Grand Canyon Adventures
Everyone knows about the Grand Canyon. We have all seen spectacular photos and heard the stories about the discovery and exploration of this massive, secluded area. Many even know where it is. Thousands have taken tours by bus, helicopter, airplane to visit and personally view this wonder.
But, I would dare say many have come to know this land up close and personal. By that I mean, it is one thing to “have a look” from the commercial edge of the canyon, but entirely another to physically go into the canyon to explore this unbelievable place by boat and actually spend as long as a week at the time living, sleeping and playing in this awesome creation of nature.
I am one of those fortunate few, and will attempt here on this page to relate some of my memories of our time in the canyon. I have spent nights in the middle of the Colorado river 30 miles into the canyon. I have navigated a 36’ Carver Cruiser all the way to Separation landing, actually beaching there. This is the furthest point up the Colorado river you are legally allowed to operate. I have made no less than 10 of these trips and the only problem I ever had was striking a log with one prop which did minimal damage. ( The log was actually submerged in the middle of a basin and not on the river proper or in the canyon). It would be impossible to purchase such an adventure because of insurance and other regulations and I feel safe to say very few people on the planet have experienced anything like this and my wife and I along with a few family members are among those luck few.
I can foresee this becoming a “blovel” sort of thing but want to share these adventures before I get too old to remember the details. It is what it is and I hope you will enjoy and learn some things about our lake and our river canyon.
I had lived in Las Vegas for about 3 years before I discovered the beauty located only 15 minutes from my house … Lake Mead. Like many I had visited the “wash” which was home to the Las Vegas Bay Marina for a pleasant lunch and walked the docks, fed popcorn to the giant “herd” of carp who have learned to hang out near the docks where the tourist pour bags of popcorn into the harbor for these large ugly fish.
Carp may be ugly but they aren’t stupid. The learned behavior goes like this; Many tour buses stop for a visit to the marina. Tourist, seeing the carp swimming all around the docks throw bits of food to them and they provide a moments entertainment as they vie for the scraps. The more “food” that is thrown in, the more action you will see as the carp exhibit behavior not unlike the crowd at Walmart as the doors open for the after Christmas sale. The more food, the greater the agitation of the feeding frenzy.
Long ago Bob Grippentog who was the founder of the first marina on Lake Mead realized people liked to feed the fish and what better than popcorn to serve this purpose? They started selling popcorn and I would not even begin to guess how many bags of popcorn the marina has sold since the early 50’s. Hey, the fish like it, the tourist enjoy it and for damn sure the Grippentog family likes it. I use to joke with Bobby Jr. about the popcorn money educating the entire family and there’s a lot of Grippentogs out at the Marina.
Somewhere about the spring of 1994 my wife and I had made several trips out to the Marina to enjoy a decent meal and just be out in the fresh air in pleasant surroundings of sun and water. I began to get the idea of maybe renting a boat and seeing more of the lake. After talking with some of the “regulars” about life at the lake it became even more appealing as I imagined the feeling of boating across the lake and getting a close up view of the many coves and islands at the lake.
It seemed to me to be a very simple thing to do, just get a boat and go live out the fantasy. Not so fast. I soon realized that, when contemplating a boat you should first determine what you want to do with that boat. Boats come in many different sizes and capabilities along with many different prices or more accurately, Value. I started checking out all sorts of boats offered for sale and it became even more confusing. I have always been one of those who felt that a boat was a big hole in the water you poured money into and indeed that seems to be the truth for many because they buy the wrong boat. I can attest to this because I went through 4 boats before I had the operation that suited my needs and purposes.
“The Little Boat From Hell”
My first boat was a disaster. Not so much because the boat was no good, but because it turned out the boat was stolen and had a bunch of bad karma surrounding it.
I responded to an ad to sell a 13 foot fiberglass jet boat that was quite unusual. It was a very modern sleek design and only a few were built. I ended up trading a pickup truck for the boat and some cash. (The truck was of more value than the boat) There was nothing to indicate anything wrong as the guy I bought the boat from was a dealer for the company. I took the boat, got it registered and begin living my fantasy of boating on Lake Meade. This thing would haul ass.
My first outing in the little boat was an omen of things to come. I put in at the “wash” as the marina area was know and headed out across the lake. My destination on this maiden voyage was Callville bay Marina about a 30 minute ride. I spent about an hour getting there because of all the neat places you can only see from a boat kept calling me. I slowly circled Black Island and explored several coves including my first visit to Hidden Cove. Finally arriving at Callville Bay, I pulled into the fuel dock and tied up. I went inside and paid for fuel to top off the tank for my return to the “Wash”.
