In The Shadow of Longs Peak
Wednesday Evening, October 9, 2024
At the confluence was a huge mudbar, but passed that was a sandy beach high up on river right. It was a bit of a hump but the landing was not too muddy. I finally bonked and had to rest for 10 minutes or so before beginning to carry gear up. Our distance today was about 14 miles.
Our camp is already in the shade; it has cooled off considerably but it’s still warm enough to sit out. The Colorado River moves languidly past in flat sheets, its surface catching rays of the afternoon sun. The canyon wall across the river is in the shadow of the cliff behind us. At its bottom are layers and layers of folded rock, gray & white intermixed with red. It leans back and is capped by thicker layers of dark red, folded, pushed in and out into large blocks. Above that, lighter red blocks are stacked against a cloudless deep blue sky and stand as sentinels standing guard over the valley. Upriver and beyond the confluence, walls and spires of red loom into the distance
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Up around 7 AM, launched around 9:30 AM. Good weather, no wind, but again hot! Our last day on the river. We check out a couple of landing spots but none seem adequate so we continue to the registration box for Cataract Canyon. Upper Spanish Bottom, our choice, does not have anyone signed up. Upper Spanish Bottom is less than a mile away, so we paddle. Tex’s is picking up their clients and we wait till they are motoring away.
It’s really hot! Once landed we worked on unloading all the gear from the boats, sorting and re-bagging, then hauling the camping stuff uphill. I bonked again. Our paddling distance was about 3 miles.
Friday Evening, October 4, 2024
We camped on a sandbar on river left below the Bowknot and above Barrier Creek, around River Mile 61, so distance was about 12 miles. Very ‘dewy’ overnight, woke up to a wet tent and damp sleeping bags.
Thursday Evening, October 10, 2024
This is a pleasant camp, a bit of a hump up but there are trees for shade, what a delight! In the evening, we see the aurora borealis (northern lights!), what a treat! The first time I have seen these.
Friday, October 4, 2024
We were up around 7 AM, launched around 9:30 AM. Good weather, no wind, but it continues to be warm. Stopped for a hike at the neck of the Bowknot, which involved a steep hike on a good trail to the top of the cliff for a nice overlook of the river. I did not go to the top but the others did.
Thursday Evening, October 3, 2024
We camped on a sandbar on river-right, above the Bowknot, around River Mile 73 with a good landing. Today’s mileage about 17.5 miles.
Friday, October 11, 2024
Up around 7 AM or so. After breakfast, we pack up and haul gear back down. Tex’s arrives at 10 AM, load us up and we are on our way upstream to the Potash Boat Ramp.
We are back at Tex's, load up boats and gear, and are on our way out of town by 3 or so. Arrive at Gary's around 9:30 PM, and I am home and uploaded by 10.
A challenging trip!
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
We were up around 7 AM, launched around 9:30 AM. Good weather, no wind, pleasantly warm. Our idea today was to paddle to the Water Canyon Area, find a nice camp and hike. But once there, there were no sandbar camps and the high-water camps required a good hump uphill. So we continued paddling and rounded the confluence, saying goodbye to the Green and hello to the Colorado.
Tuesday Evening, October 8, 2024
After the riffle and island, there is a sandbar on river-right. The access is a large step up but the landing is all gravel, a very nice change from the last few evenings. This was a nice size camp and very sandy. It was located around River Mile 14, making our distance today 12 miles.
Monday Evening, October 7, 2024
Evening:
We camped on a sandbar on river-right above Turks head. This was a nice camp, large and very sandy. The only drawback was that the landing was very muddy and the camping area about 18” or so above the river, requiring a 2-part climb to get our gear to camp. This was around mile 26, so paddling distance was about 11 miles.
Saturday, October 5, 2024
We were up around 7 AM, launched around 9:30 AM. Good weather, no wind, but it continues to be warm. Around Mile 55 is an inscription by Denis Julian that can be seen from the river.
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Left Pack Creek by 7 AM, stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast and were at Tex’s by 7:30 AM. Loaded boats and gear and shuttled to Ruby Ranch. Unloaded, packed boats and put on the river by noon. The road to Ruby Ranch is in very good condition and I could probably drive there in the Forester assuming the road was dry. The put-in is across from the confluence of the San Rafael River and is at River Mile 97. The surrounding landscape at the put-in was wide and open. In the distance are the silhouette of rock formations. As we paddled we entered Labyrinth Canyon and were dwarfed by sandstone walls. Good weather, no wind, but warm, highs in the low 90s!.
