In 1963 Woody drove the gas barge up Lake Powell to the newly established Rainbow Bridge Marina in Forbidding Canyon. Woody always told the story of the hellacious rain storm with lightning striking all around the barge. He considered himself lucky to have made it without blowing up the barge or Glen Canyon Dam! In the off-season Woody took trips to Baja. Woody was the first manager of Rainbow Bridge Marina for Art Greene, owner of Canyon Tours, and first concessionaire on Lake Powell. In 1967 and 1968 Woody joined the National Park Service as a seasonal ranger based out of Lees Ferry. The following year, Woody became the Hatch warehouse manager for the 1969 season.

In 1970 Woody and Gaylord Staveley designed the first Canyoneers Inc. pontoon rig. As a result of the frame design being made out of trailer hitches, the boat “oozled” and snaked its way down river. For extra added comfort for the boatman, the frame was built with a steering wheel and a captains seat. Woody felt very strongly about human waste being carried out of the canyon; the boat was designed to carry a seventy-five gallon human waste tank directly in front of the pilot's seat!

He met Sandra Jane Nevills at the Marble Canyon Trading Post and married her in 1969. They chose Flagstaff as their home to raise their children and moved there soon after, in 1970.
Woody's last river trip was the Old Timers trip in September 1994, made with his wife Sandra Jane and sister-in-law Joan Nevills Staveley along with many other old time river runners.
My father will be greatly missed, my sincere hope and desire is to become half the man and husband that he was.

Greg Reiff