Canyons & Ice: The Last Run of Dick Griffith

-

Interviewer

Hey Dick, I heard you were gonna run Lava Falls. You heard that? That's a rumor. Bur rumors come true sometimes.

Lava is one of those rapids that it'll get you. It's probably flipped more boats than any other rapid down here. (folksy guitar music) -

Narrator

Lava Falls in the fastest navigable water in North America. Seasoned boatmen in their 20s and 30s go quiet with focus for a full day before taking on this rapid. Dick Griffith is 89 years old. We just admire, we all want to be him.

He's kind of like Clint Eastwood with a backpack and a packraft and running shoes. He will accomplish anything he wants to do. A lot of us give up and he just does not give up, ever. He has all of these great lines that just come out of his mouth.

One of them was, life is like a bicycle. When you stop moving, you tip over. And he always made me and people I know feel like they could do anything. -

Narrator

Born in 1927, Richard Warren Griffith grew up during the Great Depression. By the time he was ten, Dick hunted antelope for food, so his family could sell the livestock they raised on their Wyoming ranch. One cold morning, Dick backed up to a stove to keep warm. He caught fire.

His mother managed to snuff out the flames, but his back had been so badly burned that he was forced to miss school for half a year. Books and magazines became his only escape. One day, Dick read an article in the Saturday Evening Post. It told the story of an adventurer who had retraced John Wesley Powell's 1869 expedition, 1,200 miles from Green River, Wyoming, down the Colorado and through the Grand Canyon.

That adventurer was Buzz Holmstrom. There was a big article. And I said, there's got to be something better than this ranching. I had to get away.

I got tired of horses. Getting bit and kicked. -

Dick's Journal

I had to do it myself. At the tender age of twelve, I believed I could never be a real man unless I accomplished this task. -

Narrator

At the age of 19, Dick built a wooden boat using designs from National Geographic. His first river trip did not begin well. -

Dick's Journal

I thought that I could drive the boat like a team of horses, pull on the left oar and go left. Pull on the right oar and go right. It was a disaster. -

Narrator

But Dick had one thing going for him. A rule that would define his life. You don't ever give up. -

Narrator

His determination paid off. One of the pioneers of river rafting, Harry Aleson, took Dick under his wing. Dick was soon working for Aleson at one of the first river raft tour companies on the Colorado. Yeah, Harry Aleson.

Got four dollars a day. Wow. (Dick laughs) -

Narrator

Here, Griffith and Aleson are rafting through a place that no longer exists, the Glen Canyon. Dick Griffith may be the only person alive who remembers what Glen Canyon looked like before the dam turned it into Lake Powell. Since that first adventure, Dick Griffith has trekked across more than ten thousand miles of wilderness in Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, Mexico, and Asia, most of it by himself. Year after year, there is one place that calls him back, the Grand Canyon.

Now, after running the Colorado River for 72 years, longer than any other living boatman, Dick has decided to hang up his oars. But not before one last run. I heard you're running the Colorado? Again.

What, I thought you were done with that. I am. No you're not. You're never done, you'll never be done.

This is it, this is the last one. That's what they alway say. (dramatic music) What time is it, 7:05. (rafters talking indistinctly) -

Rafter

All right, let's get out of here. That's right, let's get out of here. Daylights' a wasting. What do you think of that camp?

That's a good camp. Yeah it is. It's a good camp in the springtime. It's no good in the summer.

-

Rafter

That's for sure. It gets the sun all day. Yeah, gets the sun all day. (soothing guitar music) -

Narrator

In 1949, Isabelle Galo left life in the city to go on a river trip. She fell in. The nearest guide jumped in after her. Her savior was Dick Griffith.

As he pulled her into the boat, her swimsuit top slid off. Dick was so embarrassed that he dropped Isabelle back into the river. The two got acquainted, and Isabelle asked to join Dick and his friend Jim Gifford on their next adventure, the rafting trip Dick had vowed to make as a child. But Dick was skeptical.

She was a lousy boatman. -

Narrator

Dick and Jim, however, were flat broke, so they made a deal. Isabelle bought the boat and all the supplies. In return, she could go on the trip. -

Iz's Journal

July 17

We entered Whirlpool Canyon, another awe-inspiring, breath-taking spectacle. How happy can one get?

