Imagining the Flavell

In 1957 my grandad ran his first river: the Colorado river down the grand canyon. They ran the river in the highest known water levels - 125,000 cfs! vs today's post dam averages of 24,000 cfs. The Glen Canyon dam was built in 1963. It flooded the stunning Glen Canyon and forever altered the experience of running the Grand Canyon. Back then, if you wanted to explore the grand canyon, your options were limited. My Gramps and his buddies ran the river in boats they had to design and build themselves and they relied on very minimal information about the river before they launched.

A few years ago, I had the great pleasure of running my first ever river, also the grand canyon. But unlike my grandad, I was in a virtually indestructible inflatable raft and had Tom Martin, one of the most knowledgeable men of the river, as my personal mentor and coach. He taught me to read the water, set up my approaches, and coached me through every rapid we encountered. Amazingly, I never flipped - though I did bump into a few rocks along the way.

In contrast, when my grandpa and his mentor Pat Riley ran the river, they did not even know if it was possible! Imagine the difference? Today we can choose between guidebooks and I had the privilege of rowing with Tom - one of the authors of the most popular book. My Grandpa and Pat must have sat above a few of the very same rapids that captured my attention - wondering if it was even feasible? My grandpa flipped once and the subsequent 5 mile ride nearly cost him his life. In the end, they would line their boats through a few of the most notorious of rapids.

My dad had the great fortune of running the river with his father in 1959 when he was13 only. He remains the youngest person to have ever rowed the untamed Colorado. This journey changed my dad's life and inspired what evolved into an endless passion with the grand canyon. I have long joked that my dad needs his bi-annual pilgrimage to the grand canyon, where he explores by foot some of the most rarely visited sections of the canyon.

This upcoming Feb, my dad and a few of his friends and I will be running the canyon in replica boats to what my grandpa ran in the late 1950s. They've been patiently and fastidiously rebuilding these boats. We just had a boat building party, where we pieced together delicately cut sections of wood to replicate the Flavell, the boat my grandpa built. We also brought the replica Susie R to water for the first time and she performed beautifully! Fun, fast, responsive and damn attractive.

The fly fisherman on the Yakima river whistled in awe as we floated by. It made me proud of grandpa to have built these boats 50 years ago and to have had the balls to take them down the wild Colorado river. And, it made me even more proud of my dad and his friend Ian Elliot, for having patiently built these replicas and for giving me this opportunity.