Aren’t they all…

But first, some thing I haven’t and have done on this gorgeous, sunny Saturday:

I have not:
-gone skiing
-received a packraft in the mail (boo… ;))

I have:
-ridden my singlespeed
-cut the grass
-changed the oil and tranny fluid on the truck
-done some sewing
-wrenched on bikes
-shopped for a Glacier National Park trip on which we’re leaving this evening
-watered the vegetable garden
-eaten a starship banana with two scoops ridiculously good peanut butter ice cream
-slacklined

But on to more interesting things (ie the mid-future). This trip would be a technical variation on the classic Grand Canyon Thunder River, Deer Creek, and Kanab Creek loop. See map for orientation.

Gear required:
-standard GC camping gear for the season in question
-packraft and paddle
-drysuit/wetsuit
-canyoneering gear (for 200′ rap)
-perhaps a few tricams and nuts
-redundant waterproof light sources

Trip would begin and end at the Indian Hollow campground. Descend to Thunder River via the standard route. Camp. Explore Thunder River cave and Tapeats Cave (must skip to last minute for relevant visuals). Float down to Deer Creek (shhhh..). Lap the Deer Creek Narrows. Float down to Kanab Creek. Hike up Kanab to Indian Hollow, exit back to truck. (Most of the way down this page is map that shows the later sections of this trip.)

The main virtue of this trip is that I’ve always wanted to do Deer Creek, and if you haul the hardware down you might as well put it to other uses. The other virtue is that the river section of the Thunder to Kanab hike is reputed to be merely ok, and if a raft is handy for avoiding hypothermia in Thunder cave, might as well put it to other use. The question of course is what sort of trouble one might expect for floating the river in a small boat, and the likelihood of said trouble coming to pass. I don’t recall anything on the GC backcountry permits prohibiting downriver travel…