July 27

Magnificent canyon walls rise up from the river edge in every color, red, brown, cinnamon, cream, buff, orange, yellow. Right now I wouldn't change places with anyone in the whole world. -

Dick's Journal

July 31

Jim was off hunting Indian ruins in a side canyon, Iz and I sat alone in the cool shadow of the large boulder. The boulder imparted a magic on us, an experience that we had never known before, some call it love. All my life I had been a loner, a nomad, and now I found myself to be a hopeless romantic. -

Narrator

July 31

In his journals, John Wesley Powell wrote of a rapid that had smashed one of his boats to splinters. He called it Disaster Falls. But Dick's copy didn't include a map. We knew it was there someplace.

But we'd come around a corner. We got swept into it before we could stop and look it over. The boat flipped end for end and then it washed down in some rocks and crashed. We lost a lot of food.

We had a slab of bacon. You know in those days, you carried a slab of bacon. It wasn't already cut. You just cut it off the hide.

That's the way you ate bacon. -

Narrator

July 31

Then there was a disaster of a different kind. Halfway through the trip, Jim had to return home. Dick turned to Isabelle and told her she had to leave as well. In those days you didn't travel alone with a woman.

You had parental influence. -

Narrator

July 31

Isabelle protested, vigorously. It was her boat, her food, her oars. How do you think she felt? -

Narrator

July 31

But Dick wouldn't risk running the infamous Cataract Canyon with her. -

Dick's Journal

July 31

Never have I seen a girl with such perseverance. She just knew she could win me over, but she lost, and I am the one who really suffers. I broke my promise to her and I am about the loneliest person. -

Narrator

July 31

She left, heartbroken. Here's a good one coming up. Wow! (Dick shouts) Okay, that's a fun rapid.

-

Narrator

July 31

Isabelle Galo started hitchhiking home to Milwaukee. As she rode, she told the story of her romance cut short. Someone said that if she hurried, she could catch Dick near a town called Hite. With four dollars in her pocket, she hitched from one town to the next.

When she got to Hite, Dick had been rafting for 10 days alone. She had no idea if he'd passed yet or not. -

Iz's Journal

July 31

As we rounded the corner, I saw a sight on the river that made me stare in open-mouthed amazement. There, floating lightly on the dirty Colorado waters, was a black rubber boat manned by a man clad only in shorts and a red rag tied around his head. She tracked me down, she caught up with me at Hite. When he got close he started yelling, you can't be here, you can't be here.

-

Narrator

July 31

Before continuing down the river, Dick and Isabelle stayed at a ranch for a few days with a nice Mormon family. You couldn't let an unmarried couple just float down the river and so they sent their kid along with them to be the chaperone. I said, how did it work, Dick? He said, "Not so good." (laughs) So, that's how he met Isabelle.

-

Narrator

July 31

After that trip, Dick and Isabelle married. A few years later, they moved to Alaska and started a family. Dick spent three decades in civil service, building airport runways across Alaska. In recent decades, a packraft has become essential gear for many wilderness adventurers.

Hike to a river, inflate your packraft, and paddle toward to wherever the next adventure takes you. Today, there are packrafting enthusiasts from Alaska, to Mexico, to New Zealand and beyond. But back in 1982, no one had never ever heard of a packraft. That was the year of the very first Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic.

It's a wilderness race and the distance is anywhere from 150 to 300-ish miles. And there's no route, no checkpoints, no support. (dramatic music) And you go by any human-powered means you can. So you carry in what you need, and you carry out everything.

Oh, they're fun. I love them races. I was in the first one. And I followed every year.

That was the highlight. I liked those races. They were a real challenge. Now, those guys they've got GPSs and sat phones.

It's all gone now. At least they're not dying. -

Narrator

July 31

Dick Griffith didn't put on airs when writing his application for the race.

Past physical injuries

a few. Planned physical training

regimen for the summer

lots of couch training.

Complete running history

I never run only walk. But when you'd read the list of his adventures, it's clear that Dick Griffith is not someone you need to worry about. The first Classic crossed 150 miles from Hope to Homer, with the last 15 miles following the Fox River. Competing in that first race was legendary Alaskan adventurer, Roman Dial.

It was the first time he'd met Dick Griffith. When I met Dick, he was 55 and I was 21. I didn't really know who he was. You know, he just seemed like an old man to me.

-

Narrator

Complete running history

Roman and fellow racer David Manzer sped well ahead of the other competitors. Then, they came to a river. The racers had planned on swimming it. And I'd swam a river or two in Alaska.

