September 8th: Were The River Flows; A 2nd Return from the Grand Canyon.

 

3 days ago I, Along with 15 other individuals stepped off four rafts onto the muddy shores of the Colorado River at Pearce ferry Arizona. Over the last 16 days we had traveled 280 miles through the Grand Canyon following were the river flows and now our fantastic journey was at an end. It had been a journey of dynamics, dynamics of people from all over the world who were mostly strangers to each other brought together by their common friendship with me and a sense of adventure. It was a trip also of dynamics of water, traveling a rocky passage carved by the river, Rain in the desert, rapids, hydraulics and currents of a chocolate and monsoon swollen Colorado river; river travel also being a stranger to some on the trip. This trip was about discovery and exploration, following in the footsteps of a rich history of exploratory pioneers, traveling one of the mightiest rivers in the Americas which for many was a trip of a lifetime, for some it was a return journey, and for a number, it seeded the desire to return.

We experienced colours, Red in the desert heat, Blue around the scorching sun, Gold of Rattle Snake Scales, white of the water falls hidden up side canyons, Black of the Rain clouds illuminated by lightening and Brown of the earth filled waters of flash floods after torrential down pours. Ringtail Cats raided our camps at night, scorpions scurried about in the dark and stung a few, Waterfalls erupted from high cliffs and just as quickly disappeared as the rains stopped. In between the sun came and went, but there was always the river. The river of the color red (Rio Colorado) was our path and was often veracious and often tranquil, though always a place of comfort and fear as it lead us through the deep walls of the Grand Canyon where Huge rapids raged and glassy meanders calmed. Through the river we traveled, we swam, we played and we grew. Rafts and Kayaks surfed, flipped and charged lines through the white water (though more aptly named brown water on this trip), often we were left more dirty from the water washing over us than if we had rolled in the sand itself, and sometimes the side creeks cleansed us fresh.

Ultimately this was an amazing trip that none would forget, and as we drifted the last night through, sleeping, singing, dancing and drinking on our four rafts strapped together (kayaks stacked on the back), beneath the sublime stars and the last 40 miles of Canyon walls, we reminisced in glory of journey and in sorrow of end and all was right. When the next day’s sun gradually found us, we were quite and sober, relishing such a poetic end to a Grand Journey. For me this was a dream come true, to have shared this experience with some special people I have meet throughout my life and journeys of the world, though also largely because my dad came along, and all got to share in what I am passionate about.... life and adventure.

Jaime Sharp

 

From here down I post my trip log of more details that some may want to read

 

Grand Canyon log  august 21st – sept 5 2013

Day 0  20/8 Lee’s Ferry

Camped at put in after rigging rafts

I slept on raft. light showers that night had me with umbrella over me for shelter.

Day 1 21/8 Soap Creek

Quick intro to kit and kitchen from Raft outfitter.

Launched at 11am

Paddled 11 miles

Light rain at night lightening 

Group did great, such an awesome mix of peeps. Strong up river wind in afternoon had to camp early.

Great night at camp, everyone's slowly winding down

Slept on Raft, Heavy rain shower that night ( sleeping on boat was wet)

Day 2 22/8 Shinumo (I think)

Launched 9.30'am

Paddled 21 miles

Overcast afternoon (nice and cool)At house rock everyone ran there own boats, stu, Kyle , Bruce (whom swam half way through ) and myself . Was a good rush. Nathan ran Duckie  solo all day swam 3'Times

Kept going good kid. Glynn paddled raft through rapids,

And many others gave there hand. Motor raft group stole our site at 29mile so had to push on. Played guitar that night

Got raided by ring tail possums that night, all around kitchen and got into fruit on the rafts. Not much sleep for most of us, i Slept on Raft again

 

Day 3 23/8 Buck Farm

On the water at 9.30

Sunny morn over cast afternoon patchy night lightening

Stopped at a number of sites, nautilus canyon, red wall cavern , natural bridge. Flat days paddle of 14 miles. I kayaked in Jackson rock star, and swam playing around as I couldn't get my hand roll IN it. Had some fun.

