The Lower Gunnison River/ Dominguez Canyon

We just enjoyed three days of hot desert rafting. The Lower Gunnison is a non-permitted class I-II stretch. What does a professional class V guide do for fun?.....class I!- ba-dum-pa. What a fabulous time. The only other river traffic was a commercial canoeing trip, they were our neighbors the first night. Their guide, Stan, showed us the lay of the land and was a big help since this was our first time there. Along with a desire to have an engineering degree - cartography would have been a good trade for one of us-(not super encouraging for two folks about to hit the road for a year). Stan also coined the phrase “refocusing” as opposed to retiring. I’ll have to use that.

The canyons were majestic, the weather perfect and the mosquitoes were hardly a nuisance since the biting flies distracted you from them. Dan had a momentary lapse into “Full Metal Jacket” mode where, I am sorry to report, an untimely death came to about 50 biting deer flies. After his a carnal man v. beast display, the smell of death seemed to scare the other bugs away. Who needs Deet- I’ve got Dan.

Tonight we are attending the bachelor/ bachelorette parties of our friends whose wedding is this weekend. Sunday (assuming we didn’t partake too much in the open bar) we are on the road. Six weeks of “refocusing” before our Grand Canyon trip.

Note to readers: When we are on the road I often read our emails on our phone- this makes replying a bit tricky- you know hit the #7 four times to get “s” and so on. If you get a reply from us that is both short and fraught with lines like: thx- and- u r great 2, then you may assume I am trying to conquer technology, and I rarely win in those battles. If you are willing to accept that our replies may not reflect the same writing style we try and showcase here- then email away- we always try and reply.

Now here's the pictures.


Dan bridge jumping.


Somehow I don't look quite as cool- could it be because I am very afraid of heights???


Our boat. The biminy is a new addition and this was its first test run. It will be a fabulous thing to have on the Grand in August.


Rachel rowing.


Dang rowing(by the way Daniel Goddard is called Dang by most everyone)


The view from Dominguez Canyon.


Another Dominguez Canyon view.


Our first night's camp.


Last shot from the rio. Us under the man-made water fall/ shower on Dominguez Creek

Now for some pictures from the Red Bull Divide and Conquer race we worked last weekend...


This is the view from the put-in. We had to put on at 6:30 am to beat the racers to our check point- BURRRRRR!


This is Dan running No Name rapid, a class V. We were hired to provide safety through this rapid for the race. As it turned out this was the only rapid on the whole 27 mile stretch where anyone swam. And swim they did.


This guy tried SO hard to will his boat back to shore, but he had to wait until all the competitors had passed our check point for us to pull his boat off that rock for him. Then, in last place, he still paddled the remaining 20 miles and his team finished the race.


The adventure race was a four-man relay race. The first team member ran 7 miles up Kendall Mtn. from Silverton. He then passed off a silver nugget to a paraglider who dropped off the mountain as fast as he could to the river put-in. Then the kayaker raced down 27 miles of solid class IV-V rapids. Finally a mtn. biker road 27 miles of gruling terrain to the finish at Durango Mountain Resort. This was billed as the hardest race ever in N.A. and was styled after the Dolamite Race.



Racers


This is the Rockwood Gorge, the last set of rapids before the end of the kayaking leg.


And Finally a photo from Dusty and Lauren's wedding- what a wonderful spot to get hitched :)

Week One

We have officially been full-timers for three whole days. Now I realize that this is a very short amount of time, however, I think I can safely say that I LOVE living in my camper. Everything I need is right here. Dan and I chuckle each time one of asks where something is, "it's in the camper, duh". Where else would it be?

Our first two nights were spent at the Florida Campground, (forest service maintained, $10/night, pit toilets, campfire/ grill pits, plenty of shade and river front spots), just up from Lemon Reservoir. The campsite was fabulous, save for the swarms of mosquitoes. It was right on the river with beach access and a nice, if unproductive, fishing hole right in front.

On Wednesday we headed off on our mountain bikes, or should I say we headed up on our bikes. We climbed for three and a half hours, swearing at each switchback that we MUST be at the top this time. As exhausting as the ride up was, the meadows we saw and the 360 degree views from there made every pedal stroke worth it. And if that wasn't enough, the 45 minute downhill was a blast. After this ride we were a bit tuckered out so we enjoyed our first retiree siesta- something that may have to become a habit.
So far I have read two books, both around 350 pages- I better slow down or I'll run out of books. What a luxury t be able to sit and read for hours on end.

