| Wes Boyd's Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online |
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| Wes Boyd's Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online |
Chapter 4
It was two days of very hard driving in the Mustang from Bradford to Flagstaff. Usually Duane and Michelle preferred to not go quite that hard, but in a phone call from Bradford they’d learned that Al and Karin wanted to have a team-leader meeting on Friday, which was two days before Canyon Tours launched the first trip of the season. If Duane and Michelle wanted to get there on time, there was nothing to do but to get started very early the morning after the party and keep the pit stops as short as possible. They pulled into Oklahoma City late, got a motel room, and were on their way again before it began to get light behind them.
Rather than drive on out to Michelle’s parents’ place in Grand Canyon Village, they just got a room at a motel outside Flagstaff Thursday evening, had a late dinner, and crashed in the bed, just sleeping to get over the fatigue of their hurried trip west. They were up bright and early on Friday morning, had a good breakfast in a restaurant, then drove the Mustang over to the Canyon Tours office, which was a converted house with a large steel barn behind it on the edge of Flagstaff.
Al and Karin were already there, along with Crystal, Preach, and Dan Plemmons, a former boatman who ran the office. Dan was a nice enough guy, and had been an adequate if not spectacular boatman, but he had a history of brain tumors, and no one, even him, wanted to risk having him on the river again. Al had made room in the office for him, and he’d worked out well there.
There was an urn of coffee and a big box of doughnuts on the counter, and even though Michelle and Duane had already had breakfast they headed right for it. “So,” Al asked as they snagged some, “how was Alaska?”
“Pretty, but pretty cold, too,” Duane replied, picking out a chocolate-crème-filled stick to go with his coffee. “There’s some mighty beautiful country out there beyond the roads, especially going over the Alaska Range and the Kaltag Portage.”
“Never been there,” Al shook his head as he snagged a doughnut for himself. “I always wanted to go up that way, but I never got the chance except in the winter, and it’s a little too cold that time of year for my blood. I’ve come to realize that I don’t even like winter around here. Maybe one of these years soon Karin and I can consider a summer trip up there.”
“So how was Truk?” Michelle asked. “That was where you went diving, wasn’t it?”
“Lots of fun,” Karin said. “The lagoon is full of old Japanese wrecks, and a lot of them aren’t very deep. There’s always some of the most colorful fish you’ve ever seen around them. We got in two dives a day most days, and a lot of lying around on the beach. There’s some surf, too, but you have to take a boat to the outer islands to get to it, so we only did it once. It had to be a lot warmer than Alaska.”
“Sounds like a good trip,” Duane agreed. “Maybe we’ll give it a look sometime.”
“Are you going to Alaska again next winter?” Al asked.
“We don’t know yet,” Duane admitted. “And we probably won’t know until along in the fall. Right at the moment it looks like we’ll be in Spearfish Lake until along about the first of February and not go to Alaska at all. But a lot could change on that between now and season end here. It sort of depends on who decides they want to run the JV dog team and how they want to go about doing it.”
“So did you have a good time on the Iditarod? I checked the web site a little and saw your name a couple times. I figured you’d do better than thirty-third.”
“Well, I’d hoped to do better than that too,” Duane shrugged, then went on, “but there were some rookie mistakes involved; you know how that goes.”
“Are you going to do it again?”
“Probably not soon,” Duane explained. “But it could happen, and we probably won’t know for sure till next fall. Michelle and I have talked it over and decided that there are some other things we want to do, too. If we get the time we might even make it down to Costa Rica, but we’re a long way from being able to make a decision on that, too.”
“Yeah, it helps if you can do that jazz while you’re young,” Al nodded. “No point in getting in a rut or something.” He turned and looked at his daughter. “You think the others ought to be here pretty soon?”
“Pretty soon,” Crystal replied. “They were almost ready when we left, and Scooter wanted to pick up something from the store on the way, so I’d guess they’ll be along any minute.”
“All six of you are in the Girls’ House again, right?” Michelle asked. “Doesn’t it get a little crowded?”
“Well, yeah,” Crystal said. “Preach and I thought about staying with Mom and Dad after the gang got back from Costa Rica, but it was only for three weeks, and we can survive that. The first launch of the season is on Sunday, and that’ll get things back to halfway reasonable. It’s going to be a little goofier than normal, but there’s no reason we can’t make it work.”
