Solo Kayaking Trip through Canyonlands NP

gorillamel

Dirty Blonde
Front diff melted. The pinion, gears, everything melted causing the axle to freeze and not spin, i.e. tires stopped spinning. To the tune of almost $1200 and brand new gears, seals, bearings. It's still in the shop. :-(
 

MOguy

Explorer
Front diff melted. The pinion, gears, everything melted causing the axle to freeze and not spin, i.e. tires stopped spinning. To the tune of almost $1200 and brand new gears, seals, bearings. It's still in the shop. :-(

that sucks. Time for a locker if you don't already have one.
 

freedomrider

Ordinary average guy
Excellent trip and report. I'm envious of the solitude. Judicious use of an I-Pod could satisfy any need to hear human voice. That also lets you choose what you hear and when you hear it.

The Jeep dying on the way out when you're dead tired must have been quite the bummer but you seem to have taken it in stride.

Thanks for posting the story.
 

Vandy

Adventurer
I've been reading this for about 4 days when my wife/kiddo give me free time. AWESOME trip. I'm super jealous right now. I've been bit by the kayak bug last weekend on a trip to lower mountain fork river (south of beavers bend oklahoma) proud of ya not letting diabetes run your life. I work with a handfull of guys that just give up on most everything because of it. Very inspirational. I subed to your youtube page also. Hope to watch the vids this weekend.

Hope ur jeep is better. Gotta be a bummer on a great trip
 

gorillamel

Dirty Blonde
Thanks! It looks like some of my photo links are not working. That will be my weekend project to fix that.

I am planning for my trip in 2017. Considering taking the Colorado River from Moab to the Confluence. Or the Green River from Green River, UT to where I put in for this trip. So many choices! I have to figure out my adventure schedule since I have a few summits to mount and endurance events interspersed in there. :)

Jeep is running well. And misses going on fun trips like this one, haha!
 

gorillamel

Dirty Blonde
T-minus 5 days till I leave for another adventure on the Green River! This time I will be paddling Labyrinth Canyon from Ruby Ranch to Mineral Bottom (~45 RM) and I will not be solo. I am pretty excited to do a paddle trip with people this go round.

Here are some useful resources that I have used:
http://www.sdc.org/~cwalker/LabyrinthStillwater/
https://utah.com/river-rafting/labyrinth
https://www.outdoorproject.com/adventures/utah/paddling/green-river-labyrinth-canyon

It looks like the flow is big and strong this year. More so than last year. So that leaves more time to stop and hike and explore since we will not have to paddle as much. It also means that stopping to find a camp spot will be even harder. This time I am bringing my machete and hatchet to try to get through that dense tamarisk.
 

gorillamel

Dirty Blonde
This update is more for myself than anything else. T-minus 10h and i leave for Moab with my friend, my Jeep, 2 mountain bikes and 2 kayaks on board. Along with a bunch of dry bags and excitement.

We will be kayaking the Labyrinth Canyon part of the Green River, launching from Ruby Ranch and taking out at Mineral Bottom care of Tex's Riverways (I love those guys!). I plan to drive all night (I do not think my friend can drive a manual trans) to get to Moab in time to go skydiving at 1200h on Thurs/tomorrow. Oh heck yeah! I am so stoked for that part! I've been to Moab a number of times and have always wanted to have my first foray into skydiving there. After that will be a day of mountain biking and showing my friend Moab till the rest of ur party arrives at our campground we reserved.

I have not planned this trip as obsessively as I had the previous one last year. I kind of left that up to my friend whose idea it was to go on this trip. I have done research into hikes and canyons along this route. I am anticipating the flow to be even higher and faster than last year, thus less paddling will need to be done and more fun and exploring to be done. Wooo! I can be a little more daring, too since there are others with me.

I found some useful links on some of the canyons to explore:

Hell Roaring Canyon (pictographs here)
https://www.mountainproject.com/v/hell-roaring-canyon/106319075
http://udink.org/2014/08/11/hell-roaring-canyon/
http://climb-utah.com/Moab/yellowcomet.htm

Bowknot Bend
https://backcountrypost.com/threads/bowknot-bend-saddle-hike-up-from-south-side.3022/

Three Canyon (near/at Trin-Alcove)
http://www.summitpost.org/three-canyon/939693

General hiking/exploring links
http://www.bogley.com/forum/showthr...ith-Canyon-Green-River-Day-Hiking-Suggestions
http://dyeclan.com/outdooractivities/paddling/?id=322

We will put in on Friday morning and take out on Monday using the Tex's Riverways shuttle service. There will be 2 touring kayaks (mine and a sit on top) and a canoe. A total of four people. I followed my same packing list as last year. Although food will be more plentiful and kept in the canoe AND there will be beer this time! That is the one item I sorely missed last year while on my own. I cherished the two cans the singing group of men gave me. I am so excited to be doing this with people this time! I will post updates most likely after the trip as another report. Weather looks like it will be in upper 70s/lower 80s and clear skies. Wooty woo!
 

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