It's not something you really like to do. -

Narrator

Complete running history

The Skilak River is fed by a glacier, it's cold. This would be the most dangerous challenge of the Classic. They knew the glacier would melt less overnight, so the river would be lower in the morning. They decided to wait.

And then, the other competitors started showing up. And Dick was one of them. And so he'd caught us. He had this big heavy pack and he puts it down, he starts pulling his camping gear out.

And he pulls out like this hat, this purple hat like with, yellow horns or something, red horns- I can't remember the color - and he puts it on. And then he pulls out this raft. And Manzer and I, we look at each other and we're like, "He's going to paddle across the river," I say. And Manzer looks at me and he says, "Yeah, and he's going to float down the Fox River too." And so he pulls out this raft and he looks at us and he says, "You young guys, you might be fast, but you eat too much and you don't know nothing." And then he kind of wags his finger at us and he says, "Old age and treachery will beat youth and skill every time." And he's like 35 years older than me at the time.

(laughs) Yeah, I freaked everybody out on that one. -

Narrator

Complete running history

But Dick didn't hike away. He made sure everyone crossed safely. Then, when they reached the other side, the competitors started running. (chuckles) Dick walked.

But on the last stretch of the race, Dick put his little raft in the Fox River and started floating past the competition. We were on the beach going to Homer, which was the end of the race. And the race director caught us. I remember he grabbed me by the shoulders.

And he shakes me and he goes, "You better get a move on. Dick Griffith is just half an hour behind you." And we started running. If I was more competitive, I would have won that thing. I was just about 3 or 4 hours behind them as it was.

I like my sleep too well to go all day and all night. But I definitely had the advantage. -

Narrator

Complete running history

He might not have won the race. But that moment, when Dick pulled a pool toy out of his backpack to cross a river, inspired a movement that now spans the globe. And after the first Classic, everyone who was serious about winning brought a raft. We were all young, and we saw this old guy doing these things and we thought, "Wow, this is great, it's inspirational.

That means we can continue doing these things that we really enjoy and we love. We can keep doing those things for the rest of our lives." (folksy guitar music) 30 years before I saw him pull a raft out of his pack, he'd gone to Chihuahua, Mexico, where they have this network of canyons. It's collectively called the Copper Canyon, or Barrancas del Cobre. -

Narrator

Complete running history

In 1952, Dick and Isabelle joined with three other men to explore the canyons using large rubber rafts. The walls had caved in and dammed up the river. What river there was. Made big lakes down there.

We probably only made three miles a day. -

Narrator

Complete running history

10 days in, they had only made about 15 miles. The men with them decided it was time to return to civilization. They chickened out, left us. Three of them chickened out and left us.

Or gave up. I wouldn't say "chickened out," they gave up. -

Interviewer

Complete running history

Why didn't you give up? Still had my wife, she didn't take off, so. -

Narrator

Complete running history

Technically, one of his companions had to return to school and the other two were in danger of being AWOL from the Army. Dick and Isabelle continued on. And they became fascinated by the reclusive Tarahumara Indians. -

Dick's Journal

February 13

We often hear drums, tombolos, a thousand feet above us on a ledge. And we still haven't seen a single Indian. It is kind of like a western movie, we are surrounded. -

Narrator

February 13

Eventually, they too had to return before reaching the end of the canyon. But they didn't give up. He realized that in the Barrancas del Cobre he needed a little raft, because there would be pools and then you'd have to portage over some waterfalls or rocks where the water disappeared between the huge boulders. -

Narrator

February 13

Dick and Isabelle returned two weeks later. This time, they convinced three Tarahumara Indians to come with them. I had Indians with me but they can't swim. They had nothing to do with the river.

They weren't guides, they were to carry food. The 50 cents a day wasn't much, but I told them they could eat all they wanted. We fed them jerky, beans and they made flour tortillas. -

Narrator

February 13

When they arrived at the first pool, Dick pulled out his raft and inflated it. -

Dick

February 13

They'd never seen anything like that. They got in it. They were scared but they got in it. -

Narrator

February 13

At long last, they did it. They reached the end of Barrancas de Cobre. They headed for the nearest town to celebrate. Ordered a bottle of beer.

Maybe two. They got good beer in Mexico. How you going to run Upset? Do you know yet?

-

Woman

February 13

I was gonna cut over to the left against the wall, left of the hole, hopefully. That's exactly how we tipped over last year. The best way to go is when you get there, figure it out. Not before.

