Spring Break 2019 – Day Four: Chalk Basin (mile 25.5) to Lower, Lower Greeley (mile 46.5)

This was our most adventurous and scenic day on the river, by far. We began by waking up early to find a layer of frost on all our stuff. We grabbed bars for breakfast and hiked up to the base of Lambert Dome. The route took us up a dry creek bed and into a narrow slot canyon. It was cool to see the different layers of old lake bed sediment as we hiked. The white color sediment felt like chalky clay while the black sediment was fine and most each time), and put on the river at 9:30. The kids are really helpful around camp and have a bunch of jobs and tasks that they do to pitch in.

 The wind was mostly gone today and it was also warmer than the previous day – a perfect combination. I paddled a lot more and started feeling more comfortable with maneuvering the boat. But it was still pretty heavy and sometimes difficult for me to get it quickly into a certain position. We had our biggest rapids of the trip this morning. It started off with the Whistling Bird Rapid that was formed when a piece of canyon wall detached and fell next to the canyon wall on river right. Water pushes into the wall and behind the rock flake as the river takes a sharp left turn. At high flows such as the level we were at, it was pushy, but pretty simple to stay left and avoid the whole thing altogether.

The canyon walls now closed in and felt much taller than before since they were so close. The rock was a beautiful red color. The gradient was pretty consistent through the canyon and there were a number of challenging rapids – most notably “Rock Trap,” “Squeeze,” and “Montgomery” all between miles 32-34. Eben had great lines on all of them and they certainly were exciting. We stopped for lunch at the “Cliff Side” camp just after those rapids and marveled at the feeling of being so small next to the steep, high walls. A few miles further down the river valley opened up again and we passed a few really nice camps, each one spaced about a mile apart. We had a couple smaller rapids (Nuisance and Morcum Dam) between miles 39-40 before the river settled out and was pretty tame. During that stretch, not on a rapid, but in due to a sneaker rock in the middle of the river that we hit sharply, Charlotte got knocked out of the raft and into the water. She popped up quickly right next to the raft and Eben pulled her in. She was shaken and cold, but regained her composure after a few minutes of cuddling with me and taking some deep breaths.

 

 

We were aiming for the Greeley hot springs and one of the three camps just down stream of it around mile 45. We scouted the hot springs only to find them underwater at the high river flow and all three camp spots taken. As there were only five more miles left, we wanted to camp quickly but there weren’t any other named spots until three more miles downriver. So we ended up scouting and finding a small, unnamed camp, on river left at about mile 46.5, that we can call “Lower, Lower Greeley.”

The camp was in a beautiful canyon with pointy red rock pinnacles poking up through steep, grassy hills littered with basalt boulders. There were even a few trees by the river’s edge so that we could set up our hammock for the first time. After setting up camp and relaxing a bit, Charlotte decided to climb up to get to the base of some of the rock formations. She did it! She looked so small climbing up the hillside. She returned, drank water, and then wanted to head up again to go even higher. She and Eben went up all the way to the pinnacles and canyon rim! We ate some yummy burritos when they returned and had another campfire before tucking in for the night.

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