Grand Canyon Trip Planning: Organizing Gear, Food, and People

Note: This is the second in a series of Grand Canyon private trip planning contributed by our guest poster, friend, and trip leader David Harwood. (Check out the first post in this series, “Assembling Your Team for a Private Grand Canyon River Trip.”) Our trip launches April 22, and we’ll follow up with photos, videos, and commentary on how the trip went and what we might have done differently—if anything—on our 16-person private Grand Canyon trip.

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With a roster in place for a private Grand Canyon trip, extensive planning and coordination related to gear, food, transportation, and other issues begins in earnest. Getting started on this leg of the journey can be aided by employing a variety of coordination tools and processes related to marshalling the equipment, food, and other trip needs. 

Selecting a trip coordinator (not necessarily the trip leader)

Planning and coordination will almost certainly begin with selection of a point person. This can—and in most cases probably will—be the trip leader. But it doesn’t have to be. The planning and coordination role is a dry-land exercise and the skillset required here is arguably different than that of an on-river trip leader. For more on desirable attributes of a trip leader, see “What Makes a Good Private River Trip Leader?” As I have experienced in recent months, planning a 16- to 25-day trip is a significant undertaking. The pre-trip planning requires such things as time, organizational skills, good communication, and knowledge of the equipment and systems that go into an extended trip.  

Painless private, do-it-yourself, or hybrid approaches to Grand Canyon private trip organization

In the planning phase, the trip leader should begin by taking the group’s temperature as to how much time and money they want to spend on the trip. At one end of the spectrum, groups can elect to pursue a “painless private” option, in which one of the handful of solid Canyon outfitters will prepare all of the gear, food, shuttles, and other essential needs for the trip. With a painless private package, the group plays an interactive but largely passive role in much of the planning process. For many people with demanding jobs, lack of experience or gear, and/or comfortable financial resources, this can be an attractive option—but it might cost a bit more than do-it-yourself trips. As of the fall of 2020, the cost of a full-service painless private trip for 16 people over 20 days or so is in the neighborhood of $25,000, or about $1,600 per person. It is not an unreasonable cost for a three-week trip—especially for the payoff in simplifying logistics.  

At the other end of the spectrum, groups can choose to skip interaction with an outfitter altogether if they are able to pull together their own gear, food, and other equipment. Like many others, our group is following something of a hybrid. We are relying on an outfitter to provide our essential raft gear, while we are undertaking the food planning, shuttles, and other gear. Between us, we have much of the gear needed and a significant history of planning multi-day trips, albeit of shorter duration. Our motivation for this kind of hybrid approach emerged from various sources: a hope to save a little bit of money; interest in renting larger boats than our collective fleet possesses; the benefit of working with an outfitter willing to provide advice along the way; and, to be honest, an interest in taking on the challenge of planning and staging the food and other requirements for a trip this long. We’ll see how it goes!

Working with Grand Canyon food and gear outfitters

Having decided on our hybrid approach, we reached out to a handful of outfitters to get estimates as to the cost and processes involved in renting six rafts and associated equipment. (Check out this list of Grand Canyon non-commercial trip outfitters.) All of the outfitters we interacted with were exceptionally professional in presenting costs and options. To supplement this information, we did online research on reviews and experiences others posted about various outfitters. Unsurprisingly, everyone has an opinion and it is easy to get anxious based on an online rant about a hiccup someone had with this outfitter or the other. But I would urge prospective clients to take this information with grains of salt. There are going to be hiccups, as anyone who has been on the river knows.  

The truth is that all the primary outfitters have been in business for decades and are owned and staff by good people. Go with the outfitter you are comfortable with. And remember the adage: “Consultants are as good or bad as their clients.”  Be a good client, ask questions, make sure your requirements are unmistakably clear, and plan to double-check the outfitter’s work.

Group gear management tools

Extensive communication and coordination are essential to being a good client, but also for ensuring all necessary gear is accounted for by your group. Our boats and associated basics (oars, frames, etc.) are coming from an outfitter, but there is a good deal of additional gear we need to coordinate. For this task, we’ve been using a group gear checklist that aids our internal coordination as to who has what, who is bring what to the river, and how we can collectively meet group needs. There are many group gear lists available online, including the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association Gear List and the River Runners for Wilderness gear list.

We are using one borrowed from the trip leader of a past Canyon trip. It lists the gear required for each boat and makes clear how that equipment will be obtained—whether it’s from rentals or trip participants. It is an incredibly efficient, interactive tool. Prior to our launch, we’ll review the group gear list individually and collectively to make sure that nothing is missed and that everyone understands what they are expected to bring to the river’s edge.

Grand Canyon private river trip food management tools

For those experienced in planning multi-day trips, finding checklists and coordinating gear for a long Canyon run is relatively straightforward. The same cannot be said for the food packing. There is a reason many boaters will rely on outfitters for the food packing: Outfitters have learned through experience and have the tools required to do the job.

Based on past experiences, our group is organizing food around a camp-based system, as most of the outfitters do. “Camp days” begin with the first overnight camp and cover the ensuing dinner, breakfast, and lunch. The rocket box for “Camp 1” has all of the dry goods required for those three meals. Our coolers will also be organized based on camps—each one assigned the frozen and refrigerated items for 3 to 4 camp days.  

Many of us have experience with the camp-based system. But knowing how the system works and executing it are different animals. There are large and complicated logistical challenges associated with pulling together and managing all of the food required for such a long trip.

Grand Canyon food planning app

After much research and angst, we test-drove a food management software on a multi-day trip on the upper Colorado River last summer. Based on that experience, we bought a one-year subscription to Wholesum, which is a multi-faceted software that enables menu planning, shopping, and inventory of all the food needed for an undertaking such as this.  

Grand Canyon food preference survey

With our system and management tool in place, the food planning process is not dissimilar to gear planning. It begins with a group survey—the food preference survey. This group communication and request for information engages everyone in the process and is the essential starting point for menu planning. We used the food preference survey to identify allergies; the number of vegetarians, carnivores, etc.; and the size of appetites and eating habits of participants.

You can also use this process to ascertain how much time your group wants to spend on food preparations. For some, it will be worth the time and effort needed to prepare near-gourmet meals. Others will be happy with simple, often no-cook offerings that allow for more time on the river, hiking, or other pursuits. The amount of prep time is entirely up to the group—and the food preference survey should help identify a consensus about the food people need or expect to have and the effort required to deliver it.  

Timeline for Grand Canyon trip planning

Finally, a word about setting up a timeline. Lead time is essential. The scale and scope of planning a Canyon trip makes last-minute fire drills ill-advised and, more practically, impossible. It is likely that planning will and should be viewed on a 12-month planning horizon.  

• A year out, it’s a good idea to have an initial roster and planning coordinator identified.   
• Three months later, essential coordination should be underway—to identify what kind of gear is needed, how it will be obtained, and how logistics like food and shuttles will be handled.   
• If you are doing your own food pack, have the food preference survey completed and a solid food/menu plan in place.   
• 90 days prior to your trip, the Park Service will require you to complete some forms and pay fees ($110 per person at this time). That 90-day mark will very likely—and should—throw your planning into a higher gear. Consistent with the mantra of “plan your work and work your plan,” you should be working your plan from 90 days out.   

This post has been about planning your work.  In the next post, we’ll explore working your plan.

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