Flashback Friday – Ed Lowry’s Tips to Prepare For a Colorado River Trip
In this Flashback Friday, Ed Lowry, a long time Hatch customer regales us with his top tips to prepare for a Colorado River rafting trip. Ed ran the river with Hatch every single year between 1965 and 2017, completing a total of 53 trips! Needless to say, he had the experience to come up with some great tips that will make you feel right at home once on the river in Grand Canyon. Enjoy his humorous take on how to prepare for your river trip. If you’ve already been on a Colorado River trip through Grand Canyon, we’re sure you can relate!
TOP TEN TIPS FOR PREPARING FOR A COLORADO RIVER TRIP
Ed Lowry and Ted Hatch in Grand Canyon
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One week before the trip, have one cubic yard of sand delivered to your home. Sprinkle liberally in your bed, dresser drawers and on the kitchen and bathroom floors and counters. Fill your salt shaker, sugar bowl and cereal boxes with sand, place leftover sand in front of electric fans and run them continuously at maximum speed.
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Take out your newly purchased rain gear. Put on quickly. Hop into a cold shower for ~30 seconds. Remove. Repeat at 30 minute intervals.
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Have your friends form a long line. Then, systematically pass the entire contents of your home out the front door and then around and into the back door of your house.
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With an industrial size brush and a bottle of bleach, wash a large hard plastic Frisbee in boiling water. Rinse and sterilize thirty minutes after sunrise and immediately after sunset every day for eight days.
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With a large meat tenderizer, practice beating beer cans down to the diameter of a hockey puck.
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Sit on the hood of your car while riding through a car wash.
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Line your sandals with sandpaper and spend two hours per day on a Stair Master.
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Drape the allotted contents of your duffel bag on the bushes and rocks in your back yard. Twice a day practice changing all your clothes while your neighbors watch.
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With 29 friends standing in the shallow end of a swimming pool, practice looking nonchalant as you carry on a conversation and pee simultaneously.
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Remove the toilet seat from your guest bathroom and place on top of a bucket. Set the whole apparatus in your backyard behind the largest bush. Do your business as normal and remember to wave to your neighbors as they go by.
We hope you got a good laugh out of Ed’s tips! We know we sure did! For the most current guidance to prepare for your river trip, make sure you check out our FAQs.
Can’t wait to experience the elements of the Grand Canyon yourself? Book a trip with Hatch today!
