77 - 12/11/2010 - Green River Gorge

Entering the Gorge

This was my second run with the new cat, and the first in the Green Gorge. It was a rainy day, temperature around 40, and the flow was around 1900. With the rain, the flow in the gorge would be a bit higher. We put in on the Headworks road, which adds a couple of miles to the trip. We had a group of 10 boats, mostly catarafts.

Overall, I had a solid run. The flow was on the high end for me in the little boat, but I think that as I get used to the boat I will be able to run higher. Of course, the other side of this is that I like running my big cataraft, and when the flow on the Green is above 2000, I'll want to take advantage of it.

We used a new lunch spot, which we are calling "Snow Cave". This is a place in the gorge a little ways below the rapid called Let's Make a Deal. There's a large eddy with a small beach and trees to tie off to, and a cave that provides shelter from the rain and snow.

I had one close call on this run. I ran the big hole at the top of the left side of Deja Vu. When I came out of the hole, my boat was turned sideways and I hit the wave coming off the wall pretty hard. This threw me onto the left side of the boat behind the seat, where I held on and had to struggle a little to get back in the boat.