The second section of our trip could have potentially been completed in 5 days but with the low water level and low cfs (cubic feet per second) flow rate it took us 6 days. As a comparison, early season flow rates on the Green River can be around 30,000 cfs while the rate for our trip was about 1,900 cfs!

At Mineral Bottom we lost a few of our original Labyrinth team members and picked up about 10 more new crew and clients. Included in this new “team” were a Yoga Instructor (YAY) and an Astronomer (Not so YAY.) The yoga instructor was great – she did short sessions before we jumped into the rafts in the morning and then a very relaxing session in the evenings. The Astronomer was also to be a selling point on this “Stargazing” Trip but it was not to be … he brought the wrong eyepiece for his telescope and several days were spent trying to fix it with toothpicks, duct tape, zip ties and then dental floss. A mechanical failure/computer glitch brought the thing to a screeching halt after a very short star viewing opportunity. Joel summed it up best when he said,” What kind of an astronomer goes to bed at 9:30?”

The boat and supply handoff went fairly smooth and after lunch we were off into Stillwater Canyon where we would travel another 34 miles on flat water to the Confluence with the Colorado River. We ended up camping at Hardscrabble Bottom the first night.

The second day we rafted by Turk’s Head, hiked to the Jasper Canyon/Ruins seeing large dinosaur tracks on the canyon walls on the way. It was a 20-mile day!

The third day was not quite so long – it was a 15-mile day and we ended up camping about 8 miles from the Confluence with the Colorado River.

Day four saw us finally out of the paddling and into the Cataract Canyon rapids! We camped at Lower Rapid #15. (Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos of the rapids as the cameras were securely stowed in waterproof containers – next time GoPro!)

Once through the rapids we took a hike to Imperial Canyon and then spent our night#5 down river and around the bend at Gypsum Canyon.

Our last day saw us getting a tow/push the remaining 30ish miles to the Hite Marina as once we hit Lake Powell, the flat water returned again.

It was sad to leave Green River as after 10 days, I can safely say that both Joel and I were relaxed (no cell phones or electronics) and revived. We did bring home about 30 lbs of the “famous” Green River Melons (Cantaloupe, Seedless Watermelons, Crenshaw, Lambkin and Israeli Melons) that we were treated to every day on the trip. YUM!