Scott Chandler
Wildness is a necessity- John Muir
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2014
- Messages
- 1,099
6/11-15/18
River travel is something that has never really been in the cards for me, at least not by floating. It is a hefty hobby to invest in, the skillset is one that requires trial and error to an interesting degree/a mentor, and, lets face it, my desert rat life has built a healthy respect (fear) of running water. It is a very unknown piece of adventure travel to me. That doesn't mean I am not averse to learning and getting into it, so when I was approached with the proposition of "star guiding" a rafting trip through Desolation and Gray Canyons in eastern Utah, there was no hesitation. I had heard tales of Deso and Gray for years now and considered going there something that wouldn't happen, being a desert rat and being poor. Yep yep yep.
I was also offered two options for starting this trip. I could either bounce from work early and drive up hours of road with the guides on Sunday, or meet the client group that evening and take a plane with them in the morning. Another no hesitation decision, this desert rat loves planes. Plane, plane, plane!
So Sunday evening I met the group at Holiday River Expeditions in Green River for our pre-trip meeting. Part of why I was being invited along on this trip was because this was the first of three trips Holiday was doing with Roads Scholars, brand new opportunity for them. They had done stargazing trips before but either adding more or the added pressure of this new opportunity made them reach out a bit. It was extremely intimidating walking up to the meeting spot (I was late despite thinking I was early) and having a group of people all greet me by name. I'm barely even used to that in a park... It turns out this group had signed up specifically because of the star guide aspect. No pressure at all.
To clarify, it truly was a lot of pressure. Being a night sky ranger, I'm used to talking with one group of people for an hour, covering a couple different things, and then never seeing them again, or seeing them so far in the future it is like a refresher, or the sky has changed enough over the course of time that there are different things to show off. This would be four nights with the same group, no designated time frame, no knowledge of what the sky viewing conditions would be. It was gulp inducing, twasn't something I had ever done before so I was a bit nervous.
After the meeting I got to enjoy a sweet sunset by the river while transferring by stuff to dry bags
Bugs were pretty obnoxious in Green River, so I was fairly bummed that I could not find my bug net. IT IS ALWAYS IN MY BAG WHERE IS IT GRRRRRRRRRR!
Not that big a deal though. I've found bugs don't bother much anymore.
I then drove out into the San Rafael Desert south of town to spend a very windy night in my car. According to the forecast the wind would be done after today, I sure hoped so.
Waking up the next morning was quite surreal as the smoke plume of the Trail Mountain Fire had really condensed in calmer conditions and was making the sun all red.
I quickly hopped over to the hotel that the group was staying at and snagged some continental breakfast before we all piled in the van and went down to the airport. SMALL PLANE TIME!!
I remember seeing the Mancos Shale badlands around Green River and the Book Cliffs from a plane once, but it was far cooler flying lower to it all. We also got to fly right up the very river we would be floating down. 30 minutes to go nearly 80 river miles that would take us four whole days in rafts. Coooool. Watching the various rock layers transition was a real treat.
Landing up at Sand Wash we had a short hike to do down to the put in. I later learned that these were Tertiary inland lake deposits, thus extending the amount of geologic time we would be travelling through on our way south. Big nerd moment for me. Talk about desolate country, and we weren't even in Desolation Canyon!
Note: Yes, there is a bison in the picture below. Apparently it had crossed the river from the Ute Nation and was not going back.
We were starting much later than is apparently the norm, so we hopped on the river fairly quickly. We had miles of flatwater to travel, so I kept my phone far more handy this day than those to follow. I also got to feel a good bit of empathy for the reset of the guides. Rowing those big rafts through the flatwater seemed arduous.
Eventually we reached our first night's camp, an extremely pleasant spot with lots of trees and singing birds. We were told if there were going to be any bugs over the trip they would be here, and they were fairly non-existent, so we lucked out. The smoke plume of the Trail Mountain Fire threatened to hinder our stargazing, but it moved out fairly quickly and we had a fun night of talking about bats, light and orienteering with celestial bodies.
The group quickly learned how much of a nature nerd I am as I just sat in a chair watching the sunrise brighten up the cliffs the next morning. I got a few people to join me the subsequent ones. We finally hit some whitewater on this trip, so the phone went into the drybag and I only popped it out again when we got to our next camp. It was a great day of watching the canyon get deeper and little riffly rapids. I also got a bit startled on the inflatable kayak we had when a slightly more serious rapid (still probably only class 2) decided to spit me from one side of it to the other right next to a cliff wall. My little respect of running water thing was pinging mightily.
