Rigging

It is common to rush to get to Lee's Ferry and not allowing enough time to rig the boats. But this time can make or break a trip. It may mean important gear left behind or carrying extra gear that is not needed. There may be duplicates of some gear that can be consolidated. Some groups make boat maps while they are rigging showing where everything is located on each raft. Other groups have a person or people whose role is to keep track of where everything is. This can be helpful at camp when trying to get all the ingredients and cooking utensils for meals. Trying to climb on multiple rafts searching for something can be time consuming at best and cause an injury at worst.

The most important difference in an organized group (or raft) is that they know the distinction between rigging and loading rafts. Rigging is best done at Lee's Ferry, at Phantom Boat Beach when doing exchanges, and occasionally during the afternoon in camp. Mornings on the river are for loading rafts. So what is the difference? Rigging involves decisions about where gear is going to be placed on each raft and arranging straps and tie downs to secure the gear. This is a time consuming process shifting gear between rafts and from one place to another. There are many approaches to this depending on how the rafts are set up but the goal during rigging is for everything to have a place. When unloading a raft in camp all straps should either be attached to the raft or to the gear. Use a clove hitch for straps left on the raft so they do not fall to the floor (or through it and into the river on a cataraft). This way in the morning it should be rare to have to try to dig through to find a strap to tie down gear.

Loading a raft is much simpler since every piece of gear already has a place on a raft and decisions only have to be made for a few items such as when a cooler is emptied and gear can be placed in it. Also, the straps are already on the gear or boat so the item just has to be placed into position and strapped in. Usually there is an order to how the items are loaded. The process generally is to place all the gear for a raft on shore near the raft. Someone on the raft points to the next item and someone on shore hands the item to them. This reduces the amount of times having to get on and off the raft. The person on shore can often handle helping with a couple of rafts and bringing gear down from camp. Then the person on the raft places the item in the correct place and straps it in. Done correctly this makes it pretty easy to get on the river early. This usually does not mean getting up early or rushing or pushing others to get ready. Time should be taken to make sure nothing is left in camp and gear is tied down securely, especially on days with bigger rapids.

An organized group will also think about what gear will be needed in camp each night and what can be left in the raft. Having to pull an entire dry box each day for a couple of items is not a good idea. It should be fairly easy to unload gear that will be needed each night in camp. Stuff left on the boat can be buried except for emergency items like first aid. So while rigging the things that are not going to be unloaded every day should be rigged first.