Utah Canoeing Trip – Days 14 & 15, Prep and send-off

It’s been quite a while since we put into the river but I got out of the river, headed straight home and was pretty busy for the next few days. I’m finally stepping back and taking a breath to catch up. Thanks for your patience!

Seeing my buddy Dave again

After a long day at Canyonlands National Park I went on a hunt for somewhere to camp for the night. Being Memorial Day weekend the place was getting packed in a hurry. A local mountain biker suggested I try the La Sal mountains, a short drive out of town and up in elevation for some cool weather. I went on the hunt, setting a meetup point with Dave ahead of time since we would likely not have any cell service. We found a very nice, but cool and windy place with a partial view of the city lights to spend the evening catching up, cooking dinner and getting some much needed shut eye.

Come morning we headed into town and had a great breakfast that was about 2x what any normal human should eat, and then headed to Tex’s Riverways to unload our trucks and sort through gear.

Dave did the bulk of the heavy lifting when it came to planning for the trip. I like to think of myself as the visionary, big picture guy that came up with the idea of “hey, let’s try a paddling trip? Hey, how about two weeks on the Green River in Utah?” Then Dave did all of the REAL work: learning that the Green River will clog a water filter in a few strokes so you need a flocculant like alum; we have to pack out fire ashes and even our bathroom business so we need to rent a groover; there are so few spots to camp that you ought to show up with a list before hand.

It was awesome seeing my good friend Dave, giving each other a hard time, and getting ready for the trip. Thanks for doing what amounted to dozens of hours of reading and researching buddy!

After comparing and consolidating gear we enjoyed a very relaxing several hours at a local restaurant with outdoor seating. We ended up eating both lunch and dinner there, caught up with each other and talked about the upcoming trip. That night we found a nice spot on BLM land near Horsethief campground, northwest of town.

 

Packing up and putting in at Crystal Gyser

In the morning we got up and headed straight to Tex’s to make sure we were ready to roll on time. After sorting things out we crossed our fingers for a safe and enjoyable trip in some of the more remote territory we’ve been.

There were 10 of us putting in with Tex’s on Saturday and there are only two outfitters taking people to the Green. That gives you a sense of just how few people are on this river. They go to multiple put-ins but most people put in down river of our choice. This first 20 miles of our trip is “less scenic, not a lot to see.” As you’ll soon find out, this is a gorgeous area but most people are on a time budget where they just can’t fit this in.

We got a pre-trip briefing from a guide at Tex’s which was very helpful and included hints on where to find ruins and petroglyphs. Sweet! After an hour and a half ride we were finally packing the canoe and putting in.

We pushed off and got to paddling, finding the boat more nimble (OK, less of a pig) than I had expected. The Discovery 169 weighs in at 90 pounds, is 16’9″ long, 37″ wide and has a 1400 lb load capacity. That’s kind of staggering – it will hold more in it than I can haul in the bed of my truck. The force dynamics of a load on a floating platform are much more favorable to hauling than is a truck bed on an axle and leaf springs, but it’s still a surprising capacity to me. The boat required a pretty strong J to keep it straight and I had to put some oomph to rudder it at times but it tracked and handled perfectly adequately for this trip. Don’t ask me to take it on a trip with a lot of portage!

Bottom line: we were in a nice rhythm and comfortable in the yacht quickly after heading downstream.

There was a brief rain storm in the afternoon. We pulled over and took a break, cooked lunch and let things dry off. A great camping spot was hidden several miles down river, on the east bank, through a thicket of brush. We got lucky and came across it, set up camp, and I promptly took a nap. This was to be a theme for the rest of the week as we learned.

I was ready for more of this “not so great scenery”, and even more excited to see what the “good stuff” was going to be like. Stay tuned, it only gets better!