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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody out there in the Pacific Northwest or with

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Speaker 1: access to an airport or a car rental place that

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Speaker 1: can get you to the Pacific Northwest specifically at the

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Speaker 1: end of January. We'll see you in Seattle, Portland, and

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Speaker 1: San Francisco.

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Speaker 2: That's right to Our new live show for twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: four is Seattle, Washington January twenty fourth at the Paramount Theater,

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Speaker 2: then Portland at our Homeway from Home at Revolution Hall

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Speaker 2: the twenty fifth, and then winding it all up at

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Speaker 2: Sketchfest on the twenty six at the Sydney Goldstein Theater.

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Speaker 1: Very nice. If you want tickets, if you want information,

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Speaker 1: if you want tickets, you can go to a couple

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Speaker 1: of places. You can go to our link tree at

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Speaker 1: Linktree slash sysk, and you can go to our home

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Speaker 1: on the web, Stuff youshould Know dot com. Click on

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Speaker 1: the tour button and it'll take you to all of

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Speaker 1: the beautiful places you can go to buy your tickets

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Speaker 1: and we'll see you guys in January.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's

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Speaker 1: Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is stuff you

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Speaker 1: should know.

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Speaker 3: That's right.

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Speaker 1: Life is a highway. I want to arrive in all

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Speaker 1: night long, not again down the.

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Speaker 3: River Canadian legend Tom broke off. That's right. No, it's

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Speaker 3: not right.

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Speaker 2: But hey, we want to welcome yet another new writer

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Speaker 2: that's helping us out. Welcome Anna, because Anna helped us

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Speaker 2: with this and Anna Green and I thought this. She

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Speaker 2: did a really good job. And we hope Ana can

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Speaker 2: write some more stuff for us in the future. And

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Speaker 2: I could have sworn this was a listener suggestion, and

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Speaker 2: I looked and I just could not find it. So

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Speaker 2: if someone suggested that we do a show on a

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Speaker 2: gentleman named Kenton Grua who was a Grand Canyon river guide,

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Speaker 2: pretty remarkable person, then I'm really sorry because I really

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Speaker 2: I looked and looked there em but I just couldn't

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Speaker 2: find it. So that was nice. Yeah, if you want

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Speaker 2: to write in and say, hey, that was me, I'll

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Speaker 2: check it against my records and we'll give you a

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Speaker 2: future shot out.

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Speaker 1: Also, I got to give Anna the coronation. You ready,

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Speaker 1: that's right? All right?

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Speaker 3: Welcome aboard the old mouth wornon.

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Speaker 1: So we're talking Kent and grewa never heard of this

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Speaker 1: person before in my life until I started researching this person,

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Speaker 1: this man, this legend actually really Yeah, he's especially if

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Speaker 1: you spend much time hanging out with Grand Canyon riverfolk,

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Speaker 1: you will you will hear stories of Kent and Grua,

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Speaker 1: although apparently not from him while he was alive. He's

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Speaker 1: supposedly very humble as far as his own accomplishments go.

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Speaker 1: But if you if you talk to one of his friends,

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Speaker 1: you would probably get some thrilling stories out of them

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Speaker 1: because he did some pretty interesting stuff along that Colorado River.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, And we also want to shout out a book

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Speaker 2: that both Anna and we and we used. Kevin Fodarco

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Speaker 2: wrote a book called The Emerald Mile about this river run,

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Speaker 2: this record breaking timed river run down the Grand Canyon River,

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Speaker 2: Colorado River, and I knew the name, and then I

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Speaker 2: remember that I watched this great documentary from nat GEO

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Speaker 2: called Into the Canyon and Kevin Fodarco was one of

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Speaker 2: the guys. He and a guy named Pete McBride hiked

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Speaker 2: almost seven hundred and fifty miles from one end of

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Speaker 2: the canyon to the other and made this really gorgeous,

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Speaker 2: gorgeous documentary so I highly recommend Into the Canyon as

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Speaker 2: well as the book The Emerald Mile and Big thanks

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Speaker 2: to everything that Kevin Foderco does in terms of raising

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Speaker 2: awareness for the Grand Canyon.

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Speaker 1: Like, think about that, man, that's so many miles you

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Speaker 1: would have to get a new pair of shoes. At

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Speaker 1: some point in the middle of that.

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Speaker 2: I think they did you have to take they I

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Speaker 2: think they bailed on an attempt and then came back

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Speaker 2: and did it or something I can't remember, but just

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Speaker 2: gorgeous photography and really good stuff. The Grand Canyon is

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Speaker 2: just a truly a magical place. If you've never been there,

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Speaker 2: just go. It's one of those places that were like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I've seen pictures and stuff, but it's one of the

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Speaker 2: place one of the few places that where I truly

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Speaker 2: understood the meaning of bread taking. Like I actually literally

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Speaker 2: got physically short of breath when I first stood there

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Speaker 2: on that rim.

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Speaker 1: Like you had a panic attack.

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Speaker 2: No, it was just truly breathtaking. It's really really just

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Speaker 2: you gotta go, you gotta do it.

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Speaker 1: Have you been, Yes, I have. I've been to the

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Speaker 1: North Rim. I didn't ride a burrow or anything like that,

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Speaker 1: but I did look down and get to see the

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Speaker 1: whole thing from that wooded, forested north Rim. That is

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Speaker 1: not like what you think of when you think of

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Speaker 1: the Grand Canyon. It's like just a whole other side

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Speaker 1: of it. It's really neat.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's amazing.

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Speaker 1: I did have a panic attack, That's why I couldn't

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Speaker 1: breathe because I was looking over into it. I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I'm this is I can't do this. But yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: pretty pretty neat for sure.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've never been down to the river. My friend

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Speaker 2: Brett and I hiked down there's I don't know, I'm

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Speaker 2: not sure how far down it is, but we hiked

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Speaker 2: down to there's this one sort of area where you

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Speaker 2: can hike down to and hang out for a bit

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Speaker 2: if you don't want to go down all the way,

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Speaker 2: and then hike back out and young in shape Chuck.

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Speaker 2: That hike out was one of the toughest things I've

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Speaker 2: ever done.

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Speaker 1: Because you're basically just going up right.

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Speaker 3: Up, up, up up up up in the heat. Heat. Heat.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow. So back to Kent and Grua. He was

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Speaker 1: somebody who could hike up the sides of the canyon

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Speaker 1: up out of it because he did that a lot,

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Speaker 1: mostly because he spent a lot, essentially his entire adult

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Speaker 1: life in the Grand Canyon along the Colorado River, and

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Speaker 1: if you wanted to go see his family or friends

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Speaker 1: see a movie, that's what he had to do. He

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Speaker 1: had to hike out of the Grand Canyon to go

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Speaker 1: do those things. So he was, from every thing I saw,

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Speaker 1: extraordinarily fit but also kind of at one with the canyon.

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Speaker 1: If anybody could be, he was definitely one of those people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. He was born in Salt Lake City

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Speaker 2: in nineteen fifty and was really big into snow skiing

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Speaker 2: until he was twelve years old when his family, because

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Speaker 2: of business his father started a trucking company, moved to Vernal, Utah.

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Speaker 2: At the time, there was no skiing in Vernal and

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Speaker 2: so his dad said, hey, kiddo, you're twelve, you'd love

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Speaker 2: to be outdoors in adventure, so let's go on a

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Speaker 2: rafting trip. And they went to the Yampa River for

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Speaker 2: his birthday and kitt and Grua was like, this is

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Speaker 2: where it's at. I love river rafting. So pops bought

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Speaker 2: him a army surplus raft and he, as a young kid,

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Speaker 2: started taking these little solo rafting trips. And that's kind

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Speaker 2: of where he learned how to navigate rivers. Initially he

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Speaker 2: got the river bug. He totally got the river bug.

