| Paul's Colorado River Trip |
| November 21, 2009 |
| by Paul Woodcock |
Mary Z. had to cancel this trip on the Colorado River from Plum Creek
to La Grange because of medical reasons so I took over as trip leader
and I declared this a Paul’s trip - not to cancelled for any reason
except safety.
So when the weather reports of local flooding started coming in I
checked the La Grange river gauge and found that the Colorado River was
running several feet below flood stage. I decided to camp out Friday
night and meet the others at Plum creek. I had applied for the land use
permit and I knew that the park was closed at sundown but the rangers
had left the gate to the park open for me.
I walked to the put in and there was some of the sand bar visible. It
started to rain about 9:00 p.m. so I crawled in the back of my truck
and read a couple of chapters of the book I had brought and fell to
sleep. About 12:00 the rain really started coming down hard. Even when
it slacked off at 2:00 it still sound like a downpour with the rain
drops bouncing of the metal roof of my camper.
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Putting onto the
Colorado River |
| Photo by Paul Woodcock |
The next morning the sand bar was completely under water and the river
was running at about 900 cfs. I was surprised when the first canoeist
showed up a half hour early and had to rapidly strike camp. Eventually
all nine paddlers arrived including Joe Coker, Shane and Shanna
Everett, Robert Hatfield, Ken McDowell, Ron Nunnelly, Robert Pearson,
Michael Pollard and Jeff Graves. As the others arrived, I asked each
one to look at the river to see if they were comfortable with the flow.
All nine paddlers were, so we set off in the rain.
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| Lunch on the island. |
Photo by Paul Woodcock
|
We saw about three deer in the meadow next to the river. Fraser
expressed his disappointment that Mary was not going to be doing her
dutch oven cooking by stating that he and Janice had decided to paddle
out the first day.
After our first break Ron was late joining up with us. He had seen an
eagle and had paddled upstream to get a closer look.
 |
| Easy paddlin'! |
| Photo by Paul Woodcock |
We found a real nice place on an island for lunch. The river flow was
so fast we didn’t really have to paddle which made the long first day
paddle really easy.
As I was paddling away from the group I saw a large bird flying toward
me and his head was white, as he swooped upward I saw the flash of his
white tail. I don’t know if this was the same eagle that Ron saw or a
different one but regardless I felt the thrill I always have when I see
this magnificent bird.
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Setting up camp on
the Colorado
River. |
Photo by Paul Woodcock
|
We reached the camp site under cloudy sky and set up the tents. We had
a lot of free time before everyone started cooking supper.
That was when we discovered that Murphy was on this trip. One of the
campers discovered that he had left his sleeping bag at home. We
scrounged sleeping bag liners and a space blanket but he still had a
cold night. One camper’s high dollar camp stove would not light and
another had forgotten coffee. I had a 1942 backpackers stove. I had
checked it out at home and had even made breakfast on it but it would
not light. There is a fire starter paste that you use but I did not
have any and I primed it with fuel. I had made a wooden backpack
combination table out of mahogany. It was beautiful before I set it on
fire. The safety pop off valve turned into a mini blowtorch. I now have
to refinish the table after its first trip.
Everyone ate their supper and we gathered around a campfire for the
rest of the evening. This is one of the best parts of camping - sitting
around a fire and swapping stories.
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River and boats
in the mist |
| Photo by Paul Woodcock |
We woke up the next morning to a beautiful thick fog. I really love the
quiet that a heavy fog creates You just feel isolated in it beauty. The
rapids that We were expecting had washed out and we drifted to the take-out enjoying the beauty of the river.
|
The author,
Paul Woodcock |
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The End ~~~
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