Labyrinth

It was one year ago, last week, that my two boys and I paddled down the Green River in southern Utah. We canoed down the Labyrinth Canyon, almost 50 miles, with their Boy Scout troop. We had an awesome time!

My husband took this exact trip with our two sons and daughter, three different years in the past. I never went along. I always thought that I had too much work to do at my job. Also, I wanted my children to have some bonding time with their dad. Now that Scott is gone, I wish I had gone with them. That's why, when this trip came up last year, I decided to go.

We put in at Ruby Ranch, outside of the town of Green River. We planned to be on the river for 5 days and come out at Mineral Bottom, near Moab.

Here we're loading the canoes. There were eight adults, eleven boys, six canoes and two kayaks.
Everyone was responsible for their own gear and canoes. All the gear needed to be packed into the canoes and lashed down in case of capsizing. It didn't take long for the boys to figure out what needed to be done.

Because we were traveling downriver with a maximum current of about 3 miles per hour, we set up a new camp every night. We had to carry all our gear and food with us. Here's some of the boys at one of the camps.
I found it amazing how much energy the boys had. After a whole day paddling, they still wanted to rock climb. I wasn't really aware of how high they went, until after the trip, and we looked at pictures. Otherwise, I might have freaked!

Here, one of the boys is harvesting ice from a frozen waterfall, found up one of the canyons we camped in.

The rock walls were amazing! We started with almost no cliffs, then, as we traveled down river, the canyon walls got higher and more impressive.

To be continued...

Labyrinth - Labyrinth, 1986 movie starring David Bowie