Green River Grandeur

William H. Ashley and John W. Powell may have had a more harrowing experience in their respective 1825 and 1869 expeditions, but the last week of June permitted us to witness the same unchanged majesty of the Green River that they experienced decades past.

Countless of emails, weeks of menu planning and prepping, five states, four boats, and two days of driving later, our motley crew of Brian and his brothers Clark and Matt, Crain and his mama Meredith, Ed, Jody, Jonathan and I (Kristin), arrived at Dinosaur National Park, Colorado, where the renown Gates of Lodore beckoned. After rigging our boats, grilling lamb, chicken, and fish for all palates, and several rowdy games of life-size Jenga, we fell asleep to the sounds of coyotes with excitement and anticipation of the days ahead.

Our days on the river were hot, sunny, and varied. At times the sandstone and limestone cliffs rose more than 2,000 feet above our heads in striated bands of red and orange. We were fortunate to spot long horned sheep, deer, and snakes along the way. The rapids never posed too much of a challenge—only totaling perhaps four rapids of class III difficulty and other class II's and riffles—but the “way casual” nature of the float provided comfort for all of us to have our hand at the sticks.

Our savvy Trip Leader, Jonathan, had coordinated a perfect itinerary, floating 8-14 mile days and requesting a layover day—which the permit office granted—to break the exhaustion of packing and unpacking camp. To up the fun-ness of this day, Spirit Leader, Crain, and his Spirit Apprentice, Clark, organized games of horseshoe and deemed our layover as “Hawaiian Day” replete with leis, Hawaiian shirts, a grass skirt, and the necessary coconut bra, all of which were quickly shed due to scorching temps.

Nights consisted of elaborate, delicious meals prepared by the ladies, dutch oven desserts, and bonfires under the waning “Super Moon.” All of our campsites (Pot Creek II, Limestone, and the Cove) were beautiful, but we especially loved Pot, with its big beach, red canyon walls, and shaded tent sites.

All-in-all the trip lived up to a Radical Sabbatical and we eagerly look to make the “family float” an annual tradition.

-- guest written by K.Sardina --

The packing was an 'epic' itself – made a little easier this go around thanks to B-Mac's shiny new trailer

The trip prep never ended – Spirit Leader, Crain, putting the finishing touches on life-sized Jenga

Yes, five states to make it to the put-in, as well as a decent amount of miles on dirt

After our short stint in WY, we bid farewell and continue South

Honing in on Dinosaur National Momument as we make it to Colorado, The Real West

And after a LONG drive we have finally arrived in time to rig the boats the evening before we shove off

A little evening game of Jenga to kickstart the festivities

On our launch day we awake to find the water pretty low

With some time, waiting for the water to come up, Crain and I head down river for a short hike to get a look at The Gates

Our first AM look at the stunning Gates of Lodore

Spirit Leader, Crain, is full or surprises

All rigged up and ready to head out at the Lodore boat ramp

And we're off – the trip started with several flat miles through the majestic Gates of Lodore

Master on the sticks, Ed, rowing through our first little piece of whitewater at Winnies 

After a tasty lunch a few of us venture up to Winnies Grotto where we found a throne suitable for my pops

Clark on the sticks with Matt up front threading the needle on Upper Disaster Falls

Crain and Momma Crain running through Upper Disaster Falls 

Ed & Kristin getting dinner done at our first and favorite campsite, Pot Creek II

And a good morning to you too, Crain

AM light, looking up river past Magnum

Kristin still nestled in as the sun starts to climb the walls in camp

Back at it, the brothers (Matt & Clark) are ready for day 2

The sun is no match for Ninja Ed

Day 2 had some exciting whitewater at Hells Half Mile

Mom hanging on as we rock-n-roll through Hells

Clark reaping the rewards of a meat popsicle after successfully making it through Hells Half Mile

Kristin on the sticks through the canyons

The ladies in the kitchen at Limestone getting prepared for Fajita night

No Fajita night would be complete without salt-rimmed margs

Well Aloha – Layover days are better with a theme

As well as a sweet setup for camp

And games – nice toss, Crain

Mom just relaxing in the river on our down day

Kristin couldn't help herself, and unleashed her inner 9 year-old

With a little liquid courage I stood atop our PFD totem in my Hawaiian Kimono

Crain getting his infamous popcorn brewing

Back on the river for day 4, we see some very impressive rock formations on the Mitten Park Fault – waning super moon in the distance

And some even more impressive walls as we float past Steamboat Rock to the confluence of the Yampa

Mom and dad giving it some scale – moments later the wall shed some serious debris, luckily they had pulled to river left and were well out of harms way

After some fancy acrobatics Brian had to go swimming to search for a missing camera – he found it to all of our amazements

No river trip is complete without the confluence shot – here the crew stands where The Yampa meets The Green

