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| Multi-tasking - Peppermint Schnapps, 2 bottles of wine, my cup (full of wine) all in hand - flashlight and camera tucked away in my cleavage... well played young grasshopper. You learn fast. |
Emily: "Hey! My friend Clint invited me on a white water rafting trip... wanna come?"
Me: "Sure! Let's do it"
Not more thought was put into this trip than that. And why should I have? My whole mantra this year is to live life full, large and true... and in true Christina style I thought little on the front end of what a week-long river trip would really mean. So... as the days flew by and I was faced with packing just a couple days out... anxiety sat in. THEN the conversations went something like this.
Me: "So... I don't know what half of those items are on the list I need to pack.. and those I do understand I just don't have."
Emily: "Ok, let's take it one thing at a time... do you have a backpack?"
Me: "Nope. And I don't have a headlamp... a toboggan (what is that btw)... a sleeping bag... chums (again - wtf)...etc. etc. etc."
Emily: "Ok, deep breaths..."
And this is the modified version of that call to save myself more embarrassment. So I took off half a day from work and shopped... and afterwards felt slightly better about things. Oh yeah... I did a lot of praying too. Mostly asking for peace about this trip and to get rid of the anxiety I was feeling. That helped... along with a lot of wine.
So here it is... Friday, August 27th and I'm in a cab heading to the airport many hours before sunlight will touch the state of Florida. I'm packed and feel good about it. One (new) backpack and one duffel bag (which surprisingly I owned already). The flight over worked out in my favor even though I wasn't so sure.... I'm not a fan of sitting by the window but once in Colorado and over the mountaintops... I was praying a prayer of thanksgiving. Turns out I need to trust God more. The view from that point on was so clear and stunning... I loved seeing the fields below with their circular crops and the mountaintops... coming into Salt Lake City was also a gorgeous site with the beautiful salt lakes and mountains.
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| On the 7-hour drive to Gates of Lodore... cocktail time started early. |
Friday went by fast with lots of errands (picking up liquor, lunch and additional people) and then we headed out on a 7 hour drive to the Gates of Lodore. On that drive the five of us in that car cemented a friendship I can't describe. We had fun. Upon arriving at our launch site, we discovered (much to Clint's surprise and our ignorance of importance), the gang had left us the smallest of the boats with the present of about 50 gallons of bottled water... so add five human beings and their luggage and you can imagine why we had to push the boat off the sandbar. Keep in mind the drinking had begun in the car and we were now the official dinner for every mosquito in the river. But that first night was a blast... pitch black night... vodka swigs from the bottle... and a bull horn that quickly attached itself to Emily's hand (and would not leave its new friend until the end of the trip). The gang listened to our raps and songs from the campsite laughing at the "party barge" announcing its arrival. With the deep darkness we said quick hellos and conducted the necessary introductions and then went about setting up our tents. Thankfully our new friends were amazingly kind to us newbies.. and helped with this impossible task. Sleep found me quickly in a little blue tent shared with Emily on a paco-pad (I learned all sorts of terms on this trip) in a red sleeping bag.
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| Our blue tent |
Our first morning was eye-opening. We learned camping 101 very quickly... pee in the river and poo in the groover (yes - a groover is the camping toilet everyone) - don't confuse the two... meals were made by "teams" that were preassigned (Emily and I had the last night and day) and we had a portable kitchen set up... up early to eat (and poop since the groover got packed up in the morning before we left) and then take down your tent and pack everything up... we head out back on the river around 9-10am. This lesson was repeated every day on the trip... and got a lot easier by day two.
I won't bore you with day-by-day plays.. but here is a summary of the trip. GORGEOUS. FUN. ADVENTURESOME. LAUGHS. GOOD PEOPLE. BREATHTAKING. WET AND COLD. HOT AND SWEATY. SKUNKS. HOLDING IT OVERNIGHT.
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| Sande, Anna, Emily and Me - the four "newbies" on the trip and now lifelong friends! This was our first morning. |
Each day brought us to a new location along the green river and held its own special adventures. The consistent part was the scenery... it was simply amazing. I can't describe it and the photos barely do it justice. The rapids weren't as scary as I pictured... and luckily we rode on the Double Deuce (the largest of the boats) with a very experienced guide (our friend Clint). The kayaks (or they're called Duckies) did amazing riding alongside the larger boats and I was truly impressed with the kayakers. Each camp was slightly different and brought its own individual fun. There were grease-bombs (homemade of course)... singing around the fire... horseshoes... LOTS of drinking (which normally began around 9am and commenced around 12am)... standing wide and speaking into a bull horn (oh wait - that was just Emily wasn't it?!)... glow-stick dancing (which really should be called art)... story telling... sharing... and just getting to know people.
I can't distinguish between all the new experiences had on this trip... but I can share that using a groover and peeing in a river (consistently for five days) was definitely one of them. If the helmet is on the stick... groover is good to be used. If its missing... please wait until the person returns. Sleeping in a tent for that many nights on paco-pads and in sleeping bags was new... and doing that through the cries of wild animals at night (and the attempts of many skunks to enter your tent) was new... living out of a duffel bag for five days - new... cooking in a dutch oven and washing dishes with dirty river water... all new... so many things to mention. Overall just a REALLY cool new experience that allowed me to make some incredible new friends. And I think the trip was just what my soul needed. Since being back, several people have commented how surprised they are that I did the trip.... stating how "unlike" me it was. Not sure what that means. Are they now aware I hurled myself from a plane 1800 feet in the air back in the Spring?! Maybe I need to wear less accessories and flatter shoes - though I'm very proud to say that I did not bring or wear ANY accessories the entire trip (except for a waterproof watch) and only brought a pair of flip flops, my chacos and a pair of sneakers... NO high heels! In the future when asked to do something so out of my character I will once again embrace it with little thought... and maybe I need to spend a little more time outdoors. Especially now that I own a Go-Girl. :)
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| Em and I - right after the HAIL storm... yes people.. it rained and then hailed on us! |
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| An old boat that someone stashed away - assumption is its from 1950's - the person wasn't able to go over the upcoming rapids... there is still a medicine bottle and lots of personal items here. Very neat. |
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| Emily's first fish ever caught... along with her fishing coach - Eric |
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| I'm here people!!! Check me out. |
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| We went through something called "handstand rapids" where you're supposed to do a handstand... Clint did... yes he did! |
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| One of the many gorgeous sunsets... |
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| This was called Hell's Mile I think... and one of the rocks here called Lucifer... yikes! |
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| Theme: Mexican night - Clint, Sande and Anna were our chefs galore for this evening. Here is our kitchen. |
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| Grease-bomb time! |
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| We were told on the 3rd day... we'll have warm showers for you at the next campsite. Here are the warm showers. Anna and Sande were the only two who braved them. The rest of us washed off in the river. The LAST night before it got really muddy. |
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| Holly and Paul just pass Lucifer on the rapids |
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| So if you see the helmet... proceed to the groover please... if you don't then please wait. |
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| Here's the groover! |
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| Breathtaking, isn't it?! |
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| Horseshoes... a very serious game apparently. If you can make the beer can fall all the way down, you get extra points. |
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| Dawna in her duckie... |
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| Definitely the outfit I'm meeting husband #2 in... LOL |
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| It was a full moon out and we never even knew it! |
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| Double Deuce - our boat! |
If you want to see any additional photos from the trip, please check out the following link. There are close to 700 photos between the two "Utah - River Trip" albums there. www.flickr.com/photos/cbollingphotos
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