Life on the American Nile

The river was like some alive thing there at the edge of the dark. You could hear all those sounds it made - the rushing, sucking, gurgling noises - as it wound its way past the campfire.

Jet ski boats line up for the last drag race of the season at Bluewater Marina near Parker. About six such races are held on the river during the year. All are family affairs sanctioned by boat racing associations. Fully equipped jet race boats can cost up to $25,000. Racing during the split season usually adds another $25,000 to the owner's tab. Last race of the year is the annual Thanksgiving Regatta. Alan Benoit "Stay away from the bank. Remember, it crumbles."

There was no need to tell us. Anything with such life was sure to be devious. Was sure to claw away at the underside of its bank and leave the top all safe-looking.

"C'mon. Let's see if there's something on the line."

The warm rough hand was reassurance in the night. A sandbar spread into the water like a woman's cape, and away from the willows and tamarisk trees there was moonlight enough to see the light chain pegged to an old stump. It disappeared into the swift water and was held by the current. "Here. Hold it a minute. Feels like we've got something."

An electric thrill went along the hand and up the arm. It coursed through the young frame and an excitement was born. There was fish on the line!

We went there a lot in the early days. After chores were done. Or to dig up young trees to take back and plant around the cows' tanks. Or to picnic. It was good to live near the river. It was a relief from the hot sands and arid acres people worked so hard to farm. And we had fun there when we were growing up. It was water. And it promised something.

There was a smell about it that you could remember lots of years later. Sort of earthy and fishy and like damp, moldy leaves in the fall. The first time you swam in it, you recognized the taste. It was synonymous with the smell. And years later when you fell off your skis, silt ground against your teeth for a long time afterwards, and you remembered the awe you had felt when you were small and knew the water gulped chunks of riverbank as it rushed and whirled by.

People have always made their way to the Colorado River for one reason or another. Early Indians lived along its banks and ate its fish; pioneers cursed it and crossed it on their trek to what appeared to be a more promising land somewhere beyond; steamboats carried passengers and cargo to the settlements upriver, and brought rich ore back downstream. Farmlands were developed from the heavy silt deposited over the years when the old renegade overran its banks. Towns and cities came alive along those same banks, and dams were built and the water was parceled out.

The river has always been a treasured resource. And that idea hasn't changed. Convenience and ingenuity, desire and big-thinking have altered the rugged and bizarre landscape of Arizona's western boundary into a vast oasis. The resource has been expanded into one of The largest and most popular recreation areas in the country.

The Colorado. The river that once wreaked such havoc under its floodwaters has become a playground for millions. Gone are the temperamental years of drought; settled are the once capricious sandbars; smoothed are the willful whirlpools, which could send a boat flying into the banks and turn it into a pile of kindling. A series of seven dams stretching from Lake Mead to the Mexican border has harnessed one of America's most respected and feared waterways and has made of it a popular and well-recognized recreational attraction.

"People need to recreate and they come to the river to do it." Jim Mack, naturalist for the National Park Service at Katherine Landing, looked across the windshield of his boat. He spread his arms in a gesture of size and watched a fisherman shrug with despair. He raised his hand in hope. It happens all the time. No matter what the season, they pack up lock, stock, and barrel and it continues. It. The migration. People headed for the Colorado River. They're pilgrims in RVs. From Yuma to Hoover Dam, they line the 351 miles of river with trailers, campers, motor homes, tents, squares of canvas stretched across poles. They bring every description of boat, fishing lure, motor bike, scuba gear, water ski, inner-tubes, beach ball, and raft. Beer and diet colas, suntan oil and cooking oil, hot dogs and T-bones, TV sets and hiking boots, swimsuits and blue jeans. The list goes on. They pack it and they use it. And they check in from everywhere.

"It's phenomenal. We put about a million people a year through this area, alone. And eighty-three per cent of them are from southern California. Fish and Game people say the boat population is up 10 per cent over last year." Jim shut down the boat's engine and we drifted in the abrupt silence.

"This area," Lake Mohave, is a narrow reservoir formed by Davis Dam and reaches some sixty-seven river miles upward to the base of Hoover Dam. It was late in the day and a slight breeze, warm and moist, had sprung up. The river had changed in color from the deep blue of morning to an opaque gray, reflecting a skim of cloud cover. There was little activity on the water now. A handful of fishing boats, scattered randomly through isolated coves, drifted silently. Nothing seemed to intrude on the tranquility. Campers walked the sandy beaches, kids were in the water close in, one lone skier followed a boat around the turn from Bull's Head rock, waved, wobbled,caught himself and skimmed on upriver toward the marina. It was a considerable contrast to the crowded activity of the earlier hours when the water and shoreline had teemed with activity."

