Grand Canyon Expedition.

Sidels suckhole gets pretty juicy at that level for sure.

 

Did a similar hike with the wife a few years back. I think we hiked 18 miles in the middle on July. We were dead the next day!

 

All my hiking in the canyon was in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s. Mostly the less traveled trails like hermit. I did go down the BA under moon light once with a full moon. The craziest memory is climbing out after a 5 day. We’re going up the kaibab trail and it was February, I think. There was a bit more than a foot of snow at the top and a dusting along the first level below the rim. But climbing up the trail were stripped down to just our boots and shorts. When we started getting close to the top we were passing the tourists that wander down the trail a bit and they were all bundled up in down and heavy jackets. We had steam rising off our bodies and got lots of crazy looks! I never did get a chance to raft the river and am really excited for you to have this adventure. It sounds like you have it dialed in pretty darn well!

 

When I was young I used to plan and organize a lot of backpacking trips. So I can understand the desire to those of you who have hiked it before to see the canyon through that kind of experience. Once one gets away from the crowds at the rim its a wilderness like no other.

The last night of the trip we will be floating with all our rafts tethered together under the full moon. We'll leave separation canyon around 10 pm and just let the current take us down river. We'll wake up in the morning and only have a few miles to row out to the take out.

Cheers to moonlit adventures.

 

I woke up this morning and finished installing the rest of the boxes onto my decking.




Then I had to strap the decks back down to the raft frame. I threw the Bimini up and it functions as it should in both the rowers position as well as a stowed position.



And here is a close-up shot of the clearance with the box in the open position and the new Bimini mounting position.

 

Definitely good times!

 

Am not big into rafting - but that's the first raft I've seen with a Bimini. That's awesome!

 

Here is another project that I have on my list. Earlier this spring I bought some new glue for my repair kit. Apparently I didn't double check to make sure that it was closed tightly and the glue leaked out in a dry box and glued my tool kit, a pair of sunglasses, a lighter and a couple other things to the dry box itself. So I also got out some scrapers, some toluene, and went to town cleaning all that crap up.




After I finally was able to free the Oakley's, I noticed that the glue had separated Oakley's polycarbonate lens apart.


That is why they are rated for motorcycles friends. That little protective lens is shatter proof. But not glue proof...

 

The Bimini is kind of a new thing for me, as I just got it last year. But after so many trips just baking in the sun, I figured why not? It's really nice for keeping coolers in the shade as well.

 

Will your vacuum sealer fit big enough bags that you could vacuum seal your cases of beer?

 

These little clips that came with my Bimini kept falling off, and I lost one of them and the strap it was connected to when it came off while towing on the hwy. So I replaced them with 1" d rings and use a cam strap to connect the Bimini to the deck. Much more secure.

 

I also installed a rapid rung ladder. This will make it much easier to get back in the raft.

 

One of my ammo cans has some rusting in the bottom. A little elbow grease, a wire brush and a rattle can of Rust-Oleum rust inhibitor primer goes a long to maintain these old relics.

 

And since I had the rattle cans out, I figured I might as well throw a few coats of Rust-Oleum textured paint to my table that has quite a few scuffs on it.

I like the textured paint for this application because I have the table strapped to my raft and often times will have to walk across it when it's wet. The texture makes it less slippery.

 

Last fall when I ran the Rogue River I had a d ring that holds a suspended floor fail. When it came off it also delaminated some of the hypalon outer coating that protects the fabric know as scrim. The scrim is the weave looking inner material that you can see best in the second photo. The top photo shows the left over glue that was holding the d ring in place. I attempted to patch a new d ring in place and lay down a big patch over the damaged area where the scrim was exposed for preventative care. Big Bird was and is still holding air fine, but that exposed material has me a bit worried. The raft is 23 years old and the sun damage to the hypalon outer coating is why I'm seeing this kind of peeling effect.

Unfortunately those patches had some edges that didn't adhere well and with this upcoming expedition I knew something had to be done to fix it.

 

I laid everything out and started the prep work. Each side of the patch and the raft have to be rough sanded and cleaned throughly with toluene. Then 3 coats of thin layers of Stabond adhesive is applied on both the raft and the back side of the patch. Before each new layer of Stabond is applied it's best to wait until the layers are dry and slightly tacky to the touch.

As I was laying out all the overlay patches I was thinking I'm going to just Frankenstein this raft back together so I can make the expedition without incident. Now this is no guarantee as I am still building my repair skills up from absolute greenhorn, to one step above greenhorn. But I'm pretty confident that every overlay patches I applied today to hold the outer edges of the blue d ring that didn't adhere well, came out fantastic. All edges are now secure and I'm ready to move on from patch job day.

In addition to adding overlay patches to the blue d ring I applied a new d ring patch altogether for load bearing capabilities.

This is the final outcome and although it does look a bit haphazard, it's ready for the ditch.

 

Is there a coating conditioner or protectant you use regularly like Star-brite marine UV protectant? I know these rafts can cost well north of 5 grand, right?

 

I generally use 303. Once a year. Although I should probably be using it more like 3 times a year because I don't have a garage and it has lived outside under a tarp its whole life. I'd say that Big Bird is in need of a new coating of hypalon paint where the sun damage is at it greatest. Currently no one has yellow in stock so I think I'm going to rename it from Big Bird to Frankenbird, and get a different color and have some fun with it.

To answer your second question , yes they are expensive. A new raft in the same model I have, is $8500. I bought mine used in 2010 for $2,500. The raft was built in 2001 and sold in the spring of 2002.

Edit: Typically a well cared for hypalon boat will last somewhere around 25-30 years. So in all honestly, Bird has given me a boatload of memories.

 

One of the things I learned from between this April and today was that cutting the bristles down on your brush helps lay down thin layers of glue. The first time I tried to apply these patches in April, I used a standard brush like the one on the right. Today I used one like the one on the left. I bought these two new brushes to add to my repair kit for any on the water repairs if need be. I'll cut the second one down before I add them to my kit.