Pulled into an awesome site for camp, Kayaked in a ok play hole, others went hiking, great salmon dinner Slept on Raft.

 

Day 4 24/8 little Nankoweap

12 miles

Slept in raft under tent fly though ended up being Clear sky's for a first night, over cast and cool warm all day. Morning yoga then walk up Canyon. Rafted 6 miles to canyon for water fall hike and lunch. Beautiful waterfall  3 naked men swimming. Lunch then on the water to little Nankoweap camp. Drinks in raft in sun then ribeye steak BBQ and no bake cheese cake 

 

Day 5 25/8 Cardenas camp

Rain all day and a 12 mile day

Fun day though near end raft got stuck in a sleeper hole and Kelly and ken got kicked around and then swam. Rest of run was wet and cold, though we were not far from camp. Had a night under the tarp drinking smoking cigars and playing music on iPhones over little speaker.

Slept in my tent for the first time

Day 6 26/8 Clear creek camp

Rain and more rain

Camped at clear creek 10 mile day

Finally into the Grand Canyon proper. Had a load of 7,s and our first 8 (Hance Rapid). Good fun big rapids, really worked me hard on the raft though got all the lines I wanted. At our camp was a fun little play wave for kayaking on. Rained most of day and all off night. Great dinner everyone exhausted. Got raided by ringtails again. slept in my tent again 

Day 7  27/8 Above Salt

I awoke to river levels up higher than usual, despite the dam control of the grand, due to side wash water feeding. I camped lower than everyone else and awoke to  the closest peg to the water on My tents being in the water

Today was the big water rapid run, granite, hermit and crystal. I ran the first two in the TRAK and walked back up to run the raft down, I got the TRAK airborne in granite, nailed the big wave on hermit then rolled , the raft line was messy on hermit we hit the two big waves side ways, though every one made it through  . Crystal had the TRAK packed on the back and I pushed the raft through it. Ryan got his raft stuck on the shallows after the rapid, took a while to get it off.

In the afternoon we had heavy ran at camp but then cleared and dried our gear .  Guitar songs that night

I slept in tent.

Day 8 28/8 Lower Bass? Lat 36.179 Lon -112.309

Sunny day camped at upper black creek camp

Paddled the TRAK  all day, dad did well pushing the raft, had a great couple of walks up to a waterfall and then to elves chasm. No rapids over 7, dad ran them all.

Nice night at camp good sleep all gear finally dry.

Day 9 29/8 Keyhole? Lat 36.39924 Lon -112.567163

Played guitar in black creek slot canyon in the morning, amazing acoustics, I wished I recorded the song we came up with while in there.  In TRAK all day again. Good small rapids fun day.

slept in raft again

Day 10 30/8

In TRAK stopped for lunch and hike at deer creek. Camped with another group at a late camp site.  we had Bootie shots that night for all the swimmers so far,  I went to sleep on a flat rock, then had to leave because of ants, so slept on raft then a heavy rain storm came in the night and i had to scramble to set up tent on before mentioned large flat rock.

Day 11 31/8 Below National

Didn't sleep well,  rainy morning, Got on water to see loads Of awesome waterfalls from rain . Sighted 4 rock falls from camp .

In raft all day with TRAK slung across back of raft. River chock full of crap and wood. Good camp spot, and afternoon rain. slept in tent.

Day 12 1/9 Upper Chevron

Today we hit LAVA FALLS, sunny day, packed up camp went up side canyon for morning explore, then paddle 16 miles to lava, ran in kayaks first(TRAK down guts) all went well. Kyle ran first raft hit line sweet, Ryan next flipped at top, eventually after prepping rafts for flips, Bruce and I ran our rafts, Bruce got almost all The way though rapid and then flipped on bottom wave, I fortunately nailed The line. RE Flipped rafts down stream, paddled to camp late no lunch. Great camp bootie shots  Awesome stars in sky.

