Colorado River - Glen Canyon Dam to Lees Ferry

[cataraftgirl]

Myself, HF member arczeneb, and some folks from my local outdoor club did a two night paddle & camp on the Colorado River, from Glen Canyon Dam to Lees Ferry. Glen Canyon Dam is what formed Lake Powell, and Lees ferry is the put-in for the Grand Canyon whitewater rafting trip. It's a 15 mile trip, with plenty of current from the dam releases, but with a 6.5-7 hour drive down from the Salt Lake City area, we decided to do it in two nights instead of just one. We met our backhaul shuttle at 2:00pm at Lees Ferry, and they motored our boats & gear upriver to within a mile or so of the dam. We spent the first night at the Ropes Trail camp, and they second night at the 9 Mile camp. All the designated river camps have composting toilets & fire rings, which was a nice bonus. We had some rain Friday evening & Saturday morning, but nothing terrible, and no bad winds. The sun came out about mid day on Saturday, and the weather was perfect after that. The paddling was easy, and the combination of red rock canyons and crystal clear water was spectacular. I wimped out and brought my tent, but arczeneb managed to hang (sort of) in his Dream Hammock Dangerbird. The "trees" along the canyon country rivers are mostly Tamarisk, which are pretty scrawny for hammock support. We had a great time and I'll definitely do this trip again.

This was my first overnighter with my Necky Vector 13 SOT kayak. It paddled nicely, and easily handled my weekend gear. I thank all my HF brothers & sisters for teaching me how to "downsize" my gear from rafting to kayaking, but without giving up a few of the small creature comforts.

Some new gear I tried on this trip......
1. Sawyer mini for water filtering. Worked great. Not the fastest way to filter a large volume of water, but definitely simple & easy.
2. Exped Synmat 7 pad. Way more comfy on the ground than a Thermarest. Easy to inflate with the schnozzle bag & way easier to deflate & pack than a thermarest.
3. Dry baking. I took my eye off the ball when it started to rain and burned my choice. chip muffin. My cheese garlic biscuit turned out perfect the next night. Yummy with a bowl of pasta.
4. WL camp chair cozy. Nice for keeping the backside warm in the chair, but kind of overkill for me I think.
5. Sierra Designs Lightling UL tent. Super easy to put up and roomy enough for me. I like the side mini vestibules with the inside zipper access.

Here's a few pictures.

[STinGa]

Great pics. Thanks for sharing them.

STinGa

[cricky101]

Looks like a beautiful trip. Thanks for sharing it!

Re: the Sawyer Mini - How did you use it for filtering? With squeeze bags, gravity, as a filter-straw .... I've got one I haven't used yet, and am leaning toward trying to make a gravity filter, but not sure yet.

[cataraftgirl]

Looks like a beautiful trip. Thanks for sharing it!

Re: the Sawyer Mini - How did you use it for filtering? With squeeze bags, gravity, as a filter-straw .... I've got one I haven't used yet, and am leaning toward trying to make a gravity filter, but not sure yet.

Some where between a squeeze and a gravity. I used a Nalgene Canteen as my "dirty water" container. Much easier to fill from the river with the wide mouth. I then attached my Jet Flow adapter to the Canteen, then screwed on the Mini. I filtered into a regular Nalgene liter bottle. Sat in my camp chair, nalgene bottle between my feet so it wouldn't tip over, and held up the Canteen. The flow was steady, and for the most part, squeezing it didn't make much difference in speed/volume of flow. I did squeeze a bit towards the end to get all the water out.

[Scottybdiving]

Hi Kathy. How have you been? Long time. Nice pictures. What happens if you miss your takeout at Lee's ferry?

Marble Canyon is truly a special place. Do you have to get a permit for that trip? If so, how hard are they to acquire. Any notable whitewater? I've contemplated hanging from the tammies. Not sure how dependable they will be on a full Canyon trip. I'm thinking 50% at best. Still struggling with "what to do (where to hang)" in 2016.

[OutandBack]

Oh man I can hear those mosquitos buzzing in pict 3.
Looks like beautiful weather for boating. Thank you for the picts.

[cataraftgirl]

Hi Kathy. How have you been? Long time. Nice pictures. What happens if you miss your takeout at Lee's ferry?

Marble Canyon is truly a special place. Do you have to get a permit for that trip? If so, how hard are they to acquire. Any notable whitewater? I've contemplated hanging from the tammies. Not sure how dependable they will be on a full Canyon trip. I'm thinking 50% at best. Still struggling with "what to do (where to hang)" in 2016.

Going past Lees Ferry in a SOT kayak would be quite an adventure!

No permit required. There is only one company that does the backhaul, unless you have your own motorboat. Colorado River Discovery. They meet you at Lees Ferry in the afternoon after they finish their last tourist trip, and haul you up to within about a mile of the dam. There are 6 designated campsites in the 15 mile stretch with composting toilets & fire rings. The Tammies are pretty scrawny for hammock hanging. arczeneb kind of made it work, but he's not a really big guy. I wouldn't trust the Tammies myself. I think we saw one cottonwood at one of the camps, but that was about it. No big rocks to use either. So I (gasp) went to ground. The Expend Synmat was a step up in comfort over a thermarest.

Oh man I can hear those mosquitos buzzing in pict 3.
Looks like beautiful weather for boating. Thank you for the picts.

No mosquitos. No biting bugs at all. Pretty sweet!

[SilvrSurfr]

I look forward to doing that trip, once they tear down the Glen Canyon Dam. Edward Abbey always hated that dam, and it looks like it's entirely possible that it could come down sometime.

[TallPaul]

Looks like a great trip. Just looks like a blast.
Any video? I see a camera mounted in one pic

[cataraftgirl]

Looks like a great trip. Just looks like a blast.
Any video? I see a camera mounted in one pic

My first time using the GoPro on the kayak. Will work on the video soon. Gotta go back to work tomorrow.....darn it.