When you're at the head of the rapid, then you judge where you want to go. -

Woman

February 13

Read and run. Read and run. Because that's where I broke my finger, too, you know. We landed on a rock is what happened.

And we got stopped. I hit the rail here or something. Because the river climbed into the boat. Okay, I'm going to give you the oars here pretty quick.

Around the corner is Upset. You got to get limbered up. -

Woman

February 13

I gotta get warm, Dick. I gotta brush my teeth. -

Woman

February 13

You're telling all these stories and now I'm thinking, "Well..." Okay. The name of the game is get your teeth brushed before you get to Upset. Wash off toothbrush in giardia-infested river. -

Woman

February 13

All this talk. It's starting to make my heart beat a little faster. (rapids splashing) (soothing guitar music) -

Narrator

February 13

In 1983, adventurers were planning the next Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic, the race from Hope to Homer. It was on the beach and I was with some friends, and just talking off the top of my head after a few beers and said, "Gee, I'd really like to do that Hope-to-Homer race." And by fate of all fates, Dick was standing about five feet away with his back to me. And he turns and he says, "You want to do Hope-to-Homer? I think a girl could do Hope-to-Homer, I'll take you." And I'm thinking.

"Yeah, right." (laughs) "Who's this old guy?" I called him up and I said, "Okay, I'm on." And then I asked another girlfriend to go, this friend that lived in Homer. Oh, yeah. They were the first ones to do the race. The first girls.

A typhoon was coming in the year we did it, it was one of the biggest typhoons in Alaska at that point, and it was really windy and we were hanging onto the rocks and the wind was blowing us over. And Dick keeps saying, "I know there's a way down here. But if we're not careful we'll fall down here." And it's a few thousands of feet down. He says, "If we take a wrong turn girls, we're all in trouble." There's a checkpoint in the middle of the race somewhere, everybody brings a little pencil and everybody brings a little piece of paper so when you get to that checkpoint, you mark that you were there and what time, so at least they'll know if you made it to that point, if you don't show up again.

It was before they had the satellite phones. Usually about 10 or eight people finish. After that, I knew I could do anything. And I owe that to him.

It changed my life from one or two channels of possibilities to a whole braided stream of good opportunities. -

Narrator

February 13

Every three years, the race organizers would pick a new location for the Classic. About 30 people started in the Brooks Range one and a bunch of them ended up trailing after Dick, because once they get out there, they realize they're over their heads with this. "There's that old guy!" And they start following him and he kind of pretends they're not there and just keeps hiking. And he just goes and then whenever he camps, they all camp around him, because they're like scared for their lives.

That was a guarantee they'd make it. The army had their camp followers and I had mine too. He does it for a different reason. Most of these people that do it are young enough to be his grandkids, I think.

You've got the 25-year olds who are just blazing. Just slow and steady, he hiked along. He always had his backpack that was always a bit crooked, it wasn't really packed, he just stuffed everything in there. He had stuff sticking out of it.

It would just be lopsided, it had holes in it. Something had broke loose up above us and it's rushing down and you can hear the boulders just ka-ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom. And you look where it goes and you don't look again because it goes down under a huge ice field. Like a tunnel.

And you're gone if you get hit by a boulder. So Dick would just say, "Don't look down, and we're not holding hands. Because if one goes, we all go." But there was something about doing the Hope-to-Homer race with him that wasn't just about climbing the mountains. I found something inside of me I didn't know was there.

A strength. When you're bone cold and you're scared and you're hungry, you just keep moving and this too shall pass. -

Narrator

February 13

Robert Kehrer, a 10 year veteran of the race, drowned in a glacial river in the 2014 Classic, and there were many close calls before that. The wife of this couple, she got caught under a sweeper. And that's a tree that's in the water. And her raft went under.

She went underwater. And Dick just happened to be coming by, and happened to have his knife ready. I mean, I always carry a knife, but after that I made sure I kept it around my neck. And he cut something on the raft so it would break loose and popped her out, and she never did one again.

-

Narrator

February 13

Dick originally held two records in the Classic,

the most completions

17,

and the oldest completion

he was 81 years old. John Lapkass, one of Dick's great admirers, decided he wanted to beat both records. Lapkass succeeded in beating the first record. Then, in 2016, he was on the edge of his 19th completion.

