Green River Part 8: All Good Things...

Sooner or later, every adventure comes to an end. Our last day on the Green, Lucas and I wanted to start with a hike up to the top of the ridge above our campsite. It was called bowtie bend because we had paddled 7 miles of river for what was a challenging hike/scramble in much less time. Kerry got swarmed the night before so she and Mark packed up camp and hit the water as quickly as possible while we started on our hike. We planned to meet them at the take-out. From nearly the top of the ridge, we saw them head away.

We lost the trail a few times as we headed to the top, though our objective was easy enough to find. A couple creative moves were required, but I used the best source of traction I had to make it work. The view from the top was well worthwhile. We had a great view of the river bending away and back. Some elderly and not so elderly graffiti was there on the ridge.

The hike down required as much creativity as the hike up and took about as long. Again, I used a very reliable source of traction for it. One spot Lucas told me I would have to jump about 8 feet down. I proved him wrong, wedging a leg and then my butt and then my other leg to crawl down semi-gracefully. Kerry's mosquitoes were waiting for us. We packed up as quickly as possible and snacked on some leftovers as breakfast once the mosquitoes were finished breakfasting on us.

We never caught Mark and Kerry on the water. They were waiting for us at the Mineral Bottom takeout along with an unexpected problem. Lucas had asked the shuttle service to leave the key to his truck under the wheel well. They left the key inside. Locked. The ranger on duty sort of helped but mostly Lucas and Mark broke into his truck. Kerry and I continued to unpack and organize the gear. Problem solved and we were able to pack up and head out of the canyon. The long, twisty trail up had several plummeting views back to the river. I was grateful for the lack of rain. We spent the night in Moab and each of us craved something different after 9 days on the water. My craving? Fresh veg.