'A fast, crazy wild ride': Team to float Grand Canyon in wooden boats
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NIMROD, Ore. - Greg Hatten has his bucket list, and near the top is a trip to the Grand Canyon.
"I've got a passion for the boats," the McKenzie River guide said.
Hatten will get to fulfill his wish next month: along with boat builder Randy Dersham and 14 others, Hatten will run the Colorado River nearly 300 miles through the Grand Canyon.
What makes this trip different is they're re-creating a 1962 Colorado River journey by Sunset magazine editor Martin Litton considered a watershed event by boating enthusiasts.
"It made not only commercial trips on the Colorado safe but it made them possible," Hatten said.
And they did it in wooden boats.
"We'll have five wooden replica boats on this trip, which is pretty cool," Hatten said.
The boats are from 50-year-old plans and pictures from Litton's trip.
The famous McKenzie River drift boat design won't work in the big water and rough rapids of the Grand Canyon. Hatten said the wooden boats they'll float are dory vessels, designed to be bigger, wider, taller - and more stable.
"They really ride kind of like a leaf on the water," he said. "Instead of being on the water and crashing through it, when you're in a dory and it moves around with it, it's kind of like having a dance partner."
Hatten said he has never run the Colorado River in a wooden boat, but he said he'll be ready to launch. "Keep your boat centered as best as you can because the water - I mean it's a fast, crazy wild ride."
Boating fans can send off the team March 17 at a film showing and departure party March 17 at Cabela's at Gateway Mall.