It wasn't like it was that cold, it was probably, I didn't have a thermometer, but it was probably in the mid to high 20s, or something like that. So it was wet snow. It wasn't, I wasn't worried, I had been through a lot worse than that. I thought, man, "This is going to be the first race I'm going to finish without trashing my feet seriously." I drove home, and after sitting that length of time in the car, they were looking like I had a couple of pumpkins.

By the third day they were clearly turning black. These guys interviewed Lapkass with no toes, right? Lost all his toes last summer. -

Woman

and the oldest completion

All of his toes? Yep, all of them, and part of his foot. They froze, I don't know. I couldn't figure that one out.

He's an orthopedic surgeon, so he can cut his own toes off. -

Woman

and the oldest completion

He lucked out. Didn't he cut his own toes off? You guys talked to him. -

Narrator

and the oldest completion

John Lapkass did not cut his own toes off. I had one of my partners at work take them all off. He was trying to be older than me, but he's not going to make it now. He did beat me by one race though.

That's kind of put the nail in the coffin as far as me doing these things. I don't think I'm going to be able to do it anymore. -

Man

and the oldest completion

Did you ever have anything like that? Did you ever have any close calls? No, nothing. Why do you think that is?

- Don't know. Like I always tell everybody, if you have to make a choice between luck and skill, choose luck. For him, the wilderness races weren't even, it wasn't a race; it was a training run. It was just part of his life.

People were doing it, it would change, like it changed my life. And I remember going over to his house getting ready to leave for one of those adventures. And he just grabs his backpack and just starts throwing stuff in his backpack. I mean it takes me a month to pack for a trip.

(laughs) -

Narrator

and the oldest completion

In the late 1980s, Roman Dial took a packraft through a portion of the Grand Canyon. I thought, "Wow, why don't we just run the Grand Canyon in packrafts." And Dick had the same idea. He decided that he wanted to be the first one to packraft down the Grand Canyon. I could see packrafting was going to get real popular.

They were going to start running the canyon. I had to beat them to it. -

Narrator

and the oldest completion

But the park wouldn't issue a permit for such a dangerous adventure. At least, not without a fight that could take years. And Dick was 64. So he just went.

-

Roman

and the oldest completion

He did it totally outlaw, sneaking down the river and hiding from people. And I've been down the Grand Canyon since then in packrafts and I'm still amazed at what he did, by himself in those old boats. It's a little dicey, I've got to admit. Grapevine and all those rapids, the Gems up here we just went through.

Hard to get around them. And at one point, people spotted him and they turned him in. When the rangers got really organized to run me down, I was in Alaska. 'Cause I got sick and I had to go back to Alaska.

They found out I flew back to Alaska, so they were happy. But they didn't know I came back. -

Narrator

and the oldest completion

Before leaving, Dick had buried his raft on the side of the river. Two weeks later, he returned to finish what he started. But on the hike down, he came upon a ranger. She caught me without a backcountry permit.

Never heard of such a thing. And he bumped into a ranger who was like, "What are you doing old man?" "Oh, I'm just hiking down. I'm going to hike down to the river." "Oh, that's too far. Are you camping?" "No, I'm just hiking down.

I'm going to hike back the same day. I'm hiking back today, I'm just going down for the day." "Well you look too old for that." "Too old for that? Well look at this." And he pulls up his pant leg and shows his leg muscles, which are totally buff, and she let him go. And he hiked down to the bottom of the canyon and unburied his raft and paddled the rest of the river.

We used to always go up to the village. The Mooney Falls and Havasu Falls. That was a neat trip. -

Interviewer

and the oldest completion

You'd hike that from the-- From the river, yes. You had to run to do it. We used to do it all the time. -

Interviewer

and the oldest completion

Would you like camp at the base there or at the mouth? It's not allowed. -

Interviewer

and the oldest completion

I know it's not now. But would you? - Yes. (men laugh) -

Man

and the oldest completion

That didn't stop you from a whole lot of other things. I'm not going to admit to anything. -

Narrator

and the oldest completion

Dick's toughest adventures, the really dangerous ones, were in the Arctic. One of his longest was in Alaska, from Unalakleet to Barrow. That was 900 miles in 62 days. That was a long trek.

I just retired the day before. I didn't have nothing else to do. (chuckles) -

Narrator

and the oldest completion

For years, Dick would fly into rural Arctic villages with his skis and a sled to carry his gear. Then he would start walking or skiing, for as long as two months at a time. All told, he has crossed 6,000 miles of the Arctic, the entire Northwest Passage and then some. By this time, Isabelle had decided to stay home on Dick's adventures.

