The Waiting List - August 1998 the Quarterly Publication of the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association
Volume 2 Number 3 August 1998
Richard Martin ("aka Ricardo"), Editor
Table of Contents
• River Wild? - Wilderness in Fragments
• Private Trip Journal
• CRMP The Next Step At
• The Confluence Of Life and Time
• gcpba NEWSWIRE Recap Glen Canyon Institute
• GCPBA QUARTERLY THROW BAG AWARD
• Mosquitoes and the Uintah Basin
• Trip Tips - Safe Boating Note
• Rattlesnake Bites and Testosterone Poisoning
• Danger on the San Juan River
• Book Review - Canyon Solitude
• Hot Hikes - the Tabernacle
• GCPBA Scouts Ahead
• Letters to the GCPBA
• Tom Talks - A Message from the President
• Wilderness In Fragments
River Wild?
The release of the Grand Canyon National Park Wilderness Plan has been a great disappointment to many river runners and wilderness lovers. The exclusion of the actual river /river corridor from the plan is confounding to many. The river is the heart of the Canyon. The rest of the park is the body born of, and nourished by the river.
While the plan contains many excellent proposals which will serve to bring most of the parks undeveloped areas into the wilderness fold and thusly protect those areas from development, the river has been excluded. Why? The answer is obvious. Park management appears to be accepting a reality that they are responsible for spawning. Because of the Park's long history of caving in to river concessionaire pressure and continuing disregard of their legal duties and obligations to wilderness, the river corridor no longer comes close to qualifying as a wilderness, and with the fragmentation of planning embraced by Park Management, may forever be doomed to carnival ride status.
When the Wilderness Act was signed by President Johnson in 1964, and the GCNP was included in the classification as " recommended wilderness," now called "proposed wilderness," the Park Superintendent, and his successors were charged with the responsibility to lessen those discrepancies that kept the Park from being included in Wilderness status. Subsequent inventories were made of the Grand Canyons wilderness "assets" and the process of evaluation was begun. This process culminated in the excellent and controversial 1980 Colorado River Management Plan. The 1980 plan called for a gradual reduction in motorized operations, and the replacement by oar, or paddle powered craft. This action would have complied with Wilderness management policy and served to comply with mandates requiring the Park to be managed as a perspective wilderness, therefore lessening the discrepancies that kept the Park from being included as a wilderness in the first place.
In stepped the then young Senator Orrin Hatch. The motorized outfitters packed their bags and headed to Washington, D.C., a long way from Arizona, to plead their case. The result was the "Hatch Act," which effectively scuttled the 1980 plan and legislatively mandated the Park to maintain motor launches to at least the level of the 1978 launch level. But more than scuttling the 1980 plan, it seems to have forever shaped management policy concerning the river and wilderness. As the Hatch Act was meant to have only a one year life span, this result seems odd.
Gross negligence from the GCNP Superintendents office, in regards to wilderness management mandates, has allowed motor use since 1964 to explode. In that year, 38 folk went down the river. In 1978 there were 383 motorized launches. This number increased to 520 launches in 1997. This amounts to a 73% increase in motorized use over the last 20 years.Meanwhile, the average trip length for motorized trips has decreased from nearly seven days to the current five days. Helicopter use over the potential wilderness, to facilitate the shortening of trip length, has soared. But the unnoticed result of the parks management negligence has been the now twenty year wait that the private, wilderness compliant potential river user must wait.
A key element of wilderness management is the adoption of "minimum tool," for both users and managers. Park Superintendents have ignored this concept entirely. The use of motorized patrols, generators and drink blenders, helicopter exchanges, and increasing motorized use stand in sharp contrast to the concept of "minimum tool."
The new Park Wilderness Plan proposes, amongst other things, to close a number of the primitive roads thereby returning those areas to wilderness status. This is ironic. The people who in the past drove vehicles to the remotest overlooks will now have to hike to those overlooks to watch the parade of motorized craft pass on the river highway thousands of feet below.
An overall wilderness plan should be just that, overall. However no such document or plan exists in the Park. Thus we have these little plans, such as the current Wilderness Plan (actually a backcountry recreation management plan), the CRMP, and the fire management plan. However, none of these plans interact with each other although the wilderness ecosystem, of which they are a part, definitely interacts with these components. The lack of an umbrella plan, of which the CRMP is a part, effectively shirks the responsibility to analyze the wilderness as a whole. This lack of an integrated analysis allows the continuing and expanded use of motors and their large groups, because it is not including the river corridor with the surrounding wilderness of which it is an integral part.
The Colorado River Management Plan should be directed by the same wilderness principals as the other backcountry areas being considered for wilderness inclusion. Instead it appears to be being driven by the need to appease the $23,000,000 per year river tour industry, who, in the case of some of the motor operators, appear to be unwilling to work for a change that would benefit the environment of the Canyon and the experiences of future generations of river runners and wilderness lovers.
Perhaps inclusion of the river in their plan would have surely have resulted in a face off with river concessionaires and that might have spelled doom for the rest of the wilderness plan. Alone, the GCNP can not now stand in the face of the winds of Washington, D.C. and powerful commercial interests. Does the shadow of the Hatch Act cast this long?
To be quite frank, the exclusion of the river corridor from the wilderness plan, leaves the beautiful Colorado River in the same classification as the railroad or the highways entering the park. Just another convenient conduit to Wonderland.
In the words of singer / composer George Harrison, "Isn't it a pity, isn't it a shame....?
Richard Martin, Tom Martin, Byron Hayes and other members of the GCPBA
CRMP Process Starts Next Phase
PARK IS COUNTING ON THE PUBLIC
On the heels of the Grand Canyon National Park's recent distribution of the a summary of comments received during the first phase of the Colorado River Management Plan process, the National Park Service held a meeting in Flagstaff, AZ on May 16, 1998 for the purpose of informing the river running community, made up of both self-guided river runners and the outfitted river runners as to the direction the CRMP will now take.
The meeting, which lasted for approximately three hours, was lead by the GCNP's Dave Haskell, Science Center Director and attended by nearly 60. During that time Haskell outlined the direction the process would take, and expounded, with some detail, some of the Park's staff hopes for the future. Haskell began by noting that the process would continue to be an open, and thanked the audience for the high level of quality public involvement that has been experienced so far. He went on to admit that the Park does not have all the answers to the problems that have been posed to it by the public and stated that the Park is counting on the public for ideas. Furthermore, he commented that as far as the GCNP is concerned, no other issue facing the Park has higher priority than the CRMP project.
The river running community and the Park have made great progress over the last twenty years dealing problems facing the river corridor use, "but," Haskell observed, "this is about the future, not the past," "to meet the challenges of the future the Park will be looking at fresh ideas ... creative ideas."
He went on to outline the eight major issues, or focus areas, that the current process will be considering. Number one on the list was Access and Allocation, stating that the Park wishes to improve the ways people get on the river. Then the focus would be turned on the Distribution and Volume of use. Number three, Haskell stated, was tackling the Non- commercial Permit System, which he felt has outlived it's usefulness, as demand has greatly exceeded capacity.
Of great interest to the numerous outfitters and working guides in attendance was focus point number four, the spectrum of Outfitted Trips and Services. It is felt that changes need to be made to these types of services. As a part of this discussion Haskell emphasized the staff's desire to break down the barriers between self-guided and outfitted users, noting a concept that the GCPBA has long advocated, that being, there really is only one boating public and that some of the problems between various user groups have been brought about by the GCNP's division of users into the categories of "outfitted and outfitters," and "private runners." The latter, a term that Haskell feels is not a very useful description of the segment of the river running community that organize their own trips.
Resource Base Protection is to be another major focus area of the process. Teamed up with a renewed emphasis on Wilderness Management techniques. It was reported that the Wilderness Managing agencies such as GCNP will shortly be required to comply with forthcoming directives from Washington, D.C. concerning rectifying past management policy oversights.
Other topics to be dealt with concern Lower Gorge Management, and the Park's nation to nation relationship with the Hualapi Tribe and Public Education.
As part of the CRMP process, the Park will be establishing work groups to focus on these issues, and will be inviting the public to participate. An extensive interactive website system is being developed by Mike Weaver of the NPS to allow the cyberboaters to participate in the process. It was discussed that Park staff might actually be available on line from time to time to work with the public who wish to participate in the project.
The Park's website, www.crmp.com is presently on line. This website lists the eight focus points of the Management Plan project and supplies the postal address and e-mail address which may be used to contact the CRMP team.
As part of the project, the Park has initiated studies to determine quality of experience for present users by replicating the 1975 studies directed by Bo Shelby. Shelby was in attendance. Those studies questioned both private and commercial river runners as to the quality of their experiences. The surveying this year will be directed by Ms. Troy Hall, of Virginia Tech School of Forestry. The current results will be matched with those from 1975 in an effort to determine what changes in perceived quality\ of experience, if any, may be noted. Private trip leaders who wish to participate in this project may do so by contacting the River Operations office for details. At this time the NPS is offering reduced fees for private trip participation.
A question and answer session followed the presentations.
