Hello hello hello all family, friends, and well wishers from the boys of B2B! This week we’re writing you from the Colorado River, that’s right, a 3-day rafting trip! It was a hectic weekend here at Hunter, with most of the residents being away from the house on Friday and Saturday following family weekend. Ahh, good memories..
We had to leave the house by 7am, luckily the van was packed the night before. After a 2 hour ride, we unpacked and half of us loaded up the motor boat to get carried 16 miles upstream to Glen Canyon dam. The rest of us did a short hike into Cathedral Wash killing time before the boat got back to ferry us to our jump off point.
Once we all regrouped just outside of the dam, we loaded up the boats and headed downstream. To get down the Colorado we would be floating in 4 inflatable duckies, 2 pack rafts (thanks Kelly and Kevin), a kayak (thanks Jenny), and Kevin’s inflatable ninja raft. Day one we had about 5 river miles to travel. This was unlike any trip we have done before, the canyon walls sat several hundred feet above us. It was beautiful and with the current of the river moving us downstream, we had time to sit back and marvel at the red rocks around us. Kevin even had time to take his fly rod out and catch some trout. The day flew by and a couple of us even had some time to catch some Z’s in the duckies.
Around 4 we found a nice beach to stop and set up camp. We held an end of week review, which is similar to community and the topic of conversation was family weekend, primarily. Afterward, we ate dinner and attempted to hold our 7pm AA meeting but it was rained out so most of us retired to our tents to head to bed.
The next morning we were up by 7, a lot of us needed to catch up on sleep after family programming. We then had an AA meeting that morning, quickly packed our rafts and headed down the river. Day 2 we would be traveling 7-8 miles down the Colorado. Even after traveling 5 miles the day before, the canyon was still breath taking. Around 10 we pulled over at Horseshoe Bend, which we have hiked before so it was really cool to see it from a different perspective. We watched the eclipse as dozens of Jerries watched us from atop Horseshoe.
Afterwards, we headed downstream to water holes canyon for a short hike and Sharing is Caring meeting. Then we headed back to the boats to find a camp for the night. We didn’t have to go far, a couple hundred yards downstream we saw a site with a bathroom and set up for the night. After dinner, our very own resident Z shared his experience, strength, and hope. then we headed to bed.
The next morning we had about 4 miles to float to get to the vans. So of course we raced…. duh. It was a dead sprint to the finish. We had to make up for all the paddling we didn’t do the first 2 days. We ended up making it out in just under an hour. Everyone won this trip, we all had a blast.
After packing up the van and deflating the rafts, we got in the vans and headed back to Flag. Thanks again to all the outdoor staff for planning another amazing adventure! We love all you guys and c-ya next week!!