And he'd just go, by himself. And just and then when he ran out of Alaska, you know, he got to the end of Alaska, and then he continued on all the way to Hudson Bay. Just huge chunks at a time. But he didn't want anybody to go with him.

I learned my lesson a long time ago

don't take partners. I've lost all my partners. -

Woman

I learned my lesson a long time ago

Doesn't it get lonely? Doesn't it get lonely? No, I take lots of books. I'm a big-time reader.

Long as I got books, I'm happy. Have you ever been in the Arctic? Until you get out there you don't realize how lonely and how exposed you are. because it's flat, white as far as the eye can see in all directions.

(fox barks) -

Dick's Journal

I learned my lesson a long time ago

The sun was behind me at a low angle on the horizon when I noticed a long shadow next to mine. For a split second I realized that I was no longer alone. The fox firmly anchored itself to my calf. It hurt.

I fell down on the slick ice, hopelessly tangled. The fox grabbed me by the chest, so I started pounding it with my fist. The fight seemed to go on forever. With my left hand I managed to get in several hard blows to the fox's head, it let go and ambled off.

I picked myself up from the ice and stood there shaking almost uncontrollably. For once I was truly scared. -

Narrator

I learned my lesson a long time ago

Worried that he had contracted rabies, Dick headed for the nearest village. -

Dick's Journal

I learned my lesson a long time ago

I took off for Kivalena. With great difficulty I crossed through a quarter mile of pressure ridges and stepped down from the fast ice onto the new, smooth ice. I could sense that something wasn't right, but I was desperate. the ice broke under me, and down I went into the Arctic Ocean.

With my fist I broke away the soft ice and then managed to pull myself out. I quickly became an icicle. -

Narrator

I learned my lesson a long time ago

Despite all that, Dick still managed to snap a picture for posterity. Yeah, and I fell in right after I got bit by a fox. On top of that because of the big hurry to get to Kivalena to see if I had rabies, and I fell through the ice because I wasn't thinking. -

Dick's Journal

I learned my lesson a long time ago

The mistake I made was not concentrating on what was directly in front of me. My mind and concentration were not focused on reaching Kivalena safely. One should never allow the mind to race ahead. -

Narrator

I learned my lesson a long time ago

Eventually, Dick made it to Kivalena. But he didn't go back home. He decided to finish his trek. The last rapid of this, Dick's last trip, will be the most infamous in the Grand Canyon, Lava Falls.

Dick first came across Lava Falls in 1949. Back then, everyone else used wooden boats. They didn't think you could run Lava in an inflatable. and they usually lined their boats around it.

And that's what Dick and his companions decided to do. They managed to line Jim's raft past Lava Falls, but it wasn't easy. It took us all day to get his boat around, and I got to looking at the water. Almost got bit by a rattlesnake there.

Sit down beside a big rattlesnake all coiled up. He didn't bite me. So if I had that kind of luck, I said, "I'll run the darn thing." It was no big deal. -

Narrator

I learned my lesson a long time ago

These days, nearly everyone rows through Lava Falls in inflatable rafts. Dick was the very first. -

Woman

I learned my lesson a long time ago

How about this trip, Dick? What about this trip? - Lava Falls. What about it?

- Are you going to run it? I might, who knows, I might. -

Narrator

I learned my lesson a long time ago

Dick doesn't offer much advice on outfitting an adventure. But there's one thing he swears by. He said, "Bring butter." Butter, it's high calorie. we'd put the pot on with the water and we'd boil our noodles and we would put a stick of butter in.

'Cause it's, you know, it's however many calories per tablespoon. And for weight you want to, think about it. You're carrying stuff. You don't want to bring crackers on a trip like that.

The reason nobody had ever really heard of him is because he did all of these things not to make himself well known, but he did them to satisfy his own sort of desire for self-challenge. He didn't do it for notoriety. He doesn't carry a gun. He says, "Why would you carry a gun when it weighs as much as a few pounds of rice or beans?" -

Narrator

I learned my lesson a long time ago

Dick did hunt for food on his early adventures, but he eventually gave it up. I killed too many animals. Guess that's a good enough reason, isn't it? (bear panting) (bear growls) I had so many bears chasing me.

There's paths. Big highways, like this wide and this deep. Looks like somebody shoveled them. And I'm still new and young to Alaska.

