(rushing water)
(shower running)
- What's going on?
We doing the thing?
- That's Emily. She doesn't know what's going on.
- [Emily] I thought we were hiking it.
- We're not hiking it. We're rafting it.
For 25 days.
That's why we have the raft on the back of our van.
Do you need something?
Here's a light.
Theoretically all of this gear is going to be able to
fit onto a couple rafts and then we're going to put
that gear and ourself onto those rafts
and then float down the canyon on some stuff
over the course of 25 days,
no phones, no Internet, no anything.
- How does this is happen?
We're so close to getting there.
- [Narrator] Conner's one of the nine people I'll be
traveling down the Grand Canyon with.
So, it was a little concerning when he got his car stuck
in the middle of the highway.
- Okay, yeah, perfect.
I tried to turn us around here and now I'm blocking traffic.
- [Narrator] All of the traffic.
- Well, we missed Lee's Ferry.
We drove the wrong way, so we had to turn around,
but if you look in that direction,
there's uh, there's nothing.
- [Emily] How much space to I have?
- After Emily's smooth, 19 point turn,
we ended up at the Colorado river
where we met up with John, Nicki,
Jeff, Franz, Kiki, and David.
We're all brought together by John's permit
and the allure of the grand adventure.
Day one, about to get on a raft for the first time
and I have no idea what's going on,
but I've got video equipment, I've got, what do I have?
Video equipment, Polaroids, sketch books.
I wrote down a whole bunch of questions
because it's like, I will make a film about
rafting down the Grand Canyon,
and I will capture it and it will be interesting.
But, to be honest, I do not even know how
to capture something like this.
I mean, it's huge.
And I don't even know if a video can capture this.
And I should probably go help some people
so we can get going before the sun goes down.
(peaceful strumming music)
We did not exactly get going before dark,
but the next day, we were on the river by the crack of noon,
slowly watching Lee's Ferry disappear
as we rounded the first corner.
After spending so much time thinking about this river,
it felt odd to actually be on it
and the rafting didn't seem that scary either.
Emily gave me the ores and now we're going to
go down some white water.
Is this white water?
- [Emily] It's white.
It's water.
- So, I want to avoid that, right?
- [Emily] I'd say go through it.
- [Man] These are actually big.
Okay, what do I do?
- [Emily] You're doing great.
(screaming) (laughing)
- Feeling like an expert rafter now.
We continue to drift deeper into the canyon,
passing underneath the cars
as they drove over Navajo Bridge.
The next time we would see a road would be
270 miles downstream at the take-out,
but that felt like years from now.
(slow peaceful chanting)
♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪
(under water echoes)
(whispering) Oh my God.
Fucking loser.
I am not a happy camper right now
and I can't even explain why I'm not a happy camper
because the Colorado river just took my camera.
Anyway, giant rapid, I messed up.
I made a stupid mistake.
I pinned us and then we high-sided,
and there was a ton of water and I wasn't even
wearing a dry suit because it was supposed to be an easy day
and now I'm cold and I'm wet and I'm one camera down
and I lost all the pictures and I'm angry
and I'm hungry and my feet are cold and
I have to set up a tent and I can't even be
that pissed off because I'm somewhere pretty,
but um,
I really just want to be home
and like somewhere where there's warm, dry stuff
I could put my feet on.
(grumbling)
I came into this thinking I was going to be able
to easily capture some great footage and
leave feeling like I understood the whole river,
but as I rung the water out,
the worry of what lay downstream began to creep in.
I was dry by the next morning,
but the nerves were still there.
So, I rode with one of the most experienced
members of the group, Franz.
- I think uh, you either come to the canyon and get the bug
or you don't.
I don't know if there's an in between.
- [Narrator] This is Franz.
He's a retired math professor and can't actually count
the amount of times he's been down this river.
His best guess is something like 40.
He's gone down this river on
almost everything that can float and with that,
he's had just about every mishap imaginable.
Once, he even had to chase down his own boat
as it floated down river on fire.
Yet, he never seems worried about what's coming up.
- I know, you know, what camps are good,
what camps are cruddy, where there's good winter sun,
where the best hiking is in the winter and summer,
but almost every trip, I go someplace new.
- [Narrator] While I was busy agonizing
about the next big rapid,
he was always pointing out these amazing things
hidden around us that, for some reason, I had missed.
- You see, straight across.
To the, right there.
There's a deer over there.
Yeah, you know, so a lot of people when they come down
on a trip, they try to do everything,
they try to see all the highlights,
and you really can't in one trip, you know?
Cause you can hike all day and still feel like
you haven't covered any distance.
- [Narrator] This canyon was just like life itself.
If you narrow your focus to the obstacles downstream,
you're gonna miss all that beauty around you.
- This is our only rapid. (laughing)
Other than President Harding.
President Harding's not so much of a rapid
as a rock to avoid.
- [Narrator] So, if President Harding
that rapid that gave me so much trouble,
was just a four foot drop, how big do these things get?
- You know, looking back upstream,
It sure doesn't look like it dropped very much there.
So, Lava Falls, for instance,
you know, which is the most famous,
I think it drops about 30 feet.
