All six of us (and gear & food) had a cozy night in 1 hotel room in Moab last night, but I think everyone got sufficient sleep after a few late night runs to the market for some forgotten items, including the ever-vital (I'm told) can of whipped cream. Kudos to Abby for fitting everything into the coolers and bins! We have waaaay too much food, but there was a last minute change from 8 people to 6, combined with a rush to get everything together. Better too much than too little. We have 4 coolers, 2 large bins, 2 smaller bins, 6 5-gallon water jugs, beach umbrellas, tables, dutch ovens, etc. and all our personal gear and the biffy. Not sure if it will all fit.............
Back to Tex's for 8am where we loaded up and retraced our route down, down, down to the Mineral Bottom launch site (same place we had taken out three days ago). There was so much rain in the area a few days ago that apparently the rig had chains on its tires going down on yesterday's run. Once we got to the launch site Amy, Abby and Cole worked miracles to fit everything in and leave enough room for the paddlers to be comfortable.
Sheila declared that she was truly on vacation this time, and put me in the back to steer the boat - yikes!
Unlike the day we took out from Labyrinth Canyon, we were the only group at the launch site today. In fact, we would not see anyone else until our last night on the river when a solo paddler asked to share our island. Mineral Bottom is at river mile 52, which means we will have 52 miles to float/paddle to the confluence of the Colorado where we will meet our ride (jetboat) in six days. We were on the river by 11am. It was a beautiful, warm day - but not as hot as some of the days last week. By 11:45 we were ready for lunch so we pulled over onto a sandbar, had a swim and then I found a bit of room in my tummy for a chicken caesar salad wrap, although it had to work itself around breakfast, a huge chocolate muffin and whatever else I threw in there this morning.
At about mile 49, just after lunch, Abby spotted an old mine entrance on the left. Why not go look? We beached the boats and hiked up to the entrance.
Nice views from up there, too.
Back on the river for a few more miles................
We spotted our first of what was to be many, many herons on this trip. Can you see it in the pic below? Maybe Santa will upgrade my camera.
Somewhere along this stretch we left BLM (Bureau of Land Management) territory and entered into Canyonlands National Park on our left (east) and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area on our right (west). I was told there would be a sign, but I didn't notice anything. Must have been too busy.
Oh - must be time for a swim again.
More interesting rock formations.
At about mile 46 we came to Horsethief Canyon and waded through some muck and quicksand to get to a bit of a trail on the left (after bushwhacking through some annoying vegetation). We were looking for petroglyphs, which were supposed to be about 100m in. We walked much further than that and it was certainly tempting to keep walking deep into the canyon. Alas, we retraced our steps. Cole stopped at a big rock to boulder on, and voila - our petroglyphs. We had walked right by them on the way in. In fairness - they were a bit faint and weathered.
Back in the boats and looking for the next sandbar. It was probably about mile 43 before we found anything. This is just past Upheaval Canyon on our left, which I had hiked in to from Canyonlands in 2012. Who knew I would be back here on the river some day??
We found a lovely sandbar, but a tad buggy. Burritos & strawberry shortcake for dinner - yum! Great light as the sun went down.................
BTW - that's my little tent on the right in the background with the yellow drybag beside it (in the picture above). Some of us are not travelling like princesses :)
Day 2: July 28
We had an amazing lightening storm overnight. Around 1:15 it started in earnest with big thunder reverberating down the canyon - very cool! The wind really picked up and it rained a bit. Didn't keep me awake, though. I slept well until almost 7. The day dawned sunny with a bit of overcast.
The plan was for a short paddling/floating day today so that we could try to do some hiking if we successfully found the take-out spots. The Canuck Cowboy was thrilled to be back on the water.
Here's an action shot of Sheila with her paddle in the water - gasp!
Some views along the way this morning..............
At about mile 41 we found the takeout for Fort Bottom, where we hoped to find the Walker Cabin, aka The Outlaw Cabin, and the Moki Fort.