I can safely say that I have not been bored for a minute. We seem to be falling into a routine of up early, breakfast and coffee, morning dishes, morning reading, afternoon activity, (today we are kayaking around the lake), then later lunch, lunch dishes, game of some sort (cribbage, scrabble, bocce ball, etc.), dinner, dishes, evening reading, bed. No time to spare really. Campering is a full-time job.

Currently we are at the Miller Campground on the reservoir (forest service maintained, $12/night, pit toilets, campfire/ grill pits, water, plenty of shade and lake front spots).

Tomorrow we head back into Durango for the wedding of our friends Dusty and Lauren. Saturday we will be in Silverton, preparing for the Red Bull adventure race. Sunday morning we will put our raft on the river, the Upper Animas, row down to No Name, a class V rapid, where we will sit in our boat with safety equipment should any of the racers need assistance. I'll post pictures from the race next week. Here are the pictures from this week.



Florida campground spot #13



Dan adjusting to retirement.


Us during our uphill ride.



View from the ride


Miller campsite #2


Fire damage from 2002 fires.


View from campsite #12


Lake sunset.

Full-time and underaged!

So the day is upon us. The last six weeks have been filled with the kind of sweeping life changes that send people into Cybil-like mood swings, depressions and general freak outs. Dan quit his dream job and has no idea what he wants to be the next time he grows up. I graduated from college, without a job prospect. Our doggie died. We sold our home. (This one’s particularly big, because once upon a time owning a home in Durango was our biggest dream. Housing prices are obscene here and selling our home may very well mean that we can never afford to live in Durango again.) We held a slash and burn sale and sold most of our worldly possessions. Anything we didn’t sell has been reduced down to half a Zircon container full of Rubbermaid boxes. And finally we have moved from our 1000 sq. foot home into an 8x11 aluminum can.
This last month in Durango we have become acutely aware of what we are leaving. It is so very easy to take for granted all that you have in your own backyard, especially when day to day life doesn’t allow you to enjoy all of the hiking, biking, kayaking and fishing spots within walking distance of your home. The last two weeks have been nostalgia filled for us. Durango is a truly fabulous town, just perhaps not the most fabulous place for us, right now. However, we realize how blessed we have been to live here all of the years and how spoiled we are to be able to take an entire year to try and find somewhere even better.
First on our itinerary is a “kicking the tires’ trip. Three days at Lemon Reservoir to see if we remembered everything and what we brought that we can leave behind. It is particularly fitting that our journey begins today, June 15th, for this is our wedding anniversary and what better way could we possibly find to spend it?
Today we are officially full-time and underaged.


Old back yard.


New back yard.
If you look closely here you can see the infamous double hitch system.

We are off to camp for probably four days and I doubt we'll be able to post from there. So check back this weekend. Cheers to all.
Dan and Rach.

So long, farewell.

Tomorrow is moving day! If all goes well then Monday or Tuesday we will will officially be full-time, underaged RVers.


Rachel's retirement cake.


Dan's retirement party at the fire department.


My favorite part of our house.


Another view of our yard.


All our worldly posessions all packed up for moving.

Time Out

We took a break from packing and moving to go fishing with a new friend. Ben was on our Upper Animas trip from the last post and he is a guide on the San Juan River. You will note the lack of pictures of us with fish- this is not because we didn't catch any- in fact we caught too many, and had no time for pictures :) Thanks to Ben for a great diversion. Now back to packing. We are planning to be out of our house and into the camper by Monday.


Dan and Ben on the drift boat.


Combat fishing- this is a VERY popular spot.


When we go fishing Dan almost always catches the bigger fish, but I catch more fish :)


Ben's boat.

The Upper A.

For about a decade Dan and I have worked on the Upper Animas, a stretch of class V whitewater between Silverton and Durango, Colorado. Our trip is an overnight and it is where we spend the night that has kept us hooked into working up there all of these years. Camp Needleton is a big one on the “to be missed” list. Here are some pictures from our weekend. Additionally I would like to include my first ever blog “shout out” to the fabulous folks we took down this Sunday/ Monday. Here’s to you guys- what a great couple of days and especially, here’s to the a**master.
If anyone is interested in knowing more about this trip check out the company we work for Mountain Waters Rafting


The camp is semi-permanent. This is the main guest tent.


