Friday, September 5, 2008

The Epic Desolation Canyon


The Epic Deso trip all began when we were about a half hour out of Moab on our way to Duschene Utah near the put in about 5 hours away. Our tire blew out and Eric, our driver, fixed it Indi 500 pit style. We made it up to Duschene and when we went to pump gas, a man came outside and said "A transformer was hit by lightning and we have no power so you can't pump gas. We don't know when it will be back up." Luckily, we had enough gas in the tank to make it to the put in and back. Well, on the dirt road about a half hour away, we saw some water in the road. As we got closer, we realized that it was not just a little bit of water, but a raging flash flood that there was no way our truck and heavy trailer could make it through at least until it died down.

We ended up waiting there for 4 hours until after it got dark. in the mean time, we made the most of our journey and blew up a duckie to float the road rapids, the chocolaty white water.

Sam fell in the water...

This wave we called "the curler..."

You can see how it got bigger, not smaller as time went on...

We ate dinner while we waited and wondered if we were going to have time to rig the boats or if our trip would be delayed in anyway as the passengers were coming in the next morning very early on the plane. We actually had phone service at one point and talked to someone in Moab...they said that Moab was on fire and our trailers may need to be activated. Sammy was worried about her car.

moussy

When you have that much time...might as well take a lot of photos, eh? The crew from left to right was Ava, Jess, Sam, Kenna, and Danny. Our nicknames became Dave, Jesse, Samuel, Ken, and Danielle.

We finally made it through the road rapids and continued to the put in. Eric was definitely going to stay overnight. We rigged at midnight. We were exhausted, but it was kinda nice in the light of the yellow moon and with a lot less mosquitoes. Then the expedition began. 25 passengers 5 days on the Green.

On day 2 we saw a black bear during lunch. Luckily, it was not aggressive.

This was with a pretty good zoom, don't even worry...

On night 3 we played football on the beach, went on a great hike to a natural bridge, and made a delicious meal followed by rice krispie treats.

View of the Green in the background from on top of the bridge...





After desert, we had a nature show when 3 big horned sheep came down the rocky cliffs across from our camp to water.

The next day was our biggest rapids, and I loved rowing them. We had a beautiful rain and rainbow. I celebrated with chicken salad air!







We had a great time laughing and dancing on the boats.

Kenna has been doing this trip for 6 years now and she had heard of a side hike to some outlaw bones, but had never been there. We decided that since this was an EPIC trip that we might as well try to find the bones. The only problem was when we actually found them!!! It was crazy! As Jess would say "Bad river juju for 7 years at least..."


Well needless to say, that night when we got to camp a major gust of wind and one of the passenger's tents took flight and landed in the water and sunk. We could not retrieve the tent in time. The river juju caught up with us quickly. Another part of this story is that when Kenna went to her ammo can that evening, she opened it up and it had a bone in it. She was yelling AVA!!! AVA!!! then basically blackmailed Sammy out of her job if she did not tell her who put the bone in her ammo can and where it came from. It ended up that I (unfortunately) was not the culprit, that a passenger did it and it was a cow bone. Boy was it funny practical joke though. The last night we dressed up and had a talent show. It was great ending to an epic trip.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Daily Double


Another Daily Double Sunset!
True life-changing stories

Another great group and lots of good fun. We made a mermaid,

which at the last second turned into a merman (compliments of peter...the boy on the right)...

Our lovely passengers

The dishes, river guide style

All tuckered out after a great trip! Notice the cute little nose hanging over edge of the back rest.

There's only One One One One One......LAGOON! It's where fun is!


So, when I went up to Centerville to visit, we decided to celebrate our days off at Lagoon. We felt like 13 year olds and it was awesome!!

The white rollercoaster...my favorite!

One minor detail: when we got back from Lagoon, we must have done one too many loop-da-loops on Colossal because I had lost my keys out of my pocket. Miraculously, I had a spare in my car and a police man was nice enough to slim-jim it for free!

Sunday, June 29, 2008

2 day 1 day


The daily double is a 30 mile trip on the Colorado from the historic Dewey bridge to the Moab bridge. 14 miles of the trip is covered on the Moab daily, so much of the views and interp is the same. Here are a few pics of our trip. I am quickly becoming the queen of the daily double as I have gone on it four times now. It is great!
Haley, Brian, me, and Kristina just got done fishing with chicken between our toes. We would hold really still and let the fish nibble on our toes; it is all very scary!

Lindsey

"Kristina love" and Me

Bubble wand I found in the arts festival

Rapid day

Our great group!

Cody and me

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Rugged or Nappy?


So, I am lucky enough to be in an environment that has a gravitational field for great people. One of these is Matt Nielsen. I met him at the First Aid class, and we went on a few hikes shortly thereafter. We get along great, and I guess an outsider would call it dating...I would just call it spending time with a great person, doing great things, and having great conversations...so take it as you like...
Negro Bill Falls and Morning Glory Arch hike

the girl from ipanima

Glow in the dark Chacos


Matt and I at the wildlife preserve