Green River Part 4: First Tastes of Whitewater

The joy of not packing light is that packing up every morning took a bit of effort and not a little bit of time. The joy of 4 to 5 MPH water meant late starts wouldn’t require late days of paddling.

A few bends in the river brought us to the first rapid of the run. Rock House rapid was a bit washed out, with a bunch of whirlpools forming boogie water instead of a more organized riffle wave train. Little Rock House rapid was more substantial, with an actual wave train that was pretty fun. Both were rated 1 in the 10 point western scale. I was happy to hear that the GPS beeped just before each of those rapids. Five miles of flatwater followed until the biggest rapid of the day arrived. Jack Creek rapid is rated a 4/10 for its bigger bouncy waves. We lunched below the rapid. The canyon had crept higher as we drifted down the river. The difference between our launch spot and our lunch spot was pretty obvious. The water was chilly so I put on my dry top. After lunch, we paddled several more rapids before quitting for the day. We camped between parts 1 and 2 of Firewater rapid.

This campsite was one of my favorites, nestled amongst a few taller trees and some brush with a great view of the river and the pasture across the river. The camp was at the tip of a fan extending from Firewater Wash. Several other camps were available below ours but ours was the closest to the rapid. According to the book, it is possible to hike out by way of Firewater Wash. The skies looked ominous, so we put up the tarp. Mark set up the groover with a view of the second part of the rapid. We wandered around a little just before the rain arrived.

For a desert, it rained a lot out there and an awful lot of green stuff grew on the river banks as well as high along the bluffs. For the next four days, it rained every day, sometimes lasting for quite a while.