Green River

So There Turned Out to Be Four

November 20, 2021 by n.taylor Leave a Comment

Early November along the Colorado Plateau isn’t supposed to be warm, at all. It is supposed to be cold, lacking sunlight, and the hospitality that the area provides in the spring and summer. It may have been good fortune, or the changing climate along the Colorado River and her tributaries but nonetheless, 65° and t-shirts in Lodore Canyon in November is pretty amazing. Because of this, 2021 was the year of not three, but four permits.

No ranger to check us in and no one else on the river. We had the entire river to ourselves and every campsite at our disposal. The beach of Pot Creek had a temperature reading of 65 when we pulled into camp. With the sun setting behind the canyon by 4PM we made quick work of setup and made our way up behind camp to catch the last rays of sun before dinner.

On day two we spent our last night in the Canyon of Lodore. Running through Triplet and Hells Half Mile without incident we made home at Rippling Brook 2. As we pulled into camp the sun peeked through for five minutes and quickly retreated for the rest of the day. The storm clouds gathered and we spent most of the afternoon and evening hunkered under a tarp hiding from the rain.

The race to Echo Park before 11 meant we were on the boats and moving by 8:30. Fearful of low flows coupled with the possibility of afternoon winds made for a brisk departure from camp. Our weather turned out to be incredible. We spent time at Steamboat Rock and near the confluence, watching the natural turbid flow of the Yampa combine with the clear dam released water of Flaming Gorge.

I’ve seen oil slicks at Jones before, I was told that fracking operations just outside Dinosaur increase the subterranean pressure throughout the monument. Regardless of if this is true, the slicks illustrate the obvious abundance of natural resources just beneath the surface.

We had sun drenched mountains both up and downstream. Some epic ramen meticulously prepared with an accompaniment of exquisite inverted pineapple cake. To top it off we melted an aluminum fire pan with the last of our wood. Good evening was had by all. Jones 4 has an amazing beach and great landing zone. While it lacks the unique tree canopy of the upstream Jones camps it makes up for it with its ease of access.

For future reference, the right channel around Island Park is the only channel you can run. Ask me how I know…The Yampa provided over 500CFS for us that seemed to be the difference as we grazed over sandbars in Island and Rainbow Parks. With the lower water, I was able to finally find the hot spring in Split Mountain Canyon.

The solitude of this trip made up for the colder weather and shorter days. With the right equipment, the elements are very manageable. I’ll be back for another one of these low season trips.

The Season of Three Permits: Trip 3, Gates of Lodore

September 15, 2021 by n.taylor Leave a Comment

The canyon of Lodore holds a special place in the pantheon of western multi-day trips. John Wesley Powell named it after a famous English poem, “The Cataract of Lodore” which eloquently describes the flow of water over a waterfall, but more importantly just sounds mysterious and cool.

Today, like most permitted rivers, your odds of every seeing this place aren’t great. If you get invited you go. The 4 Rivers Lottery is the only place that publishes all the stats for applications. So while this doesn’t represent Lodore, you get the idea. FYI there are 300 permits given between May 10 & September 10.

4 Rivers Lottery Statistics — *May the Odds Be In Your Favor*

Entrance in Dinosaur National Monument — *Now Leaving Civilization*

The tools of the day made many of the obstacles for Powell, recreation for us today. The major rapids of Lodore are far more manageable with consistent flows and rubber boats. The wooden 21 foot boats of Powell’s day coupled with the unknown dangers and flows of a wild river were terrifying to put it mildly.

We run down to the mouth of Yampa River. This has been
a chapter of disasters and toils, notwithstanding which the canon of Ladore
was not devoid of scenic interest, even beyond the power of pen to tell.
The roar of its waters was heard unceasingly from the hour we entered it
until we landed here. No quiet in all that time. But its walls and cliffs,
its peaks and crags, its amphitheaters and alcoves, tell a story of beauty and
grandeur that I hear yet-and shall hear.
J.W. Powell June 17, 1869

Gates of Lodore put in — *The “Gates” of Lodore Canyon*

Fog in Lodore Canyon — *A Rainy Day in the Canyon*

Rain persisted for twenty four hours. We traversed from Kolb to Wild Mountain through the storm. Taking time to scout Triplet Falls and Hell’s Half Mile before finding the sanctuary of a single tree at Wild Mountain that provided enough relief for our shrimp fajitas.

Wild Mountain Campsite Gates of Lodore — *Covered Kitchen*

We made our way through Echo Park and into Rainbow Park where we camped at The Cove. The mud pit that is The Cove wasn’t the greatest campsite I’ve stayed at, but when you’re on Lodore there aren’t bad ones either. We hiked, we rowed, we cooked, and we finished by sitting next to an old ammo can hooked up to a propane tank.

