Gouldhome, Green River, June 29

June 29

Joel woke up at 5:30 which would have been fine. I turned over to go back to sleep and as I started to settle down, Joel unzipped the tent again. Awake at 5:30. Ick. Joel came back because the mosquitoes were still vicious.

As we saw Ted walk by, we called him over figuring we could have him get breakfast out for people. It was relatively easy today since we had a breakfast that didn't require cooking - granola, oatmeal and fruit. We tried to to teach him the secrets of the colored boxes, but he was not an adept pupil and failed the test. So I got up and got breakfast out of the green ... no yellow box.

Chandler does not wait an hour after eating

Those of us up early were all for waking everyone else up so we would eat quickly and get out of mosquito hell. But Damon wouldn't let us. Regardless, we were off earlier than any other morning - by 8:30. Maybe the yipping coyotes woke them up.

It is especially nice to start Island Park (the next section of the river) early. It is a long very flat stretch of water. If you get there too late in the day, the upstream winds start and you have to row HARD all the way down. But we had no wind at all and the water was flowing fast. We were doing 3mph without paddling. Joel rowed our boat so I could rest. I've not been getting enough sleep.

Once we started getting close to the rapids I took over again. When we got to Moonshine Rapids I decided to give Ben a fun ride. We ran one of the holes and some very fun waves. SOB Rapid (pic) and Schoolboy Rapid (pic) were also a lot of fun. Between the rapids, I was being supremely lazy and not rowing at all, so I got a little behind. As we went down we saw a beautiful hawk circle above us. Its wingtips were lighter than its body. We also saw a heron fly by then dive down about 50 feet. I've seen lots of herons, but this is the first time I've seen one dive.

Everyone had pulled out just after Inglesby Rapid for lunch, so I caught up to everyone that way. Neither Mom nor I had organized the lunch well so we had no can opener. But a few people had Swiss army knives so we survived. Ted brought out his knife as he did for every lunch and chopped up the tomatoes and cheese. (pic)

It wasn't far from lunch to the take out. Just a couple of ripples. The Green River is such a beautiful place. Today we had spires along the canyon walls. So beautiful, but short. Four days is just long enough to start getting into the trip. It is all over too quickly.