Гранд Каньоны Colorado голын ширүүн урсгалд зориулан модон завь урлаж, түүгээр аялах нь түүхэн уламжлалыг хадгалан үлдэх онцгой туршлага юм.
Гранд Каньоны анхны модон завиуд 1860-аад оноос эхлэлтэй бөгөөд 1971 онд Jerry Briggs-ийн сайжруулсан загвар нь голын хүчтэй давалгааг сөрөн давах боломжийг бүрдүүлжээ. Голын хөтөч Cricket Zarn энэхүү уламжлалт урлалыг сонирхон, Flagstaff хотод байрлах Fretwater Boatworks цехэд Brad Dimock-ийн удирдлага дор модон завь урлаж сурсан байна. Тэрээр завийн бүтцийн бат бөх чанарыг сайжруулахын тулд бодит нөхцөлд туршилт хийж, шаардлагатай засвар өөрчлөлтийг тогтмол хийдэг аж.
Өдгөө модон завиар аялах нь олны сонирхлыг татах болсон бөгөөд Fretwater Boatworks нь захиалгат аялал, сургалт зохион байгуулж байна. Cricket Zarn жилд 200 гаруй хоногийг усан дээр, өөрийн урласан “Peekaboo” хэмээх модон завиар аялан өнгөрүүлдэг. Энэхүү завь нь резинэн завьтай харьцуулахад усны урсгал болон давалгааг илүү мэдрэх боломжийг олгодог өвөрмөц онцлогтой.
Тэрээр тоног төхөөрөмж тээвэрлэх болон аяллын бааз руу завь зөөвөрлөхдөө Nissan Frontier загварын автомашиныг ашигладаг. Энэхүү автомашин нь эгц налуу зам дээр хүнд ачаатай чиргүүлийг тогтвортой барих чадвартай бөгөөд бартаат замд ч ая тухтай зорчих боломжийг олгодог байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Cricket Zarn couldn’t stop staring. Despite years as a river guide, she’d never seen a wooden boat in the Grand Canyon before—and yet here was one now, bobbing down the Colorado like it owned the place. Its old-school paint job caught the light, and the gorgeous arch of the bow sliced through ripples like skis through powder.
The boat’s captain noticed the look on her face—he’d seen it before—and invited her to come aboard.
“I climbed in, and I got in the captain’s seat, and I got goosebumps,” Zarn says. “I thought, ‘Okay, this might be the rest of my life.’”
Today’s Colorado River dories are descendants of the first known vessels to ever run the Grand Canyon, in the 1860s. Over the years, boatbuilders fine-tuned their approach, strengthening the hull and flattening the bottom to make the boats easier to pivot in big rapids. Then in 1971, Jerry Briggs perfected the design, broadening the back of the boat and pulling up the bow in a sweeping curve. The shape lets the dories surf big waves, not just cut through them.
Zarn couldn’t get the dories out of her mind. She started asking around, and soon stumbled across Brad Dimock, a master boatbuilder and owner of Fretwater Boatworks, a Flagstaff outfit that specializes in wooden boats. The first day Zarn walked into his shop, Dimock set her to work on a dozen sets of oars. By sunset, he’d offered her a job.
Zarn threw herself into the work. Soon, she was learning the art of boatbuilding, helping with the designs, and quality-testing the product—in other words, crashing boats.
“We run ‘em hard,” she says. “My first crash, I missed my line and hit going about 40 mph, and I put a hole in the boat you could throw a cat through.” She repaired it on the spot. Then, she came right back into the shop and tweaked the design to prevent that kind of damage going forward.
This constant iteration has taught her to pay attention to every detail and to build boats that last. It’s a good thing, too: Ever since Kevin Fedarko published his popular Grand Canyon epic, The Green Mile, in 2014, dories have been making a comeback, and Fretwork has had its hands full with orders, guided trips, and boatbuilding workshops. Zarn isn’t surprised; it had always felt like a matter of time before other people started waking up to the magic of wooden boats.
“The running of the craft is kind of sensual—it’s a seductive dance,” she says. “In a raft, you’re sitting on top of the water, but in a dory, you’re about a foot deep into the current. You can feel the water and the waves.”
These days, Zarn is constantly on the move, driving equipment to boatbuilding clinics in Arizona, Oregon, and Maine and hauling dories to far-flung put-ins.
“It’s nice to have a vehicle like a Frontier for that kind of thing,” she says. “It’ll hold still on a steep boat ramp, even with a heavy trailer. You take it out of park, and it doesn’t get pulled back an inch. And going fast on crumbly dirt road, it just floats.”
In between all the driving and shop time, Zarn still spends upwards of 200 days per year on the water. She spends a good chunk of those days in her own dory, Peekaboo, building on the legacy of wooden boats in the Grand Canyon, one descent at a time.
“I love it,” she says. “It’s like being a part of history.”
Nissan North America, Inc., headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, delivers innovative automotive products and services that inspire and move people. As a global leader in electric vehicles and advanced automotive technology, Nissan offers a full lineup of vehicles, highlighted by the new 2026 Nissan Frontier. Driven by a commitment to sustainable mobility and thrilling performance, Nissan aims to transform the way people live and drive. For more information, please visit Nissan USA.
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