In front of our double kayak, a wall of water reared up so high it seemed as
tall as a building, and that building was toppling on top of us. In the bow seat
Jill disappeared into the crashing carnage, with a lurch she re-appeared, not
that I witnessed this, myself now being swallowed up into the frothing torrent
and then being spat out with disdain. Blinking the water and grit from my eyes I
could see the next wave coming, though noticed I could not see the bright yellow
double sea kayak, which Jill and I sat in, it was still submersed in the
turbulent water, rearing and jumping about us. Both of us slammed through the
next wave and where paddling hard while white water exploded everywhere; or
should I call it “brown water”?
Really there was so much silt in the river from
the rains; the Colorado was living up to its name sake meaning “the color
red” and its rapids made our 22 foot kayak feel like a tiny toy riding a
chocolate milkshake in a blender. Looking down stream danger was lurking, my
voice erupted from my mouth like an angry lion tamer, “RIGHT PADDLE, RIGHT,
RIGHT!” Jill quickly started paddling forward on the right as we steered the
vessel left of a large hydraulic, missing it’s gnashing recirculating
frothing mouth in the river… barely. Suddenly with no option we hit a large wave
side on, I threw my weight into it to brace, we struck it and I was engulfed in
brief darkness as the boat was swallowed up yet again and then spat into the
eddy. In order to counter the wave impact, I had the boat leaning downstream; as
we unexpectedly shot to the side of the main flow a whirlpool grabbed the nose
of the kayak spinning us in the same direction capsizing us. I tried to brace
the boat on its side and initiate a roll, though I noticed Jill lifting her head
to the sky, Jill didn’t know how to roll, I wasn’t able to yell to her to keep
her head down before we capsized into the dark gloom of the silty river.
Jill Brown and I have Just returned from a unique “Self Support” adventure
down the famous Grand Canyon, together in a 22 ft fiberglass double sea kayak,
we completed what has been called a world first self support journey. Over 11
days we traveled down the main 227 mile section of the river from Lee’s Ferry to Diamond
Creek carrying all the supplies we needed in our kayak with no Rafts following for safety or support, however journey was not a solo vessel journey, we where members of
motley crew of 7 other keen paddlers in a mixed bag of vessels from white
water creek boats to Single Sea Kayaks and white water Expedition Kayaks.
This
adventure was not intended to be a world first adventure; it started a year ago as an idea
of how to bring someone down the Grand Canyon, on a self support kayak trip, who
could not paddle their own kayak. I had been invited on the trip by friends, and
it was to have no rafts, thus all the kayaks had to be able to carry all their
own food and gear in the kayak. As this trip was to be my third trip down the Grand Canyon (my
first being possibly the first self support single sea kayak trip done in 2013
more here ), I felt that a double sea kayak would make a great vessel for
navigating this Iconic American white water river, after all they take wooden
dories and Large Rafts down it.
I managed to find what I felt was the perfect
double sea kayak, it was a fast expedition touring boat, was maneuverable and
could hold a lot of gear, allowing two people to live out of it comfortably, it
was designed to handle rough seas and large surf launches and landings on the
coast, so I had a good feeling it would handle the huge waves on the Grand.
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Our Crew |
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Camp at night |
Double kayaks are often jokingly called “divorce boats” and ironically I went
through 3 expedition partners during the planning of this trip before finally
the last one, with only a weeks’ notice, committed and stuck. Jillian Brown is a
brave friend of mine from Squamish BC Canada, who had expressed interest in the
trip when I was telling her about it during the lead up, with a last minute partner cancellation, I threw
the option at Jill and she
was in. She had not paddled on rivers any bigger than class 2 in a canoe, and
though she was a sea kayaker, she did not know how to roll. Though I felt
strongly that all that did not matter, in fact that was exactly what I wanted,
to be able to share this journey with someone who was not experienced enough to
do it on their own. On top of it Jill was a professional photographer, and was
able to help me document this awesome trip, for good or bad.
More on Jill and her photos at
www.instagram.com/jillianabrownphotography/
On day 4 we found ourselves upside down a the bottom of a rapid, it wasn’t
even one of the big ones. we had made it this far OK, though now I was slightly
questioning what we where doing, as we swam awkwardly through the next small
rapid and worked the boat to the side of the river, with help from Kevin in his
white water kayak towing the double as we swam with it. as we emptied the double
like a big canoe on the shore, there was time to process the problem, and
basically I realized there is no reason to try and cut out of the rapids early
in this vessel, it is fast enough, long enough and heavy enough to punch through
all but the biggest the river has to give, so we just need to choose the raft
lines and stay on line all the way through the "Gnar". 11 days later we had made
it through all the biggest and baddest and had not flipped again... well... we almost flipped on "Granite" rapid, but managed to roll back up with the help of the next wave; and we certainly took some huge hits, with Jill left pretty battered by the end of the
trip after being the first one in the kayak to impact, and always going the
deepest and hardest into the rapids. It was a solid journey, and gave us a taste
of what John Wesley Powell may have gone through with his wooden boats some 150
year earlier.