The cabin was built in the early 1900s or before. If you can believe it, they actually raised cattle there. The chinking & mud between the logs has fallen out, the roof has collapsed and the veranda has fallen down since Amy was last there, but the fireplace is still standing strong.
We then set off to hike up to the Moki Fort. The Fort is an Anasazi Ruin located on the hill or butte in the middle of a gooseneck peninsula of land, surrounded by the Green River. It's a 2-story rock structure. Sheila had some reservations about doing the hike, but she did great! Great views all around - both on the way up and at the top. From the top, we spied a deer in the distance near Tent Bottom, which was close to where we ended up camping tonight. If you look closely at the pictures immediately below, you can see the cabin in the distance in the first and third ones.
At the top...........
With Abby, who I've known since she was a baby (just a few short years ago)..................
After a snack break at the top and lots of time to take in the surroundings, we headed back down. Amy and Brent were keen to explore further, so I went with them. There were supposed to be more ruins in the area, close to river level. We were looking for an old (1930s?) feed trough and some more small Anasazi ruins. Amazingly, we found them all!
Back in the boats, past the cabin and around the bend to a sandbar for a swim, then lunch.
We had just a short paddle in the afternoon. We stopped around Tent Bottom at about mile 39. It looked like a straight stretch ahead of us with no obvious camping spots, so we pulled over early - about 2:45. Also - the weather was beginning to look iffy.
The rain held off until dinner time. Then it was more annoying than drenching. Thank you, Sheila, for bringing the big umbrellas - room for all of us to eat under them and stay dry. Before the rain started, though, the wind came up. We had to take the biffy tent down, and Sheila collapsed her tent as well. I was happy that I had my new industrial-strength tent pegs to hold mine down. After dinner and dishes, with the rain still coming down, most of us retired to our tents to read. Brent, of course, was still out swimming. Lucky for us he was....... As the rain was winding down, he alerted us to a beautiful rainbow; no, a double rainbow. One of the most perfect rainbows I have ever seen!
The weather cleared up after that and we had beautiful clear star-filled skies all night.
Day 3: July 29
Not a particularly early start to the day. I slept in until after 7; about 10 hours sleep. Ho hum - a nice lazy vacation. The sun finally hit us as we were putting the tents away after breakfast. And speaking of breakfast - bacon, eggs, banana, orange, bagel & cream cheese. Definitely not a weight loss vacation!
Views in either direction this morning from our campsite.
After leaving camp, we had a straight shot down through Potato Bottom.
The first appearance of White Rim Sandstone was very obvious at about mile 37.
Some nice scenery through this section.
And we caught our first views of what John Wesley Powell's expedition called "Buttes of the Cross" on July 17, 1869. It's actually 2 buttes lined up to look like a cross. It was interesting to watch the changing perspective as we paddled downriver.
Beautiful as it is, sometimes it all starts to look the same and it's hard to tell exactly where you are. There is only one riffle on this entire 6-day section that we were told to look out for, and I just about misjudged where we were. I thought we were just heading in to Beaver Bottom, when in fact we were just leaving Beaver Bottom. I checked the GPS just as the sound of the "rapids" came to us. Amy & Brent weren't even in their boat at the time. Well, the sound and the GPS findings certainly got our attention! We pulled over to develop a "plan", then proceeded to a small island just before the rapids in order to scout. We were told we could walk the boats as an option, but it wasn't really viable at this water level. We tied a few things in and went through one by one - Amy & Brent first, then Sheila & I, then Abby & Cole. We stayed quite far left, as was our plan, and had no problem. It really wasn't much of a riffle, but our boats were really not packed for whitewater......... Apparently the riffle has been created by big floods from Millard Canyon over time.
Although I called our first four-day trip "Labyrinth Canyon" and the second six-day trip "Stillwater Canyon", apparently this location actually marks the end of Laby and the start of Stillwater.
An easy float for a bit...............
Lunch..................
