26 September 2017, Tuesday
Green River, day 1
O and I wake at 5 am to allow time for final showers at the campground, packing Wglwof and getting our dry bags packed for the canoe trip. The stars are shining brightly. The campground showers are quite nice and pleasantly hot. We arrive at the Aarchway Inn, which is the hotel just down the road from our campground, at a couple of minutes to 7. Many of the Sierra Club paddlers have already arrived and a breakfast table with hot coffee, cinnamon buns, bagels, fruit and oatmeal is all set up.
After an hour or so of munching and socializing, the little Coyote vans arrive to shuttle us and our gear to the put in at Crystal Geyser just south of the town of Green River. The van hauling the canoes and much of the outfitting gear requires several tries before the engine decides to cooperate. In our van are three retired physicians, one of whom is an anesthesiologist. We assign him the duty of keeping his foot over the hole in the van floor to regulate the amount of gasoline exhaust we are breathing.
We arrive safely at the put in. Crystal Geyser is a man-made geyser, whose eruptions were initiated in 1932 when an oil exploration accidentally hit an aquifer which was pressurized due to an underground source of CO2. We photograph the geyser and the resultant travertine, the “flow rock” that precipitates from the mineral-laden water. After admiring the travertine and geyser we form a human chain to get our gear down to the water, listen to a safety talk and we are soon on the Green River – in all there are 13 boats: 12 with 2 paddlers and our chief guide, Greg, in the lead, paddling solo.
We stop along the river for lunch and later find a sandy beach for dinner and our first night’s camp. The food is great! We are served a variety of lunch meats, veggies, chips, fruits and cookies. For dinner – the menu includes salmon filets, mashed potatoes, green beans, fried onions and strawberry shortcake with warmed strawberry compote. Dinner is preceded by happy hour with wine, crackers and dips. Camp is a little circle of tents. We sleep very well.
