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Day 1 - Tues Jun 9
Day 1 - Tues Jun 9
5:00 a.m. Met in lobby of Las Vegas Desert Rose hotel (they had breakfast ready for us). We are so excited! Departed by motor coach to North Las Vegas airport.
Then flew Vision Air to a small landing strip and general store close to the start of our trip at Lees Ferry (known as River Mile (RM) 0 on the Colorado River). We had not thought about how beautiful the plane ride would be and had packed our cameras in our duffel bags, but considering how many pictures we took during the week perhaps that was OK. At the general store we could purchase any last minute items (a LOT of beer and wine was purchased, not so much by us).
We were then taken on a 5+ minute van ride to the launch point on the river.
At RM0, we were each given a large wet bag with sleeping bag, sheet, and ground cloth. We added our duffel to this. We were also fitted into life jackets and given small wet bags in which we kept our items for daily access (camera, sun block, chap stick, etc).
We quickly shoved off and got our introduction to safety procedures and learned how to hang on during the rapids on the boat. At RM 4, we passed under Navajo Bridges, the bridge for cars being the last car crossing until Hoover Dam, 350 miles downstream. It was not long before we were at the "Roaring 20’s" - a series of 10 named rapids occurring between RM20 and RM30 and we got a chance to use the hanging on instructions. We stopped for lunch and we were amazed at how quickly our boatmen got everything ready and how efficient everything was. Lunch was chicken curry salad in wraps (delicious, as was all the food on the trip).
At RM33, we stopped at Redwall Cavern. John Powell claimed 50,000 people could fill this cavern. He may have been prone to exaggeration, but it was a huge area.
Some pictures of our river travels this day. This day was a bit cooler than the others, and none of us quite knew what to expect, so we're all in our rain gear, although some of us wore our rain gear every day on the river.
At RM38, we camped at Tatahatso. Appetizer was crackers with crab & cream cheese. Dinner was spinach strawberry salad, Southwestern corn, NY Strip steak (with spicy grilled onions and garlic). I think they deliberately spice up the food to encourage us to drink more and stay hydrated in this desert environment.
At dinner we sat in a circle, and our TL Lucky had each of go around and introduce ourselves. Lucky talked to each one of us, drawing us out a bit, and then rapid fire welcomed by name all 25 of us. Amazing! Desert was warm pecan pie.
Day 2 - Wed Jun 10 RM 38 to RM 65 Carbon. Mine Shaft, Bert Loper's boat, Little Colorado, Chuar Butte (aircraft collision)
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