Beware of the Skull!

I have a hard time sitting still during the summer when there's so many fun things to do. This past weekend, me and a group of 23 others, headed down to Southern Utah and floated the Westwater Canyon section of the Colorado River.

I've floated many rivers but there's something about the Colorado that always gets me excited. We spent Friday night in Moab in the Kane Springs campground (not my favorite spot, but we got in late and jsut wanted to find somewhere quick). We then spent all day Saturday climbing along Potash road. There are tons of great routes along Potash but it was so hot we had a hard time climbing so we ended up just swimming in the river all day.

We spent Saturday night with a bazillion flies and mosquitos along the river at the Westwater Ranger Station. There were 24 of us total by that time with 4 rafts, 1 was a gear boat ore rig, and the other 3 were paddle boats. We feel asleep to the sound of the river running next to us and the smell of freshly caught catfish cooking over the fire.

The next morning, after packing up and shuttling the cars, we ended up on the river by 9:00. The first section is a mellow float where we saw a bald eagle and enjoyed the sun. It then narrows into a black canyon full of 11 named rapids and gnarly whirlpools. One of which is named Skull rapid which is closely followed by the nasty whirlpool, the Room of Doom. These are infamous for trapping rafters in the swirling currents which leads to disaster.

I was guiding one of the paddle boats through the canyon section and had 3 others with me in the boat. We had nailed all of the previous rapids but when we got to Skull, I was luanched out of the boat early on in the rapid and ended up swimming the infamous Skull Rapid, leaving the others in the boat without a rutter. They ended up getting swept into the Room of Doom and having a hard time getting out.

A few minutes later, although it seemed like an eternity, we all ended up below the rapid with a dislocated shoulder, a tipped boat, a missing paddle, and a missing bag. To say the least, Skull had its way with us.

We ended up at Cisco a few hours later, looking back and saying, "it doesn't get much better than this." All and all, it was an awesome trip. I would recommend to anyone who hasn't floated the mighty Colorado to do so. It's quite an amazing river, just remember to watch out for the Skull!