Commercial paddle tour (photo: SaintLost)
Something that most people aren't aware of is how expensive it is to get on a commercial river trip of the Colorado. Here's what I found in my brief research. Motorized (shorter, full length of Colorado within Grand Canyon) trips run an average of $2,630/person, while paddle trips (usually twice as long in time) are an average of $3,870/person. The people I saw on these trips seemed very happy, but I doubt I would pay that much to raft down the Colorado.
Commercial paddle tour (photo: SaintLost)
My trip was only the lower half, which seems to typically be about half the full length price on commercial trips. So, I hiked in to Phantom Ranch, the first time I'd ever really been below the Rim, despite living here for numerous years prior. While it was a difficult, it was definitely worth the effort.
The Colorado River, immediately off the Bright Angel Trail (photo: SaintLost)
I did run out of water before the end, however. That was the hardest part, but I was rewarded with lemonade at the ranger station! The afternoon and evening just consisted of hoping the pain in my legs would go away and resting. A surprising thing, that I'd only heard rumors about in the past, was that one of the Science division employees ran ice cream down from South Rim for us to have that night. She ran down the South Kaibab trail in about two hours, then ran straight back up after having some water! I should mention that this was at night, which is more perilous on the trail.
About to load the boats with our gear (photo: SaintLost)
The next morning, we all rose quite early (for me) and started hauling gear to the boats. Shoving our things into water-tight bags, getting acquainted with the boats and the crew, and trying to figure out what was needed for the ride itself were among the things we did before shoving off. Lo and behold, the pain in my legs had intensified (despite extensive stretching the night before), so that will be a recurring theme for at least this entry.
Traveling down the Colorado! (photo: SaintLost)
Starting off on the bigger boat (the S rig), we went through a few smallish rapids before stopping to do some vegetation preservation work. This basically means that we all worked together to water some saplings that the Science & Resource Division was trying to grow on one of the "sandbars". I don't have any pictures of it, but the task ended up being most efficiently accomplished via a train of people passing water buckets up the steep, sandy hill. The hard work was a rewarding feeling, and just standing around in the water meant that I wasn't stressing my already cramped up legs.
Employees hard at work (photo: SaintLost)
After this, we loaded back on the boats and proceeded downriver. We eventually stopped to look at a rowboat that was perched up on a rocky outcropping and a story was told, but I couldn't walk up to it, so I stood just offshore in the wonderful, ice cold river water. One of the boatmen, a friend of mine, stayed down at the bottom with me and we did the normal "gossiping" about NPS Divisional politics, which gets pretty dense, depending on the size of said Division.
Unrelated shot of the Grand Canyon! (photo: SaintLost)
I don't remember where we stopped for lunch, nor do I remember what it was, but I can tell you that all the food I ate on this trip was delicious. From what I understand, river guides/runners end up as really great cooks from all the practice. I do think that dinner was chicken fajitas; oh so tasty. Stopping for the night on a really high sandbar is when I discovered that I had a bad sunburn developing on my feet. It wasn't until days later that I realized how bad it was, but that's something I'll mention off and on during this series.
In any case, sleep was easier than I thought it would be and I only needed the footprint from my tent to sleep through the night. You do get a good picture of the consequences of having a solo office job, since I was friends with only one person on this trip and it was difficult to socialize with everyone else, given how socially awkward I am.
A random side canyon (photo: SaintLost)
I will end this first part by saying that while the commercial trips looked low key, the employee river trip was more wonderful than I could possibly have imagined. More stories and pictures to come in Part 2!
