River Rat Chapter 57

From Spearfish Lake Tales Wiki

Read this chapter River Rat

Location

• Flagstaff
• Grand Canyon

Characters

• Scooter
• Jim Griffin
• Jerry
• Kelly
• Karin Chladek
• Jeff Pleva
• Duane MacRae
• Barbie Tompkins
• Michelle Rawson
• Wade Parker
• Hannah McCluskey
• Andy

Also Mentioned

• Al Buck
• Noah Whittaker
• Nanci Chladek
• Crystal Chladek
• Norma
• Dan
• Jon Chladek
• Josh Archer
• Tiffany Archer
• Randy Clark

Time period

June 15 - July 15 2001

Summary

Scooter and Jim spend what is going to be their last weekend together until at least the end of August. They had a tearful goodbye when she drove him to Lee's Ferry for the start of his trip. The next day, Jerry and Kelly have a long kiss before he gets on the crew bus and they head for Lee's to do their rigging.

The weather has turned hot for this trip, only alleviated by thunderstorms from time to time; when they were in their vicinity, Scooter wished that Norma with her weather sense was with them.

When they got to Phantom Ranch, where Scooter had been looking forward to a long lunch in the shade, she was astounded and overjoyed to see Jim waiting on the shore. Jim tells her and Duane that there's been a crew shakeup; Dan had a seizure on the trip that he was on and had to be helicoptered out. Jerry said that in high school, Dan had been treated for a brain tumor, but that he thought it had been licked. Duane is going to replace Dan as assistant team leader on Crystal's team, and will hike out from Phantom; Karin would be replacing him.

Jerry was also scheduled to hike out; Al had worked a trade with GCR so that Jim could move to Canyon Tours and Jerry would do motor raft trips for GCR, which would make Kelly much happier, since the trips only lasted six or seven days and not two and a half weeks. Scooter tells Jim "Go jump in the river. You stink! You're a Canyon Tours oarboater now; we gotta get that goddamn gas smell off of you!"

Karin tells Scooter that Nanci is the best swamper on Crystal's team, and that Jon has definitely gotten hooked on the Canyon, although is too involved in his job to give it up to also become a boatman.