Our next stop was Anderson Bottom. Anderson Bottom is actually an "abandoned meander" which means the river has now taken a shortcut and the length of the river has been shortened by about 2 miles. Anderson Bottom was originally known as Townsite Bottom. Apparently an old-timer by the name of Albert Anderson had once intended to make a settlement there. We found a small landing; very small, and very mucky - good thing we only had 3 boats - and we found some good paths through the vegetation. We were in search of some petroglyphs and as we followed Brent in pursuit of those, Cole spotted a door in the rock wall - the cave house that a fellow by the name of Karl Tangren blasted out, perhaps in the 50s. He kept cows, horses and sheep, and he planted hay and oats. These days it's hard to believe that anyone could, or would want to, try to eke out a living down here.
Around the same time, Mr. Tangren also blasted out a hole in the lower White Rim Sandstone to make a spring. We all (except Sheila) climbed up to take a look, but I left my camera behind.
The next challenge was to get through the wash (abandoned meander) and over to the petroglyphs.
Totally worthwhile slog, though. An amazing panel of petroglyphs.
Found our way back through the wash and plains to our boats.
Back on the river and a short paddle to a sandbar river left just downstream from Anderson Bottom. Unfortunately I wasn't able to pick up enough speed for Sheila to waterski behind the canoe.
In addition to being the most avid swimmers of the group, Amy and Brent are both watercolour artists. While they claim to be relative beginners, their work was really quite outstanding. Every evening they would diligently sit down and create another masterpiece. The picture below shows Brent working on his masterpiece du jour.
This evening was quite busy with various wildlife. We had a heron fishing off of both ends of our sandbar. Then 2 otters swam by right in front of us. There was a deer, and also a family of eagles soaring above the cliffs across the river. Oh - and lots of mosquitoes too. They weren't too bad when we first landed, but got much worse as the sun went down.
Here are two pictures of the otters, courtesy of Amy........
When we first landed, we debated about whether or not we would stay here. The words "flash flood" were etched into the sand, along with a high water mark. I'm guessing it got a bit wet here during the big rainstorm a few days ago. It's always a bit of a debate when we stop to camp. We really like sandbars or islands because the mosquitoes in amongst the vegetation found on higher land are insufferable. But - those same sandbars and islands are not much higher than the river level. After some debate, we decided to stay. And - what a magnificent campsite it was. Beautiful evening light......
Oh - and this was the night that I was introduced to animal crackers & Betty Crocker frosting as an appetizer. My life will never be the same............
Day 4: July 30
We camped at about mile 30 last night, and made it to about mile 19 by the end of today. Not a lot of paddling; mostly a float. A bit of a lazy start to the day. We were on the river shortly after 9:30. I just love the light down here in the evenings and mornings.
In addition to the usual stuff, we saw some cliff dwellings and remnants of granaries in the first two miles.
We stopped at Holeman Canyon, where Amy and Brent went off to explore. They were gone a while, but came back with nothing remarkable to report; just a pretty canyon.
Lots of herons - all day, every day..........
We continued along Valentine Bottom and had a good view of "The Sphinx".
We went about another mile and a bit and found a long sandbar to lunch on and swim from. Amy had made a lovely pasta salad first thing this morning, so that was lunch. Oh - that and a bag of oreo cookies - don't know how they all disappeared in one sitting!
Shortly after lunch, and just after a side canyon on the right we saw a very well preserved 2-story cliff dwelling. Hard to see on the first photo below. Just left of centre, about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom.
Better view here...........
Entered a nice stretch called Tower Park........
Quite exhausting for the troops...............
We found a place to pull out on river right. The short walk led to a huge alcove - very cool.
Back on the river, and we soon approached Turks Head - in the middle of another big gooseneck bend of the river. There are apparently ruins here to explore, but we couldn't find any place to park.
Some other nice scenery along this stretch.
We finally pulled over at a small sandbar around mile 19. It wasn't a great sandbar , but we weren't sure when we might find another. It was a bit low and wet, but will do for one night. It rained quite hard while we were cooking dinner and just after we got the tents up. Lots of wind, too. Then it settled down and the bugs came out - ugh. Didn't seem to affect the artists, though.
