Why You Should Rent a Groover for Your Overnight Rafting Trip
The rivers are beginning to flow in Colorado and highwater season is upon us! After a long 8 months of low flows, whitewater is in the air and it feels so good to put the drysuit and Astrals back on. We hope everyone was on top of submitting their river applications for 2018 or caught on that they missed out and are staying vigilant for a cancellation as highwater will be here and gone before you know it. Double check your packing list and don’t forget to make sure your TL has a plan for everyone’s favorite river tool that no one wants to deal with: the groover. For those uninitiated, don’t fret, and definitely don’t agree to setting up this truly crappy job on the last day of your trip. For those who don’t know what a groover is, it’s a river-ready toilet that is two pieces that slide into your ammo can rack on your frame.
Proper Groover Placement
How do you set a groover, one might ask? You definitely don’t want to set it up on your boat… and you by no means want it near your camp. Proper groover etiquette includes finding the best possible views in a private area down wind of the camp. Make sure to do your number one before your number two, or you may need to bring multiple for your group and they get very heavy very quick!
Image courtesy of Life With Riley
Occupied Groover
Some creative ways to know the groover is occupied, is to put a groover paddle at the “trailhead” and bring it with you while occupied or use two oars to create an “X” while occupied or put the oars parallel to the trail to let others know it’s good to go.
What to Bring With Your Groover
When packing up and preparing to get back on the river, we highly recommend wet wipes (lots of them) for cleaning the seat piece, a small trash bag to wrap up the seat piece before packing into the ammo can, and small pinch of powdered bleach to cut the truly gnarly experience of setting the groover a few days into a week-long trip. The groover comes in two ammo cans, one containing a seat piece and the other being a holding tank. The holding tank comes pretreated with chemicals, so all you need to remember wet ones, hand sanitizer, and roll of the finest Charmin money can buy to have a fully ready-to-go iron throne.
What Happens When Your Trip is Over?
We’ll spare the reader and not describe the crime scene that is dumping a groover. With Colorado River Rentals, we can dump it for you for a small fee. For the extremely low price of $10.80 a day to rent the groover and one-time dump fee of $32.40, it’s a no-brainer to rent from Colorado River Rentals and avoid the trauma you will potentially have from dumping a groover for your first time.
We’ve got your back when it comes to the not-so glorious parts of your overnight rafting trip. Call Colorado River Rentals to set up your groover today!
*Featured image courtesy of Grand Canyon Whitewater