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In 1958 I read my first article about rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Georgie White's Colorado River Expedition was the subject of an article that appeared in Sports Illustrated that year...later, in 1964 Mechanix Illustrated also did a feature on Georgie. It all sounded so exciting...I knew this was something I had to do...and this was the person I wanted to do it with! Georgie White, known as "Woman of the Rivers", started conducting trips through the Grand Canyon in 1947. Her contribution to river-running was a unique adaptation of boats that made it possible for more people to enjoy white water rafting in comparative safety at a reasonable cost On May 11, 1970, 49 bright-eyed "River Rats", including myself, gathered early morning in front of the Showboat Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The bus would leave at 7 a.m. bound for Lee's Ferry, Arizona...jumping off point for all river trips through the Canyon. Excitement mounted as we neared the river...and stories from the boatmen and previous trip takers made the adrenaline run. I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into after listening to their "close-call" stories of 30 foot drops into walls of water. The Navajo bridge spanned 467 feet above us, 6 miles downstream. The first rapids were only a small taste of what awaited. We quickly found out that the backs of our 2 piece rain suits where not high enough to keep the Colorado out of our pants. Our first night was spent at Tiger Wash, feasting on chicken stew and drinking blackberry cordial with coffee. It's surprising how good things can taste after a day on the river. The menu for lunches was canned chicken or tuna...breakfast, dry cereal with powdered milk, and "Start" mixed in bailing buckets full of river water. Boiled eggs were left by most for a mid-morning snack on the boat...watch out for the raw one in the bucket! By mid-afternoon on the 2nd day we entered Grand Canyon National Park. An early camp was made near Nankoweap Creek where Anasazi cliff dwellings could be seen high above us. One of the Rats inflated an easy chair that evening which Georgie promptly claimed. Before day break the next morning the camp woke to a giant bang from a firecracker echoing through the canyon...compliments of one of the pranksters. The first stop would be at the Little Colorado River, with it's turquoise colored waters making a definite outline against the deep green of the Colorado. That afternoon we would traverse Hance Rapids, a major scale roller-coaster ride through boiling waters. A camp was made by late afternoon on a Cottonwood Creek sandbar near Grapevine Rapids. At dusk, around a glowing campfire, Georgie reminisced about her many adventures of swimming the mighty Colorado, rafting the Snake, Salmon, and Columbia Rivers...and her early days of growing up in a Chicago slum, where she once worked as a teenage barmaid during hard times. As night draped it's cloak around us we would dream of adventures that awaited the dawn of a new day on the river.
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