Canoe Trip Part 2 - Mineral Bottom to the Confluence (Edwards + Brandon)
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| Waiting at Mineral Bottom |
The second part of the trip went very quickly. The wind began blowing hard against us, making paddling difficult. However, we saw some amazing sites - an outlaw cabin, cliff dwellings, and a short hike to some Native American rock art. We also saw a Jeep riding on a sketchy road high up in the canyon. Not a road Kathy would have been happy on!
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| Canoe Partners |
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| Native American Rock Art |
We ended up putting in big miles; 24 miles the first day and 25 miles the second day before finding beach/island campsites. Part of the reason for this is that when we stopped, it was blazing hot and the high winds were sand blasting us. Being on the river was much more pleasant.
Saturday we stopped for the night around 5:30 and made dinner, as Brandon was getting very hungry and grumpy. Brandon was also quoted as saying, "a hearty breakfast is VERY important," and apparently our breakfast of Pop-Tarts didn't cut it. He also observed that, when travelling with the Edwards crew you have to eat when you get the opportunity because we often forget to stop for food. While eating on our island campsite, we were blasted by sand again, so we finished eating, packed up and pushed on. We found another beautiful island campsite. Sunday we got ourselves three miles from the confluence, in the hopes of having an early day and getting out. Tex's had given us the dates they would be at the confluence in case of "Emergency" or "Stand-by." Monday was one of those days. Our scheduled day to leave was Tuesday.
We got to the confluence between 7:30 and 8 am on Monday. Who did we find waiting there as well? The bloody British Army! The women of our group were very excited to have the opportunity to listen to their accent again.
We chatted with them for a while, and learned why they were there. Apparently, the British Army is one of the few that incorporates adventure training to develop their soldiers. This particular group worked with dogs in the army, although there were no dogs with them on this trip. The idea is to get people out of their comfort zone and teach them to deal with stress and uncertainty. They chose the Green River because it is one of the few long stretches of flatwater in a very remote location. The trainer who I spoke with was a serious climber, and climbed the Nose on El Capitan. He acknowledged that their feeling of being kick-butt adventurers was somewhat shattered by the 12 year old boy scouts floating the river in homemade kayaks. They seemed like a fun group of men and women.
After chatting with the Brits, we all hunkered down to wait in the hopes of catching an early return to civilization. We cleaned our boats and got all of our gear ready for departure. But..... much to our HUGE disappointment, no boat ever came. Whoever was supposed to leave that day must have changed their plans. The time varied as to when each of us came to grips with our not leaving. Some (Lynn) accepted it at 10 am (an hour before departure time) and some (Kathy) didn't accept it until 1 pm.
About the time we gave up, we could see a thunderstorm brewing. We weather proofed everything and got into our tents to wait it out. It came and went, with little damage and we came out. Brandon immediately began taunting Utah, shouting, "Is that all you've got, Utah? That was nothing! I want a real storm." The rest of us told Brandon to shut up, and apologized profusely to the Utah storm gods.
We were up and prepared to leave early Tuesday morning. Tex's showed up at 10:30 am with two boats - a large jetboat and a smaller jetboat. We were thrilled when the smaller jetboat came to get just us (the larger boat would get the British Army and two families) AND we didn't need to wait for the other boat! The boat ride was amazing - the fastest we'd moved in 8 days! We were back in Moab by 2:30 pm. Yeah!
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| Final Campsite |
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| Our canoes at the confluence. The Green River is the closer river and the Colorado River is coming in from the top. |
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| What an adventure! |
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