Sunday, October 6, 2024
We were up around 7 AM, launched around 9:30 AM. Good weather, no wind, but it continues to be warm. It is quite hazy today, I expect due to smoke from distant wildfires. But the haze accentuated the formations in the distance.
We stopped at Mineral Bottom where someone from a raft group lent Karla a sleeping pad. Below Mineral Bottom, on river left is a road with both bikes and cars which I did not even notice last year. We paddled on, past Fort Bottom. I noted that the sandbar of last year on river-left was nonexistent, but the island had a sandbar (that did not look particularly inviting).
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Up around 7 AM, launched around 9:30 AM. Good weather, no wind, but it continues to be warm.
Wednesday Evening, October 2, 2024
Our first Camp was on a sandbar on river-left at the Trin Alcove Bend, just upstream and across from the mouth of Three Canyon. The camp was between River Mile 91 and 90, so today’s paddling distance was about 7.5 miles. There was already a group camped and they let us share the sandbar. Good landing, not too far above the river. Nice evening light on the nearby rock formations.
Saturday Evening, October 5, 2024
We camped on a sandbar on river left between River Mile 54 and 53, about a mile above Mineral Bottom. Distance about 7.5 miles. The tent was wet in the morning but not as much as the previous day.
Monday, October 7, 2024
We were up around 7 AM, launched around 9:30 AM. Good weather, no wind, not quite as warm. We passed thru Millers Riffle this morning, keeping just to the right of center and angling left which was about the same as last year. We stopped at Upper Anderson Bottom access and hiked up to a petroglyph panel.
Just past Lower Anderson Bottom on river-right is our camp of 2023. The sandbar is still there and would be a good camp but it’s too early to stop. Further down on river left are ancestral puebloan structures.
It was still hazy but not as bad as yesterday.
Sunday Evening, October 6, 2024
We camp was on a sandbar on river-right across from Potato Bottom (about 3 miles below Fort Bottom) around river mile 37. The sandbar was large enough to share with another group. We were across from The White Rim Road and it was interesting to see cars across from camp. A warm wind came up as we were setting up. In the morning our tents were dry. Mileage about 16.5 miles.
Green River
Ruby Ranch to Spanish Bottom
October 2, 2024 to October 11, 2024
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
I was not expecting to paddle much this summer after knee-replacement surgery. But, after couple of experimental outings at Union, I began to do longer outings locally then 2 long days at Guernsey Reservoir in Wyoming. At Lake Mcintosh, B mentioned they were considering a Green River outing, from the Geyser to Spanish Bottom. This was exactly the trip I was planning to do in 2025, so I convinced Gary we should go for it.
We left Gary’s at 10:15 AM, stopped in Grand Junction for Sushi at City Market on 24 Road and gas at the west end of town and arrived at Pack Creek Campground in Moab at 5:50 PM.
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
We were up around 7 AM and launched around 9:30 AM. Weather was good, no wind, pleasantly warm. Not too far down river and on river right is the 2 story structure set in the middle of a face and the subject of this years’ September Calendar Photo.
Our first stop was at Upper Cabin Bottom Camp and a mile or so hike to a really cool petroglyph listed in the guidebook as Newspaper Rock. The trail was marked with cairn’s which I found rather intriguing. Our landing was really muddy. After yesterday’s landing for camp, this ended up bringing tears to my eyes. Once back on the water, we headed downriver, past Turks Head and around the bend, passed RMCC’s camp of last year. Then another riffle, new this year. There was a sandbar or two we checked out but decided were ‘sub-good’. We passed another sandbar on river left was which would have been ideal except that it was already occupied. We continued down river and passed our island camp of 2023 but the sandbar was nearly non-existent.
We continued down river. Up ahead is Island at Horse Canyon and another new riffle! We can’t see the riffle clearly. To the left seems to be the larger area of riffle and a wave train and cannot see a way thru; Right is around a corner and also hard to see but Gary wisely heads that way and we all soon follow and the route is quite doable, a bit of a riffle but no hazards. There is a nice camp is at the island’s tip but is already occupied.
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Interesting cairns along the trail.