“The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols
of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed
beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and
illustration combined must fail.”
John Wesley Powell
The journey was breathtaking in scenery, wonderful in weather, and unbeatable
as far as friends and fun, the double sea kayak proved to be a great option for
journeying self supported on the grand Canyon, and I would most certainly do it
again. Though no damage was done to the kayak, a plastic one may be a better
choice for anyone looking to follow in our paddle strokes.
Here are some more images from our adventure, and a log of our days, stay
tuned for a full story coming soon in a publication near you.
Jaime Sharp
More Photos and the Trip Log
Day 1 19.4 mile camp Feb 11th
Jill's birthday
Training day,
After a painfully long ranger brief and gear check, where our Canadian coast
guard approved pfd's failed and we got a hard time about our fire pan being 2
and a half inches deep instead of 3. We where finally on the water just after
lunch.
Tried rolling the double, it didn't want to happen easily, so I thought we
best swim and see what we where dealing with, for worst case scenario. It was a
pretty swamped kayaked, and even with mike helping empty over the front of his
kayak, we only managed to empty the front cockpit. Got Jill in and secured her
with a spray skirt. Then I climbed in the rear and started pumping out water
from a completely filled cockpit. Eventually got it empty and underway again. It
is a real hassle to empty the boat, and to try and roll, so best we keep it up
right!!
Double handles well in the rapids, we move quickly and plow through holes and
waves alike. Side ways is not good, and steering is hard without rudder. Rudder
works well in the rapids. Jill ofcourse takes the brunt of all the rapids and is
often submerged, only the biggest rapids bury me and often I am only splashed in
the face.Dani and Heather swam Badger (the 1st big one) but we all made it
through Soap Creek and House Rock. started to rain this night.
Started to rain lightly that evening.
Dinner tuna melts in the Dutch oven
Desert chocolate brownies in Dutch oven
Day 2 camped at mile 44 Feb 12
Today was the roaring 20s, camped at mile 44 , President Hardy, Neil's sock
roasting camp, rained all day.
Dinner
Butter chicken
Roasted banana bread with chocolate
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Side Canyons abound with many adventures to be had. |
Day 3 Feb 13 Camped at mile 66, palisades creek
Today was a slower kayak day. Camped at mile 66, palisades creek. Dani is
not managing the river well and has Damaged her kayak again.
Burgers
Banana bread in Dutch oven
Day 4 Feb 14 Camped at clear creek, mile 84
This day had more action with unkar, nevils, Hanz, and sockdolager rapid.
Camped at clear creek, mile 84, where we walked over all those slippery rocks to
get water in the creek. Danny has damaged her boat yet again, and is now
considering hiking out tomorrow from Phantom Ranch.
Steak and mash potatoes
Choc Almonds for desert
Day 5 Feb 15 Ego Beach camp, mile 98.9.
Today we said goodbye to Danny at phantom ranch. She conveniently meet a
hiker who was from flagstaff hiking out that day and driving back to Flag that
night, who was also happy to hike out with her and help carry the sea kayak,
even if it meant finishing up at 9pm in the dark. Awesome. She loaded up three
satchels of stuff at phantom ranch to be muled out at $73 a satchel, and started
hiking . We pushed on with mike, now only a group of 8, to hit the big four of
the furious day 5. Horn, granite, hermit and crystal. Hearts where racing and
times where pumping and we powered the double through all of them. Horn the line
was enter river center on the right edge of a big hole and then drive hard left
before being swept into the next hole, we hit our entry line though couldn't
get all the way left, Jill stayed out of the hole, I nudged through it sideways
with an explosion of white water engulfing holding the stern and allowing the
double to pivot and straighten Into the rest of the rapid and power through the
big waves.
Granite was one of the longer big rapids yet, we lined up center right and
powered our way through the continuous wave trains, a lateral wave off river
right pounded us, I tucked hard into it, but something grabbed us and ripped us
left and almost capsized us. I manged to get in a high brace and held the double up a bit,then with help of a buffeting wave the boat came back upright, and we Plugged through the rest. Our center hatch had popped open a bit as on Hans
rapid, and allowed some water in. We stopped and pumped out.
Hermit was more intense than I remember, but the line was simple, straight
through those enormous waves. In we went each wave bigger, climbing high,
dropping deep, climbing, climbing, climbing the next, exploding off the top and
down into the trough, then the last big one, a continuous breaking wave,
swallowing the 23 foot kayak whole, holding us stationary for a brief second
then spitting us out into the smaller tail waves that where still quite large.
