39375 - May update

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Dag,
   Iris (Moab, 39375 miles)

39237 - 0+120+50+51=Green

0 miles
Its starts as always with the shitty part; the preparations. Buying food, organizing, packing, reading maps, thinking. Everything has its own place in the Oto, and for each trip equipment has to be piled together in different ways. Being on the road for a while now, I get the hang of it more and more, and this time preparations take only one day. Not bad. One more thing to do, I drive to the Island in the Sky and check out the land from above, that’s where I will be soon.


120 miles
The real trip starts off with a big discussion with the park ranger in Green River state park. Why do I need to bring a fire pan (something I don’t wane buy or even fits inside my kayak) if I don’t make a fire. I do carry already an extra life jacket (no idea why, wearing one is not mandatory) and even more annoying a throw rope (to rescue myself?). I do win the discussion but am now in a very against-America-mode. I paddle hard to get it out of my system and think happy thoughts about what is in front of me; 120 miles of the Green River, snaking through the center part of the Colorado Plateau.

Over time, southeast Utah was flooded by oceans, crisscrossed by rivers, covered by mudflats and buried by sand. The climate has resembled a tropical coast, an interior desert, and everything in between. Layer upon layer of sedimentary rock formed as buried materials were cemented by precipitates in ground water.

Until about 15 million years ago, most of the Canyonlands area was near sea level. But movements in the earth's crust caused the whole area to rise. This uplift is known as the Colorado Plateau and today the average elevation is over 1700 meter above sea level.

Erosion instead of deposits is forming the landscape nowadays and the Colorado and the Green river are cutting canyons deep through all the deposit layers. Following the Green river south, I make a trip back in time. Every mile I paddle brings me deeper into the earth and older layers are exposed.

I start in the Dakota sandstone, deposited about 100 million years ago.

And among other layers, I paddle down into the Nevajo Sandstone, 175 million years old.

The White Rim sandstone, 250 million years old.

As far down as the Paradox formation, 300 million years old.

Over the course of the 6 days I am on the river, I travel through 25 different layers. Its amazing to see these layers being born right in front of my eyes.

Had I came for solitude, the opposite I get. As floating in a sea kayak is not really comfortable, I make way better progress then all the canoes. And I get to know the other people on the river and word spreads around about me.

And that’s not a bad thing, because I become “the woman who likes to be alone” and get some solitude. With very high water there are not many campsites and I still have to share twice a campsite. However the nights that I spend alone are making more then up for it.

With easily 30 miles days (with 4 miles/hour for free) I have to temper myself not to be to early at the end. I force myself for some side hiking exploration. A good one is Bow Knot Bend, where the river comes within 600 meters back to itself after running for 7 miles around a bend.

In Jasper canyon some 5.7 climbing moves brings me in a desolated canyon.

I climb up from Fort Bottom, where I camp, to some ruins and admire the towering cliffs around me.

But also from the river the cliffs are amazing.

With a good view from below to candlestick tower.


50 miles
I am at the confluence, 700 meters below the surface of the earth, where the Green River and the Colorado River come together. Ahead is the Catarac canyon, a white water stretch, with rapids up to class V. That’s a literally dead end canyon for me. I make camp with 6 older guys from Salt Lake and get filled up with food, beer, stories and wait. The next morning there is breakfast and I keep waiting. At the agreed time they show up, my jetboat ride back up the Colorado to Moab.

It’s a whole different feel to cruise on high speed to this red country and I am not into it anymore and mostly talk with the other passengers.

51 miles
Back in Moab things are not over yet. A waiting is my bike and so I repack for a ride back to the Oto. The first 16 miles are on the main road and it is not a pleasant ride. I quickly head west for a dirt road short cut, which of course turns out to be longer then the main road. I make camp, well, I throw down my sleeping bag behind a bush. Being bitten all over, this night the no-see-ums are not getting me, and I sweat through the night in my bivi sack.

When I mount my bike the next morning I feel complete happiness. The sun is out, the wind in my back and no other person to be seen. I might call myself, a climber, a hiker, maybe even now a kayaker, but what I really am is a biker.

With the road stretching out before me, waiting to be discovered, this is what I love, this is who I am.