Slept in my tent

Day 13 2/9 Parashant camp

Lazy morning in camp

Blueberry pancakes

On water by 10.15 Am 

flat water float stopped at petroglyphs for lunch. Super hot day. Floated and drank beer, meet other rafters shared stories of lava falls fun. My solar charger started playing up.. Nice camp by 4.30 (perralgry?) snoozed on raft and Awoke to practical joke of me floating down stream with ken yelling help, help boat afloat. I rowed back in a dazed surprise to find everyone hiding and taking photos, quite funny; they had me tied to a long line and I had been floating out there for a while before they had woken me up.'it even took 8 people to slide my raft off the beach without waking me.'

Great dinner and great stars. Hot night, I risked sleeping on boat again, despite afternoon antics and the evening lighting on the horizon promising rain. 2 full days left :(

Day 14 3/9 Middle 220 camp

9.30 start 20 mile day to 220 camp

Meet up with other raft groups, had a social float with slip in slides, rock jumps, beer trade for Tabaco, and then an awesome camp. That night we gate crashed the commercial operators a camp up from us. We ran in in with leprechauns outfits and it turned out t be “strip botchi ball”  game called “debauchery ball”, with young female raft guides half naked, there were a few men naked too including a bunch of us by the end of it. Then after some naked hugs we said good night.

It was a great night to sleep on the raft.

Day 15

Relaxed morning simple breakfast, nice time by the river, finally the group seems to be relaxing though some issues with some. We said hi, bye to the girls from last night as they floated by. The. We headed off down river. A few rapids then we hit the diamond creek take out, said hi to the American cool dudes and dudetes we had Been jumping of shit with, they gave us their left over rum and gin. And the girls from last nights debauchery  also said goodbye again.

From there we visited and swam at travertine creek, what stunning spot . After lunch we pushed on, then on the first big rated 5 rapid Bruce Jon and Fiona got flipped out of the raft again, in a sticky hole at the bottom. it was a quick rescue with Bruce the only one that got separated from the raft.

We struggled against the wind for a while as it blow up river and then paddled some other solid mid grade rapids. It is exciting to explore a new part if the canyon from our last trip down here.

that night was our highlight, we Had an amazing night float, bouncing off rocks, drinking laughing sleeping through the last 40 miles of river, while the dark canyon walls whizzed past us framing the night sky.

Day 16

Awoke to a stunning morning on the last piece of the canyon, too soon the sun was on us and.it was hot. Ran behind schedule on float time, took 14 hours instead of 12 for the last 40 miles. Pulled out at Pearce ferry at 11am. 

then we where in Flagstaff reloading gear into cars and heading to our Backpackers and out for dinner and a night of drinking and rock and roll bands.

Amazing trip.

More Pics here

Another Blog of the same trip By Fiona McBride here  Part 1 and  Part 2

Beneath an Arctic sun

 It is rounding up to be an amazing Trip with Jeff, not quite what we had originally planed though still awesome. Here is what Jeff has written so far on the trip as we head off. you can read more of his posts on our trip here I will try and write some myself if I can soon.

Jeff writes

 

" So we left from Someroya, the weather is perfect, in fact you would not believe we are well above the Arctic Circle, 069 degrees 27.98' N to be precise. We are wearing dry suits and boy are we regretting it, it has to be 18 degrees + and we are sweating buckets. The skies are clear, the seas are calm and at last we are making our way south towards Vesteralen and the Lofotens......

Paddling south towards the Lofotens, Jaime in his Trak

Our first nights camp is in a small hamlet, five or six cabins, dotted above a small beach, the map says Breidvika, but the houses don't seem to warrant a name, it must be the bay that is named, I wonder what it means. We pull our kayaks high above the tideline and set up camp - tent up, stove on, fire lit, on the way across the bay I managed to catch a couple of Sei, they will enter the pot tonight and supplement our Lofoten Fish soup and broccoli. We wander down the beach, Jaime has found the skull of an Orca, or that is what we believe it to be, the jaw has large recesses for the teeth, there are numerous vertebrae laying around and other cetacean body parts.

