My Summer On The River

Another day on the Green River

The roar of the water was in my ears well before I saw the carnage that was Moonshine Rapid in the early June snowmelt.

The steep walls of Split Mountain Canyon in Dinosaur National Monument framed the river beautifully with its warped layers of red-gray Morgan Formation and white Weber Sandstone climbing more than thousand feet overhead. The walls were majestic; they also meant that I wasn’t getting out — not until I’d charged through eight more miles of rapids in the inflatable 14-foot raft with the other whitewater noobs.

 As the guy guiding this section, Goal No. 1 was not to hit the canyon wall on the right, which the water wanted to push the boat into. Goal No. 2 was to avoid the big-ass waves on the left hand-side, which would flip the boat over. Goal No. 3 was to steer the boat through the windy channel in the middle where the waves were only seven-feet or so and get through the tumult unscathed.

I paddled furiously from the back-right corner of the raft, shouting commands to the others— “All Forward!” “Left Back!” “Holy Shit!”

At one point, I went to pitch my blade in the water at the crest of a wave and caught nothing but air. Then we went back down into the mouth of a huge bow wave, drenching everyone aboard.

Beginning of Jones Hole hike on Third Day of Gates of Lodore trip

Adrenaline-soaked moments like these were some of the best parts of my job as a raft guide this summer. I also had the chance to take in some of the incredible beauty around Dinosaur National Monument — an isolated area divided between Northwest Colorado and Northeast Utah.  I'd never even heard about the place until I applied for the job, but learned to love the majesty of Split Mountain Canyon, The Gates of Lodore and the millennia-old petroglyphs left by the Fremont and other ancient inhabitants of the canyon systems.

Since no roads and almost no trails go into the canyons, most of the scenery can only be seen from a boat. The natural beauty, added to the thrill of taking on big rapids and it made for an exhilarating time.

I was glad to have my parents and neighbors from back home come out so I could show them my workplace on the river.

Ancient Fremont pictographs along Jones Hole hike

Then there were the times when I just didn’t see that rock coming and had to climb out of a gear boat in swift-water to shove all 1,000+ pounds of it back into the current. Sometimes I saw the rock coming and couldn’t do a damn thing about it because the raft was coming at it sideways and I didn’t have time to move it out of the way.

As the river level went down throughout the summer I worried less about the big raft-flipping waves and more about the new little booby traps popping out of the shallow water. It was important to laugh and keep the customers relaxed even if I was pissed off at myself and couldn’t believe that I’d gotten stuck on S.O.B Rapid yet again.

I learned to work my ass off hauling boats on trailers, packing supplies, organizing gear so that it met Park Service standards, and preparing dinners on the multi-day trips.

None of the raft guides I met were slackers. They wouldn’t have survived.

I tried to glean all the wisdom that I could from the ones with more experience, not just about navigating rapids, but also getting a boat rigged up quickly, how to back up a trailer and how to put a succulent honey glaze on the tofu come dinner-time.

The other guides made for a solid crew to hang out with. I had my old friends like Andrew, but also enjoyed my time hanging out with the other guides, whether we were shooting the breeze down by the river bank or playing wiffle ball in the park near the boat house.

Best of all, I count myself lucky to have met my fellow guide Lana and to have shared all the wonderful times we had together.

We finished our last river-trip two days ago. The business is about to lock up and I’m taking a break from packing to write this down. I’ll be leaving a lot of fond memories from this place.

What’s next for Tom’s On The Move? My old bike from home is looking at me from across the garage. I still have to get all my travel gear rigged up on that puppy before we hit the roads going north.

Stay tuned.

Raft entering the Gates of Lodore