"What do they do besides fish and sunburn?" Jim repeated the question and smiled a little under the bushy black mustache. "It depends on where they are, mostly, or what they're looking for. As the river changes, activities change. It's good for families, though, because they can find privacy for camping, places for the kids to swim, they can do some great fishing, and there are spectacular trails to hike. There's something for everyone, really."

Although the dams helped put an end to commercial river traffic, they have been instrumental in causing the dramatic influx of pleasure boats sailing the desert waterway.

Arizona can claim big waters like Lake Havasu, a mile-wide bulge backed up by Parker Dam, and above that, the sixty-seven-mile-long Lake Mohave which boasts its three popular boating and fishing areas: Willow Beach, Cottonwood Cove, Katherine Landing. Below Havasu, the river provides long winding runs to the Mexican border, good for a variety of recreational gambits.

Pleasure craft on the river range in size from the elegant Royal cruiser houseboats that nuzzle their way through coves and isolated, unique inlets to the mono-sail dinghy beating its erratic course at the whim of sailor and breeze. But size does not appear to matter. They're feisty sailors who challenge the river and each other and go with the currents and wind changes. They handle their craft where winds veer, back, and twist; and they trim This year over 1500 entrants, ages 5 to 84, competed for prizes ranging from winning the race itself to awards for the fanciest decorated inner tube, the worst looking hat, and finishing last.

Self-proclaimed river rat Bea Crane tends bar on the Roadrunner, the only floating restaurant-bar on the Colorado. Customers tie up to her floating dock near Parker to put in their orders. Other landlocked restaurants in the area have slips to accommodate boaters.

(Following panel, pages 24-25) An early morning mood on the upper end of Lake Mead. It is difficult, without a map, to determine just where Grand Canyon National Park ends and Lake Mead National Recreation Area begins here.

their sails with a sea dog's touch. A Coast Guard squadron of four men and four boats under the command of Chief Steve Talbot is based at Parker and patrols the river from Davis Dam to the Mexican border. Five or six reservists out of Phoenix fill out the squadron ranks every weekend, and an auxiliary force of twenty is continually on call. Sailing clubs and boat associations have organized at Havasu and Mohave lakes and down on the Parker Strip. They host some of the most popular regattas and races in the country. The world's largest inland sailing series, the Lake Havasu Regatta, which this year saw around three hundred twin-hulled catamarans nipping and tacking during a two-day April sail-off, has become the annual foundation of boating sports on Lake Havasu. Arizona Fish and Game reports sails down at Senator's Wash And on Squaw Lake. And residents at Yuma have been astounded by the appearance of “ragbaggers,” as the sail craft owners have been dubbed by powerboaters, on the water, at the very edge of that southwestern Arizona city. Havasu, where gale-force winds have piled waves high enough to keep sailors beached more than once, is the hub of major sailing activities on the lower Colorado. Five annual water ski events are held there and, under the auspices of the Havasu Boat and Ski Club, ski races are run by the National Speed Boat and Water Ski Association to qualify participants for the national finals. Thanksgiving weekend sees the World Outboard Championship run under usually clear skies on warm days. Thirty boats and 160 skiers in the district association use the big lake as primary headquarters.

Farther downriver, below Parker Dam, is an eleven-mile narrow stretch of water known by veterans as the Parker Strip. It is over these twisting waters that the jet-powered enthusiasts run their sleek machines. The National Jet Boat Association and the Southern California Speed Boat Club find river conditions at Blue Water Marina ideal for racing.

"Even with the energy crisis, boating is increasing. We're seeing more and more craft on the river every year," enthused Don Johnson, a cabinet-maker-turned-power-racer. Don, who owns one of those $15,000 tunnel-hulled jet-powered Pickleforks is a typical Arizona boat owner. He and his wife, Polly, grew up in the sand dunes and along the mesquite-lined banks of the Colorado at Yuma. "I started out as a skier, then got interested in boats. Since then, we've gone from boat to boat to boat.

We've gotten into racing this past year up at Blue Water and down in Mexico; and it's a helluva kick. We spend every weekend on the river. Usually launch at Fisher's (Landing) at Martinez Lake and run up to the state park at Picacho Peak. We go with our friends, camp out on a sandbar for a couple of days, ski, and just tool around. I spend about twenty hours a week running and maintaining a high performance boat like that. And it's great."

The Parker Nine Hour Enduro draws entrants of every description to Ah Villa to run the fourteen-mile roundtrip on the first weekend of March. It is a grand melee, popular with every-one. They call it the "run-what-you-brung" event.

Those are the big ones. The enthusiasts who vie with each other for place, speed, craft even bumper stickers. Powerboaters contend "Sailors Are Full of Wind." Sailboaters boast "Sailors

Have More Fun." Whatever the polarization, there is evidence that boat owners are in full pursuit of a total sport and are finding it on the Colorado.

