{"id":33089,"date":"2024-06-05T13:00:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T20:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/?p=33089"},"modified":"2024-08-09T12:17:43","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T19:17:43","slug":"witnessing-the-resurgence-of-cataract-canyon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2024\/06\/05\/witnessing-the-resurgence-of-cataract-canyon\/","title":{"rendered":"Witnessing the Resurgence of Cataract Canyon"},"content":{"rendered":"

I first rafted Cataract Canyon some ten years ago. Our group\u2014more than a dozen of us taking advantage of spring break, although none of us had children and few were still in university by then\u2014camped just past the end of the rapid corridor. It had been a manic day of running big whitewater. Cataract\u2019s fifteen miles of churning hydraulics make this stretch of the Colorado River, at good flows, some of the best whitewater in the country. But the river smoothed out weirdly, abruptly, right after the thunderous falls of Big Drop Three. Mellow current, already widening into the reservoir of Lake Powell, floated lazily past the long sandy beach we camped on that night.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know then that fierce rapids had been laid to rest beneath that slow water.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u00a9\ufe0f Rich Lanyard, Returning Rapids Project, Gypsum Beach circa 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The following day, four of us woke before dawn and left the group to deadhead twenty miles to the takeout in kayaks and duckies, on deadline to appear at a friend\u2019s wedding. That day remains one of the most epically exhausting undertakings in my catalog of adventure experiences. As the sun breached the canyon walls, the current slowed until it disappeared altogether. A savage wind rose, blowing, of course, upriver (had there been \u201criver\u201d at that point to blow up). Soon we were paddling on empty; our meager \u2018provisions\u2019 (a single bagel and a few handfuls of trail mix between the four of us) were long gone.<\/p>\n

But that stupid lack-of-provisions move was not the river\u2019s fault. Neither was the endless lake-paddling-in-headwinds hell to which we were subjected. Nor was the long and muddy mess of the North Wash takeout, even then already perched too high above the water level, that we trudged our boats up in zombie-like staggers at the end of the whole ordeal.<\/p>\n