The Colorado River in Grand Canyon. April, 1989. 18 days, 16 people, four rafts, numerous kayaks. We put in at Lee’s Ferry and 225 river-miles later, took out at Diamond Creek. There is only one way to go on this drift and that’s downstream. Luck was with us. We had green water the entire trip. . . and no one drowned.
Looking back, the 1989 trip will never be duplicated – some of the rapids, the monster Crystal in particular, don’t even exist anymore. The Colorado river is subject to the whim of every air conditioner from Las Vegas to San Diego and with decades of low snow pack, the huge spring run-off is mostly a memory. For an exquisite experience into the river’s past, pick up The Emerald Mile, by former Outside Magazine editor Kevin Fedarko. Who knew that engineers screwed marine-grade plywood to the top of Glen Canyon Dam to hold back the biggest run-off surge ever seen? Imagining what could have happened if that particular workaround didn’t work is science fiction. A wondrous read.
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