Starting in 2008, Kathy and I have organized an annual Ruby Horsethief early Fall trip down the Colorado River (there were 6 of us on that first trip). In the years since, we’ve seen big groups (as many as 25) and small groups, high water and low water, sunshine and rain – but its always been a wonderful experience.
This year we had 14 paddlers in 10 boats (4 tandem canoes, 1 solo canoe, 4 kayaks, and 1 inflatable canoe). Due to the increasing difficulty of getting a good campsite on a Saturday night, we opted again for a Sunday-Monday trip and reserved the Dog Island campsite just above Black Rocks. None of us had been to this camp before and while the camp was large and flat, it was on top of a 20ft STEEP climb up from the beach. Since the river flow was pretty high (around 4000 cfs),there was little beach space for landing and unloading and loading, so boats had to be pulled up the slope to make way for other boats. Dog Island suffered a devastating fire started by fireworks in August 2015 but with time and considerable volunteer efforts, the vegetation is coming back and several large cottonwoods in the central camp area survived. Here’s a write-up from 2016 https://www.coloradocanyonsassociation.org/news/2016/10/31/reflection-a-year-after-the-dog-island-fire. Given the steep bank, I’d not use this camp again.
Our jolly boat mates provided a generous and convivial Happy Hour spread late in the afternoon. So generous, in fact, that several of us paused midway with the internal dialog “Do I keep eating and skip dinner or stop now”. Without revealing my answer, I will say that I’ve had the same freeze dried meal in my food barrel for 3 trips now.
We couldn’t have asked for a better crew or better weather and look forward to a return again next year, perhaps to one of the lower Black Rock camps as we’ve never stayed there.
Thanks to Sally and Martha for the photos
Respectfully submitted
Bill Ashworth
