Rafting-Desolation Canyon, 2009

DESOLATION CANYON MAY, 2010

            We were lucky enough to score a Desolation Canyon permit the week before Memorial weekend thanks to my awesome brother in-law Jon who diligently pressed redial a hundred times before he was able to get through to the river rangers office.  So we were pretty excited to finally get to go on a trip with Jon and Camie and their seriously cool kids and then were even more stoked when we were able to get my sister SueLyn and her hubby Steve along with their two awesome kids Macey and Caleb also.  The trip also included Ben and Michelle who luckily had not started their summer jobs yet and were a big help with the kids throughout the trip and hauling extra gear.  It turned out to be a great trip and lots of fun memories made with family!

            We started at the Sand Wash put in after a day of shuttling vehicles around which by the way is not for the faint of heart, the road down in is bumpy and long.....thanks so much to my mom, Steve's dad and my Grandpa for going the extra mile and getting all of us there and saving us a lot of money on shuttle expenses, we totally appreciated it!!!  The above photo is the morning of putting on the river, we had a safety meeting before hand where the kids all learned what to do if they were to end up in the river and how to operate the throw bags properly, they were all ears when being instructed on what to do if they fell in and knew that that they needed to grab on and pull their life jackets down away from their faces then point their toes down river.  We didn't have any mishaps though the whole trip which was a big relief at the end especially with a 2 year old along for the ride.

        Sand Wash river put in, morning of start of trip

           Dave's new, improved and fail-proof wash bucket system, his third one to date, hopefully this will be a winner.  Just remember red, yellow, green and blue for bleach.

            Jon and Camie enjoying the views, this was their first trip and they rowed like pros, Camie rowed the biggest rapid on the river with a little persuasion from Jon and was a serious rock star, I would have peed my pants to have rowed such a big one my first time.

         We were lucky to have "The Legend" as Dave calls him along, it was the first time he had rowed a boat but you would have thought he had been doing it for years, all those hours in the gym paid off when the up-canyon winds hit and Steve made it all look like child's play.

           Ryann is pretty mild mannered but also has a little bit of a wild side to her which is showing in the hairdo on this particular morning she is such a sweetie.

            In this photo I think Macey had just gotten done doing a free style tap dance for us on the dry boxes, she is talented when it comes to singing and dancing and was such a big helper on the trip with her little bro Caleb.  We were all impressed at how well all the kids got along the whole week.

 

             Dave, our fearless leader, wearing his cobra hat.  Thanks again for putting together such a great trip, nobody knows all the time, effort and concern over everything and everyone he puts into every trip.

Macey, Ryann and Uncle Dave

Steve and SueLyn

          Cadin is such a sweetie with quite a bit of spunk.  One day Corbin was being a big helper by lugging the big dry bags down to the boat and had one on like a backpack.  As he was lumbering down a steep sand hill Cadin passed him as he was going up just as Corbin moved on by Cadin tuned around and without really thinking gave Corbin a good shove that left him face down in the sand.  I don't know what Cadin was thinking other than maybe he was a little curious as to what would happen or with Corbin being the bigger brother, Cadin couldn't let an opportunity like that pass him by.

           Camie, the brave mom who brought three kids along and left her two year old with her mom for the week both not too easy to do but in the end all the fun memories are worth all the effort.

            Jon and Camie's seriously good cherry bars, we had great food on the river like Jon's clam chowder with big chunks of shrimp, Steves bratwursts, taco bowls, chicken enchiladas, beef burritos....kind of like going on a cruise with an endless supply of good stuff to eat.  We also had steaks, potatoes and salad the last night with dutch oven birthday cake for Dave who turned 36 this year.

            This was Ben's first multi-day trip even though he has kayaked quite a bit.  These two had been married a couple years when last year she tore her ACL skiing and then this year Ben tore his skiing also, so now they have matching scars, luckily he was healed up enough in time to go on the trip.  They had fun in the cutthroat boats and were a lot of help when it came to the assembly lines during meal times and making sure all the kids were fed.

             Corbin, 8 years old, wasn't scared to get behind the oars.  He was pretty determined to go the right way and had good natural instincts when it came to flexing them, it also doesn't hurt when you have an experienced oarswoman coach too.

         My sister Sue was so fun to have along she is always laughing and cracking jokes, I'm so glad we got to finally go together, we decided this group and river should become a yearly tradition.   

          THANKS AGAIN FOR THE GREAT TRIP EVERYONE WE LOVED IT!   LET'S DO IT AGAIN SOON.