I had a good bit of fun making up for not having the phone out all day wandering around our camp. I'd spent the last night in my tent because there were plenty of ground bugs in the trees, but from this night on I just threw out the footprint of my tent and slept under the stars. I believe this night we talked about star formation and differences...? Jeez my memory can be bad.
The next morning we visited Rock Creek Ranch, which was neat. It amazes me that someone somehow lived down here. Rugged country!!! We also visited a great panel of rock art with what seemed like multiple cultures on it. I went fairly naturalist on this day helping the guides interp at these sites. We also had our biggest rapids of the trip this day. It was fun watching a wave engulf the person in front of me, pounding full onto my chest. Fuuuuuuuun! That afternoon in camp was great, we had a good bit of time so we played in the water and napped a healthy bit. This camp was my favorite of the trip. Very Zionesque. In fact, I would argue that Desolation Canyon is every bit as amazing as Zion, but with a big river running through it. This night we had more of a Q&A night that resulted in me creating a galaxy model with a pancake and yogurt the next morning.
The next morning we started with a visit of McPherson Ranch. If this were simply an old ranch site it would have been simply cool, but it went to a whole new level when someone had the bright idea to try to build a waystation/hotel in the eighties that didn't pan out. This place was right out of The Walking Dead. The end of the civilized world in the middle of a beautiful place.
Pulling out my phone at the next rapid showed me that I wouldn't have a camera much longer. Somehow my phone was extremely hot and had gone from 50% charge to 17%. Dang. So I didn't document any of Gray Canyon, a real shame since it reminded me of pictures from the Grand Canyon. A really different and beautiful canyon. That evening we talked light pollution and ways that we can help preserve light skies in a world adding more and more nights. Check out http://darksky.org/ if you would like to see what we discussed. We had a great example of light trespass as a group of Scouts across the river had an illegal campfire...
Then the next day we finished up, arriving back at Swasey's Rapid take out. Talk about an amazing trip. I would like to give a HUUUUGE shout out to Holiday River Expeditions for having amazing guides. They did such a great job treating to us. I felt so out of place being treated to, not having to do my own things. The food was amazing (I came out of this heavier than when I came in because I didn't want near as much thrown away.) They certainly have a dream job. Wouldn't mind joining them more at all.
River travel is something that has never really been in the cards for me, at least not by floating. It is a hefty hobby to invest in, the skillset is one that requires trial and error to an interesting degree/a mentor, and, lets face it, my desert rat life has built a healthy respect (fear) of running water. It is a very unknown piece of adventure travel to me. That doesn't mean I am not averse to learning and getting into it, so when I was approached with the proposition of "star guiding" a rafting trip through Desolation and Gray Canyons in eastern Utah, there was no hesitation. I had heard tales of Deso and Gray for years now and considered going there something that wouldn't happen, being a desert rat and being poor. Yep yep yep.
I was also offered two options for starting this trip. I could either bounce from work early and drive up hours of road with the guides on Sunday, or meet the client group that evening and take a plane with them in the morning. Another no hesitation decision, this desert rat loves planes. Plane, plane, plane!
So Sunday evening I met the group at Holiday River Expeditions in Green River for our pre-trip meeting. Part of why I was being invited along on this trip was because this was the first of three trips Holiday was doing with Roads Scholars, brand new opportunity for them. They had done stargazing trips before but either adding more or the added pressure of this new opportunity made them reach out a bit. It was extremely intimidating walking up to the meeting spot (I was late despite thinking I was early) and having a group of people all greet me by name. I'm barely even used to that in a park... It turns out this group had signed up specifically because of the star guide aspect. No pressure at all.
To clarify, it truly was a lot of pressure. Being a night sky ranger, I'm used to talking with one group of people for an hour, covering a couple different things, and then never seeing them again, or seeing them so far in the future it is like a refresher, or the sky has changed enough over the course of time that there are different things to show off. This would be four nights with the same group, no designated time frame, no knowledge of what the sky viewing conditions would be. It was gulp inducing, twasn't something I had ever done before so I was a bit nervous.
After the meeting I got to enjoy a sweet sunset by the river while transferring by stuff to dry bags
Bugs were pretty obnoxious in Green River, so I was fairly bummed that I could not find my bug net. IT IS ALWAYS IN MY BAG WHERE IS IT GRRRRRRRRRR!
Not that big a deal though. I've found bugs don't bother much anymore.