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Speaker 1: A few years later, he was going to study mechanical

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Speaker 1: engineering at the University of Utah, and during winter break

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Speaker 1: of freshman year, he was offered a job working for

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Speaker 1: Hatch River Expeditions, river boating outfit along the Colorado River

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Speaker 1: in the Grand Canyon. And he said, so long college,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to go do this. And the job was

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Speaker 1: even just patching boats, like it wasn't even as a

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Speaker 1: river guide. But that's how much he'd loved spending time

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Speaker 1: not just on the river but specifically the Colorado River

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Speaker 1: in the Grand Canyon itself. Yeah, but because of his

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Speaker 1: natural talent and his just complete passion for the job,

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Speaker 1: he became river guide within just a few months of

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Speaker 1: his first job there.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, so he's now taking an adventuresome tourist through the

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Speaker 2: Grand Canyon down the river. He got another job after

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Speaker 2: that at Grand Canyon Expeditions for a little while and

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Speaker 2: met a really important person in his life. There, a

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Speaker 2: mentor in some way as far as conservationism god named

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Speaker 2: Martin Litton l I T t O N who was

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Speaker 2: starting his own company, his own expedition company, and Litton

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Speaker 2: was about he was all about just preserving the not

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Speaker 2: just the Grand Canyon, but just all of nature, and

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Speaker 2: was just sort of ashamed of what humankind had done

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Speaker 2: to nature. And in fact, the boat that grewa would

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Speaker 2: eventually pilot down the Colorado River for that record breaking run.

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Speaker 2: It was called the Emerald Mile. These boats Linton had,

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Speaker 2: he would name them after natural wonders that had been

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Speaker 2: destroyed by humans as a reminder. And this apparently the

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Speaker 2: Emerald Mile was a stretch of old growth redwoods in

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Speaker 2: California that were clear cut in the sixties. So he

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Speaker 2: named this wooden dory, this boat that you paddle with

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Speaker 2: oars after that stretch of redwoods.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and no Dori in particular. For the most part,

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Speaker 1: people at the time, and I think still today, were

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Speaker 1: going down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon on

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Speaker 1: these expedition tours in rubber boats like zodiacs, like motorized

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Speaker 1: boats that you could bump up against rocks all day

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Speaker 1: and they were probably going to be fine.

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Speaker 3: That's Some of them were regular boats.

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Speaker 1: What do you mean regular like a pontoon.

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Speaker 2: No, Like in the early days, they were just like,

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Speaker 2: I saw something that looked like old wooden Chris crafts.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow, okay, wow, that's kind of cool talk about

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Speaker 1: doing it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, okay.

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Speaker 1: So the dory itself, though, it was originally like a

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Speaker 1: fishing boat that Europeans, I think the Portuguese were the

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Speaker 1: ones who really kind of perfected it would take out

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Speaker 1: on the ocean, so they were like sea worthy row

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Speaker 1: boats basically, and they eventually made their way to New

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Speaker 1: England where whalers would take them out, and then Martin

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Speaker 1: Linton got his hands on them for the Grand Canyon

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Speaker 1: because he was just like you you experience the Colorado

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Speaker 1: River in a dory in ways that you can't possibly

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Speaker 1: in a raft, let alone a motorized draft. So there

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Speaker 1: it's like a purposefully old timey antique way of going

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Speaker 1: down the Colorado River. And they still use dories today

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Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, some outfits too.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and Greua was like, this thing is amazing, because

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Speaker 2: you know, he wanted, as we'll see, he really enjoyed

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Speaker 2: getting down that river fast and this the dory is

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Speaker 2: like they won't obviously, because they're made of wood, they

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Speaker 2: won't bounce off a rock like a raft will. But

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Speaker 2: they're much more able to be steered, they handle a

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Speaker 2: lot better, they're much more I don't know if lithe

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Speaker 2: is the right word, but you can motor down that

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Speaker 2: river in a dory better than you can in a

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Speaker 2: raft if you're into speed and churning.

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Speaker 1: Sure, but a lot of the most of the dory

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Speaker 1: expeditions use ors their road, right. Oh yeah, So the

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Speaker 1: other thing about it that you mentioned is that like

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Speaker 1: it won't handle bumping against rocks like a raft will.

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Speaker 1: They're much more fragile, much less forgiving than a rubber raft,

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Speaker 1: which means you have to be that much more experienced

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Speaker 1: and have that much greater ability to take a dory

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Speaker 1: down the Colorado River than you would like a raft.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, they can get dinged up a

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Speaker 2: little as I kind of thought at first, like you

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Speaker 2: hit a rock with one of these and you're sinking immediately.

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Speaker 1: This explosion catches fire, right.

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Speaker 2: Exactly, And I'm sure that can happen. But as as

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Speaker 2: you will see, you know they can. They can get

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Speaker 2: bumped up a little bit, and you know they're pretty hardy.

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Speaker 1: I think, yeah, no, for sure, but it's just some

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Speaker 1: of those rapids can be pretty rough on the old boat.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely so.

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Speaker 1: Grua was in love with dories just like Martin Linton was,

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Speaker 1: and he came on Linton's company, Green Canyon Dories and

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Speaker 1: began piloting a dory called the Chattahoochie. He did that

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Speaker 1: for like ten years down the Colorado River. He made

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Speaker 1: nearly one hundred trips, which, by my estimation, that's almost

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Speaker 1: half of the days between nineteen sixty nine and nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy nine. When he made those hundred trips he spent

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Speaker 1: on the Colorado River. That's a lot of time on Colorado.

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Speaker 1: That's exactly what he wanted to do. He could not

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Speaker 1: have been happier. He chose this life for himself and

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Speaker 1: he just did it. He made it work, and he

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Speaker 1: became an expert on the Colorado River as it runs

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Speaker 1: through the Grand Canyon.

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Speaker 3: Totally like reading this, I got very jealous of his life.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I was looking at some of the dory expeditions

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Speaker 1: they have and I was like, man, that's amazing. Then

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Speaker 1: it's like eighteen days. I said, no, I'm not going

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Speaker 1: to do that. Like, are there helicopters that you can

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Speaker 1: lower in and do a couple of days and then

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Speaker 1: come out. No, there's not apparently.

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Speaker 2: Well sadly, there are helicopter trips that they will take

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Speaker 2: you down and land you on a big plateau. That's

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Speaker 2: one of the things I learned from that documentary that

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Speaker 2: Fiderco was in was they were trying to raise awareness

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Speaker 2: for these you know, they were trying to build some

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Speaker 2: big like hotel basically like halfway down the canyon, and

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Speaker 2: all these people were fighting it, seeing like you can't

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Speaker 2: do that.

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Speaker 3: You can't turn this into.

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Speaker 2: A place where people can get rich, people can get

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Speaker 2: helicoptered in and stay in a five star resort.

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Speaker 3: Like no, no, no, okay.

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Speaker 1: First of all, I felt like a jackass before. Now

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Speaker 1: I really feel like a jackass.

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Speaker 2: But some of you were talking about getting dropped off

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Speaker 2: to Row. Sure, like ziplining out like a ranger.

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Speaker 1: Right, But I mean like walking down from a resort

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Speaker 1: to go row for a couple of days.

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Speaker 3: Maybe that's as pretty good.

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Speaker 2: But the.

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Speaker 1: Kind of upshot of what you're saying is a good

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Speaker 1: analogy from what I understand. To compare rafting or boating

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Speaker 1: down the Colorado River these days would be like going

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Speaker 1: on an expedition to Everest. It is nothing like it

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Speaker 1: used to be. Yeah, even twenty thirty, forty years ago,

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Speaker 1: it's just gotten so much easier. There's so much money

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Speaker 1: being thrown at this now, it's just not even a

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Speaker 1: challenge any longer. It's like a posh vacation for people

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Speaker 1: who like to act like their adventurers. And I'm saying

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Speaker 1: that I'm not going to climb Everest, so I can't

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Speaker 1: really be critical, but I'm saying comparing it to how

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Speaker 1: it originally started, when these outfits were first created in

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Speaker 1: like the forties, fifties, sixties, it's just nothing like that today.

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Speaker 1: It's far more commercialized, I guess, is what I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to say.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so in the meme how it started, how it's

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Speaker 2: going to be a person like bleeding from the head

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Speaker 2: and spitting a river water out of their mouth, and

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Speaker 2: then another one with a dude holding a martini as

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Speaker 2: he goes down the river.

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Speaker 3: Exactly, all right, I said.

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Speaker 2: We took a break, oh yeah, and we come back

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Speaker 2: and we talk a little bit more about Kenton Grua

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Speaker 2: the man. All right, as promised, We're going to tell

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Speaker 2: you a little bit more about the personality of Kent

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Speaker 2: and Grua. He was quite an adventurer like you said

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Speaker 2: was just in love with nature, and in particular the

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Speaker 2: Grand Canyon in that river. His nickname was the Factor.