So, virtually all the rapids you can cheat,
you know, you can take kind of a, easy route
and Lava's one of the few that there's no cheat.
So I'd say it can flip any boat.
- [Narrator] This formed long ago when lava poured
into this canyon from a near by volcano.
The lava flow dammed up the river completely,
but over thousands and thousands of years,
the river wore down the lava dam
until eventually, it collapsed,
leaving nothing but basalt covered walls
and one angry looking rapid.
- It's munchy today.
I would say we have a 50,50 chance of having a flip.
Even if we boat well,
you know, do things right.
- [Narrator] What happens if you're
in the water in this stuff?
What do you do with that?
- You mean if you get tossed into the drink?
- [Narrator] Yeah.
- Um,
- [Narrator] So far, only one person from our group
had been tossed into the drink.
It happened on Crystal, the other class 10.
Right at its center is this hydrolic washing machine,
called a keeper hole.
Almost all of the boats went safely by.
When Emily and her cataraft
got pushed just a little too close.
These rapids don't seem quite as big as they are
until you see one of them kick around
a fully loaded raft like a rubber duck.
Emily and her boat were quickly swept downstream,
but our trip leader, John, was able to catch up
and tow her into an eddy where several of the crew
grabbed the flip lines and were able
to get the boat right side up.
All in all, nothing was really lost, but time and dryness,
but it was a really good reminder
of just how quickly these things could change.
- Okay, I'm going to go back and change into my dry suit.
- [Narrator] Franz wearing a dry suit
was kind of like a Polar Bear putting on a down jacket.
You knew something serious was coming,
but at this point,
the only thing you could really do was hang on.
See you on the flip side.
Get it?
Cause flipping?
And try to enjoy the ride.
(upbeat percussion music)
(slow orchestral music)
- [Man] Woo!
That was rad!
(laughing)
- [Narrator] Back upstream,
David's having a little bit of trouble.
And soon, we can see him drifting down
on the bottom of his boat.
I prepare one of the throw lines,
get ready to toss and
turns out, I need to work on that.
We continue to chase David downstream
where Jeff has a hold of him,
but is having some trouble pulling him into an eddy.
- [Franz] You're not going to get this eddy.
We're going to try for the next one.
- [Narrator] While Franz mans the Dory,
I jump on board the overturned boat to
try to help David flip it.
Our effort is going just about as well as my throw is.
So, Franz jumps on board, leaving his boat to drift.
- Ready, one, two, three.
- [Narrator] The water is ice cold.
And so, as David climbs back on his raft,
Franz and I quickly swim toward the empty Dory
and it's at this moment.
- [Man] Uh, you on David?
- [Narrator] That my last camera stops working.
From there on out, I could only capture the canyon
with my eyes, my sketch book, and a microphone,
which eventually, I would also break when
I accidentally sat on it.
Our last few days on the river passed really quickly
and before I knew it, we were at the last rapid
on the Grand Canyon called Separation.
This used to be the most feared rapid in the canyon,
but the water levels from Lake Powell had
reduced it to a ripple, which we glided through easily.
Ironically, it was below Separation that we
brought our boats together to form a giant floating amoeba,
with the Dory in the center.
With nothing but flat water left,
we were banding our boats together for a night float.
The size of our flotilla would keep us
out of the eddy's and away from the canyon walls.
This way, we could just float all night long
and wake up at the take out.
We hopped aboard our new mega-boat,
burrowed down in our sleeping bags
to watch the sky fade from orange to red.
It was quiet.
And then,
to my surprise, as I was recording the
sound of water with my soon to be smushed mic,
Franz stands up in his Dory and begins to sing
some old sea chantey that echoed off the canyon walls.
♪ The last of Barrett's privateers ♪
♪ How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now ♪
♪ For 20 brave men all fishermen who ♪
♪ Would make for him the antelope's crew ♪
♪ God damn them all, I was told ♪
♪ We'd cruise the seas for American gold ♪
♪ We'd fire no guns, shed no tears ♪
♪ But I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier ♪
♪ The last of Barrett's privateers ♪
The bouncing verses followed us down the river
as we floated into our last night on the Colorado.
(distant singing)
The night float was indescribably beautiful.
Right then, I wished that I had a camera
so that I could capture this
and not one that was buried deep in the silt upstream.
But, what difference would that have made?
I mean, could a photo really capture this place?
It kind of felt like nothing could.
No camera, no sketch book, no film, no words,
not even my own eyes.
Looking back, it was easy to see,
I hadn't captured the Grand Canyon.
But, it had certainly captured me.
(inspiring orchestral music)
(slow peaceful piano music)
♪ We'd fire no guns, shed no tears ♪
♪ I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier ♪
♪ The last of Barrett's privateers ♪
♪ Now the Yankee lay low down with gold ♪
♪ How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now ♪
♪ She was brood and fat and loose in the stays ♪
♪ But to catch her took the antelope two whole days ♪
♪ God damn them all ♪
- [Man] Oh shit, I forgot the words.
(laughing)
♪ Cruise the seas for American gold ♪
♪ We fired no guns, shed no tears ♪
♪ I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier ♪
♪ The last of Barrette's privateers ♪
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