Rowing the Rapids of the Colorado River to the Sea of Cortez

By Joanna Measer Kanow

For no other reason than to explore the experience of drifting and floating, Bill and Susan Kees rowed their tandem rubber raft the entire watershed from Green River Lakes in Wyoming to the Sea of Cortez in Baja, Mexico. The journey took six months. Bill began the trip alone and Susan joined him a week later. Their goal, initially, was to get to know the changing personalities of the river, hear its silent stories, discover its natural history, and experience the culture of those who are intimate with it.

Their 1,800-mile float included 18 days of navigating rapids through the Grand Canyon, plus a 21-day row across the flat waters of Lake Powell. The river led them through jagged mountains, deserts, reservoirs, public and private lands, and even over the dangerous boarder crossing into Mexico. “It was one big camping trip. Nothing but positive experiences,” Bill reflects as he remembers the many other adventures along the way.

The Kees camped on the banks of the river the entire trip, bathing in their portable solar shower and eating from their stash of homemade camping food that Bill dehydrated the previous year. They met gracious people along the way who helped shuttle them around the 11 dams they had to portage; they yielded to a mama and baby moose wading across the mellow rapids in Wyoming; they floated down a section of river that had just burned in wild fire 40,000 acres of land all around them. They befriended a Mexican gentleman who joined them on their raft for one week to help them with their technical boarder crossing, where at some points, the river had literally run dry and they had to drag their raft through mud banks. Bill tells the story of one big “epic” when he took an impromptu plunge into the icy waters to unteathered raft that drifted into the middle of the river while they were in the tent. Susan recalls, if the boat had floated away, they would have been stranded on that bank of the river, since they did not see another person for several days.

The mellow drifting and synchronized rowing afforded the Kees the time to catch up on their marriage, while talking and rowing in sync and in silence, while giving them the opportunity to reflect on their lives together. Raising three children in Telluride, working full-time, Bill as a developer and Susan as a family counselor, they did not have much alone time to spend with each other then. The river trip was the greatest quality-time that they have enjoyed together during their 32 years of marriage. Although they embarked on the trip to get to know the river, they came away with a greater understanding of each other and their relationship. The moral of their story was that two people could be in the same boat but still have completely different perceptions and perspectives of the same experience. The entire experiences inspired Susan to write a book about their journey, a work in progress entitled, A Long Way to Row for a Taco about rapids and relationships.

The last day of the epic adventure was Bill’s 60th birthday, the winter solstice that auspiciously fell on the full moon. This made for the shortest day of the year with the biggest tides as the tired Colorado River fed the choppy Sea of Cortez. The tides demanded an evening departure, when the moon was darkened by storm clouds. They rowed with white knuckles for 12 straight hours, until 3 a.m. with fears that the tides and winds would pull them out to sea. Emotionally and physically, it was intense. The river and a safe return to home in Telluride, in time for Christmas dinner with the family, a perfect ending to a perfect adventure.