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Speaker 2: If you ever read anything you're going to see him,

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Speaker 2: probably called Kenton the Factor Grua and that was because

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Speaker 2: apparently he was just like this larger than life personality

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Speaker 2: and like anytime he was a part of something he

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Speaker 2: had some sort of influence on it, he was a factor,

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Speaker 2: and thus the Factor.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll put he was also very fond of pot

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Speaker 1: and drinking liquor while he was working on the trail

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Speaker 1: and after, I guess after rowing for the day, sitting

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Speaker 1: on a beach, Yeah, you'd probably light up what one

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Speaker 1: might call it.

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Speaker 3: Split back then might be a doobie for sure.

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Speaker 1: And I'll bet it just gave you a headache instantly.

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Speaker 1: But he also is a little kind of fashion conscious,

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Speaker 1: you can say. Anna points out that he would wear

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Speaker 1: cutoff levies that look cool, especially if you're barefoot and

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Speaker 1: you have long hair in your stone. But if you're

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Speaker 1: like falling the water, it takes like a week for

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Speaker 1: those things to dry out. So long story short, Kent

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Speaker 1: and Gruel was very frequently chafed on the inside of

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Speaker 1: his thighs.

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Speaker 3: Right he was not at all man.

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Speaker 2: He was five foot six, but you know, had an

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Speaker 2: outsized personality and sense of adventure. I guess there was

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Speaker 2: one story that he was on one expedition and they

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Speaker 2: drank all the booze, so he hiked all the way

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Speaker 2: out of the Grand Canyon to go get more booze,

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Speaker 2: hike back in.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's just one story about Kent and grew, but

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Speaker 1: it definitely drives the point home. Like he liked booze,

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Speaker 1: but he was also willing to physically exert himself at

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Speaker 1: the drop of a hat. So he was a tough

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Speaker 1: dude essentially, But he was also supposedly really kind and

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Speaker 1: gentle with the tourists that he took down the river. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he was well known for that. But he was also

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Speaker 1: known for being very opinionated about how the river should

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Speaker 1: be navigated, how an expedition should be run, and so

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Speaker 1: he would be more than likely to butt heads with

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Speaker 1: some of the other river guides that he worked with,

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Speaker 1: but that didn't rub off toward the passengers, which I

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Speaker 1: think makes him a pro.

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Speaker 2: I'd say, yeah, absolutely, And you know we're going to

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Speaker 2: build up sort of story wise to the record breaking

334
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Speaker 2: river run. But he did some pretty remarkable things before that,

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Speaker 2: one of which was to hike the entire length of

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Speaker 2: the Grand Canon from Lee's Ferry to Grand Wash Cliffs.

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Speaker 2: He read a book in nineteen sixty eight that was

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Speaker 2: a backpacker named Colin Fletcher who did that hike, well

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Speaker 2: sort of, we'll see the man who walked through Time

340
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Speaker 2: was the book and he said, I'm the first person

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Speaker 2: to hike the entire link of the Grand Canyon.

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Speaker 3: And Grew was like, no, you didn't.

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Speaker 2: You hiked the canyon within the National Park System. But buddy,

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Speaker 2: that ain't all of the Grand Canyon.

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Speaker 1: The guy went, what.

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Speaker 3: So I'm going to do it? And he did.

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Speaker 2: He tried a couple of times, he tried the first time,

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Speaker 2: and you know, this is two hundred and seventy seven

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Speaker 2: miles as the crow flies. Yeah, like I mentioned before,

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Speaker 2: when Faderka did it, they hiked seven hundred and fifty miles.

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Speaker 2: Because you can't just walk a straight line, there's things

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Speaker 2: you just can't navigate around, so you're having to hike,

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Speaker 2: you know, three times as much or at least two

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Speaker 2: and a half times as much as the length of

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Speaker 2: the canyon to complete that high.

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Speaker 1: That's a nuts and he did it first time he

357
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Speaker 1: tried it. Remember I said he liked to run around

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Speaker 1: barefoot and cut off Levi's oh, yeah, well this he

359
00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:09,760
Speaker 1: realized he was going on a very long hike, so

360
00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:11,880
Speaker 1: he went to the trouble of buying himself some leather

361
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Speaker 1: moccasins to hi kid. Those lasted very short time before

362
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Speaker 1: he started wearing through them and actually cut his foot

363
00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:20,399
Speaker 1: on a cactus started to get infected. He's like, I

364
00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:21,880
Speaker 1: should probably stop now.

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00:19:22,359 --> 00:19:25,360
Speaker 2: That surprised me that he would. I mean, that's a mistake.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I think he knew that that wasn't going to work.

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Speaker 1: You know, I don't know that that's true. Like he

369
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Speaker 1: was capable of making mistakes, for sure. He's also capable

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Speaker 1: of evolving his opinions and understandings about things. And he

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Speaker 1: wasn't so dumb that he kept going until he died, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know that was nineteen seventy two, I think. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: four years later, he's like, I'm going to do this different.

374
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Speaker 1: I'm going to not only wear work boots instead of moccasins. Smart,

375
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Speaker 1: move out of the gate.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

377
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Speaker 1: He scouted the whole route in advanced and supply caches

378
00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:04,880
Speaker 1: along the route, so that he could travel as light

379
00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:08,359
Speaker 1: as possible, and that's when he set out that second time,

380
00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:13,240
Speaker 1: and that's when he was successful. Hiking almost six hundred

381
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Speaker 1: miles is the route that he took.

382
00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:20,639
Speaker 2: Wow, that is amazing. I think he if you average

383
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:24,119
Speaker 2: it out, he was averaging like almost seventeen mile a

384
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Speaker 2: day clip, which is super fast. I mean, when I've

385
00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:32,240
Speaker 2: done hikes and I'm really hauling it, if I get

386
00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:34,800
Speaker 2: ten miles in a day, that's like a really long,

387
00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:38,600
Speaker 2: hard day. And he was in the Grand Canyon, arduous

388
00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:41,600
Speaker 2: conditions in the seventies when gear was not like it

389
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:45,199
Speaker 2: is now and averaging close to seventeen miles a day,

390
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Speaker 2: which is nuts. It took him thirty six days to

391
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Speaker 2: complete the whole thing.

392
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Speaker 1: I can barely get seventeen miles in a day in

393
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Speaker 1: a helicopter, let alone hiking. So yeah, thirty six days

394
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Speaker 1: to hike almost six hundred miles. And this is again

395
00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:02,280
Speaker 1: it's not a straight line flat like there's up and

396
00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:06,000
Speaker 1: down and over and it's what he did was very significant,

397
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Speaker 1: and he became the first person on record at least

398
00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:12,399
Speaker 1: to have hiked the entire length of the Grand Canyon,

399
00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:15,800
Speaker 1: not just the National Park, the whole Grand Canyon. And

400
00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:19,520
Speaker 1: so whenever you're hearing about people boating through the Grand

401
00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:22,159
Speaker 1: Canyon on the Colorado River, what they're talking about is

402
00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:28,320
Speaker 1: that same length, the whole geographical Grand Canyon from Lee's

403
00:21:28,359 --> 00:21:31,600
Speaker 1: Ferry to Grand Wash cliffs.

404
00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:32,680
Speaker 3: Man.

405
00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:36,800
Speaker 2: All right, so let's talk a little bit about that

406
00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:40,640
Speaker 2: river run that you just described. You know, from point

407
00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:46,000
Speaker 2: to point. The very first expedition down that Colorado River

408
00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:49,720
Speaker 2: was by a guy, a Civil War veteran with one arm,

409
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:53,920
Speaker 2: named John Wesley Powell in eighteen sixty nine. It took

410
00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:58,200
Speaker 2: ninety eight days at that point and pretty much wrecked

411
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:00,199
Speaker 2: the crew. I mean it was by the time they

412
00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:02,760
Speaker 2: got there, they were starving. Was it was a very

413
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:05,640
Speaker 2: very tough ride in eighteen sixty nine.

414
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Speaker 1: Can I just say one thing about that expedition, Chuck? Sure,

415
00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:12,840
Speaker 1: Three of them, three members of the expedition said nuts

416
00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:15,840
Speaker 1: to this, like we're giving up, and set off on

417
00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:20,280
Speaker 1: foot and we're never heard from again. And they left

418
00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:24,440
Speaker 1: two days before this expedition finally reached its destination. They

419
00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:26,560
Speaker 1: just didn't know that they were that close to the end,

420
00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:29,120
Speaker 1: and they left and died. Isn't that crazy?

421
00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:30,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's sad.

