{"id":25859,"date":"2021-10-17T16:00:08","date_gmt":"2021-10-17T23:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=25859"},"modified":"2021-11-22T10:44:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T18:44:00","slug":"trip-report-the-grand-canyon-and-sht-creek-in-10-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2021\/10\/17\/trip-report-the-grand-canyon-and-sht-creek-in-10-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Trip Report: The Grand Canyon and Sh*t Creek in 10 Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part I: Interpreting the Omens\u2014For Better or Worse<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course, there had been early signs that the trip was cursed. But these had been coupled with signs that the trip was blessed. Signs can be confusing. For one thing, I got off the Main Salmon<\/a> a day early, which allowed me to shuttle people back to Salmon, Idaho, resupply, and head south.<\/p>\n

And while there had always been too many moving parts to really believe that I could pull off both trips, things somehow worked out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On the way south, I rendezvoused with a friend in Salt Lake City, who had painstakingly but successfully put together our menu for an 18-day Grand Canyon trip between Lees Ferry and Pearce Ferry.<\/p>\n

Despite a broken blinker and no trailer lights, we didn\u2019t get stopped once, and we made it to Lee\u2019s Ferry in plenty of time to rig the boat and meet the random strangers that made up our crew.<\/p>\n

The trip had been advertised as an eight-person take-care-of-your-own-damn-self and do-your-own-damn-thing kind of trip. Ironically, the trip attracted a group of guys who bonded like brothers.<\/p>\n

We differed in all the things that you might expect. We had different ages, different jobs, different families, but we slipped into the kind of easy fraternity that turned us back into boys beside a river.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Oh my God, we laughed. We laughed so hard it hurt. Which is what also makes this story hurt so much more.<\/p>\n

Again, there were signs. On the freeway out of Salt Lake City, we narrowly missed a bad accident. And early in the trip, during a monsoon rainstorm, a basketball-ball-sized rock dropped off a thousand-foot canyon wall and hit the water 25 feet from our raft. It\u2019s hard to put into words how fast that rock was moving and how very dead we would\u2019ve been had it hit us. It\u2019s also hard to comprehend how long that rock had perched atop that cliff.<\/p>\n

Following that bit of bad timing, and while contemplating a particularly tall Century plant, we watched it topple over right in front of us. A plant death like sixty years in the making. Then, at our Nankoweap camp, a bat\u2014probably rabid\u2014landed in the middle of the beach in broad daylight and stayed there cooking in the sun. I don\u2019t even know what that omen means, but it can\u2019t be good. And finally, we saw a California Condor, which was cool, unless you remember that they are still vultures\u2014just waiting for the dead.<\/p>\n