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Published: July 14th 2009
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July 13
10:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Juan Rambo negotiated discount rental of an 11-footer so that Jenny Karankawa, Yunkyard and I could whet our rapid appetites on the Moab Daily float. The Daily is a popular 12-13 mile day raft and the views along it have been made famous in the movies of John Wayne to Indiana Jones. The rapids on this stretch of the Colorado River average from I-III. The river is wide with a sprinkling of sandy beaches for picnic lunches and cool-down swims.
Rambo also picked up two more raftees, the Moab Dog Whisperer plus dog Saego. Now the expedition totaled four adults, one giant cooler of picnic goodness, and two adventure dogs (complete with adventure accessories aka doggie life-jackets).
At Hiddle Bottom (mile 23) Karankawa took a good look at the raft as we were loading up. It was a no-way-are-four-humans-and-two-furry-friends-going-to-fit-into-that-tiny-blue-raft. Hah—but we did!
The dogs were nervous. I don’t blame them. Their owners were eager to get them trained for river rafting, so Juan Rambo did what any adventure dog owner would do, he splashed overboard and tried to coax Yunkyard in. Yunkyard thought Jenny’s lap was way more
interesting, but over he went.
Juan Rambo jumped out twice in order to build up Generalissimo’s rafting skills, namely getting a man overboard back into the raft.
After paddling past the impressive sights like Fisher Towers, Castleton Tower, Priests and Nun, I couldn’t wipe the stupid grin off of my face. Juan Rambo was grinning back at me wolfishly, but happily as we paddled in sync. Karankawa and I were his first Houston visitors since he moved back here. He was happy to guide us and camp stove cook for us out the window of our motel room. It was so nice to trade my regular ‘Daily’ for this far superior Moab Daily and spend adventure time with my hermano for the first leg of our journey. Karankawa’s serene smile told me that her initial hesitation in stopping first in Utah was being washed away with each splash of the paddle. The rapids were exciting, and maybe not as wild as we would have liked, but it was also nice to let the raft drift and spin in a few eddies to enjoy the merry-go-round view of canyons and clouds all around.
We finished up at Take-Out
beach (mile 10) the J. Rambo and the Moab Dog Whisperer left us to clean all illegal evidence of dog from the raft and to take a last swim while they drove to pick up the second car. A hired raft landed next to us full of French tourists asking where Paris was. Jenny Karankawa pointed West, then Southwest, but the guy seemed satisfied. We giggled helplessly as we tried to figure out how to wash dog hair out of the raft. A French teenager tried to rescue us damsels in distress and flipped the raft over most un-helpfully. He left us when we couldn’t stop laughing to explain ourselves. Next in, a tiny Wal-Mart raft with red duct tape announcing “Live Free” (also tattooed on his arm) scooted up to us, manned with one paddle. He had lost the other in the Salt Lick hole and had been stranded there for a bit. He lit a cigarette and did a man strut for us as we chowed down on some trail mix and politely ignored him.
We had survived the rapids—no one fell out--unless it was on purpose.
Quotes of the Day:
Juan Rambo - “If
it’s full of crazy Europeans, I don’t wanna get in.”
Jenny Karankawa - “Like a beached whale? That I can do!”
Generalissimo - “It’s really dirty down there!”
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Tot: 0.086s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0607s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
jace
non-member comment
question
which one is the rafting ho?