422
00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:33,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, but they were the first Europeans on record to

423
00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:37,480
Speaker 1: have circumnavigated the Colorado River through the entire Grand Canyon,

424
00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:38,680
Speaker 1: and it was a big deal.

425
00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:43,199
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's like the old mine in apocalypse Now. Never

426
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:44,679
Speaker 2: never get off the gd.

427
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:48,159
Speaker 1: Boat, right, the gosh darn boat.

428
00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:50,320
Speaker 3: In the case of apocalypse. Now, it's because there might

429
00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:51,359
Speaker 3: be a tiger in the jungle.

430
00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:54,280
Speaker 1: Right. So I saw also that this was considered the

431
00:22:54,359 --> 00:22:57,639
Speaker 1: last voyage of discovery in North America. It was a

432
00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:00,760
Speaker 1: big deal that John Wesley Powllin is his grew did this.

433
00:23:01,359 --> 00:23:01,800
Speaker 3: That's right.

434
00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:03,880
Speaker 2: Then in nineteen forty nine there was a guy named

435
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:07,520
Speaker 2: Ed Hudson who was a pharmacist who made a run

436
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,680
Speaker 2: in a motor boat. So it was obviously the fastest

437
00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 2: at the time at five days and ten minutes. And

438
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:18,719
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden, motor boats and regular boats

439
00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:23,359
Speaker 2: started attempting these speed runs. People are trying to, you know,

440
00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:28,320
Speaker 2: break previous records. You know, depending on how adventurous you were.

441
00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:29,920
Speaker 2: I guess it depends on whether or not you want

442
00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:34,160
Speaker 2: to use some motor But obviously the berets are off

443
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,679
Speaker 2: to the people who didn't use the motor. Yeah, I'm

444
00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:40,040
Speaker 2: sure it was still hard but it ain't like paddling,

445
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:40,479
Speaker 2: you know.

446
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 1: No, Ed Hudson, a pharmacist in nineteen forty nine, he

447
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:47,359
Speaker 1: did it in like five days and ten minutes using

448
00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:51,720
Speaker 1: a motor boat. Jim and Bob Rigg I think two

449
00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:55,200
Speaker 1: years later, said nuts to the motor boat. We're going

450
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:59,080
Speaker 1: to not only go down the same path that John

451
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:01,560
Speaker 1: Wesley Powell did in eighteen sixty nine that nearly killed

452
00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:06,119
Speaker 1: him without a motor we're going to break Ed Hudson's

453
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:07,159
Speaker 1: motor based record.

454
00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 3: And they did actually, yeah, fifty two hours.

455
00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 2: And this was at a time in the fifties when

456
00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:16,840
Speaker 2: like a tourist trip, that same tourist trip and a

457
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:19,879
Speaker 2: non motorized boat would be about three weeks. And of

458
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:22,080
Speaker 2: course they're not trying to break a record, they're trying

459
00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:25,879
Speaker 2: to show everyone a nice, good time, right exactly, probably

460
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:31,720
Speaker 2: fairly relaxing, so it's not yeah, but some people did

461
00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:37,240
Speaker 2: like the slow train. The longest attempt was in seventy three,

462
00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:38,960
Speaker 2: and that took one hundred and three days. That's a

463
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 2: little more of my speed, I think.

464
00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:43,320
Speaker 1: So we need to say something about the Colorado River.

465
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:46,439
Speaker 1: As Kent and Grua knew it. He came along in

466
00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:50,040
Speaker 1: what was it, nineteen sixty eight or sixty nine, Yeah,

467
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,159
Speaker 1: one hundred years exactly after John Wesley Powell Kent and

468
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:56,960
Speaker 1: Grewa came along and took up life on the Colorado

469
00:24:57,040 --> 00:25:00,439
Speaker 1: River through the Grand Canyon. But unfortunately for Kent Grewa,

470
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:03,680
Speaker 1: that was six years after the I think the Department

471
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:08,280
Speaker 1: of the Interior created the Glen Canyon Dam, yeah, upstream

472
00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:12,520
Speaker 1: of the Grand Canyon in uh on the Colorado River,

473
00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:16,240
Speaker 1: and the Colorado River was tamed. That's the best way

474
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:18,720
Speaker 1: to put it. It was up to the I think

475
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:21,160
Speaker 1: the Army Corps of Engineers or whoever runs the dam

476
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:26,640
Speaker 1: there at Glen Canyon to decide how much water the

477
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:29,640
Speaker 1: Colorado River had. And before that it had been considered

478
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:34,360
Speaker 1: the wildest river in America because the snow melt from

479
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:39,400
Speaker 1: the mountains upstream. Depending on how how much it snowed

480
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:42,240
Speaker 1: that year, and then how how much, how high the

481
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:46,000
Speaker 1: temperatures rose, and how quickly they did that spring, that

482
00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:50,080
Speaker 1: river could turn wild in an instant because so much

483
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:52,359
Speaker 1: water would come down from the mountains and it would

484
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 1: just flood the Colorado River, including some of the side canyons,

485
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:58,960
Speaker 1: and it would make it nuts. And Kent and Grua

486
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:03,600
Speaker 1: he knew this too, came along after that ceased, and

487
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:05,840
Speaker 1: so now the Colorado was relatively mild.

488
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:08,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, if you're going to go down a river

489
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:13,399
Speaker 2: and you want to see how you know, challenging it

490
00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:16,800
Speaker 2: might be as a rower, You're going to look at

491
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:21,200
Speaker 2: what's called the gradient in feet per mile, And obviously

492
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:25,160
Speaker 2: the higher the gradient, the more you know, the faster

493
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:28,920
Speaker 2: that water's going to be. A pretty wild river can

494
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:31,879
Speaker 2: have a gradient between twenty five and sixty feet per mile.

495
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 2: The Colorado River has a gradient of eight feet per mile.

496
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:40,480
Speaker 2: So the actual you know, the where the river sits

497
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 2: and the land beneath that river, that gradient isn't too crazy.

498
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:49,000
Speaker 2: It is the steepness of the sides of that canyon

499
00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:52,000
Speaker 2: is what makes it crazy. Because, like you said, when

500
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:55,760
Speaker 2: that stuff flash floods and it hits the Colorado River,

501
00:26:56,560 --> 00:27:01,240
Speaker 2: it can move boulders, it can create you know, waves,

502
00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:03,080
Speaker 2: and when that water hits the still water, it can

503
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:05,879
Speaker 2: create a wave like twenty to thirty feet high.

504
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:09,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure in a river. Yeah. One of the

505
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,199
Speaker 1: reasons why stuff like that happens is because all that

506
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:15,360
Speaker 1: debris and boulder create these natural dams on either side

507
00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:18,359
Speaker 1: of the river, narrowing the channel, speeding up the water,

508
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,080
Speaker 1: and once you have fast water running into slow water,

509
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:25,399
Speaker 1: all sorts of crazy stuff happens. So speaking, geographically, the

510
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:28,760
Speaker 1: Colorado River shouldn't have rapids, but because of its situation

511
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:32,600
Speaker 1: in that stretch of the Grand Canyon, it does. It

512
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:35,920
Speaker 1: has some pretty cool rapids. And Kent and Gruin knew

513
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 1: how to do this, Like his job was to take

514
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:41,080
Speaker 1: people through these rapids down this stream. But again the

515
00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:43,160
Speaker 1: river that he was on was not the same river

516
00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 1: that John Wesley Powell had been on because of the dam.

517
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:50,679
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, So you.

518
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:54,800
Speaker 1: Want to talk about the first the first attempt in nineteen.

519
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:58,480
Speaker 2: Eighty, Yeah, I mean successful. A tip makes it sounds

520
00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:00,760
Speaker 2: like he didn't do it. He actually did set a

521
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:05,960
Speaker 2: speed record in nineteen eighty I think how fast was

522
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:06,280
Speaker 2: that one?

523
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:09,040
Speaker 1: He did him forty six hours in fifty six minutes.

524
00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:12,400
Speaker 1: He beat Jim and Bob Riggs nineteen fifty one record,

525
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:15,040
Speaker 1: which it stood for almost thirty years.

