[Leica] Re: Grand Canyon rafting

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Dec 16, 2008, at 4:16 PM, Hoppy wrote:

> Hi Larry. No we barely had time for walking along a small portion  
> of the
> rim. A real tragedy. Hower, we shall return, of course. As the the  
> river
> rafting, about one or two years advance notice required for a spot  
> on a trip
> now. About like a campsite in Yosemite!


Things were much more relaxed a couple of decades ago. Rafting down  
the Colorado was moderately popular but had not yet come under the  
scrutiny of the Environmental Protection Agency. Four or five  
companies ran tours, some on small six passenger rafts, some on  
larger rafts carrying about twenty vacationers. A few intrepid river  
rats ran the river in kayaks. I would have liked to try it in a kayak  
too but my wife argued me out of it claiming that she was too young  
to be a widow with two children. The four of us settled for one of  
the bigger rafts, primarily because the rafting company, a Mormon  
group staffed by young people performing their obligatory missionary  
work, wanted to start early season trips and gave us a very favorable  
price if we would go in April. It was a fortunate choice. The weather  
at the top of the canyon was freezing but at the bottom it was warm.

Since we spent half our time immersed in river water from rapids and  
spray, it wasn't Leica country. I carried a Nikonos II camera and,  
from my front seat in the raft, managed to get a lot of pictures of  
the interior of waves. I'll try to dig through my trove of unedited  
photos and try to find a few fit to post. My son was a geology  
student at Cornell at the time and gave us a running lecture on the  
rock layers visible from the river. Every night we pulled up to a  
sandy bank and pitched tents for the night while the crew cooked a  
gourmet meal. After dinner some of the travelers imbibed from bottles  
hidden in their backpacks, while the Mormon crew looked on  
disapprovingly. At the end of a week we were airlifted back to our  
staring point near Lake Powell.

In subsequent years, the EPA became concerned about the potential for  
despoiling the canyon. A crash of a plane carrying tourists from the  
river caused them to limit the number of tours permitted. I did get a  
chance to borrow a kayak and try a gentle portion of the river. I'm  
glad my wife talked me out of kayaking the whole trip.

But if you like rough water adventure there are even better rivers  
than the Colorado. The Snake River is one, even, in my area, the  
upper reaches of the Hudson River and the Delaware River. The water  
is as wet. Just don't take your new M8.

Larry Z