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Has anyone done this classic Class I canoe trip?
I am thinking I want to do this maybe in the fall, but I'm concerned about heat, water levels, and shuttling since it looks like only my husband and I will be able to go.
What time of year did you go?
How did you do the shuttle? Did you use a company to shuttle you?
What did you see?
Would you ever do this trip again?
Anything else?
Thanks.
The only rafting I've done was on the Green. We took a canoe down Green River Daily, just above the town of Green River a few years back. Good stuff. Even saw some pictographs on the way up to the launch site. I'm guessing anywhere on the Green is gonna have a lot of high water well into late summer (bad for rapids).
BTW, are you a river guide or something? I noticed your the occupation in your profile said "...lets just say there are rivers involved..."
River guiding would be 100x cooler than what I do now! I look at rivers all day... on a computer. I generate 3D terrain models for hydraulic/fish habitat modeling.
There's a girl here that said she ran the Labyrinth (Geyser Springs to Mineral Bottom) last Labor Day, and she said it wasn't crazy busy either. There's no rapids, she said families could do this stretch. But her parents live in the Price area so they shuttled her.
Sounds fun! :haha: What kind of software do you use for that?
SoftPlotter by Autometrics for the 3D stuff,
IMAGINE by Erdas for the mosaicking, image processing.
River2D and other in house programs for the modeling.
I guess it is fun, for a job.
I've done a lot of river running, but never Labarinth. Since its flat water and the Green River, I'm sure you could do this one any time of year. It would be swifter and deeper in Spring, but there would be more sand bars to camp on in lower water. We regularly do Cataract (just below Labrinth) in August and the air is hot, but the water is cool so its still pleasant. We usually pay a friend to do the shuttle, sometimes we've done it ourselves by dropping off a truck and trailer at the bottom and driving another vehicle down with it and then back up to the top. This requires you to drive back to the top again once you're done with the river to pick up your other vehicle-- with Labrynth canyon it shouldn't be a big deal because Green River isn't far out of the way, but I hear the road to the takeout can be rough. There are also shuttle Companies, I don't know of any specifics. One time we paid a lady from Green River that someone knew of to do it but I don't know who it was. Labrynth should be uncrowded any time of year, cause most people go for the white water runs, but it is supposed to be a very pretty, deep canyon through Canyonlands with plenty to see in the side canyons if you do your research.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shan
That's awesome RockSkiCowboy! Thanks for the info. You're like Mr. Utah!
Yeah just read his signature! :roflol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Shan
Yeehaw! Finally we're going to float Labyrinth in late Sept! We're going with another couple who just bought a canoe.
I'm jealous.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shan
Take a ton of pics! Even if you don't trust taking a good camera, those disposable waterproof ones do alright.
Yeah you practically have Sombeech talked into buying one after that wind rivers talk. :lol8:Quote:
Originally Posted by Sombeech
i have paddled down the green from green river to mineral bottom and can give you a little more information. maybe most important would be some other places to get info- gary c nichols book, "River Runners Guide to Utah and Adjacent Areas" is one of the basic utah river runners info sources- lower green section starts on page 74 . "Western Whitewater", by jim cassady et al, starting at page 233 also has good information. The standard map is Belknaps Revised Waterproof "Canyonlands River Guide". one other source that is an incredible combination of experience, ability and wisdom, is the utahrafters website- a yahoo group, join for free at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/utahrafters/.
you can go in and ask for any current conditions, or any questions about gear, the trip, shuttles etc, and it also has an archives and search feature, where you can go in and pull up the past discussions about this section of the river, reliable shuttles, unreliable shuttle companies, etc.
one other resource/group i would send you to, or rather invite you to consider, as a long time member, is the Wasatch Mountain Club. Although based in SLC, we have members all over the west, and conduct a wide range of activities, over an amazing scope and scale, across the state, and around the world. The boating season has not really started, so you won't see much yet on the monthly schedules relating to paddling, but it is coming- we have a large group of paddlers, and kayak, canoe and raft all over the intermountain west. the web site is: http://wasatchmountainclub.org/
my personal memories of this trip:
we drove the couple of miles down to the crystal geyser, and put on the river there, as opposed to paying to access the river at the state park, right in Green River. we were treated to the geyser going off while we were there, getting on the river. other thoughts come to mind- we wished we had allowed more time for the trip- we did it in four days, and spent a LOT of each day paddling to make miles- would have been nicer, and a little more relaxed with five, and that better allows to get off the river and hike up some of the side canyons and see some of the historical points along the way. Even in sept the heat was a consideration, but with lots of water, sunscreen, a good hat and sunglasses, and a light nylon spf40 long sleeved shirt, it wasn't really a problem. its nice to have a camelbak worn or handy, hung under the seat, to be able to drink regularly without too much of an interruption to your paddling. the last note would be a warning that the campsite availability decreases, the further you get down the river. most of the lower sites are terribly overgrown and unusable, so towards the end you will find that folks will tend to take off the river and set up camp early- mid afternoon, when they find one of the few decent sites that remain. our last night on the river we started looking in late afternoon, early evening, and paddled until dark- still looking, unsuccessfully. we ended up camping on a gravel bar right out in the river.
