While many people associate January with winter sports, others, like Kamloops resident Martin Breu, choose instead to embark on a two-week raft expedition down the Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon.

Breu, a second-year TRU adventure studies student and avid whitewater canoeist, said the trip came about unexpectedly.

Last summer while working a rafting job on The Ottawa River, he met Geneviève Bush, who was friends with two girls he worked with.

The two girls were part of a raft racing team and had come to borrow a boat from the company Breu worked for. As part of deal, they required someone to paddle with them in a "safety boat." Breu volunteered and paddled the river with them. Bush paddled with them that day as well, "just for fun."

While driving back to Kamloops from Ottawa at the end of last summer, he received an email from Bush, who recently had received a permit to privately raft the Grand Canyon in January 2011, asking him he was interested in joining the trip.

For Breu, a 17-year veteran of the sport, the decision was a no-brainer.

Logistically however, the trip was not without its share of challenges.

"One challenge was simply getting the time off from school," Breu said. "I'm still trying to catch up on all the time I missed."

Because the group was made up of people from all over, Breu said there was no actual face-to-face planning before the trip began.

The group itself totalled 10 members and was comprised of seven people from Quebec, one from Ontario, one from Mexico, as well as Breu.

This presented another challenge. Even though the group was collectively solid in its paddling abilities, Breu said the skill and experience of each group member varied.

"Seven of us were raft guides. Two of the guides were really good on rafts, but had little kayaking experience," Breu said.

"Genevieve was a good kayaker but had no rafting ability or canoeing experience. Two of the girls that came were girlfriends of two of the guys."

Breu said that prior to the trip, "All contact we made with each other before we collectively arrived in Arizona was by email."

He said the group tried to set up a conference call a couple of times, but "we are all on different life schedules, so that never materialized."

After four months of planning, the group met for the first time in Arizona.

Breu said though the trip was officially labelled as a raft expedition, a variety of boats was used to make the 14-day, 225-mile journey from the "put-in point" of Lees Ferry, located two-and-a half hours north of Flagstaff, Arizona, to the "take-out location" of Diamond Creek, two hours west of Flagstaff.

"We rented two gear rafts from a company down there. There were two kayaks owned by members of the group, and a shredder, which is a really small kayak. I rented a canoe. Throughout the trip, the group members changed boats amongst themselves. "I did all the hard rapids in the canoe," Breu said.

"I was never in a kayak, though, because the kayaks we had were too small for my legs."

Breu said that other than renting the boats, the trip was entirely self-sustained. "Because we were a private group, we were solely responsible for our food, clothing and shelter," he said. "We camped on land every night, guided by a map that showed areas that we could and couldn't camp. The map also included things like beaches where people have always historically camped and such."

Consequently, the group had to figure out by themselves how far they were going to go each day, based on points on the map.

Martin said they were lucky because there are fewer people in the canyon during winter than in the summer. This meant overcrowding at traditional campsites was virtually a non-issue.

Breu said the group spent every day on the water, but the actual amount of time each day varied. "We had days where we were only on the river for an hour, because we would do a long hike," Breu said.

"But in general, our daily time spent on the water could be anything between three miles to 22 or 23 miles."

Breu said even the longer days weren't too bad though, because the river's current is always moving at a relatively steady rate.

"Typically, we would attempt to be on the water by 10 a.m, take a 30-minute lunch break during the day, then come off the water for the night around 4 p.m.," he said. "We didn't want to stay on the water much later than this because we would begin to lose daylight fast."

Breu said that though the Grand Canyon can have a reputation amongst adrenaline junkies, he never really felt in danger.

"No, not really. The water is big, but all the really big hazards are very easily avoidable if you're a decent paddler. I felt that the worst thing that could happen to me was that I would end up swimming and be cold."

Occasionally, the danger had nothing to do with the river.

"Sometimes the sketchiest times are on land," Breu said. "We did some really cool hikes, but there were definitely some spots that, because we were there in the winter, could sometimes be a little bit icy on the rocky portions where, if somebody slipped, they would be in serious trouble."

Breu said the moments and memories outweigh any danger he felt during the trip. One moment that sticks out in his mind was when he "was running one of the rapids and I went for the big line on the water, which featured five big waves getting consecutively bigger. I hit the third one and I got turned sideways. The fifth and biggest rapid I actually hit backwards. This launched me completely in the air. I thought for sure I was going to flip and swim but the boat landed with a big boom and I was still, surprisingly, upright."

Other memorable moments took place off the water.

Breu said on one of the hikes, the group came within 30 metres of a fully grown, mature bighorn sheep: "A big ram, big horns and all that."

For others who may be interested in a trip like this, Breu said a person should have a fairly solid background in whitewater paddling or rafting before attempting such a journey.

"You have to know what you are doing," Breu said.

"When you apply to the National Parks Service for a permit to float the river, you have to give them your background, skill level and the like, and they can accept or reject you."

Once accepted, participation is based on a lottery system. The lottery opened this week for the 2012 expeditions.

Breu, who just returned to Kamloops, said he is already planning to go again next year.

"This trip is a must-do. Everyone should do it. I can't wait to go back."

(Eric Zimmer is a third-year journalism student at TRU.)