Down the River with Cody the Kid

This is Cody, he's my hooligan kid.

 




For the last couple years I've been taking Cody down the Green River through Desolation Canyon. Last year it was hot hot hot!

 

Before the trip we went to the thrift store to get some "sun protection gear". Seven days out in the 100+ degree weather a sunburn is a bad deal in several ways.

 



We'd "shade up" during the middle of the day, preferably in a spot where there was wet sand, good swimming, and where the shade was waxing. Cody spent most of the hot afternoons swimming while I'd lounge on the wet sand and read. Maybe take a nap.

 

We'd wait until evening cook some dinner, do dishes, put everything away, and head on downstream until well after dark. Around dusk we'd see all kinds of critters coming out for a look around at the end of a long hot day, as we'd silently float downstream. After dark we'd tie up the raft somewhere and crash out right on the deck of the boat, or a wide open sandy beach.

 

Part of the idea was to cook dinner and sleep in different locations so the bears didn't have any scents to be attracted to. These bear tracks were on a random beach where we stopped to have a look around.



Even when its 100 degrees at 10pm you gotta have a fire when your camping with a kid. Roasting marshmallows is a big deal too! I gave Cody a quick lesson on how to select Juniper or Pinyon Pine from the driftwood piles because burning cottonwood is a bad deal, the smoke smells like dirty pot scrubbers.

 

Cody couldn't get enough of the boat, specifically being at the helm.

 



We also did a fair amount of walking around...found a couple secret stashes left there by people a long time ago.

 



 ...and from a long, long time ago.

 





 Found a couple neat views too.