Re: Freebies, commerce, and ax grinding

Tim Eicher (eicher@cc.dixie.edu)
Wed, 01 Oct 1997 17:22:01 -0600


I second Al's notion about experienced oarsfolks; that's a concern of mine
in the Grand Canyon. I want the best I can find on my trip so my
passengers are safe, and the best need to see the water pretty regularly.
Canyon Gnome
At 12:57 PM 10/1/97 -0700, you wrote:
>DearFellow Boaters,
> I've been on the road for a few days and GCBoaters has exploded. Let
>me take the old fart's license and deliver a bit of a lecture. First you
>should know that I'm an old boatman and a historian. I've been a craftsman
>and other less estimable things too, but they don't apply here.
> I've picked up three threads of special import since I've been lurking
>here.
>1. System Broke:
> From my research I've learned that two unheralded and thus now held to
>be unlikely groups of high-class women saved Dinosaur National Monument
>from the dam builders.
> What does that have to do with getting you and your friends down the
>Grand?
> When evangelical conservationists from across the country rallied
>'round the canyons of the Yampa and the Green, the ladies of the Garden
>Club of America and an auxilliary of the American Medical Association in
>the San Francisco bay area admonished their allies to proceed with their
>public relations campaign in defense of the Dinosaur canyons keeping the
>following things in mind:
> Know what you're talking about.
> Stick to what you know.
> Be Polite.
>
> The Reclamation Bureau learned from Dave Brower's historic testimony
>on evaporation rates from the surface or reservoirs in the desert that "The
>Devil's in the Details." We face details here too. The detail stew is
>richer and more confusing. None the less, to go off on rants about
>swampers, sweeties, and NPS employees getting to run the Grand, AND NOT
>EVEN BE COUNTED, when we cannot quite yet dip an oar misses the point. And
>we don't know how sharp the point is, apparently. How many folks run the
>Grand each year? How are they parceled between private and commercial
>trips? Does this distribution raise equity questions that can stand on
>their own?
> Because commercial and private runners have quite different notions of
>equity on this question, until some interested party in the crossfire (I
>expect that'll be Grand Canyon National Park) establishes ground rules the
>businesses and the dilletantes will talk right past each other. That's
>impolite. It's a damnable waste of time too. If we hope to settle these
>negotiations down to productive discussions, let's stop forging myriad axes
>to grind and pound out some sort of workable wait list apparatus.
>2. Common Pool
> I think this is a cockamannie idea for the following reason: The
>common pool will put Helms and Weld on the same trip. Yikes and worse.
>Maybe this is a perversely effective way to shorten the list from "oh
>lordy, how long?" to "see you at the put in next year"? [Pardon the
>sarcasm. I couldn't resist.]
> Folks with commercial experience ruefully recall keeping the
>incompatibles from ripping each other's eyes out on long trips. The
>eruption typically comes on the fifth day when everyone has passed their
>"long weekend" (4-day) training for social compatibility. Things get
>yeasty when that threshold passes. For that reason alone I think that the
>lucky stiff that gets a launch MUST be able to select the list of fellow
>travelers. For crying out loud, we cannot get paid for tending strangers'
>tender psyches. I've been under paid for those services before. No way I'll
>do it for nothing.
>3. Repeat Runners
> This connects with point 2, above because on any trip I take on any
>river I run I want every person on the oars to know what's going on. In
>Cat, Grand, the Middle Fork, and at Warm Spring [if you know me you know
>why], I want at least one hand with CURRENT KNOWLEDGE. [I'm not talking
>about reading water here.] My children or spouse may be in any boat on any
>trip I take. I must be willing to ride in that boat myself. That imposes a
>standard that the common pool proposal has no chance of meeting. I haven't
>had the privelige of running the Grand since 1969. There is no way I'll
>take my family down there without someone along who's up to date. Q.E.D.
>4. That unseemly description of commercial passengers and most of my
>middle-aged friends of diverse girths.
> Cf: the dignified ladies' third admonition above.
>
>I cannot make the meeting in Phoenix. Sorry. Clio beckons.
>
>See you on the water,
>Al
>
>
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