As most of you know, I’ve been rafting down the Green River. This is the last installment of the trip. So here we go.
Today is Thursday. After breakfast, I read a couple of articles in Page’s book Writing Down the River into the heart of the Grand Canyon, a trip she took and wrote about for the book. In Page’s story, she said she had been told there are two kinds of boatmen; those who have flipped, and those who will. I am not a real boatman, but I have already been flipped, sort of. Then in Linda Ellerbee’s story she shared the comment made by her paddle captain Julie when she went through the Grand Canyon: “A fairy tale begins ‘Once upon a time;” a river story begins, “No shit! There I was…” It made me laugh.
So here I am with sunburned feet, the beginning of a fever blister, and the experience of pretty much being flipped on the river. Dare I say it- There I was…
But I digress. I rode today in Allie’s boat, and she shared stories about the river and how she loved rowing in the river. I’m pretty sure all of the guides love rowing down the river because they had obviously done it for many seasons and had the whole process down to a science. And never seemed to be tired after rowing all day. They loaded and unloaded like pros, cooked us good meals, navigated the river safely, knew the history and geology of the river, and just took really good care of us the whole way. They made it look easy.
We went through more rapids. Seems like rapids are at every turn in the river. The guides packaged the rafts together so we could cover a little more ground, well, cover more water quickly.
We passed more pretty trees and more rapids. At one point, we stopped so the guides could scout some upcoming rapids to consider the best way to navigate that white water.
I think it was after we had stopped for lunch that Mylo got in the single ducky again, and I think it was Karin and maybe Eileen who took the tandem ducky. And there were more rapids again.
The kayakers got through these rapids with no trouble.
I think it was at some point today, or maybe tomorrow, that the guides thought it would be fun to hoist their pirate flags on the rafts. We didn’t raid any other rafts, but they had fun with it.
By the time we camped today, we were out of Desolation Canyon and in Gray Canyon and had gone past the Ute Reservation, so we camped on the other side of the river. After the fireline to unload, I still hauled my stuff up a bit of an incline and decided I now knew how to set up the tent. Wrong. I went about it in the wrong order, and Dea came to help me. I did take it down the next morning on my own, so at least I had learned that.
Apparently it was customary to be silly the last night on the river and dress up kind of silly. I didn’t get the memo. Several of them did dress silly. Do you see the strip of bacon? Tonight was dinner of chicken and rice, stir-fry veggies, salad, and brownies with whipped cream for dessert.
After Brenda told us how the last day would go tomorrow, we had fun singing a couple of songs with some added effects. Since I was participating, I was not worried about taking pictures, just singing along and laughing with everyone else. We sang ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” with some unusual movements as we sang. Then we sang ” The River is Flowing” in rounds that was nice. Maggie shared a poem she had written as we floated along today. Page share a poem and gave us all a copy. But the fun game was when we went around the circle and had to say what our most unpleasant chore was and why we did not like it Then we went around again and this time had to preface what we said about the chore with the phrase ” I hate sex because … and restate what we had said about the unpleasant chore. That got really funny. My chore was dusting because it was pointless and was a never-ending chore. Most of them were really funnier.
I think by then we were all ready for bed. it didn’t rain tonight, but saved it all for the last day.
Friday, the last day on the river, we woke up to overcast skies. We packed up for the last time. The blue bag is the dry bag for all our things. The packing list said it was allowed to weight 20-25 pounds. I even weighed mine before I left for the trip, and it made the cut, but I swear it got heavier every time I hauled it up to my tent each evening. Of course, it did get a little heavier today since I found a couple of baseball-sized rocks that I needed for mementoes of the trip to put in the cactus garden. The top gets folded over about three times and the straps get clasped down which keeps any stray water out. The red dry bag is the one we kept on the raft with us for things like sunscreen, rain gear, my camera, stuff we might need along the way that we wanted to keep dry.
We had bagels, scrambled eggs, fruit, granola, and some kind of breakfast meat I didn’t try for our last breakfast. It was already windy and cool, hence the tent and Little B’s hoodie.
Photo courtesy of Eileen Masterson
it rained off and on all day, light rain, but enough that rain gear was in order. Mine was pretty simple and had been bought for use at football games,basically a flimsy clear plastic bag with big holes for my arms and a hood. But it worked, until I got to that rapid. I put it on as we pulled out, and I stayed reasonably dry but cold the whole day. Till the rapids, anyway.
We passed a rock formation known in the guidebooks as Nefertiti. If you look carefully and imagine, it does look like a Nefertiti.
We stopped on a beach for lunch, which was cold macaroni salad, but I ate mostly grapes and cookies. The wind was strong and cold, so I wandered off and found a gully that blocked the wind and that was more comfortable. But apparently Brenda knew about it, too, because she called us all to gather there to share a Champagne toast to the trip. We then went around the circle and gave our goodbyes to each other and the river.
I was ready to kayak again and thought maybe paddling would at least work up some body heat, so I loaded up in the single kayak, not sure now who got in the tandem ducky, but I think it was Eileen and Karin, and off we went. They got ahead simply because they had more paddle power and the tandem goes faster anyway, I was told.
So, off we went. And again, since I couldn’t take pictures while kayaking, Cindy took another less than dramatic shot of me as we started off.
Photo courtesy of Cindy Findling
Some ripples and low rapids came up and all was well. Then we got to the second to last rapid that was a bit whiter, and I was doing fine, and then all of a sudden a big wave splashed over the front of the kayak right onto me! I was soaked, but still in the kayak. And I stayed wet till we came to the end of the ride at what I think was Gunnison Butte. Several times I would get caught in the eddys made worse that day by the wind. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t seem to keep from being turned around in them, so a few times I would just relax and let it turn me in a circle and enjoy the scenery and then start paddling again when I was facing the right direction.
The pick-ups and trailers were loading up the rafts by the time I got there with the last raft that was keeping tabs on me. Sopping wet from head to toe, I was unbelievably cold! I took off my flimsy rain gear and the wet lifejacket and made my way to the restroom to get out of the wind. They had a conventional restroom here.
Karin and Maggie had figured out that it was warm in front of the pick-up that was running, and invited me over to share the heat.
Then Brenda suggested I actually get in the pick-up since the heater was running. Great idea. I did leave the warmth of the cab for the final group shot. Standing, left to right is Zhana, Brenda, Lila, Mylo, Ailani, Page, Karin, Dea, Little B, Lindsey, and Jill. Front row is Cindy, Veronica, Roxanne, Eileen, Maggie, Allie, and me.
I got to ride shotgun by the warmth of the heater as Jose drove us back to the office. I took one last shot of the river as we left.
Back at the office, we emptied our dry bags into a trash bag to take it all to our cars, got the valuables we had left at the office for safekeeping, said our goodbyes, and were on our way.
At the toast to the river and each other, when Page asked what our expectations for the trip were and were those expectations met, I said I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but the trip was quite an experience, an adventure that I am glad I took. I learned new things, tried new things, met new people, saw the world from the perspective of the river, and made memories I will always enjoy.
Thank you, Green River, for all of that.
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