Chapter 42

September 22 - November 17, 2000
Grand Canyon, 2000: Late Fall Trips

Crystal led the ninth trip of the season, which started in late September. Michelle was with them again, and Al back at the office. By now, the weather was cooler still, almost crisp much of the time; swimsuits didn't often make an appearance, now, except at places like the Little Colorado where the water was significantly warmer. Some days it was overcast and pushing on toward cold, but nothing like the misery of the next to the last trip of the year before.

Scooter was just a little disappointed that she didn't have any drama on the last part of the trip like she had on the last two trips Crystal had led, but no great loss, she figured. By now, the Felicity Ann was drawing a little closer into view and presumably there would be some action there; Michelle had tacked down a reservation back toward the end of August. It was going to be a little more than they'd paid for the Phoebe Lee the previous year, but not a lot more, thanks to the combination of off-season rates and longer charters.

All in all, there wasn't much to comment on about this run; it would be hard to say dull, because they had a particularly good group of passengers, a couple of whom were pretty good on the guitar. They were loose enough that Michelle got into some of her rowdier music before the end of the trip. She still hadn't taken the time to have her braces put back on, and thought she might not; what with everything, objectively she now appeared to be in her late teens. That simplified things more than a little. This was her seventh trip of the season, and would be her last of the year, or so they thought.

The season was definitely winding down when Team 3 started its last trip of the year, with Scooter in charge and Al back with them. By now, it was late in October and it would be November before they got off the water. For the first part of the trip, it was significantly cooler yet, and some days downright cold; most days it was windy, which didn't make things any more comfortable. There were a few nice afternoons, not many, but enough to take the sting out.

There was little comment about it in front of the customers, but toward the end of the trip the crew all knew the day when Karin's divorce had to go to court to be finalized. She didn't have to be present, only her lawyer; it was pretty much a rubber-stamp thing. Still, it was a landmark day, to be celebrated, and the most appropriate way to celebrate was on the river. As luck would have it, that big day came when they ran Crystal Rapids, and Scooter remembered that the stop on river left a few miles below the rapids had been a landmark for the two of them -- and for Crystal, as well. So, she pulled in very early and told people they were going to make a night of it there. Crystal, Al and Karin disappeared for much of the afternoon, up to the ledge and water pocket where so much had changed for them fifteen months before. Crystal didn't tell Scooter what went on there, and it was clear it was a family matter.

As if symbolically, the weather did improve a little after that stop -- not spectacularly, but it was a little warmer, a little less windy, a little less overcast; some afternoons approached being glorious fall days. The season was long, and by now they were a little ready to get it over with and take some down time, but still, riding the crew bus up Diamond Creek Wash was the hardest trip of the year, to have to turn their backs on the river and ride away.

The season wasn't quite over with. Canyon Tours had launched their last trip of the season the weekend before Team 3 came off the river. Jim had to head off to his winter job at the ski resort in Colorado, so Team 2 was going to be short a swamper. The load for this trip would be the lightest of the season, and they'd often gotten along without in the past. However, when they were doing their turnaround, Michelle got Jim off to the side and he admitted that he could dawdle another week and run as the swamper down to Phantom Ranch. By then, Michelle told Dave and Mary, Team 3 would be off the river and someone would probably be willing to ride the rest of the way.

Someone was. In fact, both Duane and Mike offered to do it; Karin would probably have done so as well, but now that the divorce was presumably final -- the paperwork hadn't arrived yet -- there were other arrangements that had to be made. When it came down to push and shove, Michelle exercised her right of seniority and hiked down the Bright Angel to replace Jim as the swamper. It was a little patchwork, but in the end she hadn't missed all that much of the season, and even she admitted that the occasional break was welcome, and would be willing to take her turn in the office in future years.

There was still work to do in that couple weeks before Team 2 was off the river to wind up the season. There was the annual de-rigging and inspection of the rafts, and much of Team 1's work remained to be done. The team had been broken up pretty thoroughly, with three of its members moving to other teams; Bill had taken off pretty quickly, probably at least partly due to the fact that he knew he wasn't going to be back. Stan had hung around for a couple days to get a start on the gear repair, but all he'd done was get a start, and there was a limit to what he could do by himself in that time, anyway. Jeff and Jimmie had been piddling with the de-rigging and inspection for weeks, and were getting a lot of it done, but there was still work left to do. At this point it looked like Dan and Jerry would stay over to do the winter maintenance, with Kevin, Duane, and Mike sticking around until about Christmas; they had to start back to school at the first of the year.

There was still a lot to do, but stuff was starting to get done when Al and Karin went with Jeff and Jimmie out to Diamond Wash to pick up Team 2 from their last trip of the year. When they got back, they reported having a rather cold and nasty trip, although there had been some good days.

Like the year before, the day after the last trip was completed, everyone still around met over coffee and donuts in the barn to sum up the season. "First thing first," Al said. "The season closer party will be tomorrow night, my place, be there or be square. We'll have a lot of summer help there, and some other friends, too. Is everybody here planning on coming?"

He looked around the room, and everyone said they were planning on it. "OK, good," he smiled, "Let's get down to business. We had a very good season. You all did well and I thank you for your efforts. The one real disappointment is that despite everything, we didn't gain as much ground as I'd hoped on the full-season-boatman problem. Looking forward to next spring, it looks like we'll have Dave, Mary, Crystal, Scooter, Jerry, Dan, and Michelle and maybe Ben for the first trip, since Duane and Mike will be finishing up their EMT course, and I think that's important. But by the time we get into the second trip things start to look a lot better, since with them we'll have seven, count 'em, seven summer rafters coming on board, maybe eight. Assuming we don't get a lot in the way of surprises, that ought to be pretty close to doing it. We'll also have at least four summer swampers in their second year. Duane and Mike will only be gone one trip and should be solid in the future, and Kevin tells me he's going to try to finish up his last three semesters all in spring terms. That means we're at ten full-timers, and that means for practical terms eleven in a pinch. Now, I still haven't set the schedule for 2002 yet, but will have to before the end of the year. I don't think we're to the point yet where we can move to the short schedule, but it's getting closer."

"I sure would like to lose the November trips," Mary submitted. "This last one was cold, wet, and not a lot of fun. On top of that, we were well short of a full load. I don't know from your side of the books, but I have to wonder if you took a loss on it."

"I won't be able to tell until we close the books for the year," Karin commented. "But I wouldn't be surprised."

"The problem is the use-it-or-lose-it one," Al said. "It's become much more serious since the Park Service started giving unused commercial launch dates to private groups. I've told you before that I don't want to give up any since we might not get them back. One of the options open is to cut the November trips way back, to three rafts or even two, but again, Karin and I will have to look at the books to see if that'd be even worse. But we will launch all the trips we're allowed even if one or two of them are one-raft trips with two customers."

"Just throwing it around," Scooter offered, "Since we're going to have to depend on summer boatmen, what's the chance of cutting the off-season trips down to four rafts? That'd mean that you'd only have to have twelve full-season rowers, and you're within reaching distance of that."

"Good question and I don't have an answer," Al replied. "And that brings with it the question of whether we can fill all the spaces we'll have on the rafts if we're running three teams off season, whether it's four rafts or five. But it might be a possible solution."

"Al, would it help if you were to offer a bonus for a boatman who works a full season?" Michelle suggested. "Or maybe a trip or two less?"