Dad
drove Merav and I back to the campsite in his truck. Fortunately dinner
was ready when we got to camp. The spaghetti was ready and the keg was tapped.
Jason brought along the Fat Tire leftover from his wedding reception. It
wasn’t very cold, but it hit the spot. We ate dinner and drank a couple
of brews.
The
next morning we got up early, ate breakfast, and geared up for the paddle.
I took way to long getting my gear set, I’ll get better next time
I hope. We loaded the rafts up onto the trailer, it was a leaning tower
of rafts about 15 – 20 feet high. Crazy Stumpy was up there strapping
the rafts together. We had to get everything organized so we could unload
quickly at the put-in. Apparently you are only allowed 10 minutes to unload
everything at the dam.
We
drove to the put-in at the base of Flaming Gorge Dam and unloaded our
gear. We took about 10 minutes to throw our gear off the trailers and
get the vehicles unloaded. It took us a good hour to get the rafts all
situated and push off. It was kinda amusing watching the rafts gear up.
The volunteer at the put-in was concerned about my boat, and checked me
for flotation. We pushed off and paddled on down the river.
The water was cold, and the river was really pushy. I had to switch paddles
5 minutes into pushing off. My white Werner just didn’t have a big
enough power face to keep me on course in the pushy water.
The
river was pretty mellow the first mile or so, a couple of little riffles,
a single class II rapid, nothing serious. I practiced my skills, did some
ferry’s and just got tuned in. Having not ever paddled my Wavesport
outside of the pool, I was glad the boat fit and paddled well. I’m
glad I grabbed my Y instead of my Dagger Honcho. I wouldn’t have
handled the pushy water in my Dagger. I’d have gotten my butt kicked
in my Dagger!
We
paddled down the river and took out frequently to look for otter poop
and anal jellies. I had fun learning about the process for sample collection,
and looked for otter poop. The only turds I found turned out to be turtle
turds. No poop for me! The river was flowing at about 3500 CFS, so it
was moving along pretty well. We saw a ton of fishermen in many different
boats. Mostly fishing boats, but a few kick-boats, and even a couple of
inflatable kayaks. The inflatable paddlers asked about my boat, and we
had a little chat about my boat. About 3 miles down the river there was
little rapid. It was big enough that you couldn’t see over it. It
turned out to be nothing, but it got my adrenaline running. My first big
water rapid! We lunched at a nice little pool on river left at about mile
4. After lunch we paddled on downstream and about 1 mile further downstream
(mile 5) was a big rapid (Mother-In-Law Rapids). I eddied out and river
scouted it. I let all the rafters go down it, and then I shot the rapid.
I had psyched myself up for it, but it wasn’t too bad. I ran river
middle left and hit most of the big waves and cleaned it pretty well.
I didn’t exactly grab the line I wanted, but I was close. I almost
got worked at the bottom of the rapids, but was able to punch the wave
and stay upright, yah! My Y punched the waves really well; I was very
impressed by the boat!
We
paddled on scouting for turds. We passed Little Hole, which is where most
of the fishermen take out. At little hole we saw an otter. He mugged for
the camera and we watched him for about 10 minutes. We paddled past Little
Hole, and kept on down the river. I stopped at a riverside groover drop
a duke. After dropping the kids off at the pool, I got back in my boat
sans helmet. I didn’t notice this however until about a quarter
mile downriver. I paddled back upstream, and found my melon-bucket after
a fair amount of swearing. I met the group at the campsite, Big Pine and
explained my stupidity. Oops! We cooked up dinner (chili, yum!) and BS’ed
around the campfire. We read a few groover stories out of Up Shit Creek
and had a good campfire.
The
next morning I was a touch sore, but I dumped the mud out of my boat and
jumped into my Y. I was feeling a little more confident about my skills
after 1 day on the river. We looked for turds and got really lucky at
1 site. Dida managed to find a full otter skeleton at one of the dens
sites we were exploring. It was really neat to find a fully intact skeleton.
Merav said it was most likely an adult male. The next site I stopped at
had 2 anal jellies there. My first whiff of those nasty things, the “butt-jam”
was probably one of the smelliest things I had ever sniffed. Nasty stuff!
About 2 miles from where we found the skeleton was Red Creek Rapids. Dad
had warned me this was where they had the nasty spill with their canoe
last year. We could hear the rapid almost a quarter mile away. I got out
and scouted the rapid from river left. The rafts ran the rapid river right,
one by one with 1 passenger. I woosied out and took the easier line river
right. In retrospect I wanted to do river right, but was concerned to
take that line. I didn’t think I could get safety if I took that
line. Next time, I’ll take river right!
We
paddled through about 2 miles of flat water, and took out at a campground
to empty the groovers. There was a nice ramp to takeout on, and an outhouse
for groover dumping. About another mile downriver and we took out at Indian
Crossing.
At
the take out we rinsed the rafts in the river, unloaded our gear and deflated
the rafts. A couple of the girls made lunch while we cleaned up the gear.
Dad and Merav arrived with the other vehicles and we loaded the vans.
We
drove to Rocksprings and then took I80 to Laramie. I was lucky enough
to get a passenger to keep me awake. I crashed at Kaiti and Jason’s
and then drove home to RC. A great trip!
Here’s some beta
on the river and some trip pics.
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