October 24, 2015
Day 6
During the night the water level rose tremendously from all the rain the past few days. We had camped nearly 300 feet away from the river and this morning it was about 150 feet closer to us! As we floated along, we observed the river in the act of changing its course and dragging tamarisk into the water. We approached the large group that we had seen the day before. They were having breakfast and taking awhile to get going as it had been a long night for them. At 2 AM they had awoken and realized that the river was flooding dangerously close to their camp and had to move their tents further back. Shortly after passing the group, we approached a small pull-off and trail and parked the rafts there. Up the trail a short distance were more Indian ruins - cliff dwellings. Much of the rest of the day was spent riding through the Loop, which took several hours. As we were eating lunch on a beach in the Loop, our friends passed by and waved, never to be seen again for the entire trip. Then at sunset, it came time for our first rapids of the entire journey - The Slide. We pulled over beforehand and scoped them out. They were running lower than when Freebird had gone through here over a year ago (Instead of class 3, today they were more like class 1 or 2). The rafts bobbed through them easily. At an island just past the Slide we set up camp. The rapids could be heard from there all night. We ate dinner beside the fire and I fell asleep on the ground. Freebird brought my sleeping bag and made me a pillow and set me up to cowboy camp through the night.
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| Tamarisk falling into the river as it changes its course. |
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| Rafts are parked as we hike to the ruins. |
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| Tex's shuttle heading to the Green River confluence to pick up canoers and rafters and bring them back to Moab. |
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| A flock of geese. |
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