LESSONS LEARNED IN THE FIRST 20 MILES OF THE GRAND CANYON:

1. It is often wicked eddylines and huge whirlpools that cause the most trouble in Grand Canyon drops. With flows ranging from 8,000 to 35,000+ cfs depending on the time of day and the dam release schedule, unwary paddlers can get gobbled up by a whirlpool or beat up on an eddyline when they least expect it. You aren't out of the rapid until the water stops moving!

2. Huge, chaotic hydraulics make boat-scouting fun and exciting for experienced kayakers but downright dangerous for heavily loaded gear-rafts. The waves and holes in the Grand Canyon are simply massive, and the holes are often lurking in the midst of a maelstrom of huge crashing waves that often disorient and confuse rowers until it is too late.
Our raft crews scouted every rapid in the Grand rated 6 or more on the 1-10 scale. We found that almost every one of these rapids had a least one huge hole ( often not visible from river-level ) waiting to gobble up the unwary. Experienced Kayakers can boat-scout all but the most difficult rapids in the Grand due to our speed and mobility, but the heavily-loaded gear rafts do not have this luxury.

Below the put in, we drifted through some small rapids, working the kinks out. The rafts were very heavy ( no food or beverages consumed yet! ) so the raft captains struggled in some of the strong eddylines.

We arrived at the first major rapid, known as 'Badger Creek Rapid', rated a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. Badger turned out to be a fun, read-and-run wave train for everyone. ( The rating system on the Grand is based on the antiquated 1-10 system for big-water western rivers. I found that dividing the rating in half closely approximates the more conventional 1-6 rating system I was more familiar with.. )

Just downstream arrived at our first landmark, a towering chunk of Coconino sandstone known as '10 mile rock' that is vertically embedded in the middle of the river. Of course, Jonathan ( I don't call him the Great White Explorer for nothing ) just HAD to climb this rock, so I helped him balance his inflatable kayak while he worked out the moves and then scrambled up onto the rock..

Just downstream was Soap Creek Rapid ( class 5 on a scale of 1-10 ), a wild ride that we also boat-scouted. It was here that Audrey experienced her first swim in the powerful, chaotic waves and eddylines of the Grand Canyon. We were able to get her gear to shore without problems.

Just downstream we heard a huge roar ( you hear the big ones in the Grand a looooong time before you see them.. ) signaling the biggest rapid so far, known as House Rock. We were all a little concerned about this drop because Ryan's group had flipped an 18 foot gear boat in this rapid on his first trip down. At House Rock the river swings down around a corner, with a wave train and most of the current leading directly into a huge, raft-eating hole at the bottom.

The rafters all got out to scout, but Ryan and I sped downstream, scouted quickly, and ran the drop. I went first, and I remember Ryan's voice echoing in my head as I dropped in: "It's a lot bigger than it looks in there.." Sure enough, I was sucked down towards the hole relentlessly, and I had to pull HARD to avoid it. Once below the rapid, Ryan and I hiked back up on river-left to shoot photos and video of the rafters coming through.

Jean (front) and Gerry (rowing) Ewing slip the 18-foot gear raft past the raft-eating hole at House Rock Rapid ( rated 7 on a scale of 1-10 ) Here all of the current sweeps downstream around the corner through a wave train directly into this hole, requiring a strong move to the right to avoid it.

Everyone made it through House Rock without problems, and we continued downstream. Our plan was to stop at North Canyon campground because of the hike ( Rolo had missed this hike on his first trip down ) but when we got to the campsite Mike ( rowing the heavily-loaded kitchen raft ) missed the eddy and we had to continue down to a rocky camp at mile 21.5.

We ended up arriving at dusk, tired after a long day of boating, only to discover that all of the food ( including the steaks we had planned to cook for dinner ) were frozen solid in the coolers! After making this rather unwelcome discovery, we had a free-for-all dinner including whatever we could find in the food boxes that sounded good..

The following day we got up early and packed, everyone excited by the prospect of 'The Roaring Twenties', a long string of rapids between mile 20 and 30. The kayakers ranged out in front of the rafts and we managed to boat-scout all of these rapids, stopping along the way to shoot the occasional photo. About halfway down we caught up with another private group of rafters and kayakers from Telluride, and we got acquainted. We would see this group off and on throughout our trip, and their happy faces and cries of 'CALIENTE!!' were always welcome!

Ryan Windsor gets a sweet surf on a big wave in the midst of the roaring twenties while Lori Hoffman and a couple of Telluride kayakers wait their turn in the eddy.

At mile 29 ( the end of the roaring twenties ) Silver Grotto appears on the left. This wonderful side hike is one of the first really unique places in the canyon, and should not be missed. Be sure to bring a rope and some slings so you can set up the necessary rappel stations though, or you may not be able to access the upper parts of the gorge.

Luckily for us, the Telluride group had arrived first and had set up both of the necessary rappels so we were able to use their gear to access the upper reaches of Silver Grotto.

We entered the Grotto by doing a short but easy rock climb just upstream of the final pool in the gorge (follow the path upstream past the lower pool), then a short rappel down just below the third teacup. From here we swam the deep, brown pools to access the upper pool, where you can jump in swim around if you like.. It was a beautiful place, the rock polished white by water, glowing as the late afternoon sun filtered down from far overhead..

Rolo and Kristin swim their way up through the fifth teacup in Silver Grotto while Lori Hoffman waits for the rest of the group below..

After eating lunch and hiking up into Silver Grotto, we continued downstream to our camp at South Canyon. This was the third night of our trip, and there was a nice full moon out. Ryan, Lori, Jonathan and Audrey left camp when it got dark and hiked up on the steep terrain behind the camp. After awhile we saw their headlamps improbably high up on the wall near a large cave about two hundred vertical feet above the camp. Intrigued, Kristin and I hiked up to join them, eventually joining up with the rest of the group on a trail that runs along above the camp.

The moon was full and painted the canyon with a brilliant silver glow, and we basked in the view, the water flowing by far below like molten crystal. Suddenly, we heard a step, and a figure materialized out of the darkness on the trail. "Heyyy, how you guys doing?" The stranger asked, sitting down with us and making himself comfortable. It was a little disorienting, but the night was already so surreal that we just accepted it in stride. "You guys smoke?" The apparition said. A few of us murmured yes. "Right on, Crouton!!" the apparition said, and proceeded to light up. We learned that his name was Keith, and he was part of a scientific group doing surveys on endangered snails in the canyon. What a life!

"Some guy in our group thought he found the WORLD RECORD snail the other day.." Crouton Keith confided in us between puffs. "It was 17 millimeters long. Only to find out the world record snail is 23 centimeters long!! I was like: Bummer, Dude!"

The night wore on, and after a few more laughs and a lot more smoke awhile Keith swayed off down the trail, leaving a sweet, cloying smell in his wake..