It’s Not Pretty— It’s Beautiful

   One day not long ago the phone rang. A us Geological Survey voice said “We’d like your help ... we want to take out the National Canyon cableway. How soon can you guys come up with a boat and some volunteers?”

   Twenty minutes. And the trip took a week, with a boat donated by ARR. Now that cable is gone. It will return if we ever get a flood flow, but only for that flow. The Little Colorado cable remains, for a bit longer, because it’s at a crucial site, just above where most of the remaining sediment enters the river; without it, there is no baseline measurement for sediment below the dam. Cool. We understand. And Thank You, Mark Anderson. Thank you very, very, much.

   Then the earth shook. Rob Arnberger decided the 1995 cor was too much for 600 river guides and 16 company owners to handle—too much too fast, like an out-of-control car roaring down a freeway. So he slammed on the brakes, pulled off, and got out. When the smoke cleared we were back to the 1994 cor. And invited to participate in formulating next year’s cor. What comes now will be a process where guides, outfitters, privates, and nps folks, sit around a table and figure-out what reasonably fits into the regulatory process and how to bring it together and make it work for everyone.

   The COR, its process and content, are up for review? You bet. If you’ve got something to say about it, do it. Drop us a line, or call, and we’ll make sure your thoughts get thrown into the cooker on the South Rim this coming fall.

   This from a man not afraid to carry Grand Canyon around on his back. Indeed. At the next Constituency Panel he’d like to have a barbeque, Texas style, with beer. That’s a great idea. Yeah! We’ll be there. No problem. And could we invite the Coast Guard crew, if they’re still in town? It’d be great if they could stay longer than they did last time, at Hatchland. Life is short. Grand Canyon is big. This earthquake might take a while.

   So the seas are parting. Wider than a lot of us ever thought possible. All it takes is vision, you understand. A little bit of that will go a long way when given the right brain to roll around in.

   That's the good news. But, truth to tell, we’ve still got some miles to make. As Dan Dierker said to Ed Page of the Coast Guard not long ago “...You mean, you want us to tell you what you should tell us?” Exactly!

   That’s the state of the state of the art. It’s late in the day, and difficult to say if the sun’s rising or setting. All that can be said for sure is that, this once, it’s visible on the horizon. For our two cents, we say it’s morning. And we like the scenery.

Lew Steiger