Somewhere along the way to Callville the stereo player had quit working and when I finished fueling I dove under the dash in an attempt to figure out what was wrong. I discovered a wire loose and was head first under the dash of the boat lying on my back when I heard the revving up of engines. There is a fleet of 65 foot houseboats at Callville that are rented to vacationers and one of these monsters was backing out of the slip at full throttle. The engine noise stopped for a bit, and then, started again as though it was full throttle once more, and getting louder. By now my curiosity got the best of me and I came out from beneath the dash to have a look. What I saw was startling! The 65 foot houseboat was about 20 yards away headed directly at my boat and sounded as though it was at full throttle. The house boat was gaining speed and because the marina was a no wake zone, none of this registered in my brain at this time. I remember thinking “what an asshole” as the boat gained speed. About this point I realized that staying in my boat was not an option. I jumped onto the dock and turned my attention to the operator of the houseboat. The boat was coming from across the harbor and in a left turn. Although pointed to an area behind my boat, if he kept the turn rate up he was going to hit my boat. By now, I am yelling STOP, TURN and several other things including colorful expletives to an apparently panicked skipper. (hardly the word to use here) All this did nothing to alter anything. The gigantic houseboat crashed into my little beauty amidships, the weight of the big boat squashing my little guy nearly underwater. The right pontoon of the behemoth rode across my windscreen crushing it and begins to climb onto the dock with my little boat trapped beneath its keel.
I am stunned. At this point I have not even considered the outcome had I stayed beneath the dash for another 30 seconds because it likely would have been fatal. After practically destroying the little boat, I hear the sound of gears grinding and the big boat lurches into reverse. All this happened at full throttle. Now he is backing up and doing more damage to my boat as he drags the houseboat off the dock. The grinding and cracking sound of fiberglass is sickening. I think I may have invented some words that would even make sailors blush.
Four of five marina employees have by now come running onto the dock so the driver of the houseboat now has about 7 people yelling at him anything from instructions to how stupid he is.
One of the guys from the Rental Company managed to jump aboard from the dock before he backed out and got the boat under control enough to stop it dead in the water. Someone threw a line and they began pulling the boat back to the dock. The guy who was driving refuses to get off because he thinks I may rip his head off and at that time that was a good idea.
The renter of the boat had never operated anything of this size before. All that is required to get turned loose with one of these things is money, and watching a 15 minute video tape about operation of the vessel. Unbelievable, but that’s the way it was. Apparently, after backing out of the slip he brought the power up to reverse course and the left engine failed at this point. Now the boat is not really moving much but he gets confused as the high power setting on only the right engine put the boat into a left turn. The boat starts forward but is turning left no matter what he does with the wheel and panic sets in. He just rode it out crushing my boat in the process. All he had to do was pull the power back or just shut it down. He had the presence of mind to do neither.
As things settle down I asked about insurance and the marina folks wasted no time telling me they had no responsibility and the boat operators insurance was responsible. With this I knew I was screwed. When the park ranger finally showed up, he confirmed the marina, nor the boat rental company was required to insure this. He did confirm the boats renter did own a boat and had coverage. The driver was not cooperative and just wanted to get out of town and back to California where he lived. I ended up going through a lot of BS with his insurance company and only dealt with them. Finally they agreed to pay for the damage. A $5000 boat with $4200 damage would never be the same.
Even with the entire top, windscreen and bow busted up badly, all the damage was well above the water line and I finally limped back to the Wash which proved to be my first night operation on the lake.
I started back home before darkness but the last 3 miles from Black Island to the Marina was in total dark. This was my first exposure to night on the lake. Trust me, I was not comfortable on the lake at night in a boat that had just been mauled. There are many things to hit on Lake Mead and every year as long as I can remember someone has become a fatality from running aground at high speed. I learned to trust the buoys that night and navigated safely one light at a time slowly. The wind had come up and the little boat got tossed around in 3 foot sea. This turned out to be mild as since this I have been out in weather on Lake Mead that produced 6-8 foot waves.
Lake Mead is a fairly large body of water and the weather can change in a matter of minutes. I tell people this but no one can appreciate this until they have experienced the potential power pent up on that lake. I will discuss this a little later.
To continue the story of the “little boat”, I brought it back, got it fixed and was back in the water a month later. I was correct, the boat never was “right” again because it started sinking with my son and I the next time out. The little devil waited until we were nearly in the middle of the Virgin basin to pop open at the jet drive.
We were happily cruising north of Callville and the boat just seemed sluggish and the bow would not plane out. The more power I applied the higher the nose got and the lower the stern sunk into the water. We had begun taking on water, lots of water. We started to bail out the mess and it was just not working. We were north of the “narrows” in the Virgin basin and could only go about a half mile after bailing water before we crawled nearly to a stop again. Once more, it was getting dark and at this rate it would take hours to get to any marina. There were several boats which passed by, but none paid any attention to us waving.
Lake Mead is surrounded with volcanic rock and there are not that many places one can simply beach a boat. The majority of the lake is sheer rock wall. Many places that may appear inviting have plenty of rocks just beneath the surface just waiting to rip the bottom of a boat. The area we were in is one of the worse places for this and we somehow needed to get through the narrows to find a safe place.
