Show veterans dream of hazardous voyage realized boulder city nev july 21 21 having run the colorado f from rom lees ferry to the head of boulder lake in 10 days bert loper of salt lake city 70 year old river boatman friday had realized a dream of 40 years he arrived at the boat docks at 5 p in thursday traveling in two boats others in the party besides the intrepid boatman were W C gibson of san jose cal who took motion pictures p on the river trip don harr hari s of san francisco of the U S geological survey and chester kleven of san francisco loper handled one boat all the way harris piloted the other at A mile rapids the party encountered its most exciting and dangerous experience gibson told national park service officials friday the boat in which kleven and gibson were riding and kleven tuni tumbled bled overboard tense moments followed until kleven was seen far below the rapid bobbing up and down in his life jacket meantime gibson had almost been swept boat three times As soon as the boat was through the rapids kleven was rescued uninjured although he had shot the rapids without the benefit of a boat gibson harris and kleven started the trip from a point on the colorado known as north wash upstream from glen canyon at lees ferry they were joined by loper who had dreamed for 40 years of running the rapids of the grand canyon although he is considered one of the best authorities on othet rivers in the west they traveled in two specially built river boats constructed with air compartments the larger one which was unnamed was 18 feet long the smaller one called the mexican hat was 16 feet long and was used by the expedition down the colorado last year the party left lees perry ferry on july 6 and completed the trip in ten days running time they stopped at points of interest in the canyon for two days they were picked up thursday by the Huala kualapai Hu alapai pait grand canyon boulder dam tours boat and towed into the boat dock salt lake tribune |