Just about then, Jim pulled into the parking lot outside, bringing his wife Scooter with him, along with Dave and Mary, the latter pair of whom were the senior trip leaders for Canyon Tours. Duane and Michelle hadn’t seen any of them since the season-ending party back in November, so while everybody drew coffee and grabbed doughnuts there was some catching up to be done. Of course there had to be some tales, never mind the degree of truth, about dogsledding in Alaska and surfing in Costa Rica. After a few minutes, Al called a halt to it: “We might as well get done what we have to do, and then we can stand around and swap lies afterward.”
Everybody settled into chairs, onto the sofa in the office, and onto a desk and the floor since there weren’t enough chairs to go around. Nobody minded; it was much harder finding comfortable places to sit down in the Canyon, and they would be sitting on enough worse ones in the months to come to notice any discomfort here.
After the noise died out, Al said, “Now, a lot of what I’ve got to go over you all already know, since we’ve talked about it enough the last couple years and kicked it around especially hard the last month or so. But if nothing else, we need to get it all worked out and said at one time, especially since Duane and Michelle just blew in and aren’t up to speed on a lot of it. Some of it may have changed since I talked to the rest of you, too.
“Now, you all know that next year we’re going to have to end the eighteen-day trips we’ve done since before I was running the Canyon. That wasn’t our choice, it was something the Park Service came up with to do something about the huge backlog of private boater launches. Our maximum trip length is going to be fourteen days starting next year. Now we know we can do fourteen-day trips; you’ve all done them since we took over those six launch dates from Grand Canyon Rafting two years ago, and from everything I’ve seen they work out just fine. It means that we don’t have quite the flexibility or the time for hiking, and it also means that we can’t charge quite as much for a fourteen-day trip as we can for an eighteen-day one, but that’s what the Park Service wants, so that’s what they get.”
“The fourteen-day trips are fine some of the time,” Jim pointed out. “There are times you get customers you’re glad to get rid of four days sooner.”
“Yeah, there is that,” Al agreed. “Again, you all know that until the GCR trips came along it took launching almost every week from the first of April until into November each year to get our own thirty trips we had under the old setup. You also know that some of those early trips and some of the late ones were pretty light on customers, and sometimes we didn’t even make costs on them. So for several years I’ve been working with the Park Service to try to cut back on those April and October trips in hopes of keeping each trip a little closer to full. It’s not a problem in the summer months but gets to be a hassle at each end of the season. After a lot of negotiation, what we’ve worked out is moving those end-of-season trips, and instead we’ll be launching them in high summer. What it means is that we’ll be running ten trips on the fourteen-day cycle like we’ve done on the GCR trips, rather than six. This obviously is kind of transitional, since next year we’ll be running nothing but fourteen-day trips.
“Now, one of the problems with fourteen-day trips, at least from our viewpoint, is it means we have to still be on a three-week trip cycle for the crews. That means next year everyone will get most of a week off between trips. The eighteen-day old-style trips this year will still launch every Monday, just like we’ve done it for years. The old-style GCR trips always launched on Wednesdays, but after more messing around with the Park Service than I want to think about, we managed to get things changed so we can launch a short trip on every third Saturday. I’m actually hopeful that doing this is going to bring us a little more business, since we’ll be able to appeal to people who can only get away for two weeks of vacation, rather than the three weeks the old way required.”
“That makes sense,” Preach said. “We’ve had a lot of people tell us at shows that, while they might be able to get away for two weeks, there’s no way they can break free for three.”
“Yeah, Karin and I have heard the same thing when we’ve done shows,” Al agreed. “The schedule is going to be pretty much the same thing as last year, except for the fact that it’s going to be even more so. That’ll mean that when we have a short trip, we’ll be launching it two days before the long one, instead of two days afterward. The downside to that is that all too often the crew coming off the river is only going to have a two-day break instead of the normal three. But they get to make up for it a little by some four-day breaks scattered here and there. It works out in the end, but there are some times when it’s going to be a little painful getting there. Live with it, because I guarantee you next year I’m going to have crew members hanging around the office bitching about not being on the river.”
“Couldn’t you have rigged it around so we could launch the short trips on Friday?” Mary asked. “That would at least give us the normal break.”
“Afraid not,” Al said. “That’s what we could get out of the Park Service. I didn’t try very hard, either, since launching on Fridays would mean we’d have two crews taking out on Thursdays, and there are too many reasons to not do that.”
“Yeah, I guess I see what you mean,” Mary agreed. “It gets to be bad enough as it is at times.”
“I know that burnarounds like that are no fun,” Al stated. “It’s going to take a little more cooperation on everybody’s part to make it work. I know it’s going to be a headache, folks, but fortunately it’s only a headache for this year. We’ve had to do two-day breaks the last couple years, and they’re no fun, but we’ve learned a few tricks to make them go easier, and that’s one of the things we’re going to be talking about later.”