The kitchen.


Breakfast.


Guide's quarters


Needle Creek a short hike from our camp.


Sunset on the cliffs.


We use the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Train to run our shuttle. Here's the train coming by camp Sunday morning.


See the frost on the boats? It was a bit cool that morning.


The Upper is class V and anything can happen. One of our boats got cut by some metal in the river. But didn't our buddy Dale do a nice stitch job?!


What a great town.

What we will miss...

I figured I ought to take some time to reflect on what I love about Durango and the wonderful life we have had here. So as time permits over the next two weeks I will upload some pictures of what I love and will miss about this great little cowboy town.






There is a town run on the river that is so easily accessed and is so much fun- where else can you run through town at 6pm?? I am sure there are other towns with fun whitewater runs right in them- hopefully we'll find one during this next year.


We will miss our rafting buddies- we love you guys and have no idea where we'll find people who can make a phone call and get everybody on the river a half hour later.


If one must work...at least I got to work in a beautiful historic building in the heart of town.




These columbine grow right under my office window.


More to come....

La vida loca

Rachel's folks at the Pyramids in Egypt this Monday! How cool is this?!?

Sorry to have gone so long between posts- we are livin’ la vida loca- (also sorry for the Ricky Martin quote). In the past two weeks we held our yard sale and peddled off all of our wares, also we sold our house and finally we have been house-sitting for Dan’s folks, who were in Thailand- wow do we have jet setting families or what !?! Wonder where we got our wanderlust???

In the midst of all of this we have been trying to pack up the rest of our belongings and putting our ducks in their various rows prior to our departure. With the sale of our house comes an expedited moving plan. We had sort of counted on being able to gradually move out throughout June, but now we are planning on being in the camper on June 13th. This leaves a mere 17 days for us to condense our lives down from 1000 square feet into our 8x11 mobile aluminum can.

Additionally I am training my replacement at work and since Dan’s mother is also my boss, I was training while filling in for her. My normal amount of free time (and thereby blog maintenance time) at work has been greatly diminished.

I am guessing things aren’t going to get any calmer in the next few weeks so I trust you’ll all forgive me if my posts are infrequent until we are on the road. However, I am happy to answer any specific pre-trip questions if you’d care to email us. Cheers to all, and check back soon.

Slash and Burn Sale

My glorious weekend was spent parceling out items from my past that at one time or another I just had to have. Now these things have been reduced to close to worthless trinkets. Yes, it was yard sale preparation weekend. You don't know joy until you put a .50-cent price tag on a dry top you paid $250 for.

After the initial sting, of the devaluation of my life's acquisitions, there is a strange peacefulness that arises out of cutting the dead weight. While we will not be able to reduce our load to only the camper's contents, we really won't have much to tote along should we ever settle down again. Our household has been reduced to a camper, a full raft trailer and a half-full Zircon container. Tomorrow is the big sale, after that we will be living pretty bare bones for a month. Good practice for us, no?

Time sure is ticking away now. A few posts back I ranted about the pre-trip depression that had set in, that has been replaced by pre-trip euphoria. This period may be the best time of our entire trip. I mean right now I am excited. I still think we can do this, that we can make it a whole year in an 11x8 foot aluminum can. As of today the truck hasn't broken down, the tires haven't blown out, we have yet to be robbed, led astray or woken at 2am at Maglight-point and asked to mosey along. This is a hopeful, fun time. 28 days to go :)

38 Days and a Degree.

This weekend I graduated from Fort Lewis College, (if you are not aware of the length of time this took me then refer to the February archives). In honor of this momentous occasion we had a good ‘ol fashioned pig roast attended by all of our friends and my parents who came to town from Ohio. Graduating was a big one to check of the pre-trip list, now all that is left is:

___ Pack up house, sell all non-essential belongings.
___ Quit job.
___ Load up camper.
___ Say goodbye to friends and family.
___ Hit the road.

Here are some pictures from this weekend’s festivities.


Dan and Rachel on the FLC campus.


Rachel and fellow graduate Jesse with their pig. (Sorry to any of our vegetarian readers ;)


Dan this is a party for your wife, not your boat!


We gave .50 cent tours of the camper, or as our friend Brook insists on calling it, the trailer.