526
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:18,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he breaks the record and you would think,

527
00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:19,800
Speaker 2: you know a lot of people would say like, all right,

528
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:23,000
Speaker 2: I did what I attempted to do, broke that record,

529
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:25,800
Speaker 2: But Kit and grew It was like man that river

530
00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:29,920
Speaker 2: was was not fast that day, a couple of days,

531
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,240
Speaker 2: and I can do this a lot faster. And he

532
00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 2: became sort of I don't know about obsessed, if that's

533
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:37,760
Speaker 2: the right word. I don't know if someone who smoked

534
00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:39,520
Speaker 2: that much weed can then get that obsessed or worked

535
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:43,200
Speaker 2: up about anything. But he said, I know I can

536
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:45,800
Speaker 2: do this if that like, it doesn't matter how fast

537
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:49,240
Speaker 2: I'm rowing. Unless I have a faster river just from

538
00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 2: the natural conditions, then I can't break that record. So

539
00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:57,400
Speaker 2: I'm gonna wait until the conditions are right. And that

540
00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:02,280
Speaker 2: happened in nineteen eighty three because of El Nino. It

541
00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:04,640
Speaker 2: was at the time, at least the most extreme El

542
00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:08,040
Speaker 2: Nino that had happened to that point. Caused a ton

543
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:11,880
Speaker 2: of snow. All that snow melts at some point, and

544
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you're gonna have flooding such that

545
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:18,880
Speaker 2: if you're measuring like a river flow, you measure it

546
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:22,960
Speaker 2: in cubic feet per second. The Colorado River through the

547
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 2: Grand Canyon averages about twelve thousand to fifteen thousand cubic

548
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:32,120
Speaker 2: feet per second, and that summer that June specifically, I

549
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:35,600
Speaker 2: saw anywhere from between seventy thousand and one hundred thousand

550
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 2: cubic feet per second, which is, you know, up seven

551
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:41,440
Speaker 2: to ten times as fast.

552
00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:45,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a lot more water. Number one, it

553
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:49,560
Speaker 1: goes a lot faster, and it changes the river. Like

554
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:52,360
Speaker 1: the river that he was used to, the rapids, he

555
00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 1: was used to the features that he had to circumnavigate

556
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 1: during a normal boating trip down the Colorado. It was

557
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:01,920
Speaker 1: not there. They were different. They were altered by this

558
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 1: huge influx of very fast moving water. And so what

559
00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:09,480
Speaker 1: had happened is Kevin Fudarco points out in the Emerald

560
00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 1: Mile that for the first time, probably for the only

561
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 1: time in his lifetime, Kent and Grua had a chance

562
00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 1: to take on the Colorado River, the same river that

563
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: John Wesley Powell took on in eighteen sixty nine. This

564
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:27,920
Speaker 1: stuff did not happen. It caught the corp of engineers

565
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:31,480
Speaker 1: by surprise, so much so that they to keep the

566
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:35,160
Speaker 1: Lake Powell from topping over the Glen Canyon Dam, they

567
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:39,720
Speaker 1: were putting up plywood barriers. That's how unprepared they were

568
00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:43,200
Speaker 1: for this incredibly historic flooding. I think there was like

569
00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:48,040
Speaker 1: twenty six hundred miles of shoreline in Lake Powell. The

570
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:52,040
Speaker 1: reservoir that's behind the dam, and the reservoir was rising

571
00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:55,000
Speaker 1: a foot a day, that's how much snow melt was

572
00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,120
Speaker 1: coming down, And so they were just releasing. According to

573
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 1: Arizona Central, up to a million cubic feet per second

574
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:05,720
Speaker 1: in a release at a time. So this was flooding

575
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 1: the Colorado downstream. But it's the only option they had

576
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 1: to keep the dam from breaking or from being toppled,

577
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:15,560
Speaker 1: and you know, the water coming out of control. So

578
00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:18,080
Speaker 1: it was a wild river again all of a sudden,

579
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:20,880
Speaker 1: like it happened before. And Kent and Grew was all

580
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 1: about that.

581
00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:23,320
Speaker 3: He was all about it.

582
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:26,160
Speaker 2: So I say, we took a break and then we'll

583
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:28,640
Speaker 2: come back and let everyone know what happened on June

584
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:49,200
Speaker 2: twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three.

585
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 1: Okay, So Kent and Grew says, it's time. Like that

586
00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:58,719
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty record that I broke that I'm not very

587
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:01,320
Speaker 1: happy with, I'm now going to break that record. I'm

588
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 1: going to take this river like I know it can

589
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 1: be taken. And he went to his friend Rudy Petschek,

590
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: who was at the time forty nine. Kenton would have

591
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:15,120
Speaker 1: been thirty three. Yeah, So Rudy Petchik was like old

592
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: and then Steve Wren Reynolds was the other guy that

593
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 1: they they brought on. So the three of them decided

594
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:25,800
Speaker 1: that they were going to take the Emerald Mile out

595
00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:30,000
Speaker 1: onto the Colorado River. And they was by the way,

596
00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 1: okay Ren, Yeah, okay. And they went to the Park

597
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:36,640
Speaker 1: Service and said, hey, we'd like a permit. We're gonna

598
00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 1: take the Emerald Mile down the Colorado River. It's nuts

599
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:42,000
Speaker 1: right now, isn't it. And the Park Service said, no,

600
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 1: you're not going to do that.

601
00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:45,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got to get a permit to do something

602
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:50,920
Speaker 2: like that. They said, no, Like you said, they were

603
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:55,160
Speaker 2: trying to send people, trying to keep people off the river,

604
00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 2: and as we'll see you later on. They even had

605
00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:02,160
Speaker 2: a ranger stationed on the river. I guess it was

606
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:07,640
Speaker 2: Benjamin Bratt probably telling people to get out. What you

607
00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:08,920
Speaker 2: never saw the River wild.

608
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:11,920
Speaker 1: No, is that the one with Bruce Willis where he's

609
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:14,040
Speaker 1: a cop in a boat.

610
00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:14,920
Speaker 3: Nope?

611
00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 1: Okay.

612
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:22,280
Speaker 2: River Wilde was Meryl Streep and David Stratham, Kevin Bacon

613
00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:23,840
Speaker 2: and John c Riley.

614
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:27,520
Speaker 1: Isn't Kevin Bacon like a crazy homicidal serial killer is

615
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:29,240
Speaker 1: stalking these guys?

616
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 3: Not a serial killer. He's a bad guy. Though. Okay,

617
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 3: it's a really good movie. I highly recommend it.

618
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:37,800
Speaker 2: But Benjamin Bratt is a ranger that literally does what

619
00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 2: this other ranger did is like stationed down before the

620
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:41,640
Speaker 2: bad rapid saying get out.

621
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 3: You shouldn't be here.

622
00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:46,000
Speaker 1: I just want to shout out my favorite Benjamin Bratt

623
00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:50,080
Speaker 1: fact that he was born on Alcatraz during the American

624
00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:52,480
Speaker 1: Indian Movement's occupation of Alcatraz.

625
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:54,600
Speaker 3: Did we talk about that?

626
00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:58,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, in our Alcatraz episode?

627
00:33:58,280 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 3: And did not remember that?

628
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:02,920
Speaker 1: Well? Also talk about it in our forthcoming Benjamin Bratt episode.

629
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:05,760
Speaker 3: We haven't done one on Alcatraz, have we?

630
00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:09,880
Speaker 1: Yes? Dude, you sure? I believe we did one on

631
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 1: Alcatraz itself. And the escape from.

632
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:14,840
Speaker 3: Alcatraz, Yeah, I do remember escape from Alcatress.

633
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 1: That escape from Alcatraz one, by the way, was a

634
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: good one, all right.

635
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:21,879
Speaker 2: So he doesn't get the permit, so he goes back

636
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:25,839
Speaker 2: to Martin Litton, his mentor, and he says, hey, man,

637
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:28,719
Speaker 2: you got a lot of pull around here. I'm wondering

638
00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:31,000
Speaker 2: if you could help me out, And Linton said, sure,

639
00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:36,200
Speaker 2: I'll call up the Grand Canyon National Park superintendent himself,

640
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:41,360
Speaker 2: Richard Marx ks not X. Did we gonna make it

641
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:42,080
Speaker 2: Richard Marx to it?

642
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:44,920
Speaker 1: No, I just thought it would if it had been

643
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:48,200
Speaker 1: b Richard Marx, like in his life, right before he.

644
00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:51,200
Speaker 2: Hit it big, right, and he said, he said, you

645
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:53,160
Speaker 2: know what, it don't mean nothing. And he went, hey,

646
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:54,360
Speaker 2: that's got a nice ring to it.

647
00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:58,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, sign on the dotted line.

648
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:00,839
Speaker 3: That's a good song, it is. And so Mark said,

649
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 3: all right, here's what I'll do.

