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"The Canyon Trip Promised to Matthew Huggins" |
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The CREW for our trip They are. from left: Nichol Corbo, who was the assistant chef, and who helped around the camps, rowed one of the baggage rafts, and helped me up a couple of the tougher climbs, especially up the Eminence Trail opposite Point Hansbrough. Rhonda Barbiera, soon to be of Seattle, WA: Has her degree in Herbology, and gave us a lot of information about the flora and fauna of the Canyon, including how the ancient Indians used the various plants.
Kenton "Factor" Grua, of Flagstaff, AZ: TRIP LEADER, and source of a fantastic amount of information on geology, anthropology and archeology. For any of you that don't already know it, back during the flood of 1983, the famous flood that nearly destroyed the Glenn Canyon Dam, with the river running at 72,00 cubic feet per second, Factor and two of his friends, Rudi Petschek and Steve Reynolds set the record by running the river day and night from Lees Ferry to Grandwash cliffs. They made it in 36 hours,38 minutes and 29 seconds! - more than 10 hours less than the previous record for oar powered boats! As I undrstand it, bureaucratic foot dragging nearly killed their chances, but Factor grabbed the bull by the horns, and got it done anyway. That's a record that will probably stand a long, long time. Alissa Dale, of Flagstaff, AZ: cheerful daughter of Coyote Dale, (see below)and an excellent ballet dancer as well as peppy camp assistant. Katherine MacDonald, a highly motivated and well informed river skipper. She was brought on a raft trip by her parents when she was 15 years old, and made up her mind right then that she wanted to be a river guide. After completing high-school, she went to college at UCLA, got her degree in English and History - which included a year's study in Germany, returned to the canyon, signed on as general helper or whatever she could do with raft trips, completed ten trips as a rower of baggage boats, demonstrated her determination, cheerful and upbeat personality, physical strength and endurance, and above all - her courage. Finally she was accepted as captain of her own boat. (Pretty impressive in this highly competitive field. As a matter of fact, all of these river skippers are pretty amazing people. Roger Dale, of Tucson, AZ: uncle of Alissa , brother of Coyote and a very strong and skilled river Captain. He is also a very fine artist who owns and operates Dale Studios , (blown and cast glass.) He can be reached at Dalestudio@aol.com Ote "Coyote" Dale, of Flagstaff, AZ: sister-in-law of Roger, mother of Alissa and a very competent, personable and knowledgeable skipper whose husband is codirector of Dories. Dennise Gackstetter, a pretty farm girl from Logan UT, who was the trip chef de cuisine. All of us became gourmands while enjoying her meals. I don't see how such a wide variety of delicious dishes can be prepared under the conditions forced upon someone like Dennise, but she did it in spades. |
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