Richard Martin
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Private Trip Journal / Robyn Slayton - Sacred Ground
6am October 20, 1995: Early morning. We have tied his green canoe to the custom rack of his red truck, the rack that he had made as a present to himself this past summer for completing chemotherapy. The rest of our boat equipment jumps and jostles in the camper as we head north on Highway 89 toward our canyons and rivers of Utah. This place, this home as we call it, where we have loved and lived in the shadows of iron red sandstone,with juniper colored grey-green as thought on mesas blue as smoke. This is where we run to remove ourselves of the disease that is burning through his body like napalm, running home. Timeless land where we hope to breathe and where there are no fearful words like cancer.
A week ago Black Friday the 13th, we read the oncologist's face as he wordlessly told us about the metasizing of tumor growth. Ugly blunt terrible words. We sat in the windowless cubicle of the Cancer Center and let the icy waves of shock roll over us, buffeting us, maytagging us, rolling us in the keeper hole of non-comprehension. He would die, we were told. When, we didn't know. Maybe a year. Maybe more...or less.
Now the fractured yellow light of sunrise splays over the black highway and we are riding in silence towards the old place we always go to heal. The cottonwoods will flame gold into the sky. The wrinkled red canyons will hold us cupped in their warm hands.
11 am: We back down the boat ramp at Sand Island launch site and unload. I rig my little craft while he loads up the canoe. He is struggling-breathing short and heavy, face grey under his summer tan. I ignore his orders to pass him the packed rocket boxes and ice chest and instead try to wrestle them down the concrete apron myself. This earns a terse exchange from him, his teeth clenched. "Hey", he sternly tells me, "Listen to me. I'll still load the heavy stuff." I am suddenly ashamed that I unthinkingly robbed him of what he has always done on past trips. I must try to stop protecting him. Other boaters, people we have floated with in the past, are nearby, rigging for their own trip. They watch him knowing what he battles. I did not think about this, about how he wants to continue on, how he wants to be seen. How he refuses to let this disease victimize him.
1:30 pm: We float, the pewter river swirling around us and the canyon wren's call falling scales silver from cliffs above. The swallows dart and dip and we move slowly in silence towards the canyon. The cobalt blue bowl of the sky curls around us cloudless but I sense a grey veil of sadness and loss everywhere. I long to push it away, but there is nothing to feel or grasp, nothing to touch, nothing to tear or rip apart and let the light through, nothing.
Later. The sunlight stretches long and thin over the river currents. We have said little to each other. We listen to the liquid sound of water, timeless endless flow, and meeting each other's eyes words are not necessary. Words are useless because we know all there is to know. That love is, and we have that. That it is everything for us and always will be.
I turn away from him, and reach behind me to dig in my personal box. I don't know what I'm after...chapstick-lotion-gum, I don't know. When I turn back around, he has drifted in his canoe yards away from me, turning and turning in the water. His back is to me and he moves slow motion further down river, further and further away from. The skin on my neck prickles. My heart suddenly begins to pound and I fight the urge to blindly paddle after him, grab him, pull his boat to mine and not let go.
5 pm: We make camp on a cobble and sand beach. The tamarisk are pumpkin colored in this autumn place and waft back and forth in the evening air like feathers. We build a fire. He is chilled through. He stiffly stands from his chair and goes to bed early. I help him lie down in the tent. He is in pain, doesn't say a word, just struggles to lie prone. Finally he is as comfortable as he can be, and I zip the tent and go back to the fire. I stare into the flames and repeat in my head please don't let him die, please don't let him die. I see two sticks in a perfect calvary cross pattern glowing hot scarlet. Mesmerized, I watch the fire blacken them. Please don't let him die, I hear myself think, and the crossed sticks crumble into ash and fall into oblivion.
10 am: October 21: We have broken camp and are back on the river. The sun is burning fiercely above our heads and I wish, I wish it would burn the aberrant cells running rampant in his body, burn them to white hot nothingness and give us back our life. Give him back his life. We are entering the mouth of the canyons now. It does not swallow us-it gently takes us in. The current of the river moves faster and I lead first through the little rapids. Last year he would have done this. Now our roles have changed. "You have the eye for reading water, babe", he tells me, " now you pick the path." And I do. We both have perfect slick green runs, wave after wave.
Timeless. Untracked beige beaches, acid green cottonwoods, desert bighorn sheep with incongruously curly horns that stare at us from shore, all have no past or future. Just the present, just this trip, nothing more. We must be the only two people in this world. We see no one else, pass no one else, hear nothing but the dip and liquid splash of our paddles into the river, the white noise of rapids, the gurgle of eddylines.
2 p.m: We reach 8 foot rapid and pull over into the left eddy to scout a good route through. We clamor out of our boats. The sticky clay attached to the shore clings to our wetsuit booties and we slip and slide over the rocks to the edge of the rapid. The run is always the same--hug the right wall, move between the rocks, negotiate the "S" curve at the bottom, pull out in the eddy. Don't get separated. Stick together. Play safe and have fun. We thought, till now, in our innocence, that we had played safe. We thought we were having fun. Last year we ran this rapid. Someone had, in celebration of upcoming Halloween, placed a jack o'lantern on one of the rocks in midstream. Cruising past it, I thought I might be hallucinating, till he asked me if I saw it. Later that night we tipped a beer in honor of the crazy boater with a twisted sense of humor. This year, however, there is no grinning jack o lantern, no beer tipping. Just terse running of this rapid, me first with clenched teeth refusing to hover over him, to look back, refusing to think what would happen if he flipped and in his pain couldn't swim himself to shore. Refusing to believe that the unthinkable-his leaving me-might be happening.
4 p.m: Ledge Camp. We have run the last small rapid on this upper stretch of river, have set up the tent, opened up our cans of soup for dinner, and are sitting on a flat rock together. I am leaning against him in the circle of his arms. He has them wrapped around me, his chin resting on top of my head. We still don't speak much. There is nothing to say. We are home, we are where we most want to be, we are together. We watch the cliff above us flare into crimson and vermillion and ocher and then slowly fade to grey. The air chills. We move to the fire, towards night, and the bats click and tick around our heads, and the river murmurs voices under its' rocky bed.
7 am: October 22: The wind is howling fiercely this morning. Sand spills from the air above like gritty snow, into our coffee cups, our boats, our eyes, everywhere. We break camp as fast as we can. He is hurting but won't say much about it. He swallows pills and pulls his canoe into the water. The bottom of the boat makes a grating noise against the shore. I follow. The wind is horrible, blowing upstream, a solid invisible wall of noise that stops us dead in the water. Laboriously we continue to paddle, inching along. He is tiring, I know it. I begin to think: how to get us out of here? I know of a road that comes down to the river just past Sulphur Spring. If we have to, I'll line the boats down shore and I'll walk to the road. I'll hike out to the highway, get the truck, come back for him and the gear. And I remember, not so long ago, when he would have been worrying about what to do. Now he is just gripping his paddle, battling to finish this trip, this possible last trip together even though neither of us will ever allow the words "last trip" to escape our mouths. Not long ago, he was protecting me while we camped on the edge of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, another wind howling through the tops of the ponderosa pines at midnight and threatening to break the tops out of them. We lay sleepless in the tent all night. He told me if he heard the telltale crack that meant breaking tree trunks above, he was prepared to throw himself on top of me to keep me from getting crushed. That was just two years ago. Now I do the same, figuring in my head ways to protect him. He must not know I'm doing this. He won't.
11 am: Finally, as we inch, panting, along the long straight stretch of river before the 45 degree turn at the Sulphur Springs, the wind gods favor us. The gale abruptly changes direction and blows downstream, pushing us down river. We begin to sail. We make the take out in record time. Blessings come in surprising packages, and a downstream breeze for him was a rescue mission.
As I float by an old cattle fence on river right, I again see a pattern of a cross. Two boards, reinforcing the fence line, jump out at me. A sign? A warning ? Who knows. All I know is that I can't let him go, can't lose him, no. But I'll remember this cross for a long, long time.
We de-rig at the take out. This man, my husband, this strapping, burly, bulging biceps man approaches another river party and asks them for help in getting his canoe on top of the truck. "I have a back problem," is all he tells them. They oblige. River folks don't ask questions. They lend a hand. That's all.
1 p.m: And we are, now, warm and dry and fed, thanks to the cafe at San Juan Inn. I drive. He looks out the window. We clutch each other's hand, and I check the horizon and see Monument Valley impassively moving nearer us, sandstone ships in a sky ocean. There is a translucent sliver of moon curving gracefully over Owl Rock. The land undulates under the truck tires. And he and I move through sacred ground.
Robyn Slayton
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gcpba NEWSWIRE / RECAP
High Country News, Feb. 2, 1998:
"Pilots of "personal watercraft" such as Wavejammers and WetJets may get reined in at Lake Powell. The National Park Service is considering making parts of the reservoir "Jet Ski free," because of increasing complaints -many from houseboaters calling from cell phones. A federal rule is expected soon allowing all national park superintendents to restrict the sport (HCN, 11/10/97). Walt Dabney, superintendent of Utah's Canyonlands, dove in last month, banning personal watercraft from the Colorado and Green rivers within the park.