Dag,
   Iris (Green River, 39237 miles)

38433 - When you are awesome

When you decide that she is worth the move back to New Zealand, you pick a date for your last day at work.

But one Wednesday morning, with still a month to go, you walk in the office and think: Really? On Thursday you talk to your boss and resign. Friday is your last day at work, Saturday you arrange stuff and on Sunday you mount your bike and start biking East.

That’s pretty much what you do when you are awesome, and that’s pretty much why L is my friend.

We meet in Southern Utah and hike the Needles part of Canyonland NP.

We visit Arches NP. Beautiful surrounding, but a lame experience with all the tourists around.

Most of all we cook.

And talk until late into the night.

Going to miss you much and we will meet again somewhere in life.

Love you.

Dag,
   Iris (Moab, 38433 miles)

38040 - Petrified Forest NP

Trees once covered the banks of big rivers in this area, 225 million years ago. When they fell over, the river washed them into the floodplain and silt, mud and volcanic ash covered them. Cut of from oxygen, Silica-laden groundwater seeped through the logs and replaced the organic matter with silica. The silica crystallized into quartz and a petrified forest was born.

Stones in the form of tree logs.

Add some minerals and you have fancy colours.

Good to see once in your life, but boring at the same time.

Dag,
   Iris (Petrified Forest NP, 38040 miles)

37684 - One day

Instead of the husband of the grey haired lady I am talking with, the son appears from underneath the kayak. My heart misses a beat. Thirty minutes later I drop H off at his car and leave him behind with a lined through phone number but a readable email in my hand. He stops shortly after to put my kayak in the Everglades waters and I watch him drive away back into his own world.

Now 3 month later I am waiting at a campsite in Cochise Stronghold to meet again. Its getting dark and I am getting nervous. With who am I actually meeting, will I even recognize H, what did I sign up for this time? Finally a car pulls up and a shape with a headlamp appears on each side of the vehicle. It becomes one of these awkward moments in life that I have no clue what to do with myself. Which light is it?

The next morning I can at least identify who is who. Recognition; No. But the feel I have around H is the same as back then, I feel a woman.

Over the next 9 days I get to know them both better. They are the classic climbing couple. One is serious and sweet the other one rough and attractive. They balance each other out, keep each other sane and create an environment that I feel totally comfortable in.

As most of the time when I climb with an established climbing couple, I mostly do nothing except from climbing and hanging out on belays. Its in a sense boring as I like all the ropie stuff but that’s the faith of a third person. When hanging out with N on the belays, we talk talk talk. I like it. Even better though are the belays with H, when I can just be.

For me its real when you can be with a person without talking, when somebody’s present is enough to feel comfortable. Its just sucks that I have to climb 200 meter up a rock and hang on a chicken head anchor to feel save and taken care of. Guess that’s my life.

After a couple of days climbing together I finally feel confident enough to lead some pitches. Not having lead with 2 ropes before, belayed on chicken heads and set up a guide XTR, I screw up the belay big time. N subtle asks if he should take the next lead. H however has still confidence in me. Nobody died and she won’t make that mistake again. (Where have I heard that before, oh jeh, when P took a little bit longer fall then planned.) Its all I need to hear, and the next 2 pitches I lead steady and safe. Thanks.

The climbing over all is amazing. Free campsites, a running creek to fresh up, granite multi pitch domes and with no guide book, an adventure to find the climbs.
H: Guess we are in the wrong valley?....A morning of hiking is also beautiful here!
Me: Why does this 5.5 bolted lead feels like a 5.9/10a…Oh, because it is…so proud!

I really love it here.

The only draw backs are the evenings. I like to sit around the campfire with some good healthy food, wine/beer and talk. For me this is a big part of the whole climbing experience. As N has the early mornings by himself birding, and me some afternoons when I opt out on climbing, H likes to have the evenings to himself. With the now famous words: “Nothing ever bad happened in my tent.” he disappears again into his own world. I understand, just had it different in mind. The times when we sit at the fire, I enjoy double.

I was so happy he came, so sad he left. If we meet again? I have no clue. I can only hope. One day I figure out these American men. For now, I keep struggling on. But if we meet again, I cook. Seriously!

Dag,
   Iris (Cochise, 37684 miles)