Grand Canyon Expedition.

I got another invite down into to the heart of the canyon. That big one that a lot of river rats refer to as the Big Ditch. For those of you not familiar with the slang I'm putting down, it's an opportunity to row my boat the 284 mile stretch of river on the Colorado through Grand Canyon National Park. I got the call in March of last year when my good paddling buddy was notified that he was awarded the lottery permit needed to run this stretch of river. Excited, I didn't think much about it because it was still 18 months away.

Funny how that number 18 came back up, because I'll actually be leaving for that trip in 18 days and I haven't done much to prepare for the 24 day expedition. I do have a pretty extensive list of raft maintenance and prep to do though. Just not actual work done.

start small I'm thinking...

First off I needed to install a better carrying handle for one of my pieces of group gear. I have a mesh bag that holds all the necessary pails and buckets to set up a dishwashing station and 2 hand washing stations. However, the bag needs a carrying handle on the side of it to make it easier to lug it from boat to shore every day when we land on a beach for camp.

I found these brass grommets at my local hardware store so I just punched a hole through the mesh bag that holds all that gear, and tied a piece of webbing through the 2 grommets to finish off the handle.
And that's how I started checking items off my list.

 

When you're in the big ditch for 24 days with no resupply points it's important to think ahead and plan for all the food and beer you'll need so you don't run out of any necessary items. Having to think about how many beers one needs in that time span can be overwhelming. The old rule of thumb is a 12 pack a day. Some even say a case per person per day. Now I know that seems excessive but do I want to be the clown that doesn't have a refreshing beverage available because I don't plan accordingly?

Nope.

My plan is to follow the more conservative route and pack a solid 13 cases to keep me refreshed from beginning to end.

To help keep cases of beer compartmentalized I built these beer boxes. Because carrying duct tapped cases of beer loosely packed on the floor of the raft (AKA gravity beer storage) is a complete mess. No matter how well they get tapped up, the cardboard just gets soaked and falls apart. And beers get everywhere. And some don't even make it without getting punctured. And that's a surefire way to find yourself packing enough beer but not having enough beer.

Each box will hold 2 cases of normal sized 12oz cans and store on the topside of my raft decking. I'll use stainless steel hinges and hardware. The bonus of them is that they also make the top of the raft one big flat area by raising the height of the decking equal to the height of my coolers and dryboxes that hang in the center of the frame. This makes for a great sleeping platform as well as keeping Bird neat and tidy when she's running the many class IV and V rapids.

Boxes built, check.


The first test fit shows that the current Bimini mounting location will need to be moved so that I can access the inside of the box as it opens on the axis of the hinge outward from center

After moving and test fitting the Bimini mounts to ensure that they still function with my oars range of motion, I measuring everything twice and mark all the holes for all the mounting locations of all the hinges and new Bimini mounts.

In this photo you can see the Bimini mount moved back and out of the way as well as the first box installed on its hinge on the decking.

And how it functions for access.

That's all for today gang. I'll finish mounting the other boxes in a few days and get the decking back on the raft.

 

That should be a bad ass trip.

 

Super cool, thanks for sharing! Everyone needs to visit the GC at least once in their life. The fact that you get to raft the bottom for over 3 weeks is just over the top! Can't wait for the pics man! Be safe and have fun!