On the 26th, we were on the road early driving down to Bill's place outside of Salida. Soon after we got there he checked the flow reports again - the river was still down! Preparations went ahead anyway - you never know what will happen. We had had a couple of warm days, so the expectation was the river would come up by the time we got there.
Bill's original plan was to have 12 people on three rafts. One good look at all the gear, food coolers and beer made him change his mind to use four rafts (and a good thing too!). As it was, Bill's raft was the most heavily loaded, with four FOPs, the lunch coolers,a drink cooler, all our gear, and all our beer. The other rafts carried people, gear, beer and the dinner coolers. The rafts were all fitted with rowing frames. Only the rower had to do any work, no paddles were brought for the other people in the raft.
I mentioned that the other people were Bill's guides. Actually, only four of them were - Paul, Kara, Jennifer and Darren. The rest were their friends - Tiffany, Dave and Nadly respectively, with Darren going solo. Bill was well prepared for medical emergencies with a big first aid kit and a pair of marine two-way radios in addition to the trained personnel - all the guides have to have emergency training. The radios also allowed him to get up to the minute weather reports for the Lake Powell area, though in actual practice you had to be in the right place in the canyon to pick up the weather broadcast.
Friday was spent preparing the rafts and frames and checking all the other equipment. Bill has bought the majority of the food in the weeks leading up to this point and had it stored in two upright freezers and the refrigerator at his base. He had also filled and frozen a number of gallon milk containers for temperature management, and later, drinking water. Norm and I were sent to town for the final fresh food purchases. Bill gave us $150 and a list a mile long containing fresh veggies, various breads, deserts and condiments. The money was just enough - buying for eleven is staggering!
Kara, Dave, Jen and Nad took off Friday afternoon with the rafts and the frozen food coolers. The rest of us spent the night at Bill's. That's when they all found out about my snoring, which was to be a source of humor (and terror for some) for the rest of the trip.
Originally written Oct96. Last updated 26Jan01.
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