Kokatat sales rep Ted Keyes wrote in to tell us about his recent self support trip down the Grand Canyon.

 “Most of us don’t think of January as a month for paddling. Winter is for ski trips and evenings at home around  the ragin’ fire,  hot drinks under a wool blanket. Yeah maybe, but what if in comes an invite for a Grand Canyon trip? Yes, I’m in – load the boats, we are on the way!

Flagstaff is the jump off point for most GC trips , and  is about a 12 hour drive from Idaho. There is nothing like a 12 hour drive in my highly caffienated state to raise some doubts. How cold will I get? Can I pack enough food for a 12 day trip in just my Remix XP 10, and have enough room for the extra warm gear as well? Could my groover leak and make a mess in my boat? Will there be a whiner on the trip? What if there’s an injury far from a phone or help? I’ve heard of Christmas day trips canceled at the put in because its too cold. Not to worry, we got everything covered. Woody, Boyce, and Mike have done this trip before. Last January in fact, and everyone had a blast on the 12 day self support. Woody has designed a $35 PVC grover that you don’t have to share and is bomber. The placement in the XP’s bow pillar is perfect, and won’t steal any room from storing enough warm clothes and food for a month. Mike guides commercially on the canyon, and stopped counting after his 50+ trip years ago. He’s spent over 2 ½ years of his life in the canyon, so we arent going to miss a needed campsite or get walled out on any hikes. Bocye has the sat phone and a killer breakdown lightweight alum firepan. Most of all, we got our dry suits! I have a Kokatat GORE-TEX® GMER, and it is warm and dry. 

I don’t think I could consider this trip without a dry suit, and the Kokatat GORE-TEX® GMER is the best one there is. No other dry suit can compare to a GORE-TEX® GMER. It  is the only material specifically engeried for immersion activities like kayaking, designed to be immersed in water and keep you 100% dry. I just got the new Kokatat Polartec® Power Dry® Liner for this trip – it is a  4 way stretch Polartec® Power Dry® one piece suit that looks like fleece long johns. The of the fabric on the inside is fuzzy fleece that is immediatly cozy againts your skin, and the outer face is  a smooth knit that other garments (either more insulation or the dry suit) can slide over easily. The close knit of the outer face also provides some windproofness – key when getting ready and taking off the river. Kokatat’s liners are perfect for paddling (and sleeping in too!). Taking less gear on this trip was key beacause  there was no raft support, so no big river bag with dry fleece jackets waiting at camp. If you take off the rive wet, you’re gonna be wet and cold all night!

We finally got everything dialed: Leaving Flagstaff and several feet of snow you drive up the mountain, over the ridge – the descent is about 2,000 feet, its warming up, the sky is brillant desert blue across the Colorado plateau. The ferry is not busy this time of year, barely any cars in the parking lot, and no commercial trips launching. We had the ferry to ourselves to unload and do some last minute organizing. For overnight trips like this I like to spread out a tarp in front of my boat and line up all the gear I think I will need. I’ve packed the Remix XP on so many trips before I know what fits. My only concern was enough food and filling every void, so I could enjoy some fresh produce and vegetables! I don’t like to eat of mystery food from dehydrated packs like a spaceman. Knowing that my GMER is dry I could just pack one set of medium wool underwear for camp, put on my liner for the cold nights, pack a down jacket and booties (key for winter camping on the river like Uggs, but warmer and compressable), hat, gloves, neckwarmer, sleeping bag, pad, tent, extra bivy, tarp, kithen stuff, 2 thermos, fishing gear, backpack for hiking and boots.

After a pretty reasonable check in with the ranger and check off list, we are on our way – day one of a 12 day river trip. Self contained kayaking for 226 backcountry miles! The river water was cold coming out of the bottom of one of the worlds biggest dams, but the air is in the 30s this morning, the water was warmer than the air temp. I have pogies, but never used them the whole trip. A loaded boat can’t be pushed off the sand as easy as an empty one, so we learned we had to step into the water then get in the kayak. GMERs come standard with integrated GORE-TEX® booties, and each suit size has a  standard range of bootie size that fits most feet per size of suit. When you have the GORE-TEX® socks in a GMER you can get in and out of your boat in the water without the worry of getting your socks wet.  This is key in the winter. We had to get out of our boats in a foot of water sometimes. Some of the hikes we just kept our dry suits on and hiked up the rocks and creek to see incredible discoveries like Elves Chasm. I did take off my drysuit on some hikes. I just kept the liner on and up and away I went. This liner is not really  designed for hiking, but it really did a great job of wicking moisture and sweat off my skin. Each hike, I noticed how dry I was and how dry the liner stayed whether I was cruising fast up a trail, resting on top with the wind blowing, or moving fast back down to the boats. The liner really works great at keeping you and it dry! Really nice!

Each paddling day ended after paddling 12 to 25 miles a day.  We’d get to camp after some amazing scenry, big waves, and killer hiking. The outside of my GMER  is a lttle moist from the days playing in waves, but inside I’m dry as a bone. Even days with high excersion hiking, surfing, paddling the flats, perspiration is leaving my skin, liner and out the suit. I can’t see it, but I know its workign, becuase I am dry on  inside.  In spring and summer, usually the first thing you want to do is get out of the wet stuff fast, and lay it in the sun on the rocks to dry the outer layers. But this is January and the sun was still shining but not deep in the Grand Canyon. Most camps are in the shade by the time you reach them. Thinking ahead, I don’t want my suit to freeze overnight. Woody and Boyce let us know about this from last years trip. Grand Canyon morning’s leave a frost that creeps up without warning to ice crispy everything left outside. Nothing can be worse than awaking to frozen gaskets with a layer of frost crispy on your drysuit, skirt,pfd, helmet..erghhhhhhhhh. I just kept my GMER on while unloading  gear and setting up my tent. Keeping the suit on for the first 15 min to ½ hour setting up camp, really helped get the outside 100% dry.  When a suit is moist sand sticks to it. But once dry its easy to shake off that sand. Then I would sleep on top of the drysuit to keep it from freezing. By this time in the trip I thought my liner would be stinking it up, but it didn’t. The Polartec® Power Dry® Liner uses a unique silver yarn that provides permanent odeor protection.  It was really working for sure.  The liner is made from 65% recycled material.  A rolled up liner makes quick and easy camp pillow. (so long as it doesn’t stink!) But after a week or so, I noticed that I prefered sleeping in my liner. I just didn’t want to take it off.  At camp I added other shell layers or a down jacket for water, wind, and cold protection and just didn’t have to take the liner  off. This also  saved time in the mornings getting dressed. Just less time changing clothes and repacking them.  More time to enjoy the big waves and next hiking oppurtunity. Less changing clothes also keeps you from getting cold in the first place.

Towards the end fo the trip things warmed up a lot ! Three days in the low 60’s put us all in high spirits. Up earlier, hiking more, surfing more waves, going for the big line at Lava, surfing some more….smiles beging to stick JIt was only then that the liner came off and board shorts, T-shirts, flip flops appeared….yeah this is the Arizona I’ve heard about. Next time there is a GC trip leaving, even in winter, I know I’m ready with my GMER!”