Al was right, Duane thought; the quick turnarounds between trips were no fun, and mostly pretty hectic, although the people in the office did what they could to ease the pain when a crew got slapped with one. At least everyone knew at the beginning of the season when it was going to happen so they could be ready for it. The occasional longer break made up for it a little; things were going to be very different next year with a long break between every trip.
As Al continued to talk about the schedule, Karin passed out schedule sheets for everyone to review. It turned out that the Gold Team – Duane and Michelle’s team – was due to make their first launch of the season on May 3, the last of the four teams to launch. Crystal and Preach would launch the White Team on Monday, only two days from right now, and Scooter and Jim would be making Canyon Tours’ second launch of the season a week later with the Red Team. Then, Dave and Mary would be making a short-trip launch with the Blue Team the following Saturday, May 1. That meant the Gold Team would have to be at Lee’s Ferry on May 2, two weeks and two days away. A lot depended on how much of the spring rigging Crystal and Preach had already accomplished for them – if things were as good as they’d been told it might not be too bad, but it looked like a busy two weeks to get ready in any case.
Naturally, there were some bitches and gripes about the burnarounds from everyone present, but the general consensus of opinion was that it could be managed for one year if it had to be. In any case, no one saw any way to do it better and still keep everything reasonably fair for everyone.
Eventually the controversy died down, and people snagged more coffee or doughnuts. “Well,” Al said finally, “I’m glad we got out of that without anyone getting out the skinning knives. Believe me, I’ve played with the schedule for next year a little and it looks a lot simpler. You’ll notice that the Gold Team has the last trip of the year, and that’s intentional in case Duane and Michelle have to be out dogsledding by then. The White Team will be back by the time they launch and they could fill in. If it works out that Crystal and Preach have to leave early like they’re talking about too, then we’ll just make up a pickup team out of the leftovers from the White and Gold teams to run that last trip. I might have to lead that if push comes to shove.”
That was something of a relief to Duane. While it looked unlikely that Michelle would be planning to do the Iditarod next fall, being able to leave early might be welcome if she did. This way there was some flexibility, at least.
“Now, on to crews,” Al continued. “Starting the season later means we don’t have any crew problems in the spring. We’ve got enough regulars to get the first two launches made, and after that we’ll start to get some of the summer boatmen available from college. That’ll carry us right up through the end of August, but we’ll have to do some scrambling for the last eight trips of the year. You know what I’m talking about; we do it every year. I’m guessing that Karin and I may have to help fill in, Jerry Palmer’s wife will probably let him do a trip or two, and we’ll probably be able to pick up some decent people from the motor-rig outfits after they’ve shut down. So I’m not really too worried about it. In any case, it’s only a hassle for two trip cycles, rather than three and sometimes four like it’s been in the past.
“As always, I tried to shift the crews around a little so everybody gets to work with new people. At the same time, I’ve tried to avoid situations where I know one or another of you doesn’t get along with one of the boatmen. Again, as always, there probably will be some switching around as the season goes along, and one thing or another comes up.”
Karin handed out a second sheet, listing the boatmen on the crews, at least as proposed. The Gold crew, along with Duane and Michelle, had Barbie Tompkins, Brett Riley, and Terry Dolcett. Duane and Michelle had run with Barbie a lot on various crews over the last five years; she was one of the more senior rafter rowers, and they counted her as a friend off the river, too. They’d run with Brett the summer before, and he had been solid and dependable if a little hard to get along with at times. Neither Duane nor Michelle had run with Terry, although they’d met him briefly at the season-wrap parties the past two years. He’d been a good swamper, but this year was the first year he was being turned loose with a raft of his own. He brought a good reputation with him, so realistically, their crew was about as good as they could ask for.
As far as Duane could tell, everybody else was about as satisfied with their crew as he was. It could have been a lot worse; they could have been stuck with Crystal’s half-sister, Nanci, and her boyfriend Kevin. Both were good rafters and hard workers, but both of them had religion rather seriously and could get odious about it at times. Duane surmised that was part of the reason that they were again with Crystal and Preach on the White team, which did a couple of specialized church trips each summer.
Of course, there was discussion about the crew makeup. The only down note was that everyone wanted Norma Dieshu, a Navajo boatman who had run the last several years. She was a great boatman, very friendly, was full of interpretive and historical information about the Canyon, and had an uncanny weather sense. But nobody got her: Al said she was off in medical school, and there was no way she was going to be able to get free even for one trip. All of them knew her, and all of them were going to miss her, although they wished her well.
