Monday, October 8, 2007 11:57 AM CDT

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Thrills at any age

Elderhostel takes local group white-water rafting

By Scott Richardson
srichardson@pantagraph.com

PEACH SPRINGS, Ariz. -- A Bloomington-Normal group with an average age of 67 braved the raging rapids of the Colorado River during a two-day white-water rafting trip earlier this year.

The adventure was organized by Elderhostel, a travel group that caters to people 55 and older.

"Normally with white-water rafting, you get spray. We didn't get spray. We got buckets," said Bill Vaughn, who at age 74 was one of the two oldest to go.

Vaughn, a retiree from State Farm Insurance Cos., has been white-water rafting on the East Coast. He's been gold mining and kayaking in Alaska. He's also taken several bicycle trips with Elderhostel. He's volunteered on several service-related trips where Elderhostel groups helped clean up storm damage in Puerto Rico, restored artifacts from the Old West in Montana, preserved Indian rock art in Arizona and hunted dinosaur bones in Utah. He once spent two weeks in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor helping prepare the wreck of the USS Arizona for a special observance.

Vaughn plays tennis with a group every Friday night and often shares his Elderhostel experiences over their post-play dinners. When he mentioned his plan to go on the Elderhostel's white-water rafting trip to the undeveloped western rim of the Grand Canyon, someone said, "I want to go."

Then another joined in. Then another. It wasn't long before the group included: Vaughn and his wife, Jane; Dr. Meng and Linda Horng; Wally and Jan Hood; Al and Mary Kay Herrmann; Pat Kaisner; Karen Zook; Judie Bey; Gary Hoover; Russ and Anita Carney; and Gary and Linda Frankenberger.

Jan Hood, campaign coordinator for Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, worried a bit. At age 63, she and her husband have walked on all of the world's continents, mostly via trips organized through a radio station. She's ridden camels, elephants and ostriches. She's climbed a temple in Cambodia and visited the tombs of the Pharaohs in Egypt. She enjoyed a float trip on South America's Amazon River and did a white-water rafting trip in Canada. To her, the name "Elderhostel" conjured the image of "old."

"But, this was such a surprise and a lot of fun," she said.

Elderhostel makes all the arrangements. This trip cost about $1,100 including the two-day raft trip led by guides from the Hualapai reservation, the site of the new Skywalk that extends out over the canyon. The price also included five night's lodging and 15 meals and accommodations. Most nights were spent at the Hualapei Lodge motel in Peach Springs, Ariz., located on Old Route 66. One night was spent sleeping under the stars on the bank of the Colorado River 4,000 feet below the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Vaughn saw the Grand Canyon from above last year. Seeing it from below was even more awe-inspiring.

"It was absolutely... it was incredible," said Vaughn as he struggled for adjectives to describe a moonrise. "Some of the sunrises and sunsets were outstanding."

Hood agreed. She awoke in her sleeping bag on the sand to see moonlight shining on ancient rock walls. She could hear bats flying through the night air and water flowing by the campsite.

"The beauty, the untouched beauty, it is as it was thousands of years ago," she said. "There are no plastic water bottles floating around. ... the cactus was in bloom."

The raft trip covered about 40 miles through the lower Granite Gorge. The Colorado River has its own system to rate the difficulty of rapids, which number 13 on that stretch. Stories lie behind names like Separation Canyon and Lost Man's Canyon. Honeymoon Rapids is named after a newlywed couple who disappeared there. Only their raft and gear were ever found.

The pontoon-style rafts that carried the group were motorized so they could use both hands to hold on. They wore lifejackets. Even the two non-swimmers among the adventurers were unafraid.

"It made it easy," Vaughn said.

Hood said the experience was enough to get her adrenaline pumping.

"But, you recognized they (the American Indian guides) knew what they were doing. I had a lot of trust in them," she said.

She also appreciated the respect the guides showed their natural surroundings.

"They take care of it and leave it in the same condition," she said.

The guides handled all the supplies, set up camp and cooked dinner and breakfast outdoors.

"They were expert boatmen and cooks," Vaughn said.

The group saw a variety of flowers and wild animals, including wild donkeys: Local lore says they are descendants of gold miners from the 1800s.

Once the raft trip was over, the group was airlifted from the canyon by helicopter and dropped off at an airport not far from Skywalk. Some of the group visited the structure, which the Hualapei tribe opened recently.

The group also spent two days hiking and learning about the area's geological history and its ecology from a guide who teaches geology at a local college. Another presenter was a man in his 70s who was a cowboy for about 60 years. An anthropologist who excavates American Indian sites also was along.

Elderhostel calls their trip offerings "courses," not vacations, to stress an educational theme, Vaughn said. Hood described the week as "intelligent."

Some of the group took other side trips. These included trips to a dude ranch to watch working cowboys, and a trip to the London Bridge, which was moved from England to Lake Havasu City, Ariz., a few years ago.

Hood said she would love to return to the Grand Canyon to take the raft trip with her grandchildren one day.

"They say they have wonderful adventures with the children if they can hold on tight. You have to hold on tight," she said.

Hood and her husband also are considering a couple of other adventures Vaughn is researching. They include an Elderhostel excursion to the Iditarod dogsled races in Alaska in February and biking at Nantucket, Mass.

Vaughn's friends know he is active. He plays golf, pool and tennis. He exercises, rides his bike and does yoga. Still, he gets asked why he takes risks like going white-water rafting at his age.

"It's enjoyable and pleasurable," he said. "I get a lot of fun out of it and I meet a lot of fun people. It's a heck of a lot better than sitting at home and reading all day and watching television."

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An American Indian guide steers a raft through the Grand Canyon on a trip sponsored by Elderhostel. (For the Pantagraph/DR. MENG HORNG)

Some Elderhostel travelers made a side trip to the recently opened Skywalk over the Grand Canyon.

The Colorado River cuts its way through the Grand Canyon.

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