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 gcpba NEWSWIRE PWC Used At Crystal Wreck
On Friday, June 12th, an OARS 18 ft. raft wrapped on "Big Red" in the rock garden at the bottom of Crystal Rapid. According to Dr. Tom Myers, removal of the boat was attempted by river runners that day, using kayaks and other rafts, which proved unsuccessful. The boat was subsequently abandoned. According to Nick Herring, Backcountry Subdistrict Ranger, the Grand Canyon Rangers were notified of the accident Sunday afternoon by another commercial trip. The boat created an attractive nuisance, with boaters who were scouting Crystal concerned for anyone possibly trapped with the boat.
The GCNP helicopter was used on Monday to bring in kayaks and a PWC. The PWC was used to ferry gear and personnel from shore to the rock garden. A Z-line system was arranged from another boulder in the island, and the raft was pulled off the rocks. The boat was derigged and broken down at the foot of the garden. The GCNP helicopter then flew the boat to the South Rim helibase.
The boat was said to have a destroyed oar lock, one ruptured chamber, and to have lost duffel and ammo cans. There were no reports of injuries to commercial passengers or boatmen. The use of a PWC by GCNP rangers is believed to be the first such use of this type of craft for rescue situations on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park.
Environmental Group Challenging River Pact - Associated Press
Upper Colorado River Basin Compact's effect on water quality at issue
SALT LAKE City - A New Mexico-based environmental group says it will challenge the legality of the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact, which governs how Colorado River water is apportioned among Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. Forest Guardians, based in Santa Fe, says the 40-year-old compact has caused significant harm to water quality and river ecosystems. The compact violates the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, said Forest Guardians director John Talberth. "(It) underlies all the resource management problems that have come up in the past few decades," he said.
Talberth's group planned to mail notices today of its intent to sue the federal government to force a rewriting of the compact to make it conform to environmental laws.
Wayne Cook, director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, which administers the compact, declined comment because he had not had time to review the Forest Guardians' claims.
If the group follows through with litigation, it would be the first time the compact has been challenged in court, said Bruce Moore, a Colorado River specialist in the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Salt Lake City office. It also would add to the conflict over the "Law of the River," a body of statutes, decrees and interstate compacts that guide how the Colorado River system is managed in the seven states through which it flows.
Targeted in the Forest Guardians' intent to sue are the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, the attorney general, the Army Corps of Engineers and the federal representative to the Upper Colorado River Commission.The 1948 compact gives 1.7 million acre feet of water annually to Utah, 3.8 million to Colorado, 1 million to Wyoming, and 848,000 to New Mexico. It does not provide for minimum stream flows to protect plants, animals and ecosystems dependent on the river and its tributaries.
Jet-Ski Rally Torpedoed by Park Rangers by Christopher Smith
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Saturday, May 23, 1998
A group of 37 Jet-Skiers intent on defying a new ban on the speedy watercraft inside Canyonlands National Park were turned back by rangers stationed at the park's border last weekend. Now the boaters plan to challenge the personal watercraft (PWC) prohibition in court. ``We've done this trip every year for eight years now and we should be able to have the same usage as other boaters,'' says Jim Wilcox Jr. of Grand Junction, Colo., one of the event's organizers. ``There've been a lot of times down there where we have helped rafters and we've never done anything to cause damage or bother anyone else.''
In January, Canyonlands banned the use of PWCs in the park until new National Park Service regulations are finalized. Those new rules were expected to be published in The Federal Register months ago, but have yet to be made public. The Personal Watercraft Industry Association and other enthusiast groups are opposing any restrictions in use of the popular, highly maneuverable vessels. Citing noise, disruption of raft and canoe trips and lack of historical use in the Colorado River canyon through the park, Canyonlands Superintendent Walt Dabney closed the park to PWCs this year. ``Somebody may have gone through once or twice, but we don't have an established regular use of PWCs,'' says Dabney. ``There ar a lot of other places PWCs can go outside the park where they are not mixing with the slow-moving raft traffic.''
Wilcox says dozens of PWC riders usually gather for the 167-mile trip from Green River to Moab, traveling down the Green River to the confluence inside the park, then up the Colorado River to Potash, near Moab. The group carries extra gas tanks on each PWC, and then refuels at Mineral Bottom just outside the park border before the final leg. Traveling at speeds upward of 45 mph - Wilcox says his own 1100 c.c. Jet Ski can do 70 mph - the entire trip takes three to four hours. The Park Service was notified in April of the planned Jet-Ski incursion into Canyonlands. On Sunday, the group of 37 vessels was met at Mineral Bottom by Park Service and Bureau of Land Management rangers who warned them if they proceeded into the park they would be cited for violating the PWC ban. The Jet Skiers turned around and returned to Green River. ``We wanted to go through the park just to get the summons so we could begin to fight this thing,'' says Wilcox. ``There were five of us who were going to be the test case and get tickets, but when we got there, everybody just sort of backed down. The rangers were real friendly and we decided we would have some lawyers look things over before we go back.''
Dabney said the swarm of Jet Skis at the park border was "no big deal.'' ``We had heard they were coming and wanted to be prepared to have a dialogue and didn't want any kind of standoff,'' he says. ``From what I could tell these folks were very nice people and we just told them if they come through we will be forced to take legal action.''
Wilcox said each participant in the ride had donated money to a ``legal defense fund'' to challenge Canyonlands' PWC ban. They will argue that PWCs have been used in Canyonlands for years and their operation is not detrimental to the park.
``Heck, we've even gone through Cataract Canyon on Jet Skis before,'' Wilcox says. ``People come all the way from Denver to do these trips. It's not fair to only ban PWCs.'' gcpba NEWSWIRE 6/29/98 - SELF SUPPORTED KAYAK PATROL
Grand Canyon National Park river rangers have just completed a self supported kayak patrol trip. River Patrol Park Ranger David Desrosiers, Wilderness Ranger Paul Downey, and University of Oregon researcher Bo Shelby made up the three member crew. The three took ten days to pilot their kayaks through the canyon.
"It wasn't just a patrol trip" according to the trip leader, David Desrosiers. "We monitored archeological sites, did a little trail rehabilitation work, talked with backpackers and fishermen, picked up trash and Bo Shelby collected river sociological data."
According to Desrosiers, the patrol trip contacted 25 river trips, both commercial and private, to make sure river users comply with Grand Canyon National Park river guidelines. One of those contacts was with Jason Robertson, Access Director for American Whitewater. "Our private trip liked seeing the rangers in Kayaks. They were non intrusive, non threatening, safe, fast and compatible with the Canyon wilderness ethic" according to Robertson. "Seeing a ranger in a kayak was a whole lot better then seeing them in motor boats, which happened two hours later. It's a different type of contact, more fitting with the experience of getting away from it all." Robertson went on to say.
Kayak patrol trips are not new to the Canyon, and were a common occurrence in the 1970's. In the early 1980's they fell out of favor with GCNP management. "They haven't happened in the eight years I've been here," according to Desrosiers. "We looked into it and found that there were a lot of advantages, from the inexpensive food pack to the flexibility in picking camp spots. The shuttle was inexpensive too. I also had an opportunity to work on my kayaking skills, which I need to keep up for rescue situations should they arise" says Desrosiers, who went on to say that the trip resupplied at Phantom Ranch, and that they packed out their solid waste. gcpba NEWSWIRE - FLOATING LAWYERS
The Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association (GCPBA) has positioned itself as one of the foremost defenders of the rights of private boaters in the Grand Canyon Colorado River Management Plan (CRMP). We have already made the National Park Service aware that the GCPBA is willing to work with the CRMP Planning Team to identify solutions to the projected 20 year long wait and inequitable use allocations that the majority of the non- commercial recreational boaters currently must endure before accessing the Canyon. However, if the Park Service does not respond with true resolutions to these inequities, recreational boaters must be determined to go beyond the administrative process as a means to obtain equity on theRiver.
The GCPBA believes there are members of the legal profession who are also recreational boaters who share our passions for developing equitable access for all users of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River.
The GCPBA is requesting the assistance of recreational boaters with legal backgrounds and experience in the field of administrative law and the judicial process that are willing to provide volunteer legal assistance in the pursuit of the available legal options necessary to achieve equity for all river users. It is our belief that the combination of competent legal expertise combined with the passions of GCPBA, AW, NWRA and ACA members will bring about a realization of equity in obtaining access to the Colorado River in Grand Canyon.
In the long haul, it may be your legal contribution that will make the critical difference. Any and all legal assistance is to be greatly appreciated. If you feel you have something to offer; if you can file actions, if you have procedural talents, if you have knowledge of administrative law, the judicial process, research abities ....whatever legal assistance you feel you can offer, we urge you to contact us as soon as possible.
It is our belief your participation is crucial to the developmental planning process to be finalized and officially documented as the Colorado River Management Plan.