And I was like, "I thought we were out in the middle of nowhere. Who made these trails?" And he says, "Bears made them." I'm like, "Bears? But they look manmade," 'cause they were so deep and so perfect. He says, "There's a lot of bears down there." You could hear the Killey River Canyon a quarter mile away.

It's getting late and it's starting to rain again. And we're on this big bear trail. And he's like, "Let's just camp here." It was cold, it was raining, it was scary. But I wasn't worried about bears anymore.

I was worried about my food, I'm counting noodles in my pack. So we're sound asleep and I'm next to Diane. All of a sudden the tarp comes down. On my face.

And there's just a bunch of ruckus. I hear a growl, I hear this, I hear that. And then I hear Dick going, "There's a bear. Girls, don't move!" Like we're goinna go anywhere.

I had my sleeping bag and I look over at Diane, and she's looking at me, and I just took the little drawstring and I just, whoop, closed it. I just wanted to go to sleep. I was that tired. I mean it was so funny, because I'd had nightmares about bears.

At this point I was just don't let him touch my food and don't let him wake me up again. But Dick's saying, "Don't move girls, I've got it covered." He had a flare gun. Back then you could carry flares. I saw a big flash.

he didn't shoot the flare at him, just to scare him. The bear runs away but Dick comes back, says, "Made a believer out of that bear." Oh, I've seen lots of polar bears. I've stepped on their dens, and I've seen them. And polar bears are pretty mellow.

-

Woman

I learned my lesson a long time ago

Everyone says they're so aggressive. No, that's not right. They're not, that's a bunch of garbage. -

Narrator

I learned my lesson a long time ago

But there was one polar bear that gave Dick Griffith pause. He was alone in the Canadian Arctic. I was asleep, heard the snow crunching. He stood on the other side of the tent and I saw his silhouette.

He clawed my tent. He sliced it open. And I yelled, grabbed a ski and a sled. Run him off by beating on my sled.

The polar bear ran off a hundred feet or so, and then Dick didn't like that, that was still too close. So he packed up his gear and he started skiing, and the polar bear started following him. Which is a bad sign because a polar bear will eat a human being for food. He was lonesome maybe.

-

Woman

I learned my lesson a long time ago

He could sense you were lonely too? Yeah, he was lonesome. They get such a bad rap, polar bears, it's terrible. -

Kathy

I learned my lesson a long time ago

I've done stuff since '82, and most healthy bears leave you alone. But you need to be cautious. -

Dick

I learned my lesson a long time ago

I couldn't get rid of him. He goes, "Well, I had some Advil and I had some Tylenol and I had some fish, some smoked fish." And so he takes a little bit of smoked fish, and he pours about half the bottle or most of it, Tylenol and some Advil and wraps it in a ball. And he leaves it on the trail, and then he just kept skiing. And the polar bear came up and it gobbled that up, and it was following him, and after about 20 minutes, it decided it was going to take a nap.

(folksy guitar music) Are you going to go up Havasu? Well if you make me stay with you to smoke a stogie, then I don't have to go up there. Okay, I'll make you, I'll talk to the boss man. You can't go up there.

Oh sounds great. Because you don't know the trail. It crosses the river. And you're gonna get your shorts wet.

I hate getting my shorts wet. I know, you don't want to do that. No, I want to hang out on the boat with you. Yeah, yeah let's talk about that.

I'll talk to the boss man. Talk to the boss man. -

Narrator

I learned my lesson a long time ago

In the Arctic, the true danger isn't the wildlife, it's the storms. You've got to stop in big blows and set your tent up and put blocks around it. Sometimes they last two or three days. Can't move in them.

You can't see where you're going. -

Dick's Journal

I learned my lesson a long time ago

April 5,

1996

A big blow moved in last night, with winds of 50 to 60 miles per hour. There's not enough snow to cut blocks. To make matters worse I am about to run out of wood. I don't dare go look for more wood for fear of not finding my tent again.

There have been many instances in the Arctic of men who left their ship, igloo, or tent and never found their way back. Yeah I am a big believer in luck. Like I say, it's better to be lucky than skillful. You probably heard that he froze his butt off.

The story of black (bleep). Black (bleep) Griffith. I was going from Anaktuvuk to Bettles when it happened. I was trying to cross the Brooks Range.

-

Kathy

1996

One day he was trekking and there was a huge wind. It was probably minus 60, I don't know. One big mistake after another. When you start making mistakes, they come in twos and threes, you know.

Big time. The track was off in my sleeping bag. You can only take your gloves off for maybe half a minute at the very most. I froze all my fingers.

