ISSUES WITH LAKE POWELL KAYAK

I recently subscribed to the magazine, Adventure Kayak.  The last page of the spring issue featured maps and information on kayaking on Lake Powell.  Three resources were listed, one in Page, Arizona, just north of the Grand Canyon – Lake Powell Kayak.  Lisa and I were planning a two-week trip through Arizona, including the Grand Canyon, so I went to the Lake Powell Kayak website to check things out.  It is a very professional website, with all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a solid outfitter.  URL

I was particularly interested in this section on the gear supplied to customers.  Here is an excerpt from the Lake Powell Kayak website:

Very professional.   The same was true of my email and phone contacts.  I soon determined that there were no trips scheduled for Lake Powell while we were to be there. However, there was a one or two day, “self-guided trip” on the Colorado. A quick phone call made the trip sound wonderful.  I quickly used the website’s registration forms and disclaimers – you know, the ones that say, “no matter what happens, it’s not the outfitter’s fault”. The cost was a modest $119.00 per person for the overnight trip, and the outfitter would provide sleeping bags, pads, a tent and dry bags for two, for an additional $20.00!  With our reservation made, we headed off on our trip, eventually arriving in Page, Arizona in the early afternoon of May 15th.  We had been on the road for more than a week at that point, and I wanted to get to Page early on the day before our trip was to depart to check in at Lake Powell Kayak. 

Somewhere I had found the address of 24 South Lake Powell Boulevard as the location of the outfitter and entered it in my GPS.  I cruised up and down South Lake Powell Boulevard, but no Lake Powell Kayak.  I pulled into a plaza where I thought the outfitter should be and walked into a shop to inquire.  The business, a guide and photography service, had been in that location for years.  No one there had ever heard of Lake Powell Kayak.  A search of the phonebook did not turn up a listing for Lake Powell Kayak.  At this point, I was beginning to think that we’d been had.  Desperate, I pulled out the article from Adventure Kayak and spotted an 800 number.  I called it and got a recording.  At the end of the recording was a referral to a marine store on View Avenue.  We hurriedly drove over there, walked into the store and inquired about Lake Powell Kayak.  The man at the desk said that Kyle (Kyle Walker the owner of Lake Powell Kayak) was just crossing the street to the fenced enclosure where his gear was stored.  He said we’d better hurry because Kyle was about to leave for Las Vegas and a flight to Miami.

I’m not sure what Kyle was doing, but his truck was parked within the large fenced enclosure, a place used by the marine dealer to store powerboats.  And he was in fact anxious to get on the road to Las Vegas.  I never found out what arrangements Kyle had made for us if we hadn’t found him.  Based on experience, any arrangements were probably sketchy at best.  We found ourselves surrounded by piles of equipment – boats, life vests, sleeping pads, dry bags – all out in the open, all in various conditions of wear.  Kyle motioned to boats on a trailer to the right and several on the ground across the driveway to the left and said we should pick out whatever boats we wanted.  I quick look showed that they were almost all Perception Carolina 14.5’s.  There may have been some relatively new boats in the mix, but I couldn’t tell.  They all looked well worn from the sun and use.  I knew that Lisa, a petite woman, would not be happy in a Carolina.  They are quite beamy and don’t move easily.  I hunted around on the trailer and discovered an ancient Dagger Spectra near the bottom.  It is a much narrower boat, a boat that Lisa would be comfortable in.  It was the only one in Kyle’s fleet.

Kyle remembered that we wanted camping gear.  We had the pads.  He dug two camp style sleeping bags out of his truck.  They were enormous.  Again, I wondered how we would get these into the boats.  Next we were handed two mismatched dry bags that Kyle produced from somewhere, and a tent, or at least part of a tent.  Kyle said that the tent poles were back at his house and asked us to follow him to pick them up.  Lisa and I must have been showing our concern about this whole operation through our questions and comments because Kyle commented that people in Arizona were a whole lot more laid back than folks from the East.  Amen!

We followed Kyle to his house and were handed our tent poles.  When we asked for directions to Lee’s Ferry, we were asked if we remembered a cut through the mountains on Route 89.  We did.  “You make a hard right turn right after that cut to get to Lee’s ferry”, he said.  “It’s about twenty-two miles.”  After some thought, Kyle told us our ride upstream would pick us up at 9 AM the next day.  Knowing that Kyle would be out of town, Lisa asked for a back-up phone number in case our ride up the river didn’t show.  Fortunately, we got the number of the transporting company. 

That evening, we drove out to find Lee’s Ferry, thinking that the twenty-two mile trip would take about thirty minutes each way.  The trip was closer to forty-two miles and took us an hour.  Kyle’s directions were sketchy at best.  We would have turned back except that my GPS showed Lee’s Ferry on the river, even though there were no roads shown that would get you there!

If you read part one of this saga, you know the rest of the story – incorrect pick-up time, broken, leaky boats and equipment bad information and some critical information just not given to us.  While the worn-out equipment was an annoyance, there are several things that I feel posed a significant safety risk.  Here is a summary of those issues, things you might want to consider when choosing an outfitter.

If you haven’t viewed the Colorado Video Diary, this would be a good time to do it.

My Issues With Lake Powell Kayak

•This trip is advertised as a one or two day unguided trip.  It is marketed to novices, recreational kayakers with little or no kayaking experience.  This would not be a serious concern if this was a warm water river, but it is not. 

oNovices do stupid things like not wearing their PFD’s.  And five minutes in that 470 water will incapacitate a person. 

oNovices typically have never practiced an assisted rescue or a self-rescue, nor have they towed a boat or waterlogged swimmer.

oWhile there is occasional powerboat traffic on the river, there is no cell phone or VHF radio reception because of the canyon walls.  In an emergency, a kayaker will need to rescue himself, and if injured, administer first aid and wait to flag down a passing boat for help. 