                                                                           Orca Skull

We retire about midnight and as soon as I'm horizontal I'm pushing out the 'Z'ds' it seems only minutes before I am hearing Jaime packing away his sleeping bag, morning already? did I really sleep?

We have a lazy start to the day, I spend an hour or so, meditating on the beach, feeling the wind on the back of my neck, serving to cool down the early effects of the sun.  Jaime is doing his yoga routine, I join him and stretch out myself a little on the patio of one of the cabins.

We set off, gentle paddling beneath a strong Arctic sun, we see a seal, a Porpoise and the Devils Mouth mountain ridge, just before we arrive in Bergsfjord, we are back at Krakesslot, this time arriving as we should, from the sea................"

                                                                    Sun protection essential

Posted 17th May 2013 by Expedition Paddler

Journey to Newfoundland

Since I was a kid my father had spoken of the fabled island of Newfoundland, the fishing villages, the music the people. My father wanted to visit and by osmosis so did I, now years later given the chance to road trip to Newfoundland in order to get cheaper flights back to Toronto, I jumped on the chance and so did the rest of the crew. Tom was looking to move to Newfoundland, Dan Came from and lived in St John’s Newfoundland (so it was a natural direction for him to go) and the other three of us would save big money by flying out of Deer Lake, rather than goose bay (e.g. for me to Toronto, $1400 from Goose Bay, or $500 from Deer lake); Plus we all liked adventure.

 

After an initial night back in Goose Bay at a cheap hotel to bath and resort, packed down the GMC Safari once again (this time with 5 people, a dog and all our personal gear) and headed off down the dusty lumpy “Trans Labrador Highway” to the ferry at “Blanc Sablon” which happened to be back in Quebec.. The drive was dusty and we all had to wear handkerchiefs, shirts or cloths about our faces to reduce the dust we breathed, even despite a well sealed car finally at the end of the dirt road three hours later, we opened the back to shake out the sand beach that had formed. It was a beautiful day though showers were forecasted to come soon. That first night we camped out on a point in Blanc su blanch by the water, and cooked pork chops and fish over the fire, and then enjoyed the second best northern lights show we had seen on the trip, we all eventually wondered of to bed late, needing to be up early in the morning to catch the first ferry to “The Rock” (Newfoundland - pronounced “new FINLAND”).

Now the crazy thing here is within two hours of being on the island of Newfoundland, we drove past a sign showing the silhouette of a Caribou (warning us that they may be present), we joked about how funny it would be to come across a Caribou on the side of the road, now that we have just spent 3 weeks looking for them in Northern Labrador.

“Caribou” exclaimed Adele... and so there was! Right there on the side of the road was a large stag wandering across the island Barrens. We got to stop and watch him wander off into the trees, though he never gave a chance to get a great photo, still it was lovely to see one finally. The rest of our day entailed driving out to L'Anse aux Meadows and the Viking settlement of the fabled Vinland. It was amazing to see the similarities of this historic Norse site in Canada to the one I visited a couple of years back in Borg Norway. These Vikings sure got around back then. I was also amazed at how much the entire coastline and the villages looked like the coast of Norway, I hope to return here (Newfoundland) too explore some more by Kayak, as I have done in Norway, Perhaps a circumnavigation?

That night we camped in the rain using a picnic area we were directed to by locals. It appears everyone here is very excepting of tourist camping out for free in the green spaces, though they all come and drive up to have a quick look at us and then drive off again. As we set up that night and again in the morning some 12 cars must have driven over from the nearby village to look at us briefly turn around and return. No one even spoke to us though. It was quite a funny situation, we almost felt like zoo animals, or the Caribou we had stopped to look at ourselves.

The rest of our Journey was a quick drive through various sea side villages for moose burger lunches and pints of local beer, the most memorable being “Ice Berg Lager by Quidi Vidi Brewers”, to make this beer the brewers use water from the icebergs that float down to Newfoundland from the arctic glaciers. Quite a fun idea and a very refreshing beer in a stunning blue glass bottle. Our last night was spent with another of Dan’s friends, Margaret, who was very generous in sharing her wonderful little house with all five of us and a dog in Corner Brooke.