-

Narrator

1996

It was so cold that Dick's water bottles froze. -

Dick's Journal

1996

March 11,

1980

I had no water, my fingers were frozen, and something was wrong with my butt, and my sleeping bag could only be wrapped around me. I asked myself over and over, how was I to survive the night? Didn't even know I froze my butt off until I got my sleeping bag thawed out. The next day, I did the same thing all over again.

And the next day, and the next day and the next day. -

Dick's Journal

March 12

The ends of my fingers were black with frostbite. I took both of my frozen bottles and put them in my sleeping bag, one against my bare skin. Eventually I generated enough heat to melt some water to drink.

March 16

There's a bad smell in my sleeping bag now, almost rotten. I'd like to just stay in my sleeping bag and not get up anymore. I have to discipline myself to move on, no matter what environment you are subjected to, it is willpower that makes you survive. -

Narrator

March 16

After six days of traveling with frostbite, Dick found the cabin of Bill and Lil Fickus. They quickly took Dick in and flew him to safety, where doctors began to work on his back side. They had to amputate it. You don't want to go that route, believe me.

(laughs) It's better than freeing the other side though. Any time I was around for the holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, near the end of the meal his frozen butt pictures would get pulled out and it gets passed around the table. And everybody's like, "Oooh, aaah." Yeah, they call him black (bleep). -

Narrator

March 16

Isabelle was not thrilled with her husband's adventure. She worked in a hospital, so. She said, "No more." The next year, I was at it again, though. -

Isabelle

March 16

His life is the wilderness and he embraces it all the time. Who can lock the wind in a closet? I never try. -

Narrator

March 16

Still, Isabelle took out a life insurance policy on her husband. -

Narrator

March 16

Dick finished the last day of his Arctic travels at the age of 72. -

Dick's Journal

March 16

My last day in the Arctic is a beautiful, warm, calm Sunday morning. I will miss the Arctic. I thrive on difficult goals. -

Narrator

March 16

And now, he's come to his final day in the Grand Canyon. (soothing music) Right now, we are at Lava Falls. And we've got Dick Griffith coming through, and he's credited as being the first man to run an inflatable through Lava Falls. So here he is at 89 coming down again, and he wants to row the thing.

So needless to say, I'm a little nervous, but we're gonna do it anyway. -

Narrator

March 16

Approaching Lava Falls, the river is calm. But then, you get to the Ledge Hole. -

Al

March 16

The Ledge Hole is an enormous river-wide hole that goes pretty much across most of the river. Then there's going to be what's called the V-Wave is the next big feature. And what this is, is two colliding waves that kind of come together and, so you come through that and you kind of duck and get out of the way, you don't want the thing to wash you off of the boat. That actually happens a lot.

Now you gotta square up for the Big Kahunas. And the Big Kahunas are two rather large standing waves that are coming off of a big black rock that's all green from the moss. You end up in this corner pocket and you get out of your boat, it's going to take you down and scrape you right through the cheese grater. I have heard stories of people actually going underneath the rock and popping up on the other side.

And this is, some people say it's a 16-second rapid. I timed it once and I think it came out to 32 seconds. So you're not even in there for a minute. And all this can go on.

(soothing music) (rapids babbling) (dramatic music) (waves crashing) (dramatic percussion music) (rafter shouts) (rafters cheer) Well, Dick that was a lot of fun today. Yup it was a lot of fun. Maggie, you got dinner cooked? He had a perfect entry.

And that's just from years of experience. So after he made that entry he hit the V-waves. They took his oars out. Kale hopped to perfect.

It was an exciting ride. We got knocked around a little bit. Lost an oar at one point. I spun around and handed it back to him and he got us through the rest of the rapids without issue.

Well then, he had the oars and we were good again. And it was just, you saw the celebration at the end. It was awesome, it was glorious to go through that. Just to be on the boat for that was phenomenal.

That's something I'll never forget. I think I've heard it said that old age and treachery beat youth and strength any time. I think that he absolutely proved that today. (folksy guitar music) -

Dick's Journal

March 16

There is a struggle within me between living life to its fullest and trying to live it the longest. (folksy guitar music) (upbeat acoustic guitar music) We are the wanderers Footprints on the trail We are the travelers Summoned by the wailing wind Seems to call you to come walk out alone You are a traveler Far from your home We are the wanderers Going on alone It comes as a stirring in the blood Your bones know the border