There was me and Una, her brother Alvin, and my old college buddy Jim who I hadn't seen in several years. There was our friend Tom, and his friends from back east Dick and Harry (not their real names). The sheer logistics of the trip virtually ensured that we would never do anything like it again. People from 4 different regions of North America convening on Phoenix and Flagstaff, no more than three people landing at any one time due to different schedules. Yeesh.

Tom, Dick, and Harry flew into Phoenix early to visit and stay with a mutual friend, while me and Una flew in a little later, and stayed with family. Jim would be arriving last, at the Flagstaff airport. The five of us converged at the Phoenix airport, where we picked up Alvin who flew in that Monday morning. Confused yet? After picking up our monster rental van, we headed north to Flagstaff, where we had to make the mandatory pre-launch meeting at the Canyon Explorations warehouse.

That's where we met up with Jim, who'd flown into Flagstaff, and had caught a shuttle to the warehouse. The meeting was a good idea, because we had a chance to go over what the equipment would look like, what to expect, ask questions, and meet the other (d)raftees. Explaining things to us was Fritz, who excused her appearance by explaining that she'd just finished up a trip. She looked and sounded like it had been more like a tour of duty as she hoarsely addressed the assembly in a strangely direct manner. Her face was bright with sunburn, her hair was a tangled mat, and she didn't smile once. Fritz's body language was talking military, but her eyes shone with the light of the promised land. Things were starting to get interesting.

The next morning, we met at the warehouse to load all our belongings for the next 5 days into waterproof rubber sacks and military surplus ammo cans. The military expedition-like overtones didn't escape me; it was like gearing up for an amphibious assault. As everything was loaded into the 2 vans that would be taking us down to Lees Ferry, people lined up for the single warehouse bathroom as if it would be the last time we would see civilization. Lees Ferry itself was bustling like a staging area with waiting rafts and supplies being lashed down. In the chaos of last-minute adjustments, we met the 6-man crew for the first time. In fact, it may have been the first time they'd met each other.

Since two separate tour companies had just merged, Canyon Explorations with Expeditions forming Canyon Expeditions, it was probably a little more chaotic than it normally would have been. The trip leader, Lynn, was grim and cautious and would keep a tight reign on the entire trip, until the final magical night. In retrospect, her attitude was most likely due to this sudden change in tour companies.

She'd been rafting for close to 20 years, most of those years with Expeditions, and the change couldn't have been easy for her. Because the merger had just occurred, the resulting scramble meant this particular group was larger than most, and this combination of new personnel and lots of clients meant that a "normal" trip was out of the question. We were briefly introduced to the crew, and told to load up the (military surplus) rafts and grab a lifejacket.

And thus began our trip down the Grand Canyon.