# Need help with GC Night Float Diamond to Pearce



## jakebrown98 (Mar 4, 2008)

We did it on a summer trip in 2013. It was a cool way to wrap up a hot trip. We used Moenkopi and Brady had very recent figures on time of travel. We assigned watches and had a person awake at each end of our quintupple rig the whole night. We got to Pierce before the sun was up but with light. 

It could be a different experience with cold temperatures. We had lots of flat space on the big boats and half of us had been sleeping on them all trip anyway. Having at least one really good spotlight is a must. You do have to row off walls from time to time and seeing them early really helps...

Also, I was quite proud of my rigging one of the cargo nets down between the bows of boats 2 and 3 and the side of boat 5. I tensioned it to hang just above the water empty and when one of the ladies had to pee at night she would just crawl onto the net and pee through it. Gotta keep everyone safe.


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## whitty (Aug 15, 2016)

I would make sure to have a GPS unit with peirce ferry marked if there is no moon. You really don't want to hit pierce ferry rapid.


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## Gremlin (Jun 24, 2010)

We night floated August 2017. It was a hot trip and no one was looking forward to the hottest days at the end. I was surprised how cold the air was coming up the canyon from Lake Mead at night. We were wearing layers and in our sleeping bags. I would take advantage of the cooler days to enjoy time in camps in that section, if possible.


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## dsrtrat (May 29, 2011)

I have done several night floats over the years but pretty much just motor out now. It still takes about 8 hours with a motor. The first couple of hours are pretty fun until the novelty wears off, then...……


If you do decide to do it I suggest you get some of the thin glow sticks from the party store and hang them around various places on the boat. We hang a couple on each oar tower to define the edges of the boats. Adds a festive air and increases safety.
I would also have each person wear a couple on their person in case someone goes in the water. 


It will be very cold especially if there is wind or rain. Rig a jet boil in a safe place so you can make hot drinks, soup, etc. Have a pee bucket handy.


Keep headlights on red as it is easy to blind everyone if you sweep the boat with a bright beam and ruin everyone's night vision. 


At least one spotlight and if wind is blowing the silt around it will be really hard to see obstructions. 


Plan an extra day in the schedule because if it is just too tough tie up and wait for light.


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## jgrebe (Jan 16, 2010)

Did the night float in April under a full moon. Hung out at Separation Canyon until 6PM then floated all night - arriving to Pearce about 7:00 AM. Was pretty chilly in April (maybe 45 degrees?). No problems other than getting stuck on a couple of sand bars. Magical views with the moon. I'm not sure if I would do it in the winter with no moon but each to his own. Probably not a lot of objective danger but probably not a lot of fun either.


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## lhowemt (Apr 5, 2007)

jgrebe said:


> Did the night float in April under a full moon. Hung out at Separation Canyon until 6PM then floated all night - arriving to Pearce about 7:00 AM. Was pretty chilly in April (maybe 45 degrees?). No problems other than getting stuck on a couple of sand bars. Magical views with the moon. I'm not sure if I would do it in the winter with no moon but each to his own. Probably not a lot of objective danger but probably not a lot of fun either.


We did this in '12, including the full moon. We considered it f'in COLD! We went from Truckstop to Spencer until about 8pm. Then barged up and got to Pearce at 9am.


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## daairguy (Nov 11, 2013)

whitty said:


> I would make sure to have a GPS unit with peirce ferry marked if there is no moon. You really don't want to hit pierce ferry rapid.


I honestly couldn't think of a worse way to wake up. Imagine peacefully sleeping on your boat on the last night of your trip. You're riding that high that comes after trips like this and dreaming of your next return. The yelling of your buddy wakes you from a somber sleep and you realize the freight train sound in your dream was actually the loud roar of the splashy rapid up ahead. You frantically sit up and assess the situation. Looking around you realize you're in the middle of the river and only a short distance away from the rapid. You and your friends are committed to "running it". You start to realize the full immensity of this predicament. You're still half in your bag and your pfd is sitting right next to you, not on you. Too late to put that on now. Instead you grab a half empty beer laying next to you and pound it.......


