May 10 through May 15, 2023
By Randy Purrett
On Wednesday, May 10, Randy (What, me worry?!) Purrett, Elaine (I’m not worried.) O’Reilly, and John (We’ve got this.) Unger, launched at Ruby Ranch, on the Green River, Utah.
At the time of launch, the Green was running at a little under 20,000 CFS, dropped down below 18,000 CFS, for the middle part of the trip, and was back up to over 21,000 CFS by takeout.
Much has been made of the lack of beach/sandbar campsites during high water. This may be true, but we had wonderful campsites every night. The first three were in groves of scrub oak and the last was on a huge beach of fine sand, deep into Horseshoe Canyon.
I may not be the most skilled paddler, but one thing I am good at is navigating with a river map. Finding the take-outs for campsites, during high water, requires a certain amount of skill. The takeouts are, often, just small breaks in the Tamarisk and willows. Pretty easy to miss if you aren’t looking for it.
There was a lot of concern, at least by me, about powerful eddylines. This turned out to not be a serious issue. None of us had problems.
What was an issue were the small takeouts, with steep drop-offs into deep water, shoe hungry mud, and steep banks. It would have been nearly impossible, without John. After a few camps like this, I was going to talk to John about possible things we could bring that would help. But when I walked down to our launch site, that morning, Elaine’s massive brain had already come up with a solution. She had a Ridge-rest sleeping pad rolled out over the mud. Worked like a charm.
There are plenty of good campsites for small groups. Not so many for large groups. Bring an extra sleeping pad, rolled up length of carpet or, maybe, a rolled-up section of rubber mat.
Wildflowers were everywhere. Our shuttle driver said this was the biggest bloom he’d ever seen.
We had quite a bit of wind. One afternoon in particular, a storm rolled in and some pretty good chop developed. I was a little nervous, but everyone made it through without a problem.
We had a little party every afternoon, shortly after reaching camp. There were wonderful snacks. We told jokes. Some good, some awful, but all were enjoyed. John played the Mandolin and sang for us one evening. Very nice.
John found bear tracks, in the sand, at our Horseshoe Canyon campsite. I was skeptical, at first, but there was no way around it. Luckily, tracks were all we saw of it.
Using Tex’s Riverways costs quite a bit, but they have this down to a science. Very competent and professional.
Randy