"In the past year, we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of canoes coming down Black Canyon to Willow Beach." Jim Mack went on enumerating the various activities people are finding available on the fast developing recreation area.

Canoe enthusiasts, with permission from the Water and Power Service, can launch their craft at the base of Hoover Dam and can run the eleven-mile course through the dramatic canyon. Canoes are popular, also, on the forty-mile stretch from Palo Verde above Picacho Peak to the headwaters of Imperial Reservoir. It is a two-day trip with one night camping along the riverbank or on a broad sandbar.

"There's a good eightto ten-knot current down there, and up in Black Canyon there's a series of low-water rapids that canoers find exciting."

Life along the Colorado River has become more sophisticated as people have moved in and the amount of open space has diminished. New cities have sprung up or old ones have spruced up, wildlife preserves have been developed, neatly-maintained parks and campingrounds have been constructed, mobile home sites and squatter shacks share the view with more expensive homes. Air-conditioned motels, sport shops, dining rooms, marinas, and fast-food emporiums efficiently care for the huge number of outdoor buffs who arrive each year. Spinnakers have replaced the steam-boat's whistle, canoes dance through the rapids and glide silently past big powerboats. The popularity of house-boating is fast outgrowing the available supply and the myriad inlets and coves provide perfect anchorage for the smaller patio boats, skiffs, and rafts. Down at Bullhead City, little water taxis scuttle back and forth across the swiftly moving water, carrying passengers to five gaming casinos and hotels over at Laughlin on the Nevada shore.

Depending upon the noticeable river current, water activities run the gamut from inner-tube racing at Yuma and the annual Parker-to-Big-River-Inner-Tube Race each June, to the use of jet skis, wet bikes, and organized canoe trips down Topock Gorge. But recreation on the river is by no means limited to boating and skiing. Scuba diving clubs get into the water at the base of Hoover Dam where the water temperature averages fifty-three degrees and is of such a clarity that both divers and great numbers of giant-sized rainbow trout findan agreeable habitat.

Some of the most spectacular scenery on the river is found in Black Canyon where sheer cliffs rise fifteen hundred feet above the river and natural hot springs collect into pools at their base. Water temperatures in the pools vary from 110 to 143 degrees and provide a good stopping place for canoers or for hikers, photographers, wildlife and bird watchers, petroglyph and gem hunters. The National Park Service will provide organized nature hikes, and concessioners at most of the marinas will schedule boat tours to points of interest near their area. Some of the best rainbow trout fishing in the world is done up in those waters, also. Butch and Audrey Webb started the Five Pound Club at the Willow Beach Restaurant back in 1963 for anglers who brought in a trophy class rainbow trout or largemouth bass. Since Then, they've run out of restaurant wall space for the "Wall of Fame" for the photographic proof of "fishermen's luck." Another feature at Butch's place is an item on the menu called a "fisherman's catch." You catch the fish and order it for supper. They do the rest.

The entire Colorado River offers some of the finest American game fish including trout, bass, catfish, walleye pike, striped bass, crappie, panfish, and bluegill. Lake Havasu sponsors its Western Bass Derby in January and its Striper Tournament at the end of March. Private tournaments are organized at Hoover Dam and at Parker throughout the season.

Imperial Dam above Yuma boasts its champion largemouth black bass. Catfish becomes the primary species below Parker and in the Topock Swamp area. Martinez Lake and the backwaters of Imperial Dam offer excellent bass, catfish, and bluegill.

Recreation. What are you looking for? Hunting? Frogging? Swimming? Picnicking and camping? Rock hounding? Prospecting? Rodeoing? Somewhere along the Colorado during a twelve-month period, there's a community or an area that offers the "best time" to visit for some affair or another. It is all geared to family recreation and pleasure, whether you are a participant or a spectator. Each stretch of water is unique. Each bend of the old serpentine river offers a dramatic view or an exciting prospect of adventure.

The western boundary of Arizona changes from rugged, sheer cliffs to farmlands to sandy beaches to marshes to sand dunes. And the character of the water changes. It can be cold and clear in some places, warm and heavy with silt in others. You will run into lowwater rapids up in Black Canyon and there will be no noticeable current around the next bend.

"What do they do besides fish and sunburn?"

Those pilgrims in RVs use it all. And they're planning more. New parks, expanded game preserves, more organizations with larger memberships, a greater range of organized activities are on the drawing boards.

The river remains that alive thing there at the edge of the dark. It still makes those sounds the rushing, sucking, gurgling noises as it runs past the campfires. But it no longer is devious and threatening. It is a big treasure trove of natural resource providing pleasure unlimited.