650
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:05,719
Speaker 2: I will call up the rangers out there on the

651
00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:09,680
Speaker 2: river tomorrow and I'll get back to you. He didn't

652
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:13,479
Speaker 2: get back to them, and so Litton and Grewubo said,

653
00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:16,880
Speaker 2: I guess that means we have permission, right, right, And

654
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 2: so they took off on June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three.

655
00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:23,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, eleven pm they took off. I guess under the

656
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:26,279
Speaker 1: cover of darkness. Maybe that's the only reason I can

657
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:28,000
Speaker 1: think of that they took off so late.

658
00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:32,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, Or maybe they just timed it so they've finished

659
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:34,080
Speaker 2: at a certain time, or I don't know.

660
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:36,759
Speaker 1: I don't know either, but they did take off just

661
00:35:36,800 --> 00:35:37,640
Speaker 1: before midnight.

662
00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:38,919
Speaker 3: That to heat.

663
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:43,719
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe that's a great one. Yeah, maybe, I don't know. Anyway,

664
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:49,440
Speaker 1: the fact is this, they were paddling for hours in

665
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:54,239
Speaker 1: pitch darkness because the canyons, the canyon walls of the

666
00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:58,040
Speaker 1: Grand Canyon can prevent the sunlight from hitting inside the

667
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 1: canyon at the river level during the day. This was nighttime,

668
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:06,799
Speaker 1: and so the canyon walls were preventing any moonlight from

669
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:09,759
Speaker 1: even getting down. So they were rafting on a river

670
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:13,759
Speaker 1: that was flowing at about ten times its normal rate,

671
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:18,120
Speaker 1: if not more, in the dark without the benefit of

672
00:36:18,239 --> 00:36:21,080
Speaker 1: using their eyes. So they were having to like literally

673
00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:24,239
Speaker 1: feel the vibrations in the oars to tell what was

674
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:27,120
Speaker 1: coming up in which way they should go during this

675
00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:29,160
Speaker 1: nighttime paddling event that they did.

676
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:32,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean to be sure, these were some

677
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:36,279
Speaker 2: of the most experienced people to undertake something like this,

678
00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:40,520
Speaker 2: but that is still like it just can't be overstated

679
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:42,880
Speaker 2: what a accomplishment this was.

680
00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:44,320
Speaker 3: Just to make it through that first night.

681
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:47,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially doing it stoned wearing nothing but cut off levs.

682
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:50,840
Speaker 3: So they would paddle.

683
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:53,400
Speaker 2: There were, like I said, three of them, so they

684
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:56,840
Speaker 2: would paddle for about fifteen to twenty minutes at a

685
00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 2: time because it's really rigorous, tough stuff that they're doing.

686
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:03,839
Speaker 2: I grew up, went up first and paddled first, and

687
00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:06,920
Speaker 2: they would switch off when they would get tired. They

688
00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:09,680
Speaker 2: would rest take little cat naps when they could when

689
00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:13,240
Speaker 2: they weren't paddling, obviously, and things were going pretty good

690
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:16,520
Speaker 2: for the first few hours, and then they reached a

691
00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:20,480
Speaker 2: series of rapids called the Roaring twenties. That is really

692
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:24,319
Speaker 2: tough in particular with all this water, because there's something

693
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:26,480
Speaker 2: in rivers called I would assume people know what and

694
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:29,400
Speaker 2: eddie is, but you might not. Eddie is like a

695
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:31,640
Speaker 2: very calm part of a river, usually off to the

696
00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:36,040
Speaker 2: side where the water is flowing back upstream and like

697
00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:38,840
Speaker 2: avoid in the current. Usually it's like blocked by a

698
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:41,640
Speaker 2: big rock or something, and it's a good place. Usually

699
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:44,520
Speaker 2: that's where if you want to pull off and you

700
00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:46,440
Speaker 2: get out of the boat and get on land, you'll

701
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:49,160
Speaker 2: pull off to a nice little calm eddie. But you

702
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:54,480
Speaker 2: can also have an area where the eddie meets the rapids,

703
00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:57,880
Speaker 2: and that's called an eddie fence. I saw it described

704
00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:01,319
Speaker 2: as confused water. It doesn't really know which way to go,

705
00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:04,399
Speaker 2: so it's going everywhere at once, and it's just really

706
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:08,719
Speaker 2: really unstable water. And these eddy fences were all over

707
00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:12,759
Speaker 2: the place, just like not crushing literally but just like

708
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:16,160
Speaker 2: wreaking havoc on their boat in this trip they were taking.

709
00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:19,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, because the water, the boat's going the direction of

710
00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:21,360
Speaker 1: the water, and if the water all of a sudden

711
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:24,080
Speaker 1: is going multiple directions, that gets telegraphed to the boat

712
00:38:24,120 --> 00:38:26,560
Speaker 1: and it makes it very difficult to move around, right.

713
00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:30,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, But they did get through that part, obviously they did.

714
00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:33,879
Speaker 1: And again they're going through the roaring twenties at night

715
00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:37,040
Speaker 1: in pitch darkness. JUSTI I just really want to make

716
00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:40,560
Speaker 1: sure everybody keeps this in mind. The other thing is

717
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:43,720
Speaker 1: is they were taking these rapids wide open. They weren't

718
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:46,600
Speaker 1: stopping to scout what was ahead and then getting back

719
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:49,120
Speaker 1: in the boat and then taking it with full knowledge

720
00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:51,680
Speaker 1: of what was coming up. They just took it as

721
00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:55,400
Speaker 1: it came, essentially, Yeah, which is again really nuts considering

722
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:58,600
Speaker 1: that this was not the river that they were used to.

723
00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:03,160
Speaker 1: It was the wild, raging version of the river that

724
00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:08,719
Speaker 1: they were used. It was like the Colorado on bath salts. Basically,

725
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:12,719
Speaker 1: that's what they were taking on in the dark without

726
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:14,040
Speaker 1: the benefit of eyesight.

727
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:16,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think steroids is ever used bath salts.

728
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:19,319
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you really want to drive the point home,

729
00:39:19,520 --> 00:39:22,919
Speaker 1: use bath salts. No, don't actually use basalts. I meant

730
00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:23,920
Speaker 1: in your analogy.

731
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:29,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, they get through this on you know, experience, on instinct,

732
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:33,719
Speaker 2: like you said, feeling their way. The sun finally comes up.

733
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:37,400
Speaker 2: They're flying down this river. They're going through, you know,

734
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:41,919
Speaker 2: all kinds of crazy rapids, the huge whirlpools, these big

735
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:44,400
Speaker 2: standing waves that talked about that you know, got up

736
00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:46,239
Speaker 2: to twenty feet. I think one of the guys even

737
00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:49,160
Speaker 2: said pet Chick said some of them were like three

738
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:53,400
Speaker 2: stories high. Yeah, at times. And they finally get to

739
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:58,120
Speaker 2: Crystal Rapid, which is at mile ninety eight, and they

740
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:01,920
Speaker 2: were worn out, like super super tired obviously. And that

741
00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:07,239
Speaker 2: is where Benjamin Bratt was stationed. Yeah, park ranger Benjamin Bratt,

742
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:10,319
Speaker 2: and he said, hey, you shouldn't be paddling through here.

743
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:13,040
Speaker 2: And also I was born on Alcatraz.

744
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:15,080
Speaker 1: That's a great Benjamin Bratt in person.

745
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:17,839
Speaker 2: Uh No, he was stationed there to get if there

746
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:21,400
Speaker 2: were any tourist boats that you know, had somehow already

747
00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:23,279
Speaker 2: been on the water, which they shouldn't have been to

748
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:24,800
Speaker 2: begin with, because they were denying permits.

749
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:27,600
Speaker 1: Yeah. I didn't understand that part, you know.

750
00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:30,319
Speaker 2: I guess they were just there were some already out there,

751
00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:34,080
Speaker 2: maybe because especially if some of them were taking three weeks.

752
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:36,000
Speaker 1: Oh got, they didn't want to ruin people's vacation.

753
00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,479
Speaker 2: Maybe, but they were Basically he was there basically to say, hey,

754
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:43,520
Speaker 2: pull over, all of you tourists, get out and hike

755
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:47,200
Speaker 2: out and boat captain and whoever else you're gonna have

756
00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:48,919
Speaker 2: to take this thing down the rest of the way,

757
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:49,920
Speaker 2: like by yourself.

758
00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:52,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope you don't like company because ts for you.

