# Motor Rig leaves passengers at Phantom this afternoon



## Tom Martin (Dec 5, 2004)

A commercial J-Rig left 18 passengers at Phantom Ranch on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon this afternoon and took itself on downriver. The boat was recovered and parked at Salt Creek, only five miles below Phantom. A commercial motor rig is leaving Lee's Ferry tomorrow morning to dead head the 88 miles to Phantom Ranch to pick up the commercial trip members. The passengers will be lodged at the Ranch in the meantime. The boat has little damage and though not confirmed, reports indicate the boat and its cargo of river gear is intact. The companies name is not being released at this time.

You all remember to tie up your boats, K?

yours, tom


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## melted_ice (Feb 4, 2009)

Refundable or humorous? I bet most go for refund.


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## Tom Martin (Dec 5, 2004)

Dunno. Given that all the comm-ops recommend their folks buy trip insurance, I betcha they plan on catching up to the Whitmore helipad schedule and flying the folks out right on time.


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## okieboater (Oct 19, 2004)

Well, if you are going to be stranded from your raft,

The Ranch is not a bad place to wait out rescue!!!!!


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## lhowemt (Apr 5, 2007)

Wow, That is crazy. Good thing Phantom can accommodate them. Personally I'd rather be stuck anywhere BUT phantom, but without their gear I guess that is an OK spot- ouch!


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## Tom Martin (Dec 5, 2004)

Trying to find out if NPS flew their gear back up to the Ranch. The adventure begins when the outcome is uncertain... yours, tom


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## asleep.at.the.oars (May 6, 2006)

Would appreciate a link - NPS or other - if you come across one. 

Was standing in Signature Cave on the Yampa one day when one of our guests asked "is that one of our boats?" 5 of 6 guides had tied up well... One frantic sprint and Baywatch style dive into the river later, we caught it before it went around the corner.


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## Tom Martin (Dec 5, 2004)

Maybe NPS will do a press release tomorrow...

Reminds me of the story from Dock Marston's motorcade in the Big Water Little Boats book from the chapter on the 126,000 cfs summer of 1957:

"At Lava Falls, while the entire crew was up on a bench high above the river scouting the rapid, the bowline holding the Boo Too to shore came undone.
The helpless river runners stood on the scout rock and watched in disbelief as the crewless boat went through Lava without them, capsized, and headed downriver upside down. Dock and his crew caught the errant boat six miles below, losing two cameras and much film footage."


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## Tom Martin (Dec 5, 2004)

Here is the latest from the River Outfitters Trade Association:

Yes, a single commercial boat at Phantom pulled out the tie up bush (which had been used by everyone for years) and floated away leaving crew and passengers at Phantom. NPS located the boat just below Horn in fine shape with all supplies and secured it. And yes, the bowline found with proper knot intact. It was decided prudently not to fly crew or passengers to the boat last night, and Guests and crew are all fine enjoyed a night at Phantom. Another boat was launched early this morning from Lees Ferry, expected to be at Phantom later today and will catch everyone back up to their original boat to continue their exciting journey. Great thanks to NPS and Phantom for their terrific help! And thanks to many others for their curiosity and concern -


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## malczyk (May 29, 2009)

Even with the bush ripping out that is still a beer fine.


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## Avatard (Apr 29, 2011)

Tom Martin said:


> Here is the latest from the River Outfitters Trade Association:
> 
> Yes, a single commercial boat at Phantom pulled out the tie up bush (which had been used by everyone for years) and floated away leaving crew and passengers at Phantom. NPS located the boat just below Horn in fine shape with all supplies and secured it. And yes, the bowline found with proper knot intact. It was decided prudently not to fly crew or passengers to the boat last night, and Guests and crew are all fine enjoyed a night at Phantom. Another boat was launched early this morning from Lees Ferry, expected to be at Phantom later today and will catch everyone back up to their original boat to continue their exciting journey. Great thanks to NPS and Phantom for their terrific help! And thanks to many others for their curiosity and concern -


Copied for those blind folks on the iPhone


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## lhowemt (Apr 5, 2007)

Avatard said:


> Copied for those blind folks on the iPhone


All we have to do it a dummy reply with quote, and it shows up black. But thanks!


