Bob Lowery dropped out due to a last minute medical situation (which, while unfortunate, thakfully happened the week before we were to drive out there, rather than on the river, which could have resulted in potentially life-threatening situation), so Carey joined up w/ us.
The drive-out Saturday morning (5/21), we found ourselves faced with a virtual blizzard on Vail Pass. After some scrambling, we decided on the southern route - Denver, Walsenburg, Alamosa, Wolf Creek Pass, Pagosa Springs, Durango, Cortez. Drive time was probably two hours longer, and of course, we left at least two hours later than we expected. We then planned to drive up to Moab in the morning of launch day (since we weren't driving through Moab on the way out) to pick the duckies up. That meant we couldn't run our own shuttle - no biggie, we called Jim Hardin and he accomodated us at the last minute.
Then we decided to scrap the duckies altogether - paid a deposit penalty, and loaded everyone on the two boats. Hands down, after two dozen weeklong trips, this was by far the heaviest I've ever rowed the boat. What a barge.
But no problem - the water would be coming up, right?
Eh, not really, We launched at about 1600 cfs. The river dropped to just over 1K on Day 3, recovered to about 1150 or 1200 on Government Day, then 1100 for takeout.
Odd thing - I spent a good deal of time (too much) worrying about Eight Foot. Low water, they all said, run tight on the right wall to miss the big rock, work back into the center aafterward. I have always run the thing on the left - when we got up there, I looked, saw a slightly scrapey but manageable route on the left side and more or less nailed it. Right side...ha !!!
I relaxed after that - figured the water would gain 600-800 cfs and Gov't would be a breeze. But it never really materialized. When we got down there three days later, we found a fast, boney, pillow-studded mess, with a single line threaded down the right-center.
Carey ran it well, not perfect. I hit my line at the top, whiffed a stroked and ended up taking the front of the boat over the nasty pourover sideways. No big consequence, but an ugly and disappointing performance. No excuses. The boat was heavy but I knew that....I saw the line and drifted off it....I had my strokes more or less memorized, but didn't execute. We'll post the video when we get it up on YouTube.
The row out was a trial....steady 12-15 mph headwinds, gusts to 30, absolutely relentless all day. We beached on three or four sandbars, which were difficult to spot with the heavily rippled water from the wind. What should have taken 4.5 hours from Slickhorn C took close to 8, pulling hard every inch of the way. My back is wrecked and my left hand has some very impressive callouses. I'm not sure if I've ever worked that hard over the course of a single day on the oars. We had spits of wind on and off every day out there, but this was all day. On no water. Left me wondering if I really need to consider an alternative for heavy duty dunnage trips. 16' self bailer?
But overall - the weather was warm to hot, barely two sprinkles of rain, great stars, tons of Bighorn Sheep, wild burros and horses...good company and great camping (for future reference: Chinle Main, Fossil Stop, Mile 37.7, Mile 54.2 and Slickhorn C...all excellent sites.) The kids worked their tails off, seemed to enjoy. Brian burned his feet and a few other minor injuries, but no equipment failures or premature provision exhaustion, even if we had exactly one beer when we hit Clay Hills.
Despite less than ideal conditions, we pulled it off. Glad to be away from the daily madness (back to it tomorrow), even if I can't honestly say the trip left me relaxed and tranquil.