“All right,” Al said as the discussion died down. “Now I’ve got to say something that probably is going to piss off everyone but Dan, and maybe him a little too. As you know, we have four stable and solid husband-wife leader teams. Well, counting Duane and Michelle as married, that is. That’s good, and it’s good to know I have everyone to depend on, but there are down sides to it, too. The biggest downside and the one that has given me the most concern is that those stable leader teams means we’re not developing new trip leaders and assistant trip leaders. There could come a time in the future when we may need one or more of them. I mean, an accident, or somebody getting pregnant, or something like that could happen.”
“Getting pregnant really would be an accident,” Scooter snorted. Everybody laughed; most people in the company, Duane included, felt that Scooter was the best trip leader the company had, and for that reason she drew more than her fair share of new boatmen and swampers. But no one could manage to put the words “Scooter” and “Mommy” together in their minds without getting a little grin and giving a little snicker. Her cigar smoking just added to the image.
“Yeah, but it could happen,” Al reiterated firmly. “What’s definitely going to happen is that sooner or later, and most likely some this summer unless we run into some kind of trouble, I’m going to want Crystal to stay topside so she can learn about what happens in the office during the season. It’s no secret to anyone that she’s going to be doing a lot more management of this place in years to come, and that means she’s going to have to stay topside more and more. Now, I’ve talked to Crystal and Preach about this and neither of them is very happy about having to be split up, but it goes with the territory. That means Preach could be off the river during the summer from time to time, too. So we need to get working now on developing a new leader and an assistant or two. Right at the moment, my short list consists of Barbie Tompkins, Kevin Haynes, Carl Austin, and Angie Barrett. There are a couple other possibilities, but they may not be ready this year and some may not be back next year in any case.”
Duane frowned. He wasn’t real sure how Kevin would work as a trip leader. As an assistant, especially to Preach, he’d probably be all right, but leading a trip? This wasn’t the place to bring it up, especially since it looked like Kevin might be Al and Karin’s son-in-law sooner or later. Gonna have to be real diplomatic about that one, he thought.
“How are you going to try them out?” Mary asked. “Have them fill in as assistant for a trip or two sometime?”
“Right,” Al said. “And here’s where people get pissed. When that happens, I’d like to have the normal assistant stay topside or run some other trip. We can do that with a little switching around. For example, I know Scooter and Jim have said that they’ve never been on a trip with you and Dave and would like to just to see how you do things. It’s a little easier for Kevin and Angie since they’re on the White team, and Crystal is going to be topside a few trips, so all we need is a boatman to replace whoever is getting a tryout as an assistant. I think I can manage that, even leaving Karin and me off the crew list. Carl and Barbie, well, that’s going to be a little different. For instance, for Barbie it means that Michelle is going to have to stay topside so she doesn’t fall into her normal job and let Barbie skate. That doesn’t mean I can’t swap Michelle onto another team for a half trip or a trip if we can work out the timing.”
Duane glanced at Michelle, who glanced back unhappily. “I guess it will work,” she said tentatively, “just so long as I get switched back when the tryout is over with. I don’t want to have to make the switch and be apart from Duane all summer. I can manage a trip or two if I have to, not that I want to.”
“I suspect it’s like that for everyone,” Al nodded. “Scheduling this is going to be full of ifs and ands and buts and maybes, but I think it’s something we have to do or I wouldn’t bother with it. I mean, suppose something happens and one or another of you doesn’t come back next year. Is it going to be fair, and even safe, to turn, say, Barbie and Carl loose on a trip with no leadership experience? We have to think about the future and what could happen, no matter how much all of you say that you plan on being on the river until after you’re drawing Social Security.”
“Well, yeah,” Duane sighed. “I mean, I can look at it in one way and see that it’s something that needs to be done. I know you’ve lost people in the past who could be leaders or assistants, but didn’t stay because there weren’t any slots to fill. I mean, I was perfectly happy just being a boatman and didn’t expect to be a trip leader for a long time, if ever, when the four-team setup came along. I wasn’t planning on leaving then and I’m not now, but the prospect of eventually being a trip leader does give someone a little more incentive to stay on.”
“That’s it, exactly,” Al said. “In fact, at one time Karin and I kicked around the idea of developing a fifth leader team and kind of rotating it among the crews. This year that would sure simplify the crew switching around among the leaders, although it might be a little hard on the crews. But it’s too complicated to try this year, and we’re not ready yet. We might try it next year, and we might not. It’s a long while until this time next year, and a lot could happen.”
