Green River paddle-TR

[slickrocker]

On Labor Day my wife and I parked a car down at Mineral Bottom and the next day had a friend deliver us to Ruby Ranch to spend 5 days on the Green. This was our 3rd trip down the river but, it's been 6 years since the last, way too long. The "ramp" at Mineral was a 10' cliff, getting out was gonna be work.
We only planned to do about 10 miles a day, camp early and hang out - a lot. Thankfully, some things work out the way you plan them. If you remember, Labor Day W/E was pretty stormy around Utah and the following week was just fantastic, but the river was showing the effects of the storms the rest of the week and it kept us entertained and on our toes.
I had been following the river levels for about a week and it was dropping from about 2500 to 2100 cfs, and it spiked to 2700 on Labor Day. When we put in it was 2300 and the usual greenish color. When we woke up the 2nd day it had turned a deep red and had risen to 3300 cfs. On the 3rd day it had turned to a heavily silted gray/green and dropped to 2600. The water was a thin mud and it stayed like this the rest of the week but rose and fell again on the following 2 days.
We made most of the usual stops, Three Cyn., river register, the 2 D.Julien inscriptions, the Hey Joe mine. We didn't hike the Bow Knot Saddle this time but, we've done it in the past. There were others on the river, including a fleet of 14 canoes, kayaks and rafts from Memphis, that were doing the full 120 miles to the confluence.
When we arrived at Mineral Bottom we were happy to see the BLM had been there during the week and had bulldozed the ramp. I love it when things work out.
Anyway here are a few photos-

[KapitanSparrow]

That's some cool trip you had. Thanks for the photos!

[Jaxx]

very nice. Looks like you had a great dinner there. Do you have any pics of your canoe loaded? Someday I would like to get a canoe and do a trip like this.

[Mooseman70]

Nice TR!

[slickrocker]

Jaxx, here's the only one I took.

[Jaxx]

wow. Looks top heavy. Thanks for posting that. I guess you have to be good at tetris to fit all that in.

[slickrocker]

Looks can be deceiving. What you see is bulky, lightweight stuff. What you can't see is the ice chest, food box, kitchen box and 3 containers of water totaling 17 gallons, all sitting on the hull.
This is a 16 ft. canoe and it can swallow a lot of gear. It's slow to maneuver when loaded, but it's not tippy in the least.

[Jaxx]

Cool. Good to hear. I am a noob when it comes to canoes so I appreciate the info.

[gringorio]

Fun report slickrocker - thanks for posting it! Love the photos too ...

greg

[accadacca]

Looks like a great time!

[slickrocker]

Thanks for taking a look everyone. We're already planning a 6 day Mineral-confluence trip for next year.