Thursday: The Hance Rapids

This is the fourth and final day of our Upper Grand Canyon Rafting Trip, and our final day on the river. Today we will conquer the largest rapid of the Upper Grand Canyon, the Hance Rapids. This was one of the coolest vacations I’ve ever been on. I can’t recommend this experience highly enough! Outdoors Unlimited is the only company offering full paddling, and this series of posts will show you that this is the only way to go!

Waking Up at Crash Camp

Crash Camp is named after The 1956 Grand Canyon Mid-Air Collision. This was a horrific commercial airline crash with more than 100 fatalities and no survivors. I believe some of the wreckage ended up on this beach. The crash is what lead to the development of what we know of as the FAA. Little bit of interesting trivia.

We started our day off eating super thick blueberry pancakes covered in syrup. We sat around our camp chairs and agreed that this camp bathroom, while difficult to reach, had the best view from the toilet.

On the River

The morning was full of intense rapids, grey skies, dramatic clouds, but everyone on our raft is laughing. We’ve continued the social tradition of trading out raft partners and guides. So today we are working with Mike. Mike has life stories that makes me wonder why I don’t travel more, even though I feel like I am traveling all the time.

I have a comment about the moisture. I am wearing dry fit pants and shirts. I would not recommend having any less coverage than I do. But the section of my legs that is making (mostly constant) contact with the raft, are being rubbed raw, because it doesn’t get enough exposure to evaporate. Between peeing in the river at lunch, to bathing at camp, to being on the river, I have been soaking wet for way too long. I don’t know if ButtPaste is the answer, but I need a moisture barrier badly!!

The Delta Plateau

We took a small side hike onto the delta plateau. It was very short, but definitely picturesque. There was a variety of pottery shards, different thickness, textures, striations. We were able to inspect each piece which is why they are arranged for display. We spent a relaxed amount of time looking around before getting back into the action!

It started sprinkling right after we landed for lunch.

How to Paddle Though Rapids

Listen to the Guides

At this point in the story I want to talk more about the rapids and what it is actually like to go through them. Your guide prepares you at every turn. I always felt confident. They can look ahead at some foaming bubbles that seem like total chaos and they can quickly diagnose the path through and the obstacles to avoid.

The first time you go through a rapid you are hyper focused on listening to the directions of the guide, and staying in sync with the paddler in front of you. I would maintain this laser focus on the position on the river where I would insert my paddle, tense and ready to change directions based on the audio cues.

At each subsequent rapid, and through the approximately 30 rapids on the Upper Grand Canyon, you learn to look around. You can still stay in sync with your group members, and you can still listen, but you start to gain the confidence to look around, and that’s when it gets really fun.

Safety

There are a couple of different ways to steady yourself on the boat which basically boils down to shoving your feet into tight spaces so that when you jump you don’t leave the boat. I got hit hard by waves of water many times, and my seat lifted up off of the raft maybe 5 times the whole trip. I never felt like I was in danger of leaving the boat or having the boat flip.

But there are contingency plans. And there are many ways to retrieve you if you fall out of the boat. Each guide is strategically positioning themselves near other guides so there can be team work if anything happens. They also frequently would send the very heavy luggage boats operated by a single rower first. The weight of the boat makes it less likely to flip and they can gather even more information about the conditions of the rapids by how the rafts that go in the front travel through.

The golden rule is to stay horizontal and not try to stand in a rapid. Your foot could get caught and the turbulence of the water can beat on you if you get stuck. All of the guides tell you stories about their craziest flips and mishaps as you approach rapids. It’s more funny than nerve-wrecking. You just know that they are in control, and they can handle any situation that comes at them.

The Hance Rapid

The Rapids in the Grand Canyon are on a scale of 1-10. Most other rivers in the world only use a 1-5 scale. Which is not to say the Grand Canyon Rapids are particularly large, it’s just a different scale. So the Hance Rapid is the largest rapid on the Upper Grand Canyon Rafting trip. Depending on conditions it could range from a 7-8.

For this rapid, we actually pulled off of the river, and the guides walked up a hill to take a look at current conditions of this very lengthy rapid. Multiple factors can change a rapid, including the level of the river and the flow of the river.

Entering Mordor

We continued our afternoon surrounded by the basement rock Vishnu Schist. It was very dark black and ominous. It rained intermittently all afternoon. Many people commented that it felt like we were floating into Mordor, or through Mordor.

It was so surreal that I didn’t even take a picture. I’ll had to recruit some from my traveling companions. Somethings are so beautiful that obsessively photographing them misses the mark and defeats the purpose.

Dinner and Hike Preparation

Dinner was a hit this evening, as with every other evening. We had spaghetti and meatballs and ate more than we ever needed to. There were many accommodations by the way. There were a few people who were gluten free, pescatarian, vegetarian, they were all seamlessly provided a meal that met their dietary restrictions.

We went around the circle exchanging information and getting prepared to join all the contents of our dry bag back into our backpack. We were starting to recount all of our reflections about the trip. I could have used another pair of dry fit pants. I didn’t get blisters on my hands but gloves could have been useful. David regretted wearing shorts. The Sarong that I purchased on Amazon was very convenient for quick clothing changes. Several people borrowed it.

Some of us considered setting up a tent for this evening, because it seemed like it was going to keep raining. But it was really hot. After 3 nights of sleeping without shelter I was getting more and more comfortable sleeping uncovered, or just inside of the sleeping bag liner, and not the sleeping bag.

That may be why a frog jumped on my leg while I was asleep.

Tomorrow we are going to conquer The Bright Angel Trail!!