Green River Raft trip post 1, Desolation Canyon & Gray canyon (9 days, 9/24-10/2, ~3500 cfs)

Rafting the Green River's Desolation and Gray Canyons (Deso-Gray) is a wilderness raft trip with quite a few riffles and rapids.  It can be done as a continuous float in six days but we had the full 9 days that are allowed so we could do side trips to see the sights (especially petroglyphs).

Because of its length and remoteness we had several waves of preparation, getting gear ready and consulting back and forth. Our group was 7 adults and 2 kids. T2 & R brought their two rafts oar-rafts and L & I brought their kayaks. A tandem Ducky rounded out the selection. The plan was for the kids to stay in the big rafts except for little adventure excursions in the tandem. The rafts would take pretty much all the gear so everyone had to pack more like a backpacking trip than a car-camping trip.

Still, the amount of gear was pretty enormous. Here's a photo of our pile:

dry bags and water jugs and diaper-pail, oh my!

Despite the backpacky nature of the trip, all the others brought these gigantic, heavy folding chairs like you see everywhere. All four of our Helinox chairs fit into a small part of one dry bag - using about the volume of just ONE of the other chairs.

The diapers, like our toilet waste, had to be carried out. We figured that a 5-gallon bucket would just make it of nine days (it did). We used a special lid called a Gamma Seal - that's it below and in the middle left above. It was put onto the bucket with silicone sealant so it would be fully waterproof (the provided seal just isn't up to dunking). Once on, a waterproof screw opening almost as big as the bucket opening lets you get in and out really easily.

 

Gamma seal lid allows a regular 5-gallon bucket to become a waterproof diaper pail with an secure screw closure

We were divided into two food groups where each group did four each of breakfast, lunch and dinner. That gave T & I two each which made planning fairly manageable, especially since T loves to cook.

a little experiment to try to give the flavor of a long drive (in a short video)

Vernal says "Hello!" with a big pink dinosaur. love the eyelashes

the last 30-odd miles was through what can only be called "National Sacrificial Lands" where the oil and gas industry has been allowed to do whatever the hell they want. wells litter the landscape and pipes are laid on of the ground like gigantic garden hoses. this photo of the scene caught my eye

Had a little drama that I'm sure most parents can relate to. Tuesday before the trip our son, O, threw up violently for 3 hours. Nasty business (pizza for lunch) but he had no fever or any sign of something wrong the next day - he was as exuberant as ever; he ate well; everything fine. Drumroll please...three days later, we're on this trip, checked into a hotel (Friday night) and he throws up again, goes back to sleep and seems perfectly fine the next morning. What to do? Kids do this sometimes but what if something REALLY bad happened on our trip? We were about to be completely out of touch with civilization for over a week. We knew the chances of something bad happening were extremely low but what if? We felt that our trip mates should have first say. If they weren't OK with having this possibly messing up their Deso-Gray trip, then we would drop out, period.

Luckily they all kindly allowed that if it was OK with us to take O, then it was OK with them BUT perhaps we could consider getting a satellite emergency beacon? Forehead-smack! YES! Of course that would be a great idea! And right across the parking lot from our morning coffee was a Sportsman's Warehouse to sell it to us. $150+ for the beacon PLUS $150 yearly activation and  we were on our way. BTW don't ever try to get one of these quickly and if you don't have a good internet connection: forgetaboutit. With a good connection it took about a half an hour.

O did, in fact, throw up once more after lunch on Monday and that's been the end of it. Weird...

The put-in at Sand Wash was quite civilized. The BLM had screen houses you could rent and there were a couple of toilets. So rich.

Did I mention that Sand Wash is in the middle of nowhere?

The tandem Ducky was appointed with a Helinox Chair 2 (with rocker bottoms to prevent damage to the raft floor). no, I did not sit like this in the rapids

off we go

some of these little dots are wild horses

there they are

lots of evidence of high creek flows from the Thursday and Friday before

beaver! just happened to be floating quietly by. boy did he disappear quick once he saw me

first camp's kitchen

Time to relax

there was enough of a breeze to inflate one of these couches. fun. bonus: we didn't pop it!

first camp's sunset