Are You Living It?

Another summer and another chance to raft down Westwater Canyon on the Colorado River.  Lying in Utah South of I-70 and between the north-eastern Utah/Colorado border and the town of Moab, some say it is the biggest water in the state.  It’s usually done as an overnighter by rafters but can be done in one day or less by kayakers.

Our trip this year began Friday mid-morning picking up our friends Robin and Kenny and a trailer with Kenny’s cataraft on it in Durango - the Maravia we brought for the trip was rolled up in the truck.  By the time we hit Moab, the outside temperature as gauged by the Tacoma was 105 degrees.  The cataraft had a small heat stroke on the way - stuck out there in 105 degree heat on the trailer, we had bled the valves since the hot sun was expanding  the air in the tubes, but the heat finally got the best of it and blew the baffles.  Not that you can’t run a river without them, but now there was no compartmentalization of the tubes, so if you happen to rip a hole in one, you lose all of your air - not just the air in that compartment.

(Time to stop at the bowling alley in Moab - Gravel Pit Lanes (not a joke) - for some air-conditioning and 3.2 beer.)

After reaching the put-in, the first thing I did was get in the river with my clothes on to combat the heat (I felt better after getting in the river - slightly recovered from the mild heat-stroke I had in the truck on the way there).  And then some more drinking…  The put in was full of tiny gnat-like bugs.  They were EVERYWHERE and it was enough to drive a person over the edge.  Bug spray did not help.  They were flying up your nose, in your ears, in your mouth if it was open too long.  We finally went to bed, but not before a visit from the river ranger who was apparently in a very nasty mood and not up for the revelry that we had in mind.

Saturday morning - finally time to get on the river.  Wait…time to take a really long time running shuttle and getting stuff together and then get on the river.  But finally, we were off like a herd of turtles on the very flat water.  A few miles of floating and we were at our campsite with a lot of ants.

Sunday morning:  rig-to-flip and just a short float down the river and we’re at Little D Rapid, which running at about 5000 cfs surfs our fairly heavy raft.  Time to get ready for the big(ger) stuff.  Our group has 3 rafts - one paddle boat, our oar-rig, and a cat.  We have 5 kayaks which are great safety support, one ducky, one body-boarder and one very courageous tuber, with a helmet.  Everything went quite well - the ducky flipped once and our tuber did swim quite a bit as expected and decided to walk around Skull and then hop on a boat for the rest of the big rapids

After Skull I took over rowing and when we hit Sock-It-To-Me we high-sided - luckily Sean was on the front and he super-manned it up to the front left side to keep it down, but then immediatley after a wave washed over me from the right side picking up the right of the boat a little and almost washing me off of the oars.  Yikes.  But everything was fine and we rolled on through. Then it was on to the endless flat water that takes you to the take-out.

Packed up and ready to roll, we headed out towards Durango, only to lose the tread off of our left trailer tire 30 miles out of Moab.  At 6pm Sunday evening, there are absolutely NO tires for sale anywhere in Moab.  (Of course the trailer didn’t have a spare on it - why would you need that?)  After spending a couple of hours on the side of the highway in August in the desert (need I say more?), our tow truck driver shows up.  (We have to have the trailer towed because none of the tow trucks will bring us a tire.)

My friend up until this point has been comparing our experience with Chevy Chase’s Vacation, but after our encounter with the tow truck driver we were wondering about Deliverance.  We end up at his HOUSE in Moab where there is also a junk yard and the quintessential malnourished dog, and he sells us a tire.  We spend the night in Moab because by this time it’s late and the next morning we go out to the truck ready to get home and the new tire is FLAT.  So now we’re back at tow-truck-guy’s house knocking on the door but his son “Bubba” (not a joke) says that Dad is still asleep, which leads us to ask if he could wake him since the tire he sold us is flat.  He comes out and fixes it and then we’re on our way, without a spare again.

Another eventful Westwater trip - never a dull moment.  We had fun and learned not to EVER leave town without a spare for our trailer!!!  (Not a bad experience compared to my very first Westwater trip when I lived in Vail and had to row someone out who had slipped on a rock and landed on his face and take him to a hospital in Grand Junction for stitches in the middle of the night.)  The things we get into trying to Live Our Passions!!!!   by Kasey Ford for Are You Living It?