Eddied out and watched the next group through.
Crystal was next, we didn't scout, just ran center left of the big hole at
the top and drove right between the next hole and the rocky boulder garden near
shore. Safely we all pulled out at a beach in the lower eddy and made camp in a
very cool location. Dinner was chicken sausage Alfredo pesto with cream fresh,
then a vanilla apple cake in the Dutch oven for desert.ended at camp just below
Crystal and Lower Crystal or Ego Beach camp, mile 98.9.
Great epic day. I am so glad the double got through. Tomorrow we aim for 30
miles all the rapids are a bit tamer than today, until we hit lava in a couple
of days.
Cream fresh pesto pasta
Vanilla apple pie
Day 6 Feb 16 Camped at Randy's Rock, mile 127
we started with Tuna rapid (6) and went through all the gems, side stops at
Wheeler boat, Shinumo Creek, and Elves Chasm. Camped at Randy's Rock, mile 127
with the overhanging Tapeats.
Dinner was steak and mash potatoe,
desert chocolate almonds. Pre cooked pancakes for breakfast.
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At the Granaries, Nankoweap |
Day 7 Feb 17 156 mile last chance camp
Started with rain, great day on the water chewing up miles and enjoying the
great rapids.
Hiked deer creek, toasted to Judd's dad who died five years earlier and his
ashes had been spread here. Judds dad had done the Canyon 5 times in his life.
Ran upset rapid and got a great line, with me kissing the whole at the end to
swing the double back straight into the rapid.
Meet Allen Yip from NZ randomly at ledges campsite, he is moving to Squamish
this summer. Spent 30 mins talking while the rest of group headed to camp.
Powered the double down steam eating up the 5 miles and arriving at camp about 5
mins after the others arrived. camped at 156 mile last chance camp when that bigger
group had taken the Ledges already
Dinner was Mexican lasagna in the Dutch oven with chocolate for desert.
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Entering Lava |
Day 8 Feb 18th Camped at 182 mile? Upper chevron
Today we hit Lava! Visited havasu river, it was blue and not brown which was
awesome. Loads of fish in the river. Paddled down stream to national canyon for
lunch and a hike up the stream to collect water. Then we hit lava. Went past the
volcan rock where some of us touched it others didn't, then soon we where
scouting lava from the right hand side. It was big and chunky, though no worse
than any other rapid we had hit already. Judd and Neil went first and then Jill
and I in the double. We hit our entry line good, juts touching the right of the
entry hole, and the. We slammed through all the features of lava. Getting
swallowed by the hole at the end, but spat out. We where solid the whole way
through not once feeling like we where going to tip.
Ryan heather and Kevin came next. Heather swam though the rest where fine.
Made it to camp just before 6pm. Great day, now it is all easy from here out.
Stoked the double has been so solid through this whole river, I was a little
worried at the start, now I feel super confident in the boats abilities. The
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Kevin adding some flair to his waterfall jump |
Day 9 Feb 19Camp at 215?
Long day, bit of rain, stunning evening light on Canyon walls. Lunch at
whiltemotr çanyon?
Day 10 Feb 20 camped at 220
Before leaving camp we meet up with the 3 guys "through hiking" the Grand
Canyon. They where on their last 10 days. Of the 3rd 30 day section, they had some interesting story to tell and we wished each other well.
Our group had stayed in camp today until 1pm, the. We blasted down to our last camp
for the trip by 4pm. Then it got fun, with us getting a bunch of beer of another
rafting group, and then us all drinking the last beers we all had and dressing
up and getting our nails painted pink. Fun night, thankfully not enough alcohol
to get hangovers. Stunning starry night. We had done it, we got a double sea
kayak down the Grand Canyon, through all the big rapids.
Day 11 Feb 21st
Pulled off at diamond creek mile 226
At 10.20am. Dan was there to meet us. What a trip
Dan Jill and mike drove back to canada with the double on top of the van.
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Jaime checking the tie down on the double for the rough road out at Daimond Creek Photo by Jill Brown |
Day 16
On my flight back to NZ I flew Phoenix to la on the same flight was one of
the through hiker guys from the Grand Canyon, he recognized me and said "Hi" then Told me that day after we had seen them, his brother fell down a slot Canyon and
fractured his arm and needed to be heli evac'ed, it took 18 hours for the
chopper to arrive. The 3rd guy with them left as well as mentally it broke him,
the one brother then hiked on alone to exit the Canyon at diamond creek a few
days later. they where all so close to completing Hiking he entire length of the Grand Canyon together, bummer. and what Small world that we ended up on the same flight.
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Jill and Jaime at the end of the Double Down the Grand journey. |