Will Volpert wrote in to tell us how far he went to keep a hold of his GORE-TEX® Front Entry Dry Suit:

“We’re in a van headed to Flagstaff. We hired Ceiba, a company out of Flag, to pick us up at Diamond Creek and they’ve got a driver so of course we’re having a good time telling stories, hooting and hollering. Maybe sneaking beers here and there. Maybe. Over the past 19 days there has not been one moment that couldn’t make a great story. We’ve made great friends with each other. Most of us were acquaintances before the trip but now it’s just full on bromances and, hell, even a few romances.

Both my brothers are in the van. Matt is a student at UCSB, Skip at University of Oregon – we don’t get on the water together as often as we used to. My girlfriend Dana is sitting next to me. We’ve done quite a few multi-day trips together but nothing really prepares someone for a 19-day river trip so I’m ecstatic that she had loved it as much as I had. Everything other than getting to the river has gone perfectly. Dan Thurber, one of my favorite people to float any river with, had a major vehicle break-down in California. It seems that some gophers took a liking to the wiring under the hood. He had to borrow a van from a friend to get out, and arrived at Lee’s Ferry around 10 AM the day we were to launch. But that’s a whole other story. Other than that this has been a dream trip. Great people, great river – and really those are the only two things that matter.

In October I got a hold of the boys at Clavey and told them what I was looking for: two Kokatat dry suits. Over the last four years I have gone through eight other suits and I was ready to find a high quality suit that would last. I got Dana the Women’s Dry Suit with the drop seat and myself the typical blue/mango Men’s Dry Suit. Dana also got the Polartec® Powerdry® Liner outfit (often dubbed a “penguin suit”). These are sweet to wear underneath your dry suit. They keep you toasty and they’re comfortable. Our trip launched December 13th – which is a perfect time of year to ensure that your beer is always ice cold, but it’s also that time of year most folks don’t go boating because, well, everything is ice cold. With our new dry suits packed and our Avon Expedition in tow we headed to Lee’s Ferry.

We had the river to ourselves and didn’t run into another party until the afternoon of our ninth day. We had a great Christmas layover across from Deer Creek. The hiking was phenomenal, whitewater was plentiful… it was just one of those trips. Dana and I wore our drysuits the entire time we were on the water. They were comfortable so it just never seemed that bad.

 Our last night camp was about a mile from Diamond Creek. In the morning we woke up and started putting things away. Dana and I didn’t feel like wearing our dry suits with only one mile to go, so we threw them in a black trash bag and into the boat…

Fast forward five hours and the van is pulling into Ceiba’s driveway. Our vehicles are here so we jump out and move them near the big trailer of mixed gear. All the equipment needs to be separated and put into the correct rig. While Dana and I are throwing things into our little trailer other folks are doing the same with their respective rigs. A few other people are throwing bags of trash into the back of one of Ceiba’s trucks, which then is driven to their dumpster where the bags of trash are hurled in. As all this is happening, the trash truck shows up (great timing, right?), picks up the now-full dumpster, lifts it up and over, sets the empty dumpster down, and then leaves for its next destination. Everything is going great.

Let me pause and tell you a few things about relationships. As Dane Cook says, there are two types: you can have a “great relationship” or you can have a “relationshit”. Dana and I have a great relationship. Regardless of the type of relationship you have, boaters in particular need to be wary of the DTI. This stands for Domestic Tranquility Index. This is an incredibly volatile index that shows exactly how tranquil ones relationship is – and it can change in seconds. For instance, if Dana is having a bad day and I do something nice, like buy her a chocolate snack, the index rises. But, if she is having a bad day and I eat the chocolate snack without asking her if she wants any then the index plummets.

Also, the DTI is tested when shit hits the fan. For instance, when, at this moment in the story, Dana says “Have you seen the drysuits?” this is an instant when shit is definitely hitting the fan because I know that the drysuits are in a black trash bag inside the garbage truck headed to who-knows-where.

We look everywhere. Maybe they weren’t thrown out, right? Alas, no one can find them. Dana goes into Ceiba’s office to talk to someone who might know where the trash truck is going. Nobody at the trash company picks up the phone, so she leaves a message. I’m pissed, Dana’s pissed, so naturally we blame each other for putting the most expensive articles of clothing we’ve ever owned inside trash bags. The DTI is plummeting and there is no bottom in sight.

Everything (well, you know, minus the stupid drysuits) is packed. It’s New Year’s Eve, we’re in Flagstaff, our group wants to party. Dana and I are going to look for the drysuits and meet everyone at the hotel. We take off headed down the road looking for a garbage truck. The DTI has now officially hit an all-time low. While we’re busy yelling at each other Skip calls me and says they were able to get the driver’s name and phone number. We call him. He says we aren’t really supposed to go through the trash, but he’ll wait to dump it until we get to the dump. We look the address up on Dana’s iPhone and hit the accelerator.

We get to the dump. The old lady at the gate quizzes us about what we’re doing. We try to explain but her response is “You aren’t allowed to salvage.” I tell her we just really need to see our friend, Patrick, the dump truck driver. She lets us in. We fly by the 5 M.P.H. sign and head into the abyss. I call Patrick, he tells me where he’s at. We find him and he says that we’re “lucky because it was a small load today.” The amount of trash is astounding. This would not be a “small load” in my book but, hey, I’m not a trash expert. Patrick, my new favorite person on Earth, gives us a hint. He points at a yellow bucket. “You see that yellow bucket? That was one load before your guys. So,” he says waving his hands in front of a four foot section in the middle, “your stuff is somewhere around here.”

Neither Dana or I have showered in 19 days. We dive into the trash pile. People throw out a lot more than just trash. There’s a lot of dog crap, two dead cats, and a dead rabbit. And that was just in our four-foot section. As far as we had come, as lucky as we had gotten, and as helpful as everyone had been, I had doubts we would find the suits. There was just so much trash. Too much. And, of course, it’s not like a black trash bag is an uncommon color. But all of a sudden I found a trash bag that was full of empty liquor bottles. These were bottles that had traveled down the river with us, bottles that had united our group and had helped build new friendships, and bottles that were now leading me to my sacred drysuit. I reached down, brushing aside more dog shit, and picked up a black trash bag.

In Flagstaff there are train tracks that go right through the middle of town. It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m at a bar with a group of friends I would never trade out for anything. Every time a train rolls through town you can get discounted “train shots”. Awesome, right? A train rumbles through town, we get train shots, and I hoist my shot high in the air. “To the river gods.” We cheer and take our drinks. Dana’s beside me. We’ve had a long day of ups and downs with the DTI but we’re right back where we started: the index is running high, we’re as happy as can be, and we have two awesome drysuits. Plus, hell, we’ve got a great story.”

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Acknowledgments:

* We would never have been on the water without Andrew Wilkin. He organized one helluva trip. Thanks Andrew!
* Special thanks to Idaho River Journeys, Rogue River Journeys, and Kern River Outfitters for the gear they lent us.
* Ceiba is an awesome company. The owners took care of us and helped Dana and me out so much. We wouldn’t have gotten our drysuits back without them! If you’re doing a Grand Canyon trip… use these guys!

-Will Volpert

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!”