5 Attachment(s)
Colorado River - Glen Canyon Dam to Lees Ferry
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.
