Hi everybody: Scottke, as promised, I'm reporting back on my trip.
Left for the Colorado River on 8/23 by bus. Spent seven glorious days in the canyon. Sleeping under the stars was unbelievable. We were up 3-4 times/night just looking up at the stars. Rained two days. Was nice as we got to see waterfalls, however, river then became muddy. Rapids were . . . scarey, rip-roaring screaming fun, cold as the river temp was cold and with no sun those 2 days; thank God I brought my fleece and rain suit as did my friends. Hiking was rough but we had the option to do a BIG hike or small one each time. The company we rafted with was GCE - Grand Canyon Expeditions. Very top shelf, professional crew. Ate like kings and queens, whole foods, filet mignon, chicken, fish, fresh fruit, etc. Every day we all had to gather up our sleeping gear and load it into a rubber duffles then seal it, roll it down and buckle both sides. Same with our 20# only of belongings. We had to pee in the river, no lie. "The Unit" was just for solid waste. Bathing, in the river too. We brought pre-prepared wipes for cleansing which worked out real well. However, our hair do's suffered but nobody really cared. Got to swim in a clear running 100 ft. waterfall. Awesome. Also, we were able to cliff jump into the river, very supervised I might add. We had two boats - 37 ft. S-rig motorized pontoon boats. Each had 12 campers, 1 boatman, 1 swamper (helper). Much sand as the beaches for lunch and camps were totally sand. When we left a camp, you couldn't even tell anybody had been there.

I'd recommend this trip to everyone and anyone. It's life changing. Helps you realize how very small you really are in the scheme of things. Also helps you get things into perspective. I so appreciate toilets now and hot showers, my new box spring and mattress. Ok, that's all for now. Any questions??