If you can help, please, contact us at: Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association P.O. Box 2133, Flagstaff. AZ 86003 / 520.214.8676 gcpba 7/14/98 - NEWSWIRE WILDERNESS AXED
Senate Questions Solitude as Standard
Grand Canyon National Park contains over one million acres of land that falls within the 1964 Wilderness Act. No roads nor power lines penetrate this area. Travel by foot is very difficult, and by raft not that much easier. River trips through this area must consider the logistics involved in arranging food and equipment for a journey of at least two weeks, besides navigating some rather impressive whitewater. Since 1980, nonconcessionaire recreational users have been traveling through this temple under the direction of the Wilderness Act and its emphasis on solitude. But solitude is under attack.
Excerpted from the 1999 Interior Appropriations Bill Report, #105-227:
"The committee is concerned that the Forrest Service continues to ignore congressional direction provided in the fiscal year 1998 appropriations bill that encouraged the agency to place emphasis on on-the-ground impacts to wilderness areas from human activity and move away from management by the subjective concept of solitude. The committee continues to believe the primary focus of the Forest Service in wilderness areas is the protection of the physical environment and ecosystems of the wilderness resource. However, the agency's land managers have developed regulations that attempt to bring wilderness into compliance with standards which are subjective and which artificially set numbers of allowable encounters per day between human beings. The regulations limit the number of people who are allowed to use a given trail on a given day, purportedly to achieve solitude in the wilderness. Rather then regulating solitude by limiting the number of encounters on a given trail or the number of tents seen from a point with a given view, the committee directs the Forest Service to manage human activities in wilderness areas for on the ground impacts such as trampled vegetation, human waste, uncontrolled fire pits, and soil erosion, with the goal of protecting the resource and mitigating damage." page 73-74 S.2237. Sen. Report 105-227
This report is imbedded language in Senate Bill 2237, so you won't find this language on the search engine Thomas. This bill has passed the Senate. The House side of this bill has yet to be introduced. Though this report is directing the Forest Service to alter its Wilderness management practices, this language directly attacks the Wilderness Act, which says Wilderness must have "outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation."
The Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association believes in Wilderness, and is strongly against any erosion of Wilderness values as they relate to the approximately 3% of this great country. GCPBA believes that such areas as the Colorado River through the Heart of Grand Canyon National Park merit strong, healthy Wilderness Protection.
GCPBA urges you to contact your congressional representatives and urge them to suport a veto of this Bill, and remove this language from the report. You can find the e-mail address of your congressional folk at:
Senate Listings
Representative Listings
At the Confluence of Life and Time by Katie Lee and Richard Martin
The finding of a fragment of an airliner wing in the Grand Canyon reawakened the memories of a little boy. I was shocked and fascinated by a twist of fate that led to the greatest air disaster the world had yet experienced, in those fresh days of the mid 1950's. How could such a thing have happened? Over the Grand Canyon?
Curiosity led me to the Cline Library on the campus of Northern Arizona University. Diane Grua, librarian, cheerfully explains the operation of the library's microfiche newspaper reading device and offers advice as to where to look. I pour over three weeks worth of Flagstaff's Arizona Daily Sun, many with headlines announcing with enthusiasm, the imminent beginnings of the construction of both the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River and Navajo Dam on the San Juan River, each a part of a much larger project to nourish the parched, needy west with water and power.
I chose the Arizona Daily Sun, instead of the major national newspapers because this was more than just a world story, it was a Flagstaff story, local news covered by a small local daily paper that sent the first photos around the world. Wrote the first news releases, and reported it's exclusive with professionalism and pride . . . and with sadness, for this story touched the hearts of Northern Arizona.
June 30, 1956 - Saturday,
Los Angeles, California.
Only four minutes separated the takeoff United Flight 718, a DC 7 with 58 aboard and TWA Flight 2 with 70 passengers and crew. Both were to fly nearly identical routes to their separate Midwestern destinations.
On board the quickly accelerating United 718, passengers, peering out of their windows, probably noticed the waiting TWA on the tarmac. A Lockheed Super Constellation, three tall tails. White, curving fuselage. Four engines. The "Star of the Seine." A beautiful craft.
The hot Arizona summer morning found a thunderstorm gathering over the Grand Canyon. The United flight, about to pass over the Grand Canyon radioed Salt Lake City to report it was gaining altitude in order to "fly on top of the clouds." The Salt Lake tower acknowledged and warned of the TWA airliner passing thousands of feet directly below.
Then the thunderstorm and fate convened. Suddenly the DC 7 plunged downward connecting with TWA Flight 2, slicing the Constellation's tail off, and ripping the United's wing away.
Both planes hurtled into the canyon. United 718 crashed into the river. Major portions of the Constellation came to rest on Lava Chuar Butte. No one survived. "The worst air disaster in the history of the world occurred over Arizona's wasteland . . . ," reported the Arizona Daily Sun. The unthinkable had occurred. A midair collision in the once limitless wide-open skies had occurred over the seemingly endless wide-open spaces of the Grand Canyon.
Noting that the tragedy occurred over sacred lands, the confluence of the Colorado and the Little Colorado Rivers, both the Hopi and Navajo Tribes held twenty-four hour prayer vigils for the victims. The Flagstaff Post Office gathered up the one hundred or so air mail letters that survived the crash, reposted them and sent them onto their destinations. Every Flagstaff business closed on the day the remains of the 128 reluctant visitors were buried in the community's public cemetery.
I related the story of my discovery to Katie Lee. As I told her my story, she reached up onto a bookshelf, pulling down a journal and opened it up and started reading. We wanted to share it with you.
JULY 13, 1956 - FRIDAY - Mile 61 / Katie Lee's River Journal
. . . below here is what I came on the trip for . . . other than just to be on the river, that is . . . the Little Colorado is at mile 61 . . . also we began looking for the plane wreckage of the terrible head on that took place ten days ago. We saw bits and pieces of the wing and a wheel from the landing gear, part of the tail assembly . . . but couldn't see where the plane had hit on Chuar Butte . . .
Remember when I'm along, the little C is Blue . . . that's always the big question. . . First boat goes ahead and yells the good (or bad) news to the rest, "IT'S BLUE" was my clarion call . . . And when I say that I don't need to say any more because you can't in any way describe the incredible beauty of this deeply hued water . . . Almost opaque with the travertine deposits it carries . . . It was the bluest of the turquoise . . . The intense'est of the aquas.. .the indigo of the sky is almost a contrast to it they are so startlingly different in color . . . and the water seems alive with the froth of joy and sound of earth. The bay where the powerboat had gone in three years ago was shallow and choked over with a sand bar . . . but it was still blue and long and met the big Colorado in a swirl of resentment at being swallowed up in the "Muddy Maylay." The Indians have a nice story for this, they say it goes under the big Colorado . . . and doesn't mix with it at all! There were two big lagoons . . . the one I went down to on the other side of the sandbar was very deep and isolated from the upper by a large island . . .the one that had formerly been the rock bar which the powerboats had to miss. . . . Long expanses of untouched sand . . . Lying in waves . . . Oyster white and isolated from and rising out of a blue bed of Crystal . . . Gina really digs this place and of course Reet has parted with her skull completely. We walked up stream, and I showed Gin and Reet the colors in the banks when you put your arm down . . . The soft greys, maroon, salmon, white, blue, blue- black silts that made a rainbow of your arm when you pulled it up. When I get into this water I just can't get out, that's all. I could freeze in there and never know it was happening if the water were really cold, but it's just right . . . I suppose I took three rolls of film here . . . no reason not to. God! 'What a fabulous sight . . . The water in '53 must have been all of four feet higher . . . We came into the lagoon a long way before docking, I remember . I left the rest of them and headed for the lower lagoon . . . Gina and Reet stayed up stream of the fork and took pictures . . . Obscured from the vision of the others who were either asleep under the rocks or looking at the plane wreckage. I did as I have wanted to do for the entire trip and can't . . . off with the bathing suit to swim as God intended . . . roll in the sand . . . feel the wind on my skin, soft and delicate . . . To hell with death . . . this is LIFE . . . And since they had to die, all those people in the plane, they couldn't have picked a more heavenly spot . . . though I'm sure some of their relatives wouldn't agree. Some night here . . . on a moonlit night I'm going to swim this lagoon . . . that will be some other year and the plans for the trip will have to be altered some, but when this place is blue, there is no earthly reason for leaving it after a couple hours stay . . . it's too much to see and no time is too long for it . . . there should be a camp here . . . all night and half a day . . . a sunset camp and a morning . . . and if I don't do another thing this summer, I'm going to have to convince Frank that leaving here so quickly is the biggest mistake of the year . . . Why don't we hike up and see the springs? I've beard it is three miles and I've heard 18 . . . Which is it? Let's go and see, it isn't the passengers who crawl under the rocks and wait for something to happen . . . it's the boatmen, The passengers just need something to do so hike "arredy," You'll never see anything like this as long as you live . . .
