Excellent canoeing trip on the Colorado river last weekend, paddling 22 miles to the Hoover Dam and back. Went with Aztec Adventures of SDSU. The two guides, Dave and Trevor, were not only excellent guides and amazing chefs, they’re also incredibly nice guys. Really couldn’t imagine better guides.

You start down river and paddle up towards the dam. We actually made it to the intended camp, 8 miles upriver, on the first day. Quite a surprise. I’m convinced we did it only because we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. There was a fairly swift current against us (an 8 out of 10 in terms of how strong it ever gets). We barely made it to the camp – it was getting dark and the current was getting very strong, both of which can end your progress.

You really want to try to get to this camp because there’s an excellent hot spring here. First thing after getting settled was to hit the hot spring and recover from the day’s physical abuse. Paddling 8 miles against the current is a tremendous amount of work if you’re a group of out of shape thirty-somethings. Actually it’s a lot of work regardless. Most groups go down stream.

The guides made an amazing camp (turns out the bottom of a canoe is flat and can be used as a long table) and cooked vegetarian chicken pot pie. We sat on our behinds and told off color jokes while they made us apple crisps. These guys are great.

The hot tip is this: From Las Vegas, get on the 93 towards Hoover Dam. Cross the Dam, look for mile marker 4. Shortly after the marker there will be a rest area / view point where you can park your car on the right. From there you can hike down to the hotspring and camp. I don’t know exactly how the hike is – we got there from the river. The other alternative, if you’re too lazy to paddle upstream (most tour groups are), you can start at the Dam and paddle downstream. The campsite is close to mile marker 59 on the river.

Next day was paddling up river to the dam. Significantly shorter distance and hence less effort – about 4 miles. We gave the guides two firsts: they’d never lost a paddle in the water before (check), and they’d never had a canoe tip over (check). The latter was me and Javed attempting to take on a rapid between two rocks, getting sideways, and getting upside down. That is some cold water.

Falling into the river is actually not that bad once you get over the initial shock. Fortunately there was another hot spring right there, which I quickly made way to, while the dry members of the gang recovered our stuff from the river. Amazingly they saved everything.

On the way back you also want to hit the sauna cave. Apparently this was an exploratory hole they dug years ago to see where to build the dam. This particular spot hit hot steamy water and was abandoned, but now makes a great natural sauna.

We were treated to another excellent meal, chilli, and pineapple turn-over for desert. Next day was paddling 8 miles down-river, which we made in 2 hours and 40 minutes despite no current.

This trip is a lot of physical work and you’ll leave more exhausted than you ever knew you could get, but I highly recommend it. I recommend Aztec Adventures, and if you’re going to go with them, definitely ask for Dave and Trevor.

Pictures here: http://flickr.com/photos/darugar/sets/72057594067005572/