Upper Green River paddle

 
On Friday, I drove up to Laramie, Rocksprings and then on to Pinedale. The rain started as I headed north from Rock Springs and by the time I got to Pinedale it was pretty wet. I met Dave at his house in Pinedale, and we went over to the brewery for dinner. He has been doing a lot of work on his old log cabin, and it looks pretty nice inside. His next project is making it look good on the outside, which includes painting, and chinking the logs.

Flattop mountain in the background

On Saturday, we drove up the muddy dirt road to green river lakes. Dave has 2 Wheel Dr., so there was some concern about the road, but we made it without any difficulty. The views are spectacular, I had sort of forgotten how amazing the wind river range is. We put in on the lower green river lake, and paddled up up the lake to the river that links to two lakes, and then to the upper green river lake. We saw a surprising number of boats on the upper green river lake, I believe we counted more than 10, which was very surprising. Dave said he had never seen that many boats on the upper lake. There was a lot of current between the two lakes, no surprise; it’s been a wet winter. We paddled some of it, and we lined some of it, basically dragging our canoes upstream. We continued across the upper green river lake, and entered the the river there. Again the current was strong, and we didn’t go very far. My goal was to start at Green River lakes and paddle up as far as what is feasible, and I believe we’ve done that. We hiked a couple of miles up the trail, which leads to the wind river range. The ride back was easier, no tough currents to fight, but there were still paddling to do to get across the two lakes. We set up our tents in the campground, and cooked dinner. Dave started a fire, which was a bit of a challenge, with a lot of the wood being pretty wet, but he did it.

Dave lining his canoe.

Sunday we put on the water on the lake, and immediately headed for the outlet stream, which is the Green River. The first section was easy and fast, and the sky was sunny. It was quite nice. We pulled over to scout the crux section of the rapids, and neither of us wanted to do it, so we lined that rapid. Then I ran some of that, and then lined a little bit more, and then started running the rest of the rapid. I discovered that my boat, used, but new to me, was not a great choice in white water. It tended to fill up with water, so I had to keep pulling over to bail it out. I wish I had brought my electric pump, but I think I just underestimated the trip. To me, at this water level, it felt like class three.. I will be sure to rig this canoe to accept my electric pump. And also realize that this is probably not the right boat for class three water.

When we got to our planned campsite, Dave got on the bicycle that he had stashed there, and bicycled back to the lake, which is where the van was. The weather was kind of on and off rain; I spent some time in my tent. Later it became very nice but cool, ans we had dinner by the campfire.

Monday it was cold in the morning, with heavy frost on the tent. We waited a while for it to warm up. Dave decided to lash his bicycle onto his canoe, rather than drive down and leave the bike. The paddling was easier than the day before, more or less class II. I only had to stop once to bail water out of my canoe. We saw two trumpeter swans fly across the river; spectacular birds which are apparently rare in the Wind Rivers. Dave got out after the rapids, and I continued on to the forest boundary. This is probably where I will continue from next year. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant, were tired, and hit the sack early.

Tuesday I got up early, and was on the road before 7, very early for me. It was very windy, but mostly a tailwind, so I got 30 mpg, even with a canoe on the roof. Occasionally the winds made for some challenging driving, but overall not bad. I drove home below the speed limit, with the canoe and the wind.

A very beautiful area, and good paddling. Thanks to Dave for his hospitality and for helping me with my Green River project.

Escalante River Trip

 Escalante River Trip

This is my write up of an eleven day paddle trip on the Escalante River in southeast Utah.   Rather than a day by day report, I will try to report the highlights, and give my impressions.

We put in mid-May at the Highway 12 bridge, near the town of Escalante, and took out at the lake.   Most users hike in and hike out; almost all the boats that we saw were packrafts, very small and light.  Having hiked in and hiked out with an inflatable kayak, I said never again, too much work.   Our trip was roughly twice as long as the usual trip, about 90 miles.  There were few other parties in the upper and lower sections, but many between Fence and Coyote canyons.

The trip felt different than other river trips I have taken.  The river is narrow, often 20 to 30 feet wide, with trees on both sides.   Our view of the canyon was often limited, but constantly changing; I felt it was a never ending wonder.  The canyon was smaller than many other desert canyons which I had paddled.  The water level was low during the trip, averaging about 20 cubic feet per second; most rivers are considered to be low at 500 cfs!  

This was perhaps the most strenuous river trip that I can remember.   With the low water, we were constantly maneuvering to avoid rocks and sand bars, and often had to get at least partially out of the boat when the boat got stuck.   One strenuous day included a portage and a lot of rocks; after 4.5 hours, we were tired, only having made four miles that day!

Another difference in this trip was the degree of alone time.  Doug and I were the only people on the trip, and Doug likes his alone time, so I had more alone time than usual, time to think, listen, and take in the canyon.  Usually I travel in a group, so camp time is often conversation time.  I read Edward Abbey’s book, Desert Solitaire, during the trip.

The ugly load on my inflatable kayak.

The length of the trip was roughly double a typical river trip, with eleven days on the water.  This contributed to my boat looking a lot like the Beverly Hillbillies truck, with dry bags piled on front and rear. In my canoe, I can easily keep everything below the gunnels, so it looks very tidy.

Doug has run the Escalante many times, and hiked extensively, so he was like a local guide.

One of the highlights of the trip was the pink room, a box canyon with a pool and extensive overhangs.   It seemed to be a sacred space, and almost impossible to photograph.  It was kind of a 360 degree experience, with rock on three sides and above us.

The two headed sheep is in the center.  I enhanced the photo for readability.

Another highlight was the Baker Bench rock art panel.  It was huge, and seemed to go on and on.  It was hard to get your head around it.  This panel is famous for two headed sheep.  These were petroglyphs, pecked into the rock.  As usual, the age and meaning of rock art is hard to judge, and may have included work over  many centuries.  Some of the art is of course relatively modern, with horses and cowboys.

We saw surprisingly little in terms of wildlife on the trip; perhaps animals only come out at night.  We did run into a herd of cows.

There were a few springs that we could use, and in some places we filtered water from a side stream.  The river was extremely muddy, so the springs were critical.

Our tow

We had made arrangements to be picked up by a boat on the lake.  The boat showed up around 9:30 AM, and we stopped to pick up another couple of paddlers.  But then the boat broke down!  We sent a satellite message to request rescue. A tugboat came and towed us back to the marina, but this was a long day. 

I did enjoy the trip, especially the unique aspects of it.  But once is perhaps enough……