We had lunch and then left, I am riding with John today who is leading. We took the glasses from Frank and tried to see the mark the plane had left, and as we came down over Little Colorado Rapid we saw the black mark sprawled over the top of Chuar Butte . . . Gad! What a mess . . . and there was more below of the TWA plane, the other was United. I took some pictures, but you'll never be able to see anything without a telephoto lens. .So who wants pictures like that anyway? I come down here to forget there are such things as aeroplanes and wars and atom bombs and people all bunched together in cities clawing at each other.
. . . 1100 AD, 1956, 1985, 1998 . . .
On a wind swept March, 1998 day, Helen and I purposefully wandered the foothill slopes of Chuar Butte at the confluence of the Little Colorado River and the Colorado. We were looking for shards. The Little Colorado was dark brown with mud, and the Colorado was a deep green, forming a sharp line as the two currents joined together. We watched as one of our companions boat, straddled those colors. A beautiful picture.
I had urged Helen, an archaeologist by trade, to stop here. For days I had been promising her a rich bed of broken pottery.
In 1985 several of us had "discovered" a large, black pot, perhaps a thousand years old, as we climbed around on the low, pocked cliff face, near the river. Poking our heads into wind created holes, suddenly our friend Jessie announced, "Wow, a pot!" And there it was, lying on it's side, one small chip out of the rim. A simple and solid link to the thousands of years of life that has passed this river confluence's way. The ancients. The Hopi, the Navajo, the Spanish, Native Americans, Imported Americans. Americans. A parade of peoples.
Shards were proving to be elusive. On that day there were none to be found. We went from hilltop to ridge, my memory seeing always the orange and black fragments I had left behind thirteen years before. Helen, a good sport, didn't seem to mind, and confessed she'd always wanted to stop here and check things out. She personally knew the pot we had discovered. The NPS, upon hearing of the find had helicoptered the pot up to the Science Center on the South Rim, where Helen once worked, to be studied. It had stood on a work table for a number of years. Now it is in storage, in a box, far from home, waiting . . .
Life is a most powerful force, and sometimes the voices of lives past wait patiently to shout out their messages. I felt really disappointed and frustrated with my failure to produce the elusive shards, when I heard Helen announce that we should move on back to the boat. I found myself wandering up just one more arroyo. Your feet know the way. No longer looking, simply wandering. Suddenly a sharp cry from the past. My eyes fixed upon an artifact I could not have imagined. The wing tip from one of the airliners involved in the 1956 mid-air collision. Smooth, big, perfect, white, rivets in place, just like new, ready to fly, except for the abrupt, ragged edge. As if torn apart by a cheap can opener. A twentieth century, aluminum shard.
The startling discovery carried with it an equally startling vision. I could see and feel the confusion. What was once safe and whole had turned to chaos. I was a witness. In the face of tragedy, nothing is worse than the inability to help those in need. There was nothing I could do to help. The collision was simply an act of fate.
"Don't touch it, I don't even want to see this," Helen spoke, looking away and turning to return to the boat. I followed closely behind. The wind blew and it was very quiet, at the confluence of life and of time.
Richard Martin / Katie Lee
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GCPBA QUARTERLY THROW BAG AWARD
The GCPBA Throw Bag Award is presented quarterly to the individuals and or organizations who have been a real help to gcpba's mission.
This quarters TBA is given to the "City Slick Rockers" from New York City, who have pledged $2500 to support GCPBA activities, Jean and Honani Polequaptewa for their hospitality in Alaska, Katie Lee for the use of portions of her previously unpublished river diaries, and Mark Mills-Thysen for his generous donation of $1000. When you are in the water floating away, and out of the blue comes a throw bag, what can you say? We are most grateful. Thanks.
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Tom Martin
Glen Canyon Institute Participate In Environmental Assessment
Gcpba is pleased to introduce our members to the Glen Canyon Institute. Glen Canyon Institute was formed in 1996 with the goal of restoring Glen Canyon, formerly one of the most beautiful and unique canyons in the world. Two of the Institute's objectives identified for the realization of that goal are to provide a sound scientific and technical understanding of pre- and post-restoration conditions and to provide an advocacy for restoration of this now submerged heart of the Colorado River.
The major task that the Glen Canyon Institute has committed itself to in order to achieve their objectives is the instigation and conductance of a citizen's Environmental Assessment of Glen Canyon Dam. Patterned after the Environmental Impact process mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act, this citizens' Environmental Assessment will examine the environmental impacts caused by Glen Canyon Dam to Glen Canyon, Grand Canyon, and the Sea of Cortez. Public participation is a critical element of the assessment process, and will be facilitated by the Institute via ten public hearings throughout the Colorado River basin. These hearings will provide an excellent opportunity for a wide spectrum of diverse views to be presented.
Because of GCPBA's known commitment to the preservation and appropriate treatment of scarce riparian resources, we have been asked to contact our members to inform them of Glen Canyon Institute's work and ask them to participate in the citizen's Environmental Assessment process. We are also asking that you consider joining Glen Canyon Institute in order to help evaluate environmental impacts and processes taking place in this magnificent region that is home to the Grand Canyon.
The upstream and downstream impacts of dams have been investigated and well documented. These impacts are significant and devastating to native flora and fauna. However, to this date, we have very little or no information on post-dam restoration processes, optimization of dam removal for ecosystem recovery, or other important information that will be critical in the near future. With the tremendous number of dams in the Southwest and the high sediment content of our flowing water, many dams will soon be looking at their twilight years. The information developed by the Glen Canyon Institute's assessment will provide an essential resource for dealing with this water resource management issue that is staring at us from the not-too-distant future.
The Glen Canyon Institute is providing a forward looking approach to dealing not only with the resources of the Colorado River basin, but also other basins in the West. We applaud their mission and their zeal in advancing this important public process. They have assembled an impressive team of scientists and resource managers that will provide the guidance and integrity to effectively evaluate the impacts of the dam and the prospects for Glen Canyon restoration. We ask you to consider joining Glen Canyon Institute and to join us in supporting them in their citizen's Assessment. Glen Canyon Institute can be reached at 520- 779-5350 or http://www.glencanyon.org
Regards,
Tom Martin President, GCPBA
Mosquitoes & the Uintah Basin By Richard Martin
Someone wrote to rec.boats.paddle wondering about boating the Green River's Uintah Basin (no permits needed). For those of you who have wondered a bit about that blank spot in their guidebooks between Spit Mountain and Sand Wash the "Basin" I offer mine , and several others accounts.
Richard Martin writes:
I have done this trip, and although it (the Uintah Basin) has great beauty, etc. Be prepared for MOSQUITOES. I actually have seen reports that say that the Uintah Basin has the highest parts per million of mosquitoes in North America including Alaska. When you finish your trip, I think you'll be ready to argue the truth of this.. Be done eating and ready to go into your tents before early sunset. The "moseys" really aren't bad during the day, you actually can hang out naked, which is ok because you won't see another person on the trip (I believe, from the mosquitoes perspective that the whiter you are, the better you taste . . . forget cancer, get tan). We rowed our rafts for six days on this stretch to Sand Wash and saw only two people, fish and game rangers in a power boat who were as startled to see us as we them.
When the sun starts to set the action begins. I would do this trip again, but I think I would rig some kind of large kitchen tarp with netting so you can be with your companions in the evening, also a small radio ( I know, I know . . . radios?) for solitary tent time, and of course books. Bring sufficient mind altering stuff . . . you'll have plenty of time to recover. The sun will fix everything. Plenty of mosquito repellant, and multiple varieties so you don't get sick of the smell of one type, maybe an extra tent, in case the zippers go kaput (mine did, it was terror) . . . and then there is the matter of pooping . . . it can be truly hilarious . . . how many spots can you slap at once! Camp as close to the water as you can, the mosey density is slightly less at the river edge of the big sand bars. One night I tied the boats up so they stuck straight out into the river. We called this "the sixteen foot advantage" Bring a sand stake so you don't have to approach or disturb the Tammies. Moseys love Tammies as much as they love you.
Hey! This place is a true adventure . . . I know kayakers are all proud of their daring skills (first descents, etc.), but I don't believe I recall seeing one on this adventure. This is a class six river more than any other. Life threatening, standing waves of insects. The Uintah Basin is a true wilderness, and beautiful . . . you will pay, but you will be rewarded with extraordinary vistas.
One finds oneself longing for that easy roller coaster river trip, the Colorado in the Grand Canyon. "What are we going to do today?" says one companion. "Row 26 miles, that's what we gotta do." sez I. With the water shimmering in the background, the former responds with only a Lava like look of apprehension. A cloudy day is the source of more fear than Crystal at 50,000.
As we traveled, with flocks of ducks as our escorts we fantasized that Ouray (a spot on the map next to the river) would be a real town, maybe even with a McDonalds, mmmn . . . big Mac . . . When we climbed up to the road from under the bridge (the moseys were really, extra bad in the shade) to go to town, we noticed the town was gone! I mean these mosquitoes are really bad. The town left, even the cottonwoods left . . . there is no shade.