Momma Jody tries her hands at the sticks 

Final look back at the confluence as we 'round Steamboat Rock

Kristin back on it with some more spectacular rock formations in the background

Bighorn Rams spotted

Day 4 on the river went quicker than expected which left ample time for playtime on the river

Temps were so warm that even Jody & Ed joined

Crain getting his mud-bath fix at Cove Camp

Wouldn't have wanted to share this one with anyone else

Some pretty insane evening light for us on our final river night

As documented by the masterful camera skills of SL, Crain

The last evenings are the saddest on river trips, but The Green was doing what it could to keep smiles on our faces

B-Mac prepared a masterful meal on the DO

Final moments at dusk

Up and at 'em, Crain – time to push the final 14 miles to takeout 

The crew rightside up and down river at takeout – GREAT TRIP

Western Water

I’m learning, more and more, that any plans to do with fishing or rivers need to be somewhat fluid. 

About 10 years ago, my buddy Noel and I were heading back to CA from Colorado, looking for places to adventure along the way. We checked in with a fly shop in Summit County and were told that the fishing was currently ‘sick’ on The Green River below the Flaming Gorge Dam in Utah. We had never before heard any fishing described as sick, so had to check it out. As it happens it was just all-time and sick for sure.

The Green boasts as many as 15k fish per mile – just a ridiculous amount – and in late May/early June the river has a cicada hatch of (sometimes) epic proportions. After those first three days on the river, I was absolutely blown away and knew I had to get back.

This year my dad and I tried to plan a trip to The Green around the spring flush, where the Bureau of Reclamation bumps dam flows up from a trout and boat friendly 800 cfs, to a blasting 4,500 cfs for a few weeks to simulate a ‘natural’ (pre-dam) runoff. Unfortunately there is no schedule for this event, and Reclamation just gives few days notice about timing. In 2010 my trip was moved from the river because we scheduled last week in May which that year coincided with the flush. This year, to make sure we were not affected by the flush we planned our trip in early June – the week which ended up being the week of flush this year. I’ll keep trying, but yet again The Green had plans of its own.

So, we changed gears and set out on a more local adventure, to see some of the various rivers closer to home, up in Northern California and Southern Oregon – a bit of a Western Water Tour. Though a proper tour of the West would take years, we definitely saw some goods in our short time on the road.

Our seven days out fishing were each spectacular in their own right, and the water we visited couldn’t have been more varied. My father and I towed both the raft and new drift boat out of Tahoe to find wide, small & roaring rivers up North.

First stop was to the most Southern part of Oregon to the technical rapids of the Upper Klamath, which drops 50 feet per mile and has an insanely hard fighting strain of redband trout. After two days of hard fighting fish and pulling hard on the sticks, we headed South to meet Maher on the beautiful, emerald-green McCloud river with it's little rainbows eager for an evening dry fly. And our final destination, to the large volume, Lower Sac with it’s tough fighting, monster bow’s. 

From raft to foot to drift boat, up and down a spectacular part of the Western coastal states, this was an epic late planned trip for sure.

Arrived and loaded in at camp – we pack a little bit heavy

For our shuttle from put in to takeout and back again, and again we logged quite a bit of time on dirt

Dad and rig about to get in it at put in

A look back at the first technical rapid just below the dam

One of dad's nice, hard-fighting redband's

Dad releasing another nice one 

Me with one of mine

The second half of the final rapid of the day took us all the way to the lake

Evening light at our campsite

Cooking up some dinner

Dad with another good one on, nailed right out of the faster water

Dad releasing another good fish

We were amazed by the great abundance of birdlife on the river, including these white pelicans

Some more birdlife – lots of youngeons around

Catch of the trip was my hat which took a dip as we were anchored up on a rock – great cast and retrieval dad

Some bumpy and gnarly roads after a great day on the river

Insane views of the back side of Shasta as we make our way South

Stunning Northern Cali views

Good food and a good cocktail after the long drive from the takeout on The Klamath to camp on the McCloud

Familiar face at camp on the McCloud

Maher getting a serious fire going

Wading with the pup on the very different water of The McCloud

Pretty little 'bow taken on a dry fly

Dad getting some dry fly fishing in under some evening light in the canyon

Maher getting fajita night going

Dad getting into some tight spaces to hook a trout

Maher working a nice spot

Made it to the Lower Sac and got Driftwood in the water – beautiful boat with beautiful Sundial Bridge

Dad hooked up a lot of fish this trip

Dad with a nice 'bow

Releasing another good trout

Me with a bullet of a hog

This was a sight I had to get used to

We caught many 20+ inch fish, including this nice 21" pig

Dad in Driftwood with another

One of the prettier ones I got in

And lots of safe releases

We had Aaron in the boat with us for one of our three days – master of the river & on the sticks

Just huge and fun fighting fish on this river

We didn't have many but one of our double hookups for the trip