After the tame float of Ruby-Horsethief Keith and I were both ready for a little splashy Class III excitement. Daniel and Calev were equally jazzed. Unfortunately Keith awoke feeling sickly and so our day got off to a slow start. Despite this we still managed to take off at 9a. We heard rumors that sun didn't make it into the canyon this time of year so I dressed extra warm under my drysuit. Thankfully I managed to dress just right for comfort although we had plenty of sun. The first three miles of open canyon brought us to a surprising stretch of Vishnu Schist on river left, then a towering cliff of sandstone on river right. We abruptly crossed a fault and found ourselves in a deepening black rock canyon with towering red walls above. For flatwater the river was moving comfortably which was helping with time. A bald eagle flew low overheard. Everyone was stoked, especially Calev who could barely contain himself.
A few riffles led to a nice stretch of rapids after. We found these all the be read-and-run and to have fun wave trains to bounce over. We pulled into the awkward scouting spot for Skull Rapid just in time to see another group's kayaker blast through. There was a monstrous hole at the bottom of the rapid but very forgiving room to move from the center to the left throughout the rapid. I thought it was actually one of the easier rapids though the highest on consequence.
The 200ft deep rock rock gorge within the 400ft deep canyon had a few more rapids but began to lose its height. After Last Chance Rapid the river reverted to flatwater, the slowest on either of the two runs we did. We passed a large rincon on river left and passed through a prominent dogleg gateway in the black rock. The basement then disappeared, lining the river with sandstone once again. The sandstone then disappeared into the river over a distance of about a mile and a half.
We made good time to the Cisco boat landing and packed up in good time. It would have been a great trip at this point but we had the unfortunate complication that Heather's car broke down and she was on her way to meet us with a rental. We spent a while figuring out logistics over burgers at Ray's Tavern in Green River. Keith and I would drive on to arrive back in Riverside at 1:30am while Heather and David would stick around Moab to figure out the car. Thanks again to Keith for sorting out river logistics. It was nice to check out a new 42 mile stretch of the Colorado River.
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