ten-gallon cooler of water and one ten-gallon cooler of lemonade strapped to the front of the raft. That was a great thing to have and kept us from dehydrating.

Most of the rafting was in calm water. The Colorado is a large river – larger than I expected – and that makes for smooth water. The water was clear – another surprise. All the films I had seen of white water in the Colorado is marked with dark red, brown muddy water – the kind we have in Louisiana. The water we experienced was clear – like the water in the Bahamas (I lived in the Bahamas for two years, it was tough ;-).

Then there are the rapids. This is why many people come on this trip. They want the rush and excitement of splashing through the rapids. I won’t say that the rapids are dangerous, although they are perilous and can bring a river runner a lot of grief. It was exciting to splash through a rapid. The water was really cold. My sons and nephews had great fun being soaked by the rapids. They probably wished for more rapids; I wished for fewer rapids. The canyon provided a good balance.

Our rafts had an outboard motor. I was surprised as I expected the motor to be larger. We only went four or five miles an hour faster than the river flowed. The motor allowed for steering of the large raft. It also allowed us to not do any rowing.

No one fell into the river on accident. We all wore life jackets all the time. We did not wear helmets because the river is deep enough that the chance of hitting your head on a rock is near zero. I addressed clothing in another blog post.

Fun? Yes, it was fun to ride a raft all day. I could think of creature comforts to add to the raft, but that would probably ruin much of the experience.