Monday, April 11, 2011

Grand Canyon 2011

just another day in the big ditch

Grand Canyon for 27 days, too many stories to write down. Here is a bunch of photos with a couple fun words.
Just another beautiful beach
We Had very varied flow, notice how far the boats are up the beach
the boats tucked up in the Deer Creek micro eddy

 The side hikes during the winter months are perfect, nothing like going on a 10 mile hike in jeans and a sweatshirt.
Brian Newman lining up a big piece at Crystal
cactus on the way up to the Nankoweap Granaries
another beautiful sunset
The scenery never lets up
Dan lining up the big wave in Crystal
Dan Wylie hammering Crystal
Fish, being FISH!
Fish going big early on in the trip, look closely and spot Jane hunkering down on the front of the boat.
Fish and Jane finding the sweet spot at Hermit
Fish deep in Deer Creek Canyon
classic Grand Canyon shot from the Nankoweap Granaries
Grease meet water
Fish with one big Grease bomb
That is a motley crew
Marjie matching the travertine water of the Little Colorado
Koreen and Julie standing in front of Hermit
Jeff Catlett and his 18 foot boat buried in the good stuff
Jeff looking like a submarine resurfacing from the depths
The scale of the Grand Canyon is hard to comprehend, Look close to spot Jeff crushing Hermit
Marjie, Jane, Minna, Koreen, and Julie playing in front of Elves Casum
Marjie ditching her kayak and taking the sporty "swim" line
Chris Baer, with Havasu canyon in the back ground
Miles, looking for the big line at Hermit
Miles with a proper Grand Canyon beard
Minna at Vasey's Paradis
Minna thinking about going for a couple more "newmans" before leaving Havasu for a night cruse
Looking up stream at Phantom Ranch, the true point of no return
The dark walls and moon a near Christmas Tree Cave
Jane and Minna creating the sound track to Red Wall Cavern
De-rigging Project Mayhem in the middle of the night
Rooster heading down stream on another beautiful February day
Is that a pyramid? I don't know but it sure is pretty
Red Wall Cavern and a little lens flair
Wes, Miles, and Dan making there way through Deer Creek
Most of the crew steming around the fridget water in Deer Creek
Wes, Dan, and Miles making there way down Deer Creek
We saw snow on the rim the entire trip
 
The temperature difference from the top of the canyon to the bottom is very noticeable. It is typically 5-7 degrees warmer per 1000ft drop in elevation. That means the rim gets snow and we are in T shirts tossing horse shoes.
got to dry out those underoos some where
Wes in front of Havasu Canyon


We launched February 5th and took off March 4th, 27 days on water.

There was fourteen people on the trip, three of which had very limited rafting experience, one of which was Michael the mayor of Durango. 

The weather was great, highs in the low 70s, and lows just above freezing. 

Our flows were all over the place usually around 20,000. That much water made some of the rapids pretty darn easy, and gave a couple of the bigger rapids a couple fun BIG options. 

We managed to have 5 flips on the trip, including Jeff the morning of his birthday. I think Jeff just wanted to wash the rest of the whip cream pie off.

Please leave any questions or comments below and I will try to give you good answers. 

Chris Baer still felling a little weirded out by not being a mile deep in the Grand Canyon with a bunch of good friends. 



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