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## kavukavu (Nov 13, 2011)

The night float is a great option to avoid upstream afternoon winds and limited to no camps on the lower stretch. It's also a really neat experience and cool way to finish your trip. At normal flows (8,000-16,000cfs) it takes around 12 hours of drifting from Separation Canyon to Pearce Ferry. We usually strap boats side to side, and with that configuration you'll only need two people to stay awake to row the available oar on the first and last boat to pivot the barge and stay off the shore. Agreed on the temperature, somehow it gets significantly colder even on hot trips. I've done the night float three times now, including the last which was only my partner and I as the rest of the trip took out at Diamond. I highly recommend it!


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## MT4Runner (Apr 6, 2012)

daairguy said:


> I honestly couldn't think of a worse way to wake up. Imagine peacefully sleeping on your boat on the last night of your trip. You're riding that high that comes after trips like this and dreaming of your next return. The yelling of your buddy wakes you from a somber sleep and you realize the freight train sound in your dream was actually the loud roar of the splashy rapid up ahead. You frantically sit up and assess the situation. Looking around you realize you're in the middle of the river and only a short distance away from the rapid. You and your friends are committed to "running it". You start to realize the full immensity of this predicament. You're still half in your bag and your pfd is sitting right next to you, not on you. Too late to put that on now. Instead you grab a half empty beer laying next to you and pound it.......


This would be awful if it really happened...


....but if you're writing a fiction novel, sign me up for an autographed hardcover copy!!


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## DStrother (Jul 17, 2014)

Thanks for the input guys! The plan is to take out at diamond but monitor conditions as we go in case we have to change plans!


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## KingElbear (Feb 28, 2013)

I believe you can carry a motor now, and not use till diamond, and still be considered not motorized. 5hp makes fast work of up to 9 boats. I have also had a motor brought down to diamond than motored out. My buddy on his last trip, payed the Indians at diamond to push them out with with one of there boats.


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## lhowemt (Apr 5, 2007)

KingElbear said:


> I believe you can carry a motor now, and not use till diamond, and still be considered not motorized. 5hp makes fast work of up to 9 boats. I have also had a motor brought down to diamond than motored out. My buddy on his last trip, payed the Indians at diamond to push them out with with one of there boats.


You cannot motor up until separation.


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## john vrymoed (Aug 22, 2014)

lhowemt said:


> You cannot motor up until separation.


Absolutely right. Worked hard to reinstitute the stowing of motors. Coordinated with the NPS to reword the regs stating that motoring can start at Separation (boundary between the Park and Lake Mead NRA) .... and not before.


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## Electric-Mayhem (Jan 19, 2004)

whitty said:


> I would make sure to have a GPS unit with peirce ferry marked if there is no moon. You really don't want to hit pierce ferry rapid.


If you are paying attention AT ALL, this will never be a problem. The ramp is pretty obvious and once you see the sides of the canyon fall away, you know its coming up in a couple miles. There is a camp about a mile above it that a lot of people camp at too. We had people on my last trip that were super paranoid about that happening too, but in reality it would take a complete lack of paying attention to have it be a thing.

The best way to do the night float, after doing it several ways, is to push off around 8pm after stopping at one of the last camps to cook dinner, groove, and get the boats ready for the float. We pushed off from just as it was getting fully dark on a February trip...around 8pm... and floated the night and got to the boat ramp around 7am just after dawn. This was 7k-13k fluctuations, so kinda low. If you have higher flows, maybe assume 1-2 mph faster.

The other trips I did it on, we rowed/floated throughout the day and then started the night float near the boat ramps in Hualapai tourist hell and ended up getting to the ramp around 1am both times. This is not as ideal and increases the stress level....mostly due to Helicopters flying over your head all day but also getting to the ramp in the middle of the night. One of the trips was in August, so it was kinda nice to de-rig in the cooler night hours, but the other one we ended up just tying up at the last camp (that someone had already taken) and moved down to the ramp at dawn.

I've been the sober (mostly sober) guy who makes sure it all goes allright a few times, and its really not a big deal. Defintely at least two people to stay up to keep you off the banks though. Being the one to stay up is actually super peaceful and a great way to say goodbye to the canyon.


