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.

I suppose this is the advice to those who may do this rafting trip one day. If I were to do this again, I would do things differently. This list is not in order of importance. I would:

(1) Bring a good camera, not just the little camera that is built into a cell phone. Buy a water-tight case that is just big enough to hold the camera. I could keep this with me in the day-bags we had on the raft.

(2) Bring Coca-Cola or some carbonated drinks. Tour West encourages this. Water and lemonade are great and good for you. Something a little extra would be nice. And since they can keep the soft drinks cold, a case of Snickers bars wouldn’t hurt.

(3) Bring small binoculars. My eyes don’t work as well as they used to. There is lots to see in the canyon and I am afraid I missed some of it.

(4) Bring a thermos. We had coffee at breakfast. I would have really like a little coffee around 10 AM. I could have filled the thermos and had some nice hot coffee later in the day.

(5) Bring a Rite in the Rain notepad from REI. REI also sells special pens for these even though a simple Bic pen would work. I would have loved to make notes all day on the raft and on hikes. If you can’t tell by now, I love to write.

(6) Bring a couple of extra days. I mean I would travel slower. We went from the East Coast to Marble Canyon, Arizona in one day. The next morning we were on the Colorado River. That is too fast, too much jet lag. I would spend one night in Las Vegas on the way to the river. After leaving the river, I would spend a night in Las Vegas before flying home.

(7) The big one – bring better footwear. My old water sandals were good for the water, but not for the hikes. I don’t know what type of hiking footwear to bring. It has to be able to be wet – I mean drenched as on some parts of some hikes we walked through four-foot deep water. Bring something that can drain after being drenched but still provide firm footing on the rock scrambles. Desert combat boots would probably work well.

That is enough of a list. Maybe I would bring my wife. I would like to have her along, but I am not sure if she would enjoy it.