When we pulled into Sandy Wash, I thought there would be a band there to meet us . . . no! . . . just new rangers . . . the look on their non-boater faces as two of us, one (me) totally sunblack, 6'4' 235 lbs, hair in every direction and braided beard and my 175 pound 6 foot seven friend checked in was a classic. We had gone totally feral. They had to come down to the river to check us in, their second day on the job, afraid to open the door, not sure who was going to eat them first, the moseys or us, thinking to themselves "nobody told us it would be like this" Instead of checking us in, they waived us away with "You boys look like you know what you're doing, so just go on ahead." They then handed us our tags!
How flat is the river? Consider this, if you were to fall asleep on your boat, you could easily row upstream. Once at Sandy Wash, while waiting for the shuttle folks to appear I rowed the boat upstream for two miles so I could reenact the thrill of arriving at Sand Wash again (still no band).
There is a river runner rumor about a hapless boater who wandered into the basin and was not seen alive again. His boat was found floating, not drifting, sorry no current, and containing his poor bloodless body. This story has never been verified, but is believable. On a final note, the days will belong to you . . . the nights to "them" Ricardo
PS Don't ever bathe, the moseys love the smell of soap . . . it's like an ad . . . "mmmn . . . Irish Spring. let's go." By the way all of the above is true.
Earl Perry: ". . . a can of repellent per person"
When we met our people for this trip, we handed them a can of repellent per person as they stepped off the bus. You have to brush them off your dinner, or alternatively pick them from between your teeth; they will go for the beef juices, of course, but the air density of them is such that clouds settle on any surface. There is of course an SIU for this: Allow conditions on a bare left shoulder to reach equilibrium. Slap once with a standard right palm. Normalize for Standard Temperature and Pressure.
The rating for the Uintah Basin is 14.
But Ricardo, "I actually have seen reports that say that the Uintah Basin has the highest ppm of mosquitoes in North America. Even Alaska," may be true in the sense that you can see reports that say a lot of things. But it isn't a true statement. On the South Nahanni when once you reach the flats: Your butt gets gray, haired over, instantly, when you attempt to defecate. When you enter the tent and re-zip, one of you lies nude as bait while the other cleans them out by slapping you all over. Never less than 200 entered with a person entering or exiting.
As a soft underpatter to the whine that fills the night to as far as an ear can reach, they impact the tent in brownian motion through the hours of darkness, and sound like a gentle rain. You find their inadvertent corpses rolled up in your gear for 3 subsequent years.
Repellent "works" by disruption of their attack/prey location sensing, so it doesn't entirely work on the South Nahanni, because some way-more-than-non-zero portion of them land on you purely at random. If you have netting you have to brush it off frequently, because it gets opaque just from them clinging hopefully to it.
They could make you crazy, as the incessant prairie winds made some homesteader families in the plains of western Kansas and eastern Colorado go crazy. We showed the white feather; we stopped in a native village to hire a motorboat to get ourselves out soonest (there was still 50 or 80 miles on the S.N. and the Liard to go). We figured the natives would be immune, and we didn't care how contemptible we would look in their eyes. In fact, the natives were heavily netted and went about with something of the same deranged look we had, cursing the little bastards with weary, heavy insistence, slapping and twitching in the St. Vitus dance of the north country.
Lower South Nahanni: 21. We told a ranger this, and she said, "Nonsense. That may be an average, but it sounds low. 27 is the record."
I don't think I would go back.
Earl Perry
RailTramp: ". . . rarely have I seen mosquitoes like those in the Uintah Basin"
. . . I had to chuckle about the Ouray expectations. Only rarely have I seen mosquitoes like those in the Uintah Basin, and I am from Minnesota. Who would have thought they would be so thick in the desert. Only place that had the Green River beat was the take out at James Kipp State Park on the Missouri River in Montana. Ferocious. Guess I am ready for the Arctic now.
Bob Marley: " . . . the problem went away when the bottom country disappeared . . ."
Really liked this. Reminded me of my first rafting trip using my own gear, in '81 I believe. We wondered what was above Sand Wash and did the trip from Ouray to Green River. The town of Ouray wasn't there then but assembling the 18' Avon and gear for the first time in a field of cows was fun. Mosquitoes were terrible from Ouray to Sand Wash but not quite as bad as you experienced.
We hid under a tarp on the raft when we weren't rowing and developed what we called he boatman's index. Someone would pop up from reading every once and awhile and count the mosquitoes on the front of the boatman's shirt. 5-10 was good, up to 100 was not so good, and uncountable was get back down quick.
Campsites on the sand bars were great especially just above Sand Wash. We ran for the screen room when we reached Sand Wash. Only got momentary relief as we had a permit to go downstream the next day. Fortunately, the problem went away when the bottom country disappeared in Desolation Canyon and the river speed picked up.
We've done the Deso trip many times since but never had the courage to face the Uintah mosquitoes again. Perhaps some day.
Trip Tips - Safe Boating Note
Last month we witnessed an incident at Lava Falls that could have turned out much worse than it did. After watching our two lead boats enter the nice big green tongue just left of the Ledgehole and pick up great rides, another group of privates followed with the first of their three oarboats. They had a good, wet run but, for some reason, they never tried to eddy out on the right. They just went on by us and stopped on the beach below Son of Lava, unaware of events upstream. Meanwhile, their second boatman in a rented Domar lost his way and dropped sideways into the Ledge Hole. After emptying itself of frame, cargo and people, the boat emerged from the tail waves with swimmers in the water. Their lead boat unaware of the flip watched helplessly as the overturned raft blasted past them, their swimmers clinging to the wreckage. One of our boats, chasing them, watched while they unsuccessfully tried to get up on the boat, out of the cold water. Without a flip line or strap around the bottom of the boat, no one could scramble up. (Not unusual with large tube boats, sometimes its possible to get a handhold at the bow or stern.) Finally they drifted into the big eddy on the left, half a mile below the rapid. One of them was hypothermic and needed emergency warming. The lesson is this: at Lava and other big rapids, the lead boat must be in a position to help rescue others in their party in the event of a flip or swim. Less experienced boatmen should watch and learn from the lead boats and should rig flip lines and even extra paddles outboard (a boat can be paddled upside down) to permit self rescue. Play safe: avoid carnage at Lava Falls
Doug Ross Ammo Can Doc / Doctor Tom Myers, M.D.
RATTLESNAKES BITES AND TESTOSTERONE POISONING
Like many little boys, the fascination I had with snakes came just as naturally as the instinctive need to excavate dirt, throw rocks, and smash bugs. We also instinctively know the only way to really see something is with your hands ("Let me see it! Let me see it!"). Well, the snake fascination is still there, but getting bit on the thumb at age 7 by a snake has taken me pretty far in observation techniques. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the rest of my gender.
Rattlesnakes are members of the Crotalus or Pit Viper Family and rattlesnake venom is really nasty stuff. It is a complex substance comprised of multiple digestive/destructive enzymes and toxins. Some are designed to cause breakdown of connective tissue (collagen, muscle and fat) to allow spread of more lethal blood and vascular toxins. These destroy blood cells, damage blood vessels and inhibit normal clotting. They are very potent and can be extremely effective at doing what they're designed to do; immobilize, kill and ultimately digest a rattlesnake's prey.
There are six species of rattlesnakes in Grand Canyon: the Grand Canyon or "pink", the Western Diamondback, the Hopi, the Great Basin, the Speckled and the Black-tailed. NONE are abundant, except for the Grand Canyon Rattlesnake in middle Grand Canyon, and the Western Diamondback in Peach Springs Canyon (Diamond Creek RM 226).
Sightings are infrequent. Legendary canyon hiker Harvey Butchart reported seeing one about every forty days, averaging 12 miles on foot/day, during roughly 1000 backcountry days over forty years. Along the banks of the river corridor, they're more common. River guide Larry Stevens, in 25 years reports seeing a rattlesnake every 12th day.
The Grand Canyon Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis abyssus) varies in size from 16 to 64" long. It has a triangular, rather than slender head, and elliptical rather than round eye. It has single rather than double rows of ventral scales leading to anal plate, and it also has a heat sensing pit between nostril and eye. It is a beautiful pink sandstone color, and is typically very docile. It does rattle (surprise!), but don't count on hearing it as a forewarning.
With regards to bites, fortunately, they're rare. In Grand Canyon, we average about one every other year, or about one in 200,000 backcountry users. Even better news is that there have been no documented deaths known to have occurred from rattlesnake envenomations here. Still, bites are serious business.
Who gets bit? 90% of victims are male and 80% of bites occur to the hand or fingers. Why? It is a common affliction, affectionately known in medical circles as testosterone poisoning, and is especially dangerous when mixed with alcohol and the seeing-is-touching mentality. Some things never change. (And "I was only moving it" is not a good excuse.)
Other rattlesnake bite trivia: 90% of bites occur between April and October, 50% of bites occur between 2 and 9 PM, 50% of bites occur with intentional handling, about 25% of bites are "dry" (lack venom), and 15% of bites occur on the foot or ankle.
