When I first got invited on this trip, I thought to myself what an awesome opportunity, mid ski season kayak trip, nice and mellow, not too stressful white water, perfect for when your body is not finely tuned for hard kayaking. But little did we know what we had in store.
It seems that I seek out trips that hit the category ‘mission status’. Both physically and mentally challenging seems to be the backbone of what I deem an inspiring idea. For example, The Triple Crown and the Homathko Ski and Kayak trip (which I unfortunately had to miss due to injury). Trips where a successful outcome is a little harder to achieve provide me with a greater sense of accomplishment and it is usually partnered by a far greater sense of adventure. In this instance it turned out that ‘mission status’ seeked me out involuntarily.
The time frame we were working with was a little too small. We only had 7 days to complete the 226 mile section, making this 3 times faster than the average raft trip. As it turned out the first two days were a little unproductive, we only covered 36 miles. We all got into the Grand vibe, sit back enjoy the views, late starts and plenty of beer were all helping to shake the fatigue of the 36 hour drive from Whistler. That evening we were still a little blasé, “Arrr, we will just crush a 70 mile day tomorrow then the rest of the trip we can chill outâ€. That morning we were up at 6:30 cooking breakfast getting ready for a big day. We were on the water as early as possible and set out with the intention of making some serious ground. We paddled through to 6pm just before dark. We had only covered 43 miles. It quickly dawned that to be at the take out at 2pm, 4 days later we had to cover this distance every day. Early start, late finish, head down, crush miles was the tone of the trip from now on.
As it turned out this was somewhat beneficial. Arizona was experiencing a deep freeze, -36 degrees F was the lowest recorded temperature up at the canyon rim some 1500 meters above. It was easily the coldest kayaking I have ever experienced. As the photos show we had some 5mm of ice glued to our helmets causing large icicles to form in front of our eyes. Our dry suits and life jackets were encased, our shoes froze solid within 5 minutes of the being off your feet! The second you stepped out of the kayak and stopped moving you began to get instantly cold. My favourite conversation prior to the trip was with Louis he said, “ I’m not going to bother bringing my winter sleeping bag were heading to the desert, the temperature is usually up in the 50’s-60’s this time of year, that way I can bring more beer!â€. He wore every piece of clothing he had and spooned a hot water bottle each night to see him through, what a trooper.
The scenery on the Grand is second to none, words can’t describe so I’m not going to even bother just check out the photos.
The team was awesome, myself, Steve Arns, Louis Geltman and Tom Janney. Great banter and awesome morale resulted in an incredible trip, cheers boys!
For the trip I used a Delphin Surf 155, this boat was awesome. I loaded it to the brim with everything you could possibly need for a week long self supported trip. Paddling a fully loaded sea kayak down class 3-4 whitewater is awesome fun, check out the photos! I would highly recommend this boat for any trip of a similar vibe.
Thanks for reading, enjoy the photos
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Ric Moxon