The Cove campsites Gates of Lodore — *Last Campsite*

Last few miles of Lodore Canyon — *Last Campsite*

Our trip included a living legend. Howie recently retired from a lifetime of guiding Grand Canyon adventures. By his own account he has 170+ trips and over six years of sleeping on his boat under the stars. A quiet man, he never offered an opinion unless asked. It took several days for him to finally reveal the breath of his experiences and knowledge, including trips down the canyon in 1983 with flows approaching 100k. On our last night he broke out his favorite scotch, Lagavulin.

Utah Colorado Border on US 40 — *Back Home*

I may be back this winter…

Green River

April 24, 2017 by n.taylor Leave a Comment

I’ll be honest, this was my first trip to the Green River, and the river was running hot at 8600 CFS. Ridiculously high for April but it turns out that didn’t hurt the fishing so much, or even the hatches that were predicted. All of those things considered I’ll tell you what we saw, and why I’ll probably never go back.

The drive wasn’t too much, but it would always be nice if it were shorter. I’ve heard that the road after you cross into Utah used to be dirt, and in recent years that was improved to be heavily paved which turned out to be true. You continue on through a desolate expanse (that is gorgeous by the way) where Flaming Gorge just emerges on the horizon. It is an impressive structure, intimidating as it casts a large shadow over the canyon below especially when we could hear the bypass tubes running at full capacity as we drove over the structure.

8600

The facilities are impressive, large parking lots, rigging areas, multiple lanes in the boat launch all keep things moving. I quickly realized why, people started emerging one after the other launching driftboats and rafts before hurriedly pulling them to the side to make room for the next launch. You pull into the current, checking both ways so as not to have a collision with another boater and begin a mad race downstream to that seam, or this eddy jockeying for position next to dozens, and I mean dozens of other boats. Even pulled to the side of the river it was commonplace to see an indicator float less than 10 feet from your boat. At one point when I was changing my jacket I had a guide in a passing boat inform me to put my life jacket back on because he “didn’t want to do CPR” (more on this later).

Boat Launch

We meandered through A&B sections because of the high flows, our unfamiliarity with the area, and that we had time to waste. The scenery was breathtaking, the canyon was every bit as gorgeous as any other canyon float I have ever done, in fact it was better than most. We slid into a few eddies and fished emergers during the mayfly hatch throughout the late morning and early afternoon, working our way towards the top of the run where fish were jockeying for position to feed.

Pheasant Tails

RS2

Canyon Walls

Barr’s Emerger

Fish were difficult to pull off the banks with streamers and in fact so few fish were moved on streamers that eventually we caved and relegated ourselves to watching bobbers. Even so, the few that we did catch were fantastic fish, in fact most of the fish we caught were great fish. A storm started to roll in as we watched a guided trip taking photographs and throwing bugs, one of the clients not wearing a life jacket which we found ironic considering our interaction earlier that morning.

Olive

Rust

Towards the end of the day we found ourselves on the second half of B and eddied out below Red Creek Rapids enjoying a cocktail as the storm clouds passed over. I glanced up and saw a lifejacket floating downstream, I suddenly looked upstream to see a steady stream of coolers, water bottles, a seat, fly rod tubes…

We tried our best to gather what we could including an oar and a few other minor pieces of gear before it was swept past us. We waited awhile to see if anyone was in the river and then, unable to get back upstream to check on anyone proceeded to quickly make our way to the takeout. By the time we reached the takeout there was a small armada of drift boats behind us with the unfortunate members of the doomed craft. Cold but uninjured the members of said party quickly made their way to the vehicle to warm themselves.

Bad things happen to people and certainly have to me but I will say this. Losing multiple guided boats in the short time we were there in a rapid that isn’t anything more than a wave train is simply unacceptable. The rapid could barely be construed as anything other than a class 2, and there are “professionals” losing boats on a daily basis? The other professionals that are out there as your potential rescuers don’t have rope, a dry bag/box with extra clothes? Also how is it that I can be lambasted for changing my shirt out and not wearing a life jacket when other guides allow their clients to not wear a life jacket before he inexplicably drowns a 16ft boat in a 3 foot wave train. Flame all you want but consumers should be treated better and an outfitter should take a little bit more time teaching their guides how to handle their own stuff. Perhaps they’ve guided for 10 years, I don’t care. You obviously have never been off of flat water and don’t understand the physics of running an open dory in light whitewater. That is fact.

Rest assured the social media posts and the twitter feeds will be littered with warnings of “danger” and perhaps one of them will write a biased article for Field and Stream about the importance of life jackets and hiring a guide. Utah, you have a lot of guides who need to get their stuff figured out before they kill someone, the high water will be here for awhile. Oh and please don’t worry about me, I don’t think I need to come back to your zoo for awhile.