759
00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:57,400
Speaker 3: Uh, that's right. But what happened with this group.

760
00:40:57,400 --> 00:41:01,000
Speaker 1: So they didn't what. One of the things that caused

761
00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:04,120
Speaker 1: Benjamin Bratt to be stationed there was that a commercial

762
00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 1: rafting outfit had gotten overturned. One of the boats had

763
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 1: been overturned at this under normal circumstances, very tough rapid

764
00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:18,520
Speaker 1: called crystal rapids, and one person had died. I believe

765
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:22,600
Speaker 1: a passenger had died. This happened like eleven hours before

766
00:41:23,040 --> 00:41:26,080
Speaker 1: the Kent and Grew and his group came along in

767
00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:29,320
Speaker 1: the Emerald Mile. They were totally out of contact with everybody,

768
00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:32,680
Speaker 1: so they had no idea this happened. And so the

769
00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:35,440
Speaker 1: reason Benjamin Bratt was there was because it was so

770
00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:40,319
Speaker 1: dangerous what they were coming up on that. Literally, their

771
00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:43,440
Speaker 1: lives were in danger. So when they came upon the

772
00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:47,840
Speaker 1: park ranger, Benjamin Bratt, they pretended they didn't see him.

773
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:49,120
Speaker 1: What was cool is.

774
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:50,760
Speaker 3: Look over there on the right, guys.

775
00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:56,040
Speaker 1: Exactly what was cool about it is that this park

776
00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,960
Speaker 1: ranger had been a river guide himself. He immediately recognized

777
00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:02,839
Speaker 1: two was in this boat, and he pretended he didn't

778
00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:06,040
Speaker 1: see them. Yeah, so that everybody could just kind of

779
00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:07,919
Speaker 1: go their own way and just pretend like they hadn't

780
00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:10,279
Speaker 1: seen one another, and these guys could continue on because

781
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:12,879
Speaker 1: he said he knew immediately what they were doing because

782
00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:14,600
Speaker 1: of the river conditions, so he just let him go

783
00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:16,520
Speaker 1: their way. He kept an eye on them as they

784
00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:21,359
Speaker 1: went further along, though, and hit that crystal rapid and

785
00:42:21,719 --> 00:42:24,759
Speaker 1: he witnessed their boat being overturned very violently.

786
00:42:25,640 --> 00:42:27,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is when they hit one of those the

787
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:31,120
Speaker 2: one that Petchick said was two to three stories high,

788
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:34,440
Speaker 2: fliped that thing at the top. Everyone ends up in

789
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:39,760
Speaker 2: the water. Kent and Greua was pretty okay and Petchick

790
00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:43,560
Speaker 2: was pretty okay. The boat got banged up a little bit.

791
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:46,520
Speaker 2: I think it lost some of its bowel post, a

792
00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:49,000
Speaker 2: chunk out of the stern but it was still very

793
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:53,080
Speaker 2: much operational, and Reynolds was injured. I think there was

794
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:56,120
Speaker 2: a head injury, and as a result, he did not

795
00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:59,200
Speaker 2: do a lot of at least tough rowing after that,

796
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:02,040
Speaker 2: he did anything at all. I figure he'd be like

797
00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:04,759
Speaker 2: Burt Reynolds in Deliverance at that point, just sort of

798
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:08,279
Speaker 2: laying down in the middle of the canoe. But he

799
00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:13,480
Speaker 2: apparently would row some calmer parts. And I guess take

800
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:14,960
Speaker 2: that with a grain of salts, because I don't think

801
00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:18,239
Speaker 2: any of it was very calm and grew and Petchick said,

802
00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:21,560
Speaker 2: all right, it's the two of us basically doing the tough,

803
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:26,600
Speaker 2: tough rowing in one hundred degree heat, and it was.

804
00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:29,319
Speaker 2: It was real tough stuff from that point on. It

805
00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 2: was already tough, but it was really really tough. But

806
00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:32,960
Speaker 2: they decided not to quit.

807
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:36,080
Speaker 1: No, they didn't, and that's really significant because again their

808
00:43:36,120 --> 00:43:40,600
Speaker 1: boat overturned. They Reynolds was injured, they were thrown out

809
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:43,320
Speaker 1: of the boat violently into a whirlpool, got sucked under.

810
00:43:43,680 --> 00:43:48,040
Speaker 1: All three of them miraculously got free and then they

811
00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:50,520
Speaker 1: had to turn the boat back over upright again get

812
00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:54,520
Speaker 1: back in it. Totally exhausted at this point and decided

813
00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:59,000
Speaker 1: to continue on. They did that was just absolutely nuts.

814
00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:01,839
Speaker 1: Problem is is they knew the park ranger had seen them,

815
00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:05,000
Speaker 1: and so they were kind of all worried about possibly

816
00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:08,200
Speaker 1: losing their river guide licenses because again, this was a

817
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:12,640
Speaker 1: wildcat river run. It was not sanctioned, it was technically illegal.

818
00:44:13,280 --> 00:44:15,520
Speaker 1: But they continued on. They said, we've made it this far,

819
00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:19,680
Speaker 1: and they kept going and gave themselves I guess a

820
00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:23,160
Speaker 1: period where they're like, okay, this is not working anymore.

821
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:25,720
Speaker 1: We're all too exhausted. We need to take some rest.

822
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:28,520
Speaker 1: Let's just take an hour and we'll all get some sleep,

823
00:44:28,600 --> 00:44:31,000
Speaker 1: and then we'll wake up and be refreshed and it'll

824
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:33,000
Speaker 1: be like starting over again and new.

825
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:34,320
Speaker 3: Yeah.

826
00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:37,280
Speaker 2: And of course what happens is they sleep for three hours,

827
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:41,840
Speaker 2: almost woke up in a panic because they had just

828
00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:45,279
Speaker 2: you know, almost killed themselves. They're exhausted, and now they're

829
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:48,560
Speaker 2: thinking like, now we've jeopardized this record that we're trying

830
00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:50,640
Speaker 2: to get. We don't know if the river will ever

831
00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:53,680
Speaker 2: be this fast again, right, and here we slept for

832
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:58,279
Speaker 2: three hours. So instead of taking their ball and going home,

833
00:44:58,320 --> 00:45:01,200
Speaker 2: taking their ore and going home, they said, now we

834
00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:05,479
Speaker 2: got to go extra fast. So at mile two thirty nine,

835
00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 2: they get out another set of ores and someone said,

836
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:13,120
Speaker 2: where did those even come from? And Grewa said, they

837
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:16,399
Speaker 2: were at our feet the whole time. Dumb, dumb, And

838
00:45:16,560 --> 00:45:19,480
Speaker 2: they started rowing two at a time, so they were

839
00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:23,600
Speaker 2: hauling but rowing together, which obviously, you know, I don't

840
00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:25,640
Speaker 2: know if that probably doesn't double your speed, but you're

841
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:27,040
Speaker 2: you're going much faster at that point.

842
00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:30,919
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that was They woke up at I guess

843
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,120
Speaker 1: about one, because they took that rest at ten and

844
00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:38,640
Speaker 1: accidentally slept for three hours, so actually, yeah one, I

845
00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 1: had to count it out on my fingers for a second.

846
00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:46,360
Speaker 1: And then they kept rowing and they another ten hours

847
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:50,600
Speaker 1: later they finally reached the end, so that like they

848
00:45:50,600 --> 00:45:54,839
Speaker 1: had just been exerting themselves almost constantly for thirty six

849
00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:57,080
Speaker 1: hours and thirty eight minutes. That's what their final time

850
00:45:57,160 --> 00:46:02,320
Speaker 1: ended up being. So they just destroy Grewa's previous record

851
00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:06,120
Speaker 1: setting run thanks to the river being so nuts.

852
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:09,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, he did it. The three of them did it

853
00:46:09,719 --> 00:46:12,040
Speaker 2: rather and he did not lose his license. He was

854
00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:15,080
Speaker 2: worried about that, so that's the good news. Apparently he

855
00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:18,160
Speaker 2: got a five hundred dollars fine, which he couldn't even pay,

856
00:46:18,719 --> 00:46:23,279
Speaker 2: so his lawyer negotiated community service, which he may or

857
00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:26,080
Speaker 2: may not have even done. And like you said, at

858
00:46:26,080 --> 00:46:28,280
Speaker 2: the very beginning of this, he wasn't a big braggart

859
00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:31,480
Speaker 2: about his own accomplishments. They kind of spoke for themselves

860
00:46:31,560 --> 00:46:34,120
Speaker 2: to him. Yeah, for sure, So he didn't really you know,

861
00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:36,400
Speaker 2: it's not like he started making the talk show circuit

862
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:39,719
Speaker 2: or anything like that. But of course word was going

863
00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:43,160
Speaker 2: to get out people talk, and he you know, he

864
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:46,320
Speaker 2: will always remain a legend of the Grand Canyon and

865
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:48,279
Speaker 2: the Colorado River because of the speed run.