How do you know someone's been envenomated? Well, it becomes pretty obvious, and you'll typically know within five minutes. The most important, helpful initial observations will be immediate, severe burning pain at the bite, blood oozing from the fang marks that won't seem to clot, and swelling with bruising forming around the wound. The swelling and discoloration may continue to advance up the arm over several hours, with blood filled blisters developing over 6-48 hours. Severe cases can lead to nausea, vomiting, sweating, bleeding coma and death.
Signs and Symptoms of Envenomation Signs Symptoms Fang Marks - 100% Weakness - 80% Swelling - 98% Nausea/Vomitng - 70% Brusing - 27% Numbness/tingling/abnormal taste - 73% Twitching - 19% Pain - 60% Low Bllod Pressure - 11% Blistering - 16% Tissue Destruction - 4%
Once you determined that there has been envenomation, the only question that remains is ultimate severity. It can range form Grade 1 or minimal, to Grade 4 which is very severe and life threatening. Only time will tell. Treatment remains somewhat controversial, but current recommendations are:
Treatment for Rattlesnake Bite:
1. Get victim AWAY from snake (retreat slowly)!
2. Do NOT kill snake! (Dead, even decapitated head reflex bites can occur for 20 to 60 minutes after killing snake further envenomating.)
3. Place victim at REST, semirecumbant postion.
4. CALM victim.
5. Consider suction device (Sawyer extractor). Most effective if used in less than 5 minutes. Removes only 5- 20% of venom.
6. CLEANSE area around bite wound thoroughly.
7. REMOVE all jewelry from bitten extremity.
8. SPLINT extremity as if treating a fracture.
9. Place bitten extremity at NEUTRAL position, level with the heart.
10. Do NOT allow victim to move around.
11. Do NOT cut at snake bite wound, apply tourniquets or constricting bands, electric shock, ice (or cold river water). These all cause more tissue destruction!
12. For "dry" bites (envenomation not suspected), treat daily with local wound care and oral antihistamines as needed for itch or swelling. Tetanus booster should be given if not current (>5 years)
13. If envenomation suspected, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY for possible antivenom administration. If alone and unable to make a distress call, attempt to hike out for help immediately before symptoms become severe.
A rattlesnake bite with signs and symptoms of envenomation should be considered an absolute evacuation. Period. Don't "wait" to see how severe it may get. This could be a costly mistake. Remember, rattlesnake venom is lethal, and limb-threatening tissue destruction can occur within hours! That's why antivenom was developed. It is absolutely the best medicine and really works, especially when administered within 24 hours.
As for prevention, we still don't have a good antidote for testosterone poisoning, but watching where you place your hands and feet and avoiding any intentional handling is a major hint.
GUANO!
DANGER ON THE SAN JUAN
Boatmen who work both Grand Canyon and the San Juan sometimes need to be reminded that accidents and dangers do not just occur on the "big river". In fact, an accident on the San Juan might have potentially more disastrous consequences than in Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is a national park and the park provides helicopter rescue facilities in the event an evacuation is required. Signaling for such a rescue is relatively easy with radios or mirrors and the presence of aircraft over the canyon.
The San Juan is regulated by The Navajo Nation on river left and by the BLM on river right. There is no readily available helicopter service on the rim and aircraft over flights are rare except for the military jets which pollute the river's tranquility.
Recently I guided a trip for Canyonlands Field Institute on the San Juan where we had an accident with a passenger at Slickhorn that caused us to consider the possibility of evacuation--in effect, trip termination at that point. This person got macho and decided to dive headfirst into the swimming hole at Slickhorn. Through some miracle he did not die or become a quad because the contact his head made with the bottom happened as he was coming out of the dive, thus avoiding the full impact. He emerged stunned and with a very bloody face and a lot of facial abrasions and, fortunately, fully conscious. Nevertheless, we had to take all the precautions necessary in case symptoms of concussion or spinal damage did eventually appear. He was monitored very carefully for the next 12-24 hours, the time span that most certainly would have been needed to carry out an evacuation anyway.
This case ended well. He is fine and never presented with any signs or symptoms of head or spinal injury. But he was a reminder to the crew of how vulnerable we can be on the San Juan. Do not forget that on your next trip and ALWAYS stress repeatedly to people NOT to dive headfirst anywhere in the San Juan or any other river or stream, or their side pools.
Bob Poirier
River Book Review Canyon Solitude by Patricia C. McCairen
Adventura Books $14.95
Congratulations to Patricia McCairen! Not only did she run the Colorado through the Grand Canyon all by herself, she also wrote a wonderful book about it, to let us in on her trials and tribulations, feelings and contemplations.
"Patch" (as she calls herself) did not undertake this trip solo by choice, but rather for the lack of friends who had the time and desire to undertake this journey in a colder part of the year. Unwilling to give up her rare and sought after permit, she just did it on her own. What a woman!
With her colorful descriptions of the river, canyons and waterfalls, she takes you along with her and leads you into the explorations and revelations she finds hidden in the canyons of her soul. If you've stood at the edge of a powerful rapid and studied the maelstrom you can understand her trepidations, for a wrong move could mean a disaster, since there was no one to bail her out.
To most of us a Canyon trip means much more than a wild ride through the worlds greatest rapids and into the depths of the most spectacular canyon - it is also a very personal journey into the turbulent waters of our inner beings. It removes us to a quiet world, uncluttered by outside influences, where without distraction, stripped to the bare essentials - naked - you have a chance to truly contemplate your life!
That is why we want to take these trips with like- minded friends where we all have an input as to where we want to linger and how we are going to make this the best trip ever.
Canyon Solitude is a softcover book that fits into your riverbag or your backpack. Read it! You'll enjoy it!
Hanna Flagg
Another Look at the book:
Currently there are lot's of books being published about Colorado River adventures. Leading the sales charts is River, by Colin Fletcher (reviewed WL, Nov. 1997, p.15) and Writing Down the River, by various authors. River readers should not overlook Patricia C. McCairen's entry, Canyon Solitude, published by Adventura Books.
Canyon Solitude is unique amongst the flotilla of river books for a number of reasons. First is that the author is a woman. Second, she's launching on a solo trip, perhaps the first ever performed by a woman. McCairen is a private boater, with a background as a commercial guide, who received no special consideration from either the park service, or outfitters to do her trip. She waited her time for a permit, on the wait list, just like the rest of the private community must, noting that a private Colorado River permit is "the most sought after permit in the world."
The author's adventure in river running begins with a hike down to Phantom Ranch to board a commercial, oar powered trip, and her subsequent return to the "real world" of work as a travel agent in New York city. Skyscrapers and short skirts. Life could never be the same. "Go West, young lady!" West she went to follow her dream, becoming a river guide on the Stanislaus River in California in the process, hoping for a shot at guiding in the Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon guiding proved to be an elusive goal. Opportunities for women to guide in the Canyon in the early 1980's were few. Like many have who found the doors to pro guiding shut for whatever reasons, Patricia turned to the private boating venue to realize her Canyon dreams.
Thus she begins the most "private" of private trips, a solo, unassisted trip down the Colorado River's Grand Canyon. I recommend this book.
Ricardo [Richard Martin]
Hot Hikes - the Tabernacle
The "Palisades of the Desert" is an extensive line of cliffs that run from the confluence of the Little Colorado River south to the old Tanner Trail in Tanner Canyon. With massive walls that make up the tail end of the "East" rim before the rim turns west, the Palisades are impressive from camps like Basalt (69.5 Right) or Cardenas (River Mile 71 Left). Trouble is, it's hard to get a view of the Palisades of the Desert from the inner gorge. There is a great hike, just before the inner gorge, that offers a stunning view of the Palisades. It's a real Sistine Chapel view, and this hike fits that description, for this is the hike to the Tabernacle.
The camps you will need to stay at to do this hike are between River Mile 73.5 and 74.5, all on river right. There are four camps here, though the Stevens guide shows only two. The pull-ins are easy and the camps spacious. This route starts at the camp at 74.0 Right. You can access this point from Upper Rattlesnake at 74.1 Right, and Lower Rattlesnake at 74.3 Right, by walking back up river. If you are camped at "Below Granary" camp at 73.6, walk down river a bit.
Look for cairns that mark the start of the route as it goes up to a sharp ridge of Dox Sandstone, just downstream (west) from the mouth of the drainage that enters river right at 74.0. The route continues up this exposed ridge line which turns to the west. The ridge top widens out as thetrail turns south and enters the Tapeats sandstone. Pay close attention to the route here and try to avoid multiple trailing (as always). Once the trail tops out of the Tapeats and enters the Bright Angle Shale, the route proceeds west around the North side of the Tabernacle to a small saddle.
The route then turns south west as it winds around and up the west side of the Tabernacle. You will reach the top in the Muav Limestone. From here, to the south is Solomon Temple between you and Hance Rapid. To the west is Sheba Temple while north of you and just a bit west is Rama Shrine. North and a little east are the distant Apollo, Venus and Jupiter Temples, all cradled in the outstretched arms of the Palisades, forming your skyline to the East. What a view!
This is a great early morning or late afternoon hike, taking three to four hours. Keep in mind there is no shade except for the Tappets section, and you'd be nuts to do this hike in the middle of a hot summer day. As always, stay hydrated and eat salty snack food.