Here's one of Amy's finished products from the Labyrinth trip. That's Sheila & I in the red canoe.
Here's her original photo that she was working from. Now remember, we were still on the river, so she was just working from the small screen on her camera. Amazing!
Beautiful evening light once again.
Day 5: July 31
We were in a bit of an unusual situation today. We camped at about mile 19 last night and we wanted to get to within a few miles of the confluence by the end of the day today. Oh - the pressure....... Sheila was up starting to get breakfast ready shortly after 6, so we were on the river by about 8:30. Pancakes and fruit cups for breakie - yum! The light was beautiful this morning, so took a few pics. Just noticed that in some of the pictures below, the water actually looks blue. Just an illusion folks; it's still silty brown.
I still can't believe just how much stuff we have with us.......
Even the Canuck Cowboy is looking a little dirty at this point in the trip.
We had read that there might be some hiking to be found in Horse Canyon (about mile 14.5), but we encountered some unexpected riffles as we passed by there so didn't have a chance to look for a landing spot. We stopped for lunch about mile 10.5, and snacked often as we went along. Time to empty the snack bin! Shortly after lunch we stopped at Jasper Canyon where we found a well-preserved ruin.
What a mess! Yes, I'm talking about both the canoes and the mud at the landing site.
The ruin - progressively closer views.
We all walked a bit further up the canyon, but couldn't see an obvious way over to the other side of the canyon to what looked like more ruins and a lookout. Sheila, Abby and I went back towards the boats and Amy, Brent & Cole kept going. Turns out they eventually found a beautiful waterfall.
Some final river pictures before we found a lovely island at about mile 5.2.
Setting up at our final campsite. Islands are supposedly bug-free (because there is no vegetation). Not true in this case. Lots of biting flies of some type and some mosquitoes. We also had a rogue wind blast through a one point, putting half our kitchen in the water. Quick action, especially by Cole, saved many plates and utensils from going downstream...... All in all, though, it turned out to be a nice spot. Much later in the evening a lone paddler came in (the first person we had seen in 5 days) and asked to share our island. I don't think he was enjoying himself very much. He had left Ruby Ranch (where we put in at the start of Labyrinth Canyon) the same day we had left Mineral Bottom. He had planned for 10 days, but was going to be done in 5 and a half. He wasn't successful in finding any of the hiking spots, so had just paddled through.
Last night on the river, so time to empty the food bins. Even the Canuck Cowboy got in on the action!
Day 6: August 1
Hmmmm - almost 3 months later, and I see that I failed to make a journal entry for this day. I believe the jetboat was due to pick us up at the confluence (of the Green & Colorado Rivers) at 11. We camped at mile 5.2, so that left us lots of time to get there. Once again, beautiful morning light.
One last go at the food bins..........
Bye-bye to our island home.
Floatin' down the river.
I have mentioned a few times in these posts about different rock formations coming in to view. Here's a good example (on the left) of how rock layers emerge. Since Mineral Bottom, we have seen the emergence of White Rim Sandstone, Organ Rock Shale, Cutler Group Undivided, Cedar Mesa Sandstone, Elephant Canyon Formation, and Honaker Trail Formation. Just don't ask me to point any of them out, except maybe the White Rim Sandstone.
I'm guessing these holes are home to river otters.
A mucky landing at Water Canyon.
We all agreed that this was the work of Boy Scouts, not Anasazi.
Went for a short hike.............
Then back on the river............
And on to the confluence................
And look who was waiting for us............
Time to empty out the canoes.
And here comes our ride.
Canoes go on top. Gear and people go below.
A 47-mile jetboat trip up the Colorado River to close to Moab. The trip took a few hours, as I recall. Great scenery the whole way. I think I need to come back and canoe the Colorado to the confluence section next.
We pulled up at a boat ramp about 20 miles outside of Moab. The fully-loaded boat went on this rig and we boarded a bus for the final leg. Great trip, great scenery and great company. Big thanks to Sheila for all her organization and to Amy for her experience and expertise.