All of these things suggest that this is NOT a trip for unassisted novices and recreational paddlers without specific instruction and equipment requirements.

•The equipment provided by Lake Powell Kayak ranged from new to worn but serviceable, to worn-out to down right dangerous. 

oPFD’s: With the exception of the two new small/medium REI PFD’s Lisa and I found, the life jackets were in pretty bad shape.  If you are only interested in meeting a requirement of the law by having a PFD aboard, these qualify.  However, it is my opinion that if you are serious about safety you provide good quality PFD’s, clean and in good working order, to encourage their use.  You fit them to your customers before they leave your store and you insist as a condition of rental that the PFD is worn every time the paddler is on the water. 

oThe Boats: The boats were worn but generally serviceable and appropriate for the trip.  However, the rhetoric of the website indicated that a variety of boats would be available to fit the needs of every paddler. 

•One Size Fits All: With the exception of the one old Dagger Spectra I found for Lisa, only Perception Carolina 14.5’s were available.  These are good recreational kayaks and appropriate for both the experience level of the expected paddlers and the water being paddled.  However, they are not the only such boats out there. Lisa’s five foot-three inch, one hundred fifteen pound frame was way to small for the high volume Carolina.  She needed a smaller boat which Lake Powell Kayak’s website said she would have.  In my opinion, an outfitter should deliver what he advertises or change the advertisement.

•Broken Boats: We were sent off with a broken boat.  If I hadn’t had my repair kit with me, we would have been stuck.  Imagine a novice paddler, dropped off fifteen miles from the takeout with no way to call for help.  Pray that he has his Swiss Army knife with him!  In my opinion, a conscientious outfitter cares about his equipment.  He checks it before every rental to assure that it is clean and in working order. 

•Leaky Boats: Obviously, both boats leaked, mine especially.  If I hadn’t brought my own dry bags, our clothing and food would have been wet and perhaps ruined, as were my headlamps.  Beyond that, suppose the leak had been even greater.  Would I have noticed before my stern became submerged and the boat unstable?  Remember that killer 470 water?  In my opinion, this is a serious safety issue.  A customer has every right to expect that rented equipment is safe and in good working order.  A conscientious outfitter would ask customers for feedback on the condition of his equipment so he could repair any problems.

oInappropriate Camping Equipment:

•Sleeping Bags and Pads:  This gear would be great for car camping, rafting or for a powerboat supported kayaking trip.  In my opinion, it is too large for an unsupported, bring everything in your boat, kayaking trip.  The base camp type pad would have to be tied on deck, as there is no way it could be stuffed into a kayak hatch.  The sleeping bag can be stuffed into a dry bag and into a hatch or between foot pegs.  But, it completely fills a hatch and I wonder if a novice would think of trying to get it between foot pegs. 

•Dry Bags: What can I say?  If they had been truly dry, they would have been fine.  But they were worn out and leaky.  My opinion? Wouldn’t you think an outfitter would be concerned about the comfort of his customers?

•The Tent: My opinion?  The tent provided, while not of the quality advertised, was perfectly adequate for this trip.  It nicely kept the ants and flying bugs on the outside where they belonged.  The rainfly was another story.  It was full of holes created by sparks and embers from a too large campfire.  There was no threat of rain, so this didn’t prove to be a problem either, but it could have been.

oLack of Needed Information: 

•Directions:  Perhaps most of the folks who contract with Lake Powell Kayak are local and know how to find a place like Lee’s Ferry.  But LPK has now gotten national exposure in two different magazines.  My opinion?  There will be a lot more people like me who need good, detailed written directions on where to go and how to find both Lake Powell Kayak (LPK) and places like Lee’s Ferry.

•Personal gear: The FAQ section of LPK’s website lists some things that day paddlers and multi-day trippers should bring.  It is an extremely basic list aimed at trips on Lake Powell, with the milti-day trips guided and supported by the outfitter.  There is nothing that addresses the particular needs of paddlers on the Colorado where the temperature is hotter, the water colder and emergency contact by cell phone or radio is nonexistent.  Nor is there any mention of food planning for a two day trip.  (See What to Bring. on the LPK website). In my opinion, this is a serious oversight.  The cold water requires special precautions.  The hot temperatures require paddlers to carry a minimum of one gallon of water per person per day.  Nowhere are these things mentioned.  Nor are there any suggestions about food or how to handle emergencies. 

•River maps and data:  If you look hard enough, you will find a link to a map of the Colorado we paddled.  Here’s the link: Kayaking Tours – see if you can find the map.  I got all of my useful information - maps, water temperature and water flow data- from a park ranger.  And that happened only because our shuttle was “late” and I had time to wander over to the office to ask some questions.  In my opinion, Kyle could have easily provided all of this important information in a handout when we picked up our gear. 

I sometimes wonder if I’m being too hard on Kyle Walker and Lake Powell Kayak.  It seems to me, however, that when you are typically sending novices, recreational kayakers off on an unguided trip with air temperatures near 100 degrees and water temperatures at 47 degrees, you need to give them everything they need to come back safely and having had a good experience.  Critical information and solid, appropriate gear in good working condition seem to be a minimum requirement.  Given the inappropriateness and condition of some of our gear and the air and water temperatures we encountered, I begin to wonder if Kyle has ever made the Colorado River paddle himself or even tried to pack a kayak for an unsupported kayak trip.  But, maybe Kyle is right – folks are just a whole lot more laid back in Arizona than they are in the East, and I’m just too uptight.

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