Our time in Newfoundland was simply a teaser for me personally and has ignited a taste for seeing more; when I can I must return to explore some more.

I now fly onwards to Toronto and then to the UK for some Paddle training in the BCU (British Canoe Union) system, to do some filming and to finally set up the new WORLD WILD ADVENTURES Travel Company, with my business partner Rhoda Mcgivern. Big exciting things are a foot, and the adventures are only just starting.

Jaime

Nain Labrador, Sept 11th 2012

 

OK..... so..... since I last wrote we have had a great adventure in the wilds of Labrador, the Coastal steamer, ended up being completely broken and was put out of commission for at least 6 weeks. The whole issue ended up all over the news and our crew was even seen on TV while the Boss was interviewed on CBC radio. With our gear now stranded in goose bay, the ferry company paid for us to fly onward to Nain that night. Originally we were told to only bring 25lbs with us on the flight, though we complained and managed to wrangle about 110lbs instead (this was needed as we had to camp out in Nain for a week until the gear came up the coast on the freighter boat the following week).

 

We landed in Nain just before sunset and unloaded all our gear, we were then soon meet by Dan’s Friends from Newfoundland Jamie and Jennie on their Quad bike . Jamie worked in Nain as a government Archaeologist and his wife Jennie was originally form Nain and worked as a teacher here. They helped us move our gear out to a point in the bay we could camp at with the Quad, and under the light of the most spectacular Northern lights display I have ever seen (and any one in Nain could remember) we set up our makes shift camp. The night was biting cold and the sky crystal clear, we sat around the Fire and enjoyed the tail end of the Northern lights display before falling asleep. In the morning we discovered ourselves on the shores of stunning bay, ringed by barren and often cliffy shores. We were on the far side out of town next to a fresh water stream where we sourced our water from, and we had an old fishing boat to hide our food under (from the supposed numerous Black bears in town, though we never encountered a single one).

The next few days were a balance of finding out info on our gear coming up, meeting new people, organising transport for when our gear arrived to get it to the airport, staying in camp to keep an eye on our gear, using the free internet at the local Hotel and learning all we could about this intriguing Inuit town. Labrador has to distinct native races, the Innu and the Inuit. The Innu are the first Nations people derived from the Maritime Archaic Indians who came to this place some 8,000 years ago from the south, while the Inuit appeared some 2000 years ago as the Dorset people and then again 300 years ago as the Thule people, both crossed the Bearing sea from Eurasia to settle across the arctic of north America all the way to Greenland. This leads to interesting aboriginal politics in the area, though creates a wonderfully interesting history and culture to the area alongside the European modern history to the area.

 

Our week in Nain was filled with meeting interesting people, from Brian the Australian who has lived in Nain for 30 odd years, to Toby the Local jewellery maker and beer lover, as well as an assortment of local workers for various government agents. Who have interesting ties to the community and the way tourism has, can and will change in northern Labrador. We even had a caribou Meal at Jennie and Jamie’s as well, Delicious.

Things got rolling a bit more again when the big boss Tom fly in a few days later with his dog Girlie. We then soon moved into a house for three nights, saying goodbye to campfires on the beach and northern lights in the sky, However this was good as a bad weather system settled in and it rained every day until we flew out with all our gear to Mestastin Lake (or in the Innu language “Kamestastin”) 4 days later. Our freight finally turned up on the Astron (the freighter ship that serves the coast) at midnight the night before we were due to fly out. We had postponed our flight to the lake by over week and this now meant we only had 3 full days to prepare camp (instead of almost 2 weeks) before the clients arrived out there. We were really flying by the set of our pants now however things were coming together slowly, after so many things going wrong, the tide of fortune was starting to turn.

On Sept 11^th we loaded up a Twin Otter airplane with 3000lbs of gear, clothing, food and people and took flight to Kamestastin Lake. The fall colours of the tundra glowed below us, as we looked from our windows at the lake speckled landscape below. We were finally on our way to the wilds of Labrador and, hopefully numerous Caribou.