I then drove out into the San Rafael Desert south of town to spend a very windy night in my car. According to the forecast the wind would be done after today, I sure hoped so.
Waking up the next morning was quite surreal as the smoke plume of the Trail Mountain Fire had really condensed in calmer conditions and was making the sun all red.
I quickly hopped over to the hotel that the group was staying at and snagged some continental breakfast before we all piled in the van and went down to the airport. SMALL PLANE TIME!!
I remember seeing the Mancos Shale badlands around Green River and the Book Cliffs from a plane once, but it was far cooler flying lower to it all. We also got to fly right up the very river we would be floating down. 30 minutes to go nearly 80 river miles that would take us four whole days in rafts. Coooool. Watching the various rock layers transition was a real treat.
Landing up at Sand Wash we had a short hike to do down to the put in. I later learned that these were Tertiary inland lake deposits, thus extending the amount of geologic time we would be travelling through on our way south. Big nerd moment for me. Talk about desolate country, and we weren't even in Desolation Canyon!
Note: Yes, there is a bison in the picture below. Apparently it had crossed the river from the Ute Nation and was not going back.
We were starting much later than is apparently the norm, so we hopped on the river fairly quickly. We had miles of flatwater to travel, so I kept my phone far more handy this day than those to follow. I also got to feel a good bit of empathy for the reset of the guides. Rowing those big rafts through the flatwater seemed arduous.
Eventually we reached our first night's camp, an extremely pleasant spot with lots of trees and singing birds. We were told if there were going to be any bugs over the trip they would be here, and they were fairly non-existent, so we lucked out. The smoke plume of the Trail Mountain Fire threatened to hinder our stargazing, but it moved out fairly quickly and we had a fun night of talking about bats, light and orienteering with celestial bodies.
The group quickly learned how much of a nature nerd I am as I just sat in a chair watching the sunrise brighten up the cliffs the next morning. I got a few people to join me the subsequent ones. We finally hit some whitewater on this trip, so the phone went into the drybag and I only popped it out again when we got to our next camp. It was a great day of watching the canyon get deeper and little riffly rapids. I also got a bit startled on the inflatable kayak we had when a slightly more serious rapid (still probably only class 2) decided to spit me from one side of it to the other right next to a cliff wall. My little respect of running water thing was pinging mightily.
I had a good bit of fun making up for not having the phone out all day wandering around our camp. I'd spent the last night in my tent because there were plenty of ground bugs in the trees, but from this night on I just threw out the footprint of my tent and slept under the stars. I believe this night we talked about star formation and differences...? Jeez my memory can be bad.
The next morning we visited Rock Creek Ranch, which was neat. It amazes me that someone somehow lived down here. Rugged country!!! We also visited a great panel of rock art with what seemed like multiple cultures on it. I went fairly naturalist on this day helping the guides interp at these sites. We also had our biggest rapids of the trip this day. It was fun watching a wave engulf the person in front of me, pounding full onto my chest. Fuuuuuuuun! That afternoon in camp was great, we had a good bit of time so we played in the water and napped a healthy bit. This camp was my favorite of the trip. Very Zionesque. In fact, I would argue that Desolation Canyon is every bit as amazing as Zion, but with a big river running through it. This night we had more of a Q&A night that resulted in me creating a galaxy model with a pancake and yogurt the next morning.
The next morning we started with a visit of McPherson Ranch. If this were simply an old ranch site it would have been simply cool, but it went to a whole new level when someone had the bright idea to try to build a waystation/hotel in the eighties that didn't pan out. This place was right out of The Walking Dead. The end of the civilized world in the middle of a beautiful place.
Pulling out my phone at the next rapid showed me that I wouldn't have a camera much longer. Somehow my phone was extremely hot and had gone from 50% charge to 17%. Dang. So I didn't document any of Gray Canyon, a real shame since it reminded me of pictures from the Grand Canyon. A really different and beautiful canyon. That evening we talked light pollution and ways that we can help preserve light skies in a world adding more and more nights. Check out http://darksky.org/ if you would like to see what we discussed. We had a great example of light trespass as a group of Scouts across the river had an illegal campfire...
Then the next day we finished up, arriving back at Swasey's Rapid take out. Talk about an amazing trip. I would like to give a HUUUUGE shout out to Holiday River Expeditions for having amazing guides. They did such a great job treating to us. I felt so out of place being treated to, not having to do my own things. The food was amazing (I came out of this heavier than when I came in because I didn't want near as much thrown away.) They certainly have a dream job. Wouldn't mind joining them more at all.
