0007 - The Road to Nankoweap - Grand Canyon Day 4
On the start of day 4 of our voyage we awoke at Nautiloid and continued along the canyon heading south. Today we would reach Nankoweap and planned to take our first layover day the following day. A layover day meaning that we wouldn't spend the entire day at camp and in the surrounding environment. A complete break from having to rig the boats, raft, make camp, etc. We were excited to reach our destination nearly 20 miles down river.
After brushing our teeth and rigging the boats we were off at 10:35 (per Hans’ journal). This would be one the biggest days on the river we would have so far. As we set off deeper into the canyon we had a small change in the vehicle lineup. Spencer took Nani’s kayak and Cory made his way over into Steve’s boat with Mike, Tess, and Myself. The day was relatively relaxed with only two class 3 rapids, and one class 4, making for a very peaceful day on the river. Steve lent me an edible which resulted in me spending most of the day in an unprompted monologue at Cory and the rest of my boat about concepts I had to study for for passing my ASCP-MB examination. In retrospect, I apologize to all of them for holding them hostage with my continuous verbal assault.
In my defense the build up to me entering the Grand Canyon had been hectic at best. From a bachelor party gone awry in Florida where 3 of the members of the party (including the groom to be) were arrested. All charges have been dropped but at the time of the incident I was incredibly stressed and wrapped up in trying to do whatever I could to help the situation. Immediately after that unfolded I spent the next 3 weeks as an absolute shut in studying for the aforementioned ASCP-MB certification. The American Society for Clinical Pathology, Molecular Biologist. When I’m not lucky enough to be rafting through one of the 7 natural wonders of the world I have gaslight myself into being a laboratory scientist. Studying for the ASCP-MB was a consequence of this career choice.
I’m happy to say I passed the exam and am now a board certified molecular biologist. However, it came at the cost of locking myself inside for 3+ weeks and becoming my sole focus for that time. I went to the bachelor party, they got arrested, I was stressed for several days contacting girlfriends, looking up relevant state laws, then moved onto the ASCP-MB saga, passed the exam, and had 1 day before we would drive from Colorado to Arizona to put in for the trip. So in my defense, to my held hostage raft mates, it was fresh on the mind.
Thankfully they didn’t throw me in river even as though there was ample opportunity to as we navigated the first of the 3 rapids for the day. Instead our attention shifted to the white water. Steve gave a small lecture to Tess, Mike, and myself on how he uses the oars to navigate the current of the river mid rapid. As took us through the rapid without breaking a sweat we turned to watch Hans and Spencer take their turn on the rapid via kayak. Hans had not swam even once at this point despite only learning how to kayak white water a handful of months before. He was making a serious campaign for doing the whole river without having to pull the skirt on his kayak even once.
The Kayakers had passed through the rapid without incident as well as we continued down river. I took up a seat behind Steve. Resting against the small hill of dry bags behind him I watched the scenery of the canyon come and go as we came up upon a small beach on river right. The group had gotten fairly spread out at this point and so it was a nice beach to relieve ourselves of whatever beer and hopefully water we had taken part in during the day. The sun was high in the sky and I took the opportunity to saunter across the beach and stretch my legs. While on my brief walk I came across mouse tracks running through the wavy sand. Perfectly preserved and undisturbed by any natural elements I took a photo. The tracks had to be less than a few hours old and in another handful of hours they would be gone forever. A small momentary treasure in the canyon.
Once the group had collected itself we continued on from this beach and made our way down river still. The Canyon started to wind left and right as we snaked our way through the flatwater. Trading off manning the oars every hour or so the day continued on as the canyon continued to put on quite the show for us. We were properly into it now, with the immediate side walls of the canyon towering close to a thousand feet above us and growing taller with each row of the oars.
Eventually we were almost to our destination, Nankoweap. Hans had told our party that it was a popular camping site. Boasting 3 different campsites all within close proximity to each other and that it was likely we could see another party there. At this point in the trip we hadn’t seen anyone since we left Lee’s Ferry and to be honest I was perfectly fine with that. However, seeing another group would be an interesting experience after all. We were at mile 44 and were about to set upon the last rapid of the day. Nankoweap rapid, a long class 3 rapid that took a large right turn and spat you out onto the shores of Nankoweap. The boats regrouped one last time about half a mile before the rapid and a small number of us hoped in the minimax to get some last white water action before taking a layover day tomorrow.
I joined the group in the minimax and took the “sport line” through the rapid. Taking the rowdiest approach we could to each wave in the rapid and laughing the whole time. Compared to the much larger oar rigs the minimax is a featherweight. It moves so quickly but is also easy to flip if you’re not careful. We left caution to the wind and smashed through each wave before we found ourselves upon of Nankoweap. A large sandy beach the size of a football field greeted us as we made it our home. We unrigged and found ourselves in the ever more familiar rhythm of our chore groups.
I set up my tent next to Hans’ and spent the rest of the evening getting into a drunk debate with Sierra about having kids as the others laughed and egged us on. It was a good night.
