so i just got off of my 1st trip of the season...a 7 day desolation canyon trip on the green river here in utah. i've never been on a 7 day deso trip (usually i'm on the 5 day trips from hell) so needless to say i was really looking forward to spending lots of time in the canyon. the passengers we took down were 6 inner city kids from florida, one of their dads, a "leader" (you'll understand why that's in quotations) and a board member of this organization. the kids were great - they've never been camping before, many had never even been outside of their city. just to see the look in their eyes when they were paddling their inflatable kayaks into a rapid, or how they loved seeing shooting stars for the first time, or cooking smores on a real campfire - that made it ALL worth it.
this quite possibly could have qualified as one of the best trips i've ever been on in utah. the kids did a "show" for us, which consisted of telling jokes (my favorite - "your momma is fat, she has a chip on her shoulder. then she ate it") hahah, you know i love silly jokes. we were "initiated" into their tribe, while we had a mandatory dress up night and the boys were all wearing girls clothes since it was all we had. (and the "leader" was afraid they were turning into cross-dressers!) yeah, the leader was a TOOL. from day 1 i hated the guy, and i know that's not very social-worker of me, but he was such an idiot that i couldn't help but ignore him. he made racist comments in front of the kids and didn't even try to help them. it bothered us all, but the fact that the boys were energetic and were enjoying themselves made up for it.
i think the best part of the trip had to be night 3....after seeing a bear in camp the previous night, the leader was freaking that the bear would come into camp. it then started to pour rain, amazing lightening and thunderstorms and we continued to cook dinner (and drink whiskey on the down low...the kids didn't know because they were all in their tent). we drank just enough to make the rain bearable and even fun, then the clouds literally parted and it was time to eat the sandy hot dogs and burgers i cooked. we happened to be camped above a sweet rapid, so us 4 guides took 2 inflatable kayaks and ran the rapid a few times. it was sweet....how i've missed utah!
anyway, i load for a 4 day trip tomorrow that starts sunday morning. it'll be my frirst lead guide this year and i'm stoked about it....this hot weather is so nice, and doesn't make me miss boston one bit!
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