Our friends, the Stegelmeiers, are big time river rafting and kayak junkies. Every year, Krehl tries to draw out for all kinds of river trips. He also gets a bunch of buddies to put in their names as well to draw out, (to have a better chance of getting the chance to do it). The "Gates of Lodore" is a really hard one to get. In fact, there is only like a 3% chance to draw out. Gary had put his name in along with 7 of Krehls buddies and Gary drew out! I have never been on a multi-day trip and I had heard that this is a really good one. The river is running REALLY high this year which means faster water. I'm in!
We traveled Friday night to the put in camp ground in Jensen. We arrived close to midnight and it was pouring rain. There were 15 of us in all and we all had to put up tents and get situated in the rain. Well, Gary put up our tent while I stayed in the car. He is such a good guy! After we finally got to bed, we heard blaring music from another camp site. So rude. I was surprised the group with the music wasn't more respectful to other campers. They were noisy until about 2am. Oh well. Anyway, we got up the next morning (still raining) and packed everything up and launched the rafts. We started with 5 rafts but decided we really only needed 4 since so many of the group were kayaking.
The weather cleared up (thankfully) but I was extremely grateful we were wearing rain pants and rain jackets. It was cold anyway and the water was freezing. We only had to go about 10 miles on Saturday so we stopped and had lunch, went on a hike and enjoyed the ride. That night we had BBQ pork sandwiches, corn on the cob and peach cobbler. So yummy. The best part was I didn't have to cook any of it! Gary and Krehl took care of almost all the cooking the whole weekend! We just visited with the other families around the fire and enjoyed each other's company. Jen and Lory Quarnberg came on the trip as well. We don't get to see them much and they are a lot of fun to be with. Jen cracked us up with all her E.R. stories.
I slept better the 2nd night. I was glad for all the trees around our campsite so I could hang all my wet clothes on! Our tent leaked and my bag was sitting in 1/2 inch of water in the morning. Almost all my clothes got wet in my bag. Bummer!
The rapids were so fun on this trip! The rollers were my favorite. It was like we were going on these crazy water roller coasters. There were some tricky rapids to maneuver and get through and I was glad to have Gary rowing. He is really good at it! It was a memorable wonderful trip. If I go again, I hope it is sunnier!
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