San Juan River Trip

This year Isaac tried to get a San Juan River permit and originally struck out.  But later Hannah was able to call in and get one.  Isaac and I haven't done this river before, so I was nervous about him wanting to take Sophie and Aspen.  And I thought he was crazy for thinking of taking Luke.  But after doing some research and talking to my dad about when they ran it a few years ago, we decided to give it a try.

We left after church on a Sunday and drove down to Blanding where we rented a condo with our families.  The kids had fun swimming in the hot tub and playing ladder ball outside.

On Monday morning we drove to the put-in.  Most of us stayed to rig the boats while a few drove shuttle.  The boats were finished a lot sooner than the shuttle drivers got back, so it was hot and boring.  But the kids had a lot of fun playing in the water, paddling the IK, and walking across the river (it was crazy that the whole river was shallow enough that you could walk all the way across.  In fact, you could probably walk 90% of the river if you wanted to).

We finally launched and headed to our first camp.  Shortly after launching we hit our first rapid.  Sophie and Aspen were in the IK and we pulled Aspen back into the raft at the last second.  She was screaming and really upset, but I'm glad we didn't let her run it.  Although it was only supposed to be a class II or so, it had some fairly large waves and I was nervous about Sophie being in the IK.  It made me concerned that the whole river was going to have larger rapids than I was expecting.  But after that, there was really only 1 big rapid.

Once we got to camp, the kids once again had a lot of fun playing on the beach and in the water.  Sophie and Aspen were getting really good at swimming around in their life jackets.  And fortunately Luke had a very healthy fear of the water and never tried to get in by himself.

Isaac was able to turn himself into a mud monster.  Luke and I helped bury him, and Sophie got in on the mud action herself.

The next day we launched and headed to Honaker camp.  We did a little hiking, but it was getting late so we didn't make it far.  Aspen was the best hiker on this trail.  It was a lot of boulder climbing and she was a little mountain goat.  She started crying when I told her it was time to turn around and go to bed.

The entire time on the river Sophie and Aspen wanted to be in the IKs.  I was worried Sophie and Aspen were driving Jamie and Hannah crazy because they were never able to go together because they had to shuttle the kids around all the time.

Luke even enjoyed going in the IK occasionally.  Every afternoon I would hold Luke in the raft until he fell asleep.  He would never let me set him down, so I was stuck holding him without moving for as long as possible.  Usually I would end up waking him up because my arms went numb from holding him still for so long.  But it was so fortunate that he was able to nap each day so that he wasn't a complete monster.

Jamie, Hannah, and Kevin were so good with the kids.  They helped entertain them all day and watched them at camp while Isaac and I set up our tent and helped cook the meals.  It was definitely a much easier trip because of all their help.

Our third camp was the best.  There was a big rock in the middle of the river and a great eddy along the beach so the kids could play in the water. So we all climbed onto the rock (that was only a few feet deep in the water) to take a group picture.  I had a lot of fun "helping" the kids off the rock.

On the one real rapid, Government, we made the kids walk around with my mom.  And Isaac and I got back in the IK together for the first time.  We made it through the rapid fine, but we were definitely a little rusty.

Our fourth camp was at Slickhorn.  It wasn't a very nice camp.  We tried to go for a hike up Slickhorn Canyon which has pools and waterfalls at certain water levels.  But it was all dried up this time of year, so it was just a really hot hike.  But they were able to find some really cool fossils along the hike.  I recently read a book, written by a girl I went to high school with, about the dad of the kid I went to homecoming with in high school.  When he was a teenager they ran the San Juan for youth conference.  They camped at Slickhorn and went cliff diving into the pools in the canyon.  The guy broke his neck and was paralyzed.  It was weird being in the same spot that something so tragic happened.

The last day of the trip was the worst.  We woke up early and launched by 8am.  We had about 18 miles of flat water to reach the take out.  This was the slowest and shallowest section of river.  We had to row non-stop and zig-zag back and forth across the river to avoid sand bars.

Sophie swam almost the entire river. :)  That girl was such a fish.  And it was impossible to get them to let anyone else have a turn in the IK.  I think they had fun on this trip.

We eventually made it to the take out around 5pm.  It took a few hours to de-rig the boats, so we didn't leave until around 7pm.  We were all hungry and exhausted.  And we had 2 hours to drive to reach Hanksville for food.  We made it there just as they were closing the restaurant, but fortunately they let us come in anyway.  Then around 10pm we started the long drive home.  The kids fell asleep right away and slept most of the way.  Isaac and I stayed up to keep each other company so we didn't fall asleep at the wheel and die.  We finally made it home around 2am.

Overall it was a really good trip, but at the same time it was really hard for me.  It was fun to see my kids experience the fun of a river, but it was also a rude awakening to kissing my childhood goodbye.  Instead of setting up my tent in 7 minutes and fitting all my stuff in 1 bag, I had 5 people to help take care of (5 sleeping bags, 5 air mattresses, 5 pillows, 5 clothes bags).  Additionally it was really tiring to make sure the kids were sun-screened, drinking enough water, going to the bathroom (trying to get them to poop on the hooter), taking naps, cleaning sand out of their shoes (Aspen was driving us crazy with this), cooking our share of the food, etc.  Each afternoon as I held Luke, I just wanted to close my eyes and relax myself.  But rafting is a LOT more work with kids (especially such little kids).  So even though it was a lot of fun, I needed a vacation from my vacation.