The Westwater Report

I had the great pleasure of spending the weekend on the Colorado River with some fellow dory builders that I met through Sandy's website. Lincoln Frye was nice enough to host us on his Westwater permit on Saturday the 8th. We had 4 distinctly different wood dories on the trip, including my 14.5’ Honky Dory, Dave Inskeep and his 16’ Tatman Grand Canyon dory, Lincoln and his "kayak with oars" personal 10’ whitewater dory, and his son Kyle with his one-off 12’ dory.

It was an exciting day for me. I managed to put three holes in my boat - one, a fairly significant chine hit at the scarf joint, occurred in the 2nd rapid, just above the several mile continuous class IV section. After a quick patch, and some anxiety suppression, we pushed off and tore down through the rest of the canyon. I had good runs through the meat, but managed an encounter with the "magnetic wall" in "Sock it to me."

The camera was rolling through most of the run, so once it’s downloaded and processed, I will be sure to post the results.

Thanks to Lincoln and his family for sharing the river with us. Lincoln has raised quite a family of boatmen/women. Kyle, Lincoln’s son, is one of the best boatmen I’ve ever shared the river with. That guy can move a dory like nothing else. I believe he’s off to OR to defend his title in the Clackmas driftboat races. Iris, Lincoln’s daughter is no slouch either - and is getting ready to build her own dory for a Grand Canyon trip next year. And Lincoln is one hell of a cool cat, and it shows where his progeny gets their boating skills. Iris told me that Lincoln has done a river trip every month for the last few years.

Pics and video to come...