was lying in bed on Sunday morning, reading my new Boatman's Quarterly Review and came across the new Perspectives article. When I got to the thorny issue of allocations, I wasn't sure that you wanted to hear what I had to say, until I read the “really” part.

   I was lucky enough to participate in a private trip last October, however was removed from the waiting list by the time I had returned home. When I received my new waiting list number of 5361 I was devastated. Just to make sure the numbers that ran through my head were not as bad as I feared, I got out the ol' calculator and came up with these startling numbers. They are worse.

   Waiting list number: 5361

   Number of private permit (launch dates) per the non-commercial river permit system guidelines: 273

   5361 divided by 273 = 19.6 YEARS!

   There is not a chance in Hell that I am going to wait for 19 years to go down the Grand again. I am one of the few lucky people who live in Flagstaff and can plan on a cancellation to get me down sooner. What about Joe Blough who lives in Podunk, MO and can’t get it together in two months to arrange a trip and get out here. If he was in his fifties when he applied he will be lucky to ever see the Grand Canyon in his lifetime.

   When we tripped the Canyon last year, I met some of the nicest commercial boatmen of my meager boating career. Brad Dimock was one and the canyon institution known as “Drifter” (who doesn’t know it, but he saved my life more than once with his invaluable advice on some trickier runs. And to whom I still owe a case of homebrew). Living and working in Flagstaff you always hear the stories about the boatmen and their years on the river and how many trips they have racked up. I would like to get in 10 or so before I bite the big one. I don’t think that is alot to ask. The current user day allocations are not going to allow that to happen. Therefore what I really think is that the non-commercial user days should be upped to a more fair number. I would be thrilled to see the ratio be 50/50, but I know that I am dreaming and you guys won’t allow that to happen. If however, you could see your way to a few more days for us privates I’m sure that the non’s would be very appreciative.