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## whitty (Aug 15, 2016)

Electric-Mayhem said:


> If you are paying attention AT ALL, this will never be a problem. The ramp is pretty obvious and once you see the sides of the canyon fall away, you know its coming up in a couple miles. There is a camp about a mile above it that a lot of people camp at too. We had people on my last trip that were super paranoid about that happening too, but in reality it would take a complete lack of paying attention to have it be a thing.
> 
> The best way to do the night float, after doing it several ways, is to push off around 8pm after stopping at one of the last camps to cook dinner, groove, and get the boats ready for the float. We pushed off from just as it was getting fully dark on a February trip...around 8pm... and floated the night and got to the boat ramp around 7am just after dawn. This was 7k-13k fluctuations, so kinda low. If you have higher flows, maybe assume 1-2 mph faster.
> 
> ...


I disagree it was pretty dark when we rolled up on and we had some moon. If there is no moon it won't be obvious.


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## Electric-Mayhem (Jan 19, 2004)

daairguy said:


> I honestly couldn't think of a worse way to wake up. Imagine peacefully sleeping on your boat on the last night of your trip. You're riding that high that comes after trips like this and dreaming of your next return. The yelling of your buddy wakes you from a somber sleep and you realize the freight train sound in your dream was actually the loud roar of the splashy rapid up ahead. You frantically sit up and assess the situation. Looking around you realize you're in the middle of the river and only a short distance away from the rapid. You and your friends are committed to "running it". You start to realize the full immensity of this predicament. You're still half in your bag and your pfd is sitting right next to you, not on you. Too late to put that on now. Instead you grab a half empty beer laying next to you and pound it.......


I won't say which company...but 4 or 5 years ago there was a pair of commercial motor rigs that had a bit too much fun floating out after dropping the customers off...and passed out only to wake up as they were floating into Pearce Ferry rapid. They were all in sleeping bags with no PFDs on. I think one was able to fire the motor up and cruise back upstream to the ramp, but the other beached itself on the conglomerate rock fin that makes the rapid. They got their shit together and ended up running the rapid and covertly motoring down to South Cove to get picked up. We'll just say that the boatmen were relegated to warehouse duty for a while.

The TL and a few other people from my first trip had a close call on a previous trip too. They all drank way too much (there is a common theme here) and everyone on the trip passed out. They woke up about a mile above the ramp stuck into some Tamarisk. If they hadn't gotten lucky like that, they probably would have run the rapid accidentally.


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## Electric-Mayhem (Jan 19, 2004)

whitty said:


> I disagree it was pretty dark when we rolled up on and we had some moon. If there is no moon it won't be obvious.


...and yet you didn't miss the ramp and run pearce ferry rapid. You must have been paying attention...like I said.

There was basically no moon on my first trip, which included a night float where we arrived at 1am, and we had zero trouble seeing the ramp with the cheap gas station flashlights I brought. You'll see vehicles in the parking lot above, and then you come around the corner and there is a big metal ramp.

I'd say easily over half(probably closer to 80%)of the trips that go to Pearce do a night float and I've only heard of one instance (accounted in my previous post) of a trip actually having this nightmare scenario occur.


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## jerseyjeff (Apr 16, 2016)

*night floating fun*

We did the night float at the end of our summer trip, July, with no moon. We spent a bunch of time waiting around so we did not leave too soon, and, if I could do it again, I probably would spend as much time floating until it got dark, pull off and get some sleep, and then shove off at first light, Having very little natural light and no depth perception was pretty freaky, and, I think all of the folks sleeping had a great time, but the folks up, and on the sticks had a pretty exciting evening. It was wild to hear the sandbanks collapse, and not see where it was coming from. We grabbed a bunch of C cell flashlights from costco in PHX on the way up, and they were totally worth it. 
If it was a full moon, I think it would have been a much easier float. It probably will be extremely cold at night too.
Should be a fantastic trip.


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## CBelktrout (Apr 4, 2015)

Just got off a trip and night floated Oct. 5-6. We left at around 5:30-6:00pm, about when the sun was setting with 5 rafts strapped together, no motor, no rowing, just steering. Made it to Pearce Ferry take out around 6:30am, right as the sun was coming up. Bumped a couple of walls but otherwise pretty uneventful and really fun. I tracked the milage with my GPS watch to make sure we didn't miss the take out. I would download the maps on GAIA onto your phone if you are worried.


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