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## kikii875 (Oct 25, 2010)

Tom Martin said:


> A commercial J-Rig left 18 passengers at Phantom Ranch on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon this afternoon and took itself on downriver. The boat was recovered and parked at Salt Creek, only five miles below Phantom. A commercial motor rig is leaving Lee's Ferry tomorrow morning to dead head the 88 miles to Phantom Ranch to pick up the commercial trip members. The passengers will be lodged at the Ranch in the meantime. The boat has little damage and though not confirmed, reports indicate the boat and its cargo of river gear is intact. The companies name is not being released at this time.
> 
> You all remember to tie up your boats, K?
> 
> yours, tom


If it truly was 18 "passengers", then with crew that would take it to 20, and the only rig licensed to carry that many "souls" is Western River Expeditions. If it was 18 "souls" (passengers and crew) then it could be any number or commercial motor rigs. My guess is that it is the latter.

Where the motor rigs tie up at Havasu there used to be a rock column, similar to the one in the picture below, where the rock had eroded enough behind to get a rope around it. I have seen as many as 6 motor rigs tied up to it at one time. The first trip one spring it was completely gone. I never did hear how many rigs were tied up to it when it failed. 

On my last private trip we were doing an exchange at Pipe Creek and I was awakened from a deep sleep by the shouts of one of our group saying that a boat had gotten lose. One of my brothers and my nephew took off after it and caught it before the bottom of the rapid and then pulled over to the left and sat in the hot sun for 4 hours waiting for the hikers to all come in. I was so deep in sleep when it all happened that I couldn't have given a raft's aft what happened to it, even though it was _my_ backup boat that my brother was rowing for that trip.


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## GPP33 (May 22, 2004)

malczyk said:


> Even with the bush ripping out that is still a beer fine.


It's a double beer fine. They ripped out the bush!


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## Wavester (Jul 2, 2010)

On a private trip we lost a boat at Grapevine camp, the owner of the boat was already having a bad week. He had managed to flip twice in the first six days. We got to Phantom that morning and checked with the ranger, the helecopter crew had just flew in a saw our missing boat down river in a eddy, later that afternoon we found the boat tied up with a note and an empty beer unharmed. A very nice commercial group had tied it up for a small fee of a beer 
A good reminder for me to double check my knots and consider a secondary tie off especially in the GC.


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## mikepart (Jul 7, 2009)

kikii875 said:


> If it truly was 18 "passengers", then with crew that would take it to 20, and the only rig licensed to carry that many "souls" is Western River Expeditions. If it was 18 "souls" (passengers and crew) then it could be any number or commercial motor rigs. My guess is that it is the latter.
> 
> Where the motor rigs tie up at Havasu there used to be a rock column, similar to the one in the picture below, where the rock had eroded enough behind to get a rope around it. I have seen as many as 6 motor rigs tied up to it at one time. The first trip one spring it was completely gone. I never did hear how many rigs were tied up to it when it failed.
> 
> On my last private trip we were doing an exchange at Pipe Creek and I was awakened from a deep sleep by the shouts of one of our group saying that a boat had gotten lose. One of my brothers and my nephew took off after it and caught it before the bottom of the rapid and then pulled over to the left and sat in the hot sun for 4 hours waiting for the hikers to all come in. I was so deep in sleep when it all happened that I couldn't have given a raft's aft what happened to it, even though it was _my_ backup boat that my brother was rowing for that trip.


I believe that Canyoneers takes 20.


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## mkashzg (Aug 9, 2006)

It turns out it was WRA and they launched a rig at 5:15 am yesterday and got to phantom by 4 to get the group down to Salt Creek and back on the river. Nice spa day at phantom.


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## ski_kayak365 (Dec 7, 2003)

No official reports from the NPS. Must not have ranked high on the incident list.


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## wildsoles (Feb 20, 2013)

Lol! We were on the Colorado during this incident. Saw a big rig running without passengers way, way above Whitmore. Was confused at the time, but had forgotten about it until seeing this post. Now I know the rest of the story!


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## ridecats (Aug 8, 2009)

We thought they had pulled over after Horn. It wasn't until an empty boat went past our camp, hours later, that we realized something bad had happened. The NPS sent a helo after it. Oh by the way, the runaway rig photobombed us. That's it between the yellow and blue helmets. It was so far away here, we could not tell it was humanless. We thought it was just pulled over for some reason.


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## restrac2000 (Mar 6, 2008)

watched the deadhead boat leave as we were rigging at Lees. Can't imagine a worse hazing than that crew is gonna get for the rest of the summer.

Phillip


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