Tom Martin
GCPBA SCOUTS AHEAD
Scouting gives you a glimpse of what's ahead. One really doesn't know how the run will go, but a little discussion of what's ahead goes a long way when one has actually made the future into the present. The following are some scouting notes for what's ahead for GCPBA: Elections in November for Board members and a new Vice President who will be on a one year tongue headed straight for the hole of President. GCPBA may hold a monthly meeting in Flagstaff. With some of the GCPBA board, like we did when we started (except no one came). Possibly no one will come this time, but we may have free pizza, which might help feed the hungry. Currently, we hold monthly board member only conference calls. Talks are ongoing with Grand Canyon River Guides Adopt-a-Beach program coordinators so that private boaters may be able to adopt a camera or two and participate in this project which records changes at monitored beaches. GCPBA may be able to act as a gate keeper for folk interested in participating in NPS Science trips in Grand Canyon. GCPBA and American Whitewater are holding discussions about forming an organization to represent noncommercial floaters interests in the rest of the basin, maybe called The Colorado Basin Floaters Association (?), as some of the same issues at Grand Canyon are occurring on other parts of the basin but lack the attention GC is getting... Well, it's time to get back into our boats made of electrons and give it a go. Want to run any of this with us?
Tom Martin
Letters To The GCPBA / FLIPPED OUT
About Fairness, Equity & Inclusiveness
Dear GCPBA,
I appreciate you continuing to send me your mailings. I can't afford to pay $20 right now, though I'd like to support your effort.
I read in many of your articles about fairness, equity & inclusiveness. In John Bachrach's article (p. 10 & 11, May 1998 Waiting List) I was dismayed to see reference to a scary (female, I assume) nurse with a moustache. It seems likely to do more harm than good to let such comments past the editorial eye. As a lesbian with a pale moustache, with loving friends with mustaches & even beards, I was offended. If you want (& if John wants) everyone's help & support to help private boaters in the canyon, you/he, need to think "inclusive". I'm delighted we're all so diverse. I wish more different types of folks could have access to the sublime thrill of a canyon trip and hope your board feels that way too.
I would suggest reading one of the excellent books available about avoiding sexist, racist, & homophobic language whilst still keeping the sparkle & drama in your story. Don't know specific titles offhand but any woman's study dept.., or perhaps university woman's' center or perhaps Hazel could help find such a reference.
Again, thanks for including me in GCPBA & I'll send some $ when I can,
Regards,
Diana Bailey
Dear Ms. Bailey,
My sincere apologies for offending you with my article in the last "Waiting List". By no means was I trying to reenforce a sexual stereotype. I will pass your letter along (I happen to be the mail getter and treasurer) to Ricardo the Editor of the "List" as well as Tom and the rest of the board. I appreciate your writing to me/us and hope that if nothing else I will think twice about whomever I may offend before writing again.
Thank you and again I deeply apologize for offending you,
John Bachrach - Treasurer/GCPBA
What A Shame
. . . Your notes confirmed my feeling that the Wait List is has got the commercial level of use locked in, the only way to increase the private share is to enlarge the user day pie. What a shame. It was a scramble for camps and site landings the last time I was down in l997. The Whitmore exchange is a mess and as I read it clearly illegal under the minimum flight regs., over Wilderness. We are not talking the corridor here but the lands north up towards the rim pad. . .
. . . Please keep me updated.
Roderick Nash
Guides Still Don't Count
Thanks Tom!
. . . have made it a special point in many of my papers to point out that conflict between boater groups is not necessarily between the groups, but something brought about by management regulation that purposely segregates the users and makes inequitable decisions without justification. GC is not the only place where guides don't count as people. It is insane to say the resource can only handle X number of people and restrict privates to that, but let commercials have X + Y guides. It is completely beyond logic.
Dave
BITCH AND MOAN
News Flash!! Four lane highway approved for the Rincon Wilderness! Sources were quoted as saying" The fourwheelers have been using it so they gotta' have some sort of rights. Well hell, how do ya think the tour buses gonna' make any money without the god damn road, you don't expect em to, ya know, walk or anything like that do ya?"
Why hell no, no more than I would expect commercial boaters to get rid of their stinking motors. Voluntarily that is! Just like the gun nuts, maybe we'll just have to pry the motors from their cold, dead (financially that is) fingers. The time is long, long overdue to manage the Grand Canyon as a wilderness and a wilderness does NOT HAVE ROADS OR MOTORS! A wilderness is a vast area of land preserved in more or less it's native state. What is also preserved is Wildness, that exquisite sense of primordial connections to the patterns of weather, beauty, danger and remoteness that are woven into a wild landscape. Wildness is totally incompatible with the crowds, noise, litter and stink of our so called civilized patterns of behavior. More importantly Wildness is completely incompatible with easy, common and prolific access. Wildness is not found in Disney Land. Wildness is poisoned by too many people, especially people that are equally impressed by the menu as by the panorama. By people who look at everything in terms of what it might mean to them, will it bite? - kill it, is it pretty?- make money with it, is it dangerous? - change it!!!
OK, OK, OK, enough. I'm sure you get the drift of this diatribe. So here is the message, I protest the proposal to leave the wilderness designation of the river to the river companies, I mean the Colorado River Management Plan. Motors are not compatible with Wildness and a water road through a wilderness makes no more sense than four lane highway would. End of productive discussion. Those of you who disagree should move to LA.
What we need to the Grand Canyon is not more motors but more filters. Why, you say, ALL my motors have filters! But those, oh wise one, are not the type of filters I'm discussing. The filter we're discussing is essentially any impediment to access. I want it to be difficult for anyone to get into the Grand Canyon Wilderness. The idea is simple, the harder it is to get there, the less people that will BE there and the more the people that GOT there will appreciate what IS there. Not very PC but I think that it is true. Filters come in all sizes and shapes. That $1200 private permit is one for some, as is a 1/4 mile walk from a parking lot for others. Different filters for different folks, weeding them out until those that are there had to really work to get there. They really want to be there. They appreciate where they are for what it is. The few, the considerate, the careful.
Whew! I feel much better now that I got that off my chest.
Terry Hubbard
Split 50 / 50?
I appreciate the work you folks are putting in trying to get private boaters a better deal. It just seems to me that yet again in America the large company takes precedence over the individual. I see no reason why user days should not be split 50/50 commercial private. Also, why not increase user days? All this talk about preserving the resource (at the private boaters1 expense) is ridiculous. With motor rigs, air planes, helicopters, mule shit, a dam that rapes the river and millions of tourists on the rim, anyone who goes down the river privately passes as a ghost comparatively.
James Tonozzi
Tom talks/A Message from the President
It's been another very busy quarter for the GCPBA board. Dinners, meetings, river "fest" attendance, endless phone calls and e-mails, travel, conversations on the street and at the book store, house guests and even a river trip or two. Your GCPBA board has been rowing into a stiff head wind, but making ground. And we lost a boat.
Janet Collins is one of the founding board members of this little group. She believed that a unified voice could right some of the ridiculous wrongs that boaters face when attempting to float the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. After almost two years on GCPBA's board, she still does. Janet ran the membership department, sending new members their welcomes, and sending renewal members their reminders. She worked right on past the nay sayers who didn't think we would ever last long enough for renewals to even occur. It was amazing to me that she carried her responsibilities so far beyond the call of duty. But Janet has a plate of activities so full that it makes me cringe just contemplating. So it was no surprise when Janet recently stood down from the board. Janet, we will miss you, we thank you for helping to make the GCPBA what it is today, and we look forward to reading that book you are writing.
Meanwhile, GCPBA vice president Byron Hayes met with local environmental groups to discuss the recently released back country Wilderness plan. Byron, Richard Martin and I met with Dr. Troy Hall and Bo Shelby to discuss the Canyon studies they will do this summer. Richard Martin continues to do battle with computers, deadlines and back seat drivers to produce the Waiting List you are reading. A number of the GCPBA board attended the Flagstaff CRMP update in May. Dave Yeamans and Marty Wilson continued to work on access models, and Marty represented GCPBA at the Clackamas River Whitewater Festival. Jo Johnson represented GCPBA at the Poudre River Festival, sent out a CRMP bulletin, and will take over Janet's duties as membership coordinator. Jim Heumann continues to do wonders with the GCPBA website, and Jim took Jason Robertson, Access Director of American Whitewater, on the second half of Jim's Grand Canyon trip. John Bachrach continues to keep our finances in good working order. I went to the River Managers Society meetings in Alaska, visited with various GCNP staff, spoke with congressional staffers across the country, and sent out 10 GCPBA NEWSWIRES. A number of the GCPBA board have met for the third time now with GCRG and GCROA representatives to discuss boating issues. The conversations have been lively, informative and productive, especially as we begin to uncover common ground. We'll keep you informed on how these meetings progress.
And as always, we could not do this without you, our ever growing and supportive members. If we are timely and informative, it's because you joined. If you'd like to help out on this river trip, push your boat into the current of change and get in touch.
Tom Martin President, GCPBA