take lots of pictures, and have fun.
rick t
duplicate post
I keep trying to plan a float trip down the Green, solo, just the flatwater, 120 miles from the state park to the confluence with the Colorado, but I keep running up against the same problem: drinking water.
If I'm going, and paying for a shuttle, I'm going for at least two weeks, with some overnighter side trips away from the river.
Carrying all the water for such a trip is impossible in my current kayak, even if I had the space, the weight is impossible, say fifteen days at 1 1/2 gallons per day, around 200 lbs of water, at the bare minimum.
At first I thought I could use a filter, but 'they' say you can't filter the Green, too silty, but I learned some tricks for silty water, let it settle in a large container overnight, use alum to help settle the silt, use a coffee filter on your water filter as a pre-filter, but now I hear all that may be useless because the water may still be too salty to drink.
Is that true, about the salt?
Is there a time of year the water is more or less likely to be salty?
Is it a springtime thing? Or year around?
I could get a handheld desalinator, but it is a $600 device.
At this point, I'm thinking I'll have to wait until I buy my next kayak, which is capable of carrying such a huge load, which means the Green will have to wait until next year, and my month long trip (June) to Flaming Gorge is ON.
Whadda' say, Green River runners, did you drink the water?
we carried all of our own water. there are at least 4 streams or rivers that run in to the green between green river and mineral bottom, but their condition and flow, at different times of the year, are an unknown- since we didn't need them we didn't pay them any particular attention.
one other thought- after using alum, and settleing the river water out overnight, you could use an UV light to treat the what was left- and then you wouldn't be clogging up your filter in one day. i have had good success with the aqua star system, which runs 95$ or so, but has a broad application of use- including hiking and backpacking. i know they had some breakage problems with the first run, but there have been significant improvements since then, and they stood behind the problems with a great warranty. see backpacktest .com
rick
We have used some of those tricks to filter succesfully on the San Juan River, which is similar to the Green as far as silt contents go. Last summer we filtered directly out of the Escalante (also mega-silty) with frequent filter cleanings but the water was still a litte mirky, but fine to drink and cook with. I don't know if the Green is saltier, it might be, considering some of the areas around Vernal it runs through that are very alkaline. If I were you, I'd take your filter, alum, etc. and give it a try next time you're passing through Green River. All the damage is done by the time the river reaches that area, and you'd be able to know in a few minutes whether filtering is an option or not.
Edit: Eeek didn't realize the date of the posted message. Better late than never, hope my info helps other boaters:Quote:
Originally Posted by Shan
Might be repetative info for you from the previous post, but I have done Labirynth canyon october of last year. Here is my album: http://utahbp.com/labyrinth
Here are some points to mention:
What time of year did you go?
-September 2005
How did you do the shuttle? Did you use a company to shuttle you?
-Used two cars
What did you see?
-Look at http://utahbp.com/labyrinth a lot of stuff to see :)
Would you ever do this trip again?
-For sure! And totally recommend it to others. I am planning on taking my 4 year old next year, once he can swim
Anything else?
-One thing we did wrong, was put in at Green River, it's a lot better and faster to put in at the ranch about 25 miles down the river. You skip all the borring part of the landscape, but you do miss the Crystal Geyser stop.
-Do no paddle like crazy, enjoy the scenery. We did our trip in 2.5 days, but we didn't stop paddling all day.
-Go in fall rather than spring, there is less water and less bugs. Less water makes the sandy beaches to appear more, a lot better campgrounds.
-Paddle early in the morning when the wind is down, afternoone winds usually blow up stream which makes the paddling against the wind a total hell.
-Bring lots of water, when you paddle you dehydrate a lot quicker, there were a few springs we could filter water from, but we ended up carrying our own all the way.
-If you need more detailed info, msg me on IM