August 25
The schedule for today’s rafting called for a relatively
short float (about 5 miles or so) to our next campsite (Rippling Water
#2). This allowed us to sleep in late
and have a nice leisurely breakfast of coffee, hash browns, eggs to order, and
blueberry muffins cooked in Dutch ovens.
It was all absolutely delicious.
The air was chilly (in the 50s) so six of us hiked back over to the
plateau where Matthew and I had gone climbing the day before. The sun was
deliciously warm and Rob and Ryan joined Matthew to climb back up the plateau.
When we left the campsites we switched boats, so now Matthew, Ralph, JoAnn and
I were rowing with Pat and Kristen. We pulled over at a spot on the river where
Pat proceeded to show (and tell us about) names written on the canyon walls in
the 1930. Rob told us that one of the signatures was from Buzz Holmstrom, the first person to ever float from Green
River to Boulder Dam solo. The following picture shows us getting back into our
boats after the story was told.
We floated further down the Green River until we came to
some of the roughest waters on the trip, known as “Hell’s Half Mile”. (I found
this video on You Tube
that shows a stretch of this Class IV rapid). The guides pulled the boats over
to scout the rapids before going over them. The main problem was that the level
of the river was low to the point that many rocks were exposed. These rocks
could flip the raft if we got stuck on them.
The following picture shows the guides deliberating on the best way to
navigate the rapids while the rest of us looked on.
We survived Hell’s Half Mile and stopped for a delicious
lunch of turkey sandwiches with onions, mayo, cranberry, sprouts, and tomatoes,
all topped off with Pringles, raisins, peanuts, and cookies and soda. We were
not starving in the wilderness by any means!
Pat pulled out the ducky, an inflatable kayak-like device
that any of us could use to float the river on our own (between the two rafts).
Rob hopped in first, and we proceeded down the river before arriving at our
campsite, Rippling Water #2. Matthew and I set up camp, and then we put our
life jackets back on and joined Rob and Ryan for a beautiful float down the
rapids that were near our campground. Here is a picture of Rippling Water #2.
We were camped right at the base of a steep canyon wall, and
Matthew and I decided to take some time and hike up the face of the steep incline.
About half way up the canyon wall Matthew found a cool indent to hang out in
(and carve his name into!)
We would have liked to go higher but our group was planning
on hiking to a waterfall, so we hustled back down, took a quick dip in the river
to cool off, and then joined the group for a half hour hike. Along the way Jordan
took our picture at a very picturesque area.
We made it to the waterfall and Matthew had a chance to cool off…….
We walked back down to the river and sat in the chairs that
Pat, Jordan, and Kristen had set down for us to hang out in. Matthew and Rob
chatted about life on the river…….
Matthew just couldn’t stop looking at the canyon wall we had
scrambled up and talked me into going further up! We went up so high that our river-mates
seemed like ants down on the river below!
We snapped some great pictures at the top and could see the river that
we would travel tomorrow winding out below us.
We scrambled down just in time for dinner, which was a
Mexican Fiesta. Tortillas, chicken, beans, rice, peppers and onions, all washed
down with fried tortillas covered with cinnamon and sugar. We sat around a fire
long into the night. The stars were so clear we could visibly see the space
station moving quickly overhead. I borrowed a pen from Pat to start journaling
the trip and headed back to the tent. Matthew stayed out with everybody to
watch the moon rise. It had been another cloudless day.
