Vacation Training

Since the dawn of time(ish) Steve has wanted to partake of the iconic American adventure of rafting through the Grand Canyon. We signed up 2 years ago to take a 7-day trip in May 2021, since it's the first year that WanYing will be old enough. There is also a helicopter involved. We are all very excited. 

Like everybody else, all of our vacation plans last summer got scrambled. We did a lot of local camping around the great state of Utah, which was great. And we started started thinking, "what could we do that keeps us out in the outdoors, socially distanced, and is still having a good time all together?" And, thus, our ramp-up plan for Grand Canyon rafting was born.

The training regimen started with tubing the Provo River. Admittedly, that was really just for fun and had no actual "white water rafting skills" element

Next, we did a one-day rafting Green River expedition in Dinosaur National Park, as described in this post.

Our 2020 rafting training culminated in a two-day trip through Westwater in Southern Utah. We had so much fun! I thought a one-day expedition was a blast, but the fun of two days in a raft, camping out in the wilds, and having the staff cart our stuff around and cook for us was SO GREAT.

We spent a couple of days tooling around Moab first, which was fun because we hadn't been to Arches for a few years. It's such a great park. 

Also, the campground we stayed at was super posh and had a pool, so we also spent considerable time there.

And then it was time to start rafting! Westwater is a series of class III and IV rapids on the Colorado River in southeastern Utah. There are some pretty intense sections, as well as a lot of flatwater (true in any river expedition). 

Of course, we love the rapids.

But, while we don't love rowing particularly much, we love playing around on the flatwater and end up spending the majority of our time very wet and very happy. 

One favorite game is a trust fall circle thing (I guess I should work harder to come up with a name for this game). Basically everybody stands up on the gunwales and holds hands and then we lean back until somewhere between one and 6 people end up falling into the water. 

Maybe I'm not selling it very well, but it really is a ton of fun. Our guide even insisted on playing with us (he was probably tired of rowing while we all goofed around). 

We also love the t-grip trust lean game (still working on names). In this one, two people lock oar t-grips and lean back until one or both of them fall into the water. Our games aren't sophisticated, but they sure are a lot of fun.

Other fun games include the perennial fun of pushing people out of the boat when they least suspect it (the trick is to try and grab your attacker's PFD so you can pull them in with you) and otter floating (less of a game then just floating down the river to avoid rowing). 

We also enjoy jumping off of big rocks and forcibly boarding the gear rafts because we know they have the snacks. 

WanYing's specialty is "riding the bull" (that one has a name!) in the medium-sized rapids. This is where she sits on the nose of the raft, one hand in the air and one holding on.

But our very favorite game is Last Man Standing. The goal being, of course, to throw/yank/push/kick everybody else out of the raft. This one gets vicious and, also, exhausting. We finally figured out that we need to set rules requiring people to stay on the gunwales because the little ones will just burrow in under the seats and good luck prying them free.

I hear rumors that some people just paddle and float placidly down the slackwater. Admittedly, that does sound more restful than the constant motion of my family, but where's the fun of the float if you don't worry that at any moment you may be shoved off into freezing water?

Fortunately, the camping was placid and lovely. I love primitive camping, especially when somebody else does the cooking, cleaning, and all of the actual work.

Our Grand Canyon Rampup was a wonderful and unexpected way to enjoy 2020. Bring it on, Colorado River!