Grand Canyon River Journal - Prologue

Last fall, Dad invited us Slottow kids to go down the Colorado River with him, to honor our dad's older brother, Uncle Luke Slottow, who loved the river. Uncle Luke was a river guide in the summers and ski patrol in the winters, I think until he got more year-round positions with Keystone later on. None of us have been on the Colorado River before. I’ve been to Grand Canyon twice, but the South Rim. I hiked a bit of Bright Angel Trail both times - once on my own with a guide on a solo road trip out west, and the other time with a former girlfriend, Casey McCorvey, on our way to drop her off at a farm on Vashon Island to work. Sam has never been to Grand Canyon, and I don’t think Nate has either. When I read the email invite, I thought of Dirk. To be honest I would never have decided on my own to run 60 rapids on any kind of watercraft, much less 1, since Uncle Luke's son, my cousin Dirk, died whitewater kayaking when we were 21. I've stayed away from white water in general. I remember getting the call about Dirk, from dad, while I was in a practice room at Brevard Music Center preparing for an afternoon concert the summer after my junior year in college, and I knew something was very wrong as soon as I picked up the phone. I cried in a copse of trees behind the auditorium until I had to go to play concert, which felt to me like not enough time at all. We played Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe, and I could hear the water in it. But if Dad wanted to raft the Colorado River, and Sam and Nate did too, then of course I was going.

Uncle Luke Slottow whitewater kayaking

This River Journal chronicles the trip from mile 0 at Lee's Ferry to mile 188 at Whitmore Heli Pad, where 6-day commercial rafting trip passengers get ferried back toward civilization. Before transferring it online, I wrote in a little pen and paper adventure journal at our camps at night. During the day after I found this journal was getting too wet on the raft, I started taking notes on my phone safely in its aquapac case clipped to my life jacket. Then I furiously transferred my notes to my computer before I could forget, in the three days after our return from the river. DAY 0: Austin to Las Vegas

Saturday August 30th, 2025

Dad, Sam and I met up at the Las Vegas airport this afternoon, from Baltimore and Austin. We grabbed some Subway sandwiches at the airport and Ubered to the Marriott Convention Center Hotel, where we found Nate, who had arrived earlier in the day. Nate had taken the monorail to the Strip and explored a little, finding an indoor botanical garden and some very whimsical foods. We had drinks and the silliest tiny baskets of yucca fries in the hotel restaurant, and talked about our travel days, and how none of us actually know what to expect this week, though I'm the only one who seemed to feel that this is any reason for concern. Dad figured we can stay cool in the hot weather by jumping in the river whenever we want (I don't think this will be an option because he will probably get swept away). We aren't sure what the tent situation will be, or if we'll be sleeping on the ground. One new piece of information is that we won't need to row, which is a big relief to me! I haven't been cross-training this summer like I meant to for something like that!

Dad, Sam, Nate and Kenzie at dinner on Day 0, before the River

Our call time for breakfast with our trip group is 4:45am tomorrow, so we agreed to meet up at 4:30am to transfer anything we need to leave at the hotel to my roller bag, which I brought along for the purpose. Next River Journal Page