We made it into the narrows. The narrows is a place where two high peaks create a very narrow passage separating the upper Virgin Basin of Lake Mead with the lower half which has the local Las Vegas marinas.
As we were about half way through the narrows (which can be very choppy water) a thought suddenly came to me. I told my son to pull out both of the “Plugs”. Most boats have one or two plugs installed on the bottom aft section of the boat in order to drain out any water that may get inside. When you pull your boat out of the water the first thing to do is pull out the plugs and let the water drain. Lots of folks have forgotten to replace the plugs and found quickly how fast a boat can take on water without these plugs. My boy though I had lost my mind and asked what I said and I told him to “trust me just pull the plugs”.
As we were about half way through the narrows (which can be very choppy water) a thought suddenly came to me. I told my son to pull out both of the “Plugs”. Most boats have one or two plugs installed on the bottom aft section of the boat in order to drain out any water that may get inside. When you pull your boat out of the water the first thing to do is pull out the plugs and let the water drain. Lots of folks have forgotten to replace the plugs and found quickly how fast a boat can take on water without these plugs. My boy though I had lost my mind and asked what I said and I told him to “trust me just pull the plugs”.
Sitting still the boat would have sunk in a matter of minutes. But, with a minimum of forward speed the area surrounding the plug holes will cavitate the water and actually serve to pull the water out of the boat via the drain holes. Just a simple physics problem, the stern lower and forward movement drives the water out. It worked and worked well in less than three minutes we were able to maintain full speed and the boat was completely dry when we arrived back in the marina.
By now, my dream and fantasy about merrily cruising around the lake had turned into a feeling that either this boat or the Lake itself was trying desperately to kill me. However, relating the stories to the motley crew in the Marina bar was offsetting the obvious danger lurking on the lake.
I pulled the little boat home and was starting to think about how I was going to get out of this mess by selling the little boat but I was going to have to spend a pile of money to fix it. I wanted another boat but was stuck with this thing and I was sure that after my son finished telling the wife about our adventures another boat was out of the question until this thing was gone. A couple days later my prayers were answered when two police detectives rang the doorbell.
A couple of detectives were standing at my front door and asked me if I had ever seen the boat in a photo they showed me. It was a picture of the “little boat” in all her glory. “Yes” I said “that’s my boat what’s this all about?” It became apparent they were asking the questions not answering them when the big guy said “where did you get the boat”? I told the guy’s name from whom I had purchased the boat and they both grinned and laughed. “where is the boat now, can we see it”? Sure I said but what’s this all about. “That boat is stolen and we have been after this guy for a year over this, we just never found the boat.” I took them to my garage where the “little boat” was and gave them the registration. The numbers matched the legal documents and then one of the detectives showed me a hidden VIN number that indicated this boat had the VIN plate swapped. When I saw what was going on I could tell that the seller had messed with the ID plate. They explained that this guy had been a dealer for these boats and this particular boat was property of the manufacture who had left it parked in his business. The guy reported the boat stolen a year ago and they had been suspicious of him ever since. Because he was a dealer he had several of these boats from trades and such. What he did was take the VIN plate off of an identical boat which was two years older and totaled out. He then very artfully placed the VIN plate off the crashed boat onto the boat he sold me. “You have done nothing wrong but you have been duped and we will be taking the boat.” I went like,” look I traded this guy a truck worth $16,000 for this boat and 11 grand cash.” “How will I get my money back”? The detective said “We are going to pick him and the truck up and you can come by and pick up your truck whenever you want.” I did some quick math in my head and here is what it amounted to; The guy gave me 11 grand, I gave him the truck and I got the boat. Now 5 months later, he has used my truck for 5 months and I have been through hell almost getting killed twice and the boat is pretty much trash. Now the police are taking the boat and I get my truck back. “What about the 11 grand I go.” “What about it they go.” “That’s his loss for screwing you and committing a felony in the process. Besides, he’s going away for a while and won’t need it.” Laughing all the while. This is all too bizarre I tell you.
To show you what a fair minded person I am that is not the way it ended though I should have gone that route. The guy called me the next day and told me he was out on bond and what could we do about the truck. He told me that the police had informed him that the truck was mine and only I could get it. I gave him an ear full about what a scumbag he was for screwing me the way he did and he took it quietly. Then he said he really wanted to keep the truck and reminded me he had paid me 11 grand. I told him I wanted to be made whole in this matter and what would he do to this end. He said he would give me the 5 thousand difference today if I would sign the truck over to him. I reminded him of all the trouble I had been through and he said if I would meet him at the impound he would give me 6 thousand cash. I accepted his offer and ended up getting $17,000 for a truck I had $14,000 invested in. Plus, I had 5 months of lake time on the “little boat” from hell. What an introduction to boating on Lake Mead.
To be Continued;
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The Cabin Cruiser