866
00:46:48,560 --> 00:46:51,480
Speaker 1: Yeah. He died at fifty two in two thousand and two,

867
00:46:51,719 --> 00:46:54,759
Speaker 1: and he died while he was riding his mountain bike.

868
00:46:55,560 --> 00:46:57,440
Speaker 1: And I couldn't find out how. It's like that sounds

869
00:46:57,440 --> 00:46:59,440
Speaker 1: like he went over a cliff or something. Apparently he

870
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 1: had torn aorta somehow. They're not sure how, but he

871
00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:07,799
Speaker 1: was found laying beside his mountain bike dead and his

872
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:10,880
Speaker 1: wife at his I believe his third wife, Michelle Grewa,

873
00:47:12,719 --> 00:47:15,040
Speaker 1: said this is exactly how he would have wanted to go.

874
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:17,600
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, if you're going to be like

875
00:47:17,640 --> 00:47:20,239
Speaker 1: a rugged outdoorsman and you die on your mountain bike,

876
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:22,040
Speaker 1: that's not the worst way you could go.

877
00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:27,319
Speaker 2: No, they you know, it seemed like he was he

878
00:47:27,360 --> 00:47:29,680
Speaker 2: was just sort of laying there on his side, and

879
00:47:29,719 --> 00:47:32,640
Speaker 2: they said it looked like sort of a peaceful position.

880
00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:35,719
Speaker 2: So there there is speculation that he may have sort

881
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:37,520
Speaker 2: of known what was going on and just sort of

882
00:47:38,239 --> 00:47:40,680
Speaker 2: laid down and you know, to be with the woods.

883
00:47:40,800 --> 00:47:44,000
Speaker 1: Right, to be with the woods. That's the new euphemism

884
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:44,759
Speaker 1: for it, isn't it.

885
00:47:46,400 --> 00:47:46,840
Speaker 3: I guess so.

886
00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:51,759
Speaker 1: Michelle Grew also wrote in a memorial Boatman's Quarterly, I

887
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:56,400
Speaker 1: think that he had mellowed out some a lot actually

888
00:47:56,719 --> 00:47:59,799
Speaker 1: in his later years. Still lived the life that he lived,

889
00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:01,919
Speaker 1: but he became focused on being a dad. I think

890
00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:06,040
Speaker 1: he had three or has three kids, and it was just,

891
00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:09,320
Speaker 1: from what I can tell, an all round interesting neat dude.

892
00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:13,239
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean he started a conservation group, didn't he.

893
00:48:13,239 --> 00:48:17,160
Speaker 1: He did called the Grand Canyon River Guides, that's right,

894
00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:22,800
Speaker 1: which is still around today, and that Grand Canyon Dories

895
00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:28,080
Speaker 1: was sold to an existing outfit called Oars, which gives

896
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:31,200
Speaker 1: dory tours down the Grand Canyon still today.

897
00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:33,560
Speaker 3: Tempting.

898
00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:36,600
Speaker 1: It tempted me too, and then I was like, again,

899
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 1: seventeen days is a little much and also do I

900
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:43,480
Speaker 1: want to perish in the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River?

901
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:45,200
Speaker 1: And I decided, now I don't.

902
00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:46,880
Speaker 3: He could just be with the woods.

903
00:48:46,920 --> 00:48:52,239
Speaker 1: I'd just rather stay locked inside my house. Right, You

904
00:48:52,239 --> 00:48:52,960
Speaker 1: got anything else?

905
00:48:53,520 --> 00:48:54,480
Speaker 3: No, I got nothing else.

906
00:48:54,520 --> 00:48:56,160
Speaker 2: I just know that that's one place you will not

907
00:48:56,320 --> 00:48:59,080
Speaker 2: crash a dory into a boulder is in your house.

908
00:48:59,120 --> 00:48:59,799
Speaker 1: It's definitely not.

909
00:49:00,320 --> 00:49:00,600
Speaker 3: Yeah.

910
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:03,399
Speaker 1: Well, since I said definitely not, that means it's time

911
00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:04,160
Speaker 1: for listener mail.

912
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:09,200
Speaker 3: Uh oh, this is cool.

913
00:49:09,320 --> 00:49:14,239
Speaker 2: This is from someone who whose grandmother had a nice

914
00:49:14,239 --> 00:49:15,680
Speaker 2: little what do you call them?

915
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:17,400
Speaker 3: A mnemonic device?

916
00:49:17,800 --> 00:49:18,680
Speaker 1: Yeah?

917
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:20,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, for when you want to remember.

918
00:49:20,239 --> 00:49:24,920
Speaker 1: Something mnemonic you're thinking's a pneumatic no nomonic.

919
00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:28,319
Speaker 2: Hey, guys, stuff you should know as a staple of

920
00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:32,560
Speaker 2: my daily commute. Truly enjoy learning about common and obscure stuff.

921
00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:36,400
Speaker 2: And you've helped our trivia team, the Meerkats, claim victory

922
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:37,520
Speaker 2: on more than one occasion.

923
00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:40,480
Speaker 3: Go Meerkats for sure.

924
00:49:41,000 --> 00:49:43,160
Speaker 2: Anyway, just finished the episode on the Wreck of the

925
00:49:43,200 --> 00:49:45,839
Speaker 2: Coast to Concordia and thought i'd share the way that

926
00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:49,279
Speaker 2: my grandmother taught me how to remember which direction was

927
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:54,600
Speaker 2: port versus starboard. She would say, there's not much port

928
00:49:54,680 --> 00:49:58,480
Speaker 2: left in the glass like port whye y port side

929
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:02,440
Speaker 2: being left port left in the glass. Interestingly, she was

930
00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:04,160
Speaker 2: not a seafaring woman nor a.

931
00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:04,800
Speaker 3: Lover of port.

932
00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:07,880
Speaker 2: I wish I could recall the context of her telling

933
00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:10,400
Speaker 2: me this even but it's always stuck with me. And

934
00:50:10,440 --> 00:50:12,239
Speaker 2: I thought you might get a kick out of that.

935
00:50:13,360 --> 00:50:15,600
Speaker 2: Thanks for all the information and laughs. And that is

936
00:50:15,600 --> 00:50:18,600
Speaker 2: from Aaron. And I wrote Aeron back to see if

937
00:50:18,640 --> 00:50:23,000
Speaker 2: I could get report No grandma's name, but I didn't

938
00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:26,160
Speaker 2: hear back. So let's just let's just say grandmother to Aaron,

939
00:50:27,640 --> 00:50:29,480
Speaker 2: okay inntribute?

940
00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:36,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's it. Okay. Is that Aaron with the

941
00:50:36,040 --> 00:50:40,520
Speaker 1: A A or Aaron with the E E R? I am, oh,

942
00:50:40,600 --> 00:50:43,240
Speaker 1: thanks a lot, Aaron. That's a good one. It's at

943
00:50:43,320 --> 00:50:45,759
Speaker 1: least as good as mine that I came up with.

944
00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:47,000
Speaker 3: But what was yours?

945
00:50:47,400 --> 00:50:49,920
Speaker 1: There's four letters in both port and left.

946
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:52,000
Speaker 3: I think, Oh, think that's what it's good too.

947
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:55,040
Speaker 1: That's how that's what I remember. So apparently the system works.

948
00:50:55,360 --> 00:50:56,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree.

949
00:50:56,239 --> 00:50:58,280
Speaker 1: Well, if you want to be like Aaron and improve

950
00:50:58,400 --> 00:51:01,520
Speaker 1: or try to improve upon our devices, we love that

951
00:51:01,640 --> 00:51:03,800
Speaker 1: kind of thing. You can send it in an email

952
00:51:03,960 --> 00:51:08,479
Speaker 1: to Stuff Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.

953
00:51:10,239 --> 00:51:12,520
Speaker 3: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.

954
00:51:13,040 --> 00:51:16,240
Speaker 2: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

955
00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:19,320
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.