Lake Powell

27 August 2009
I start this Lake Powell log with a heavy heart. We had a simply marvelous trip, and an uneventful drive home. It wasn’t until we were unpacking and starting the mountains of laundry that we realized we couldn’t find our camera. We had some beautiful shots. The location can make anyone look like a great photographer, and we were no exception. Lots of action shots, family shots, nature shots. . . . We are still holding onto a hope that it will somehow be turned in. It’s most likely on the houseboat although Matt, Kelly Andy and myself did walkthroughs before leaving. So I’m facing the arduous task of narrating the trip with many more words than would have otherwise be needed if we only had those pictures.

We left home Wednesday morning as shortly after breakfast as we could. Packing the truck was a bit of a trick. The futon mattress, memory foam pad, and 3 sleeping bags took up almost all the space. We put the tail gate down and used the bed extender to house the 3 coolers with the perishable food and put as much under the seats as we could too. That just didn’t leave room for much else. Good thing we pretty much lived in swimsuits for a week, as they don’t take up much packing space. We had a long drive ahead of us and even leaving, weren’t entirely sure we were going the right way. Looking at a map, we don’t live very far away, as the crow flies. But every person and mapquest device was telling us to go north just past Beaver, then turn east on I-70 until just before Green River and then go back south. It seemed a really long way around, but at least it’s paved 2 lane roads most of the way. It took just under 9 hours to get there with a few stops.

The boat was up on land in the offshore marina. Jen, Brett and their girls had already arrived and loaded up on the boat. And of course Kelly and Andy were there. They all helped us unload. We made sandwiches for dinner and ran back and forth to the Chevron for potty breaks—no showers/dishwasher/potty until the boat was in the water. The kids wanted to sleep up top from the start. The stars were already great despite one big parking lot light behind us. There was a great benefit to the light though--it attracted the bugs which attracted the bats and the kids all got a kick out of watching the bats swoop all over catching their nighttime breakfast.

Early the next morning, a semi came and pulled the boat the last few miles to the water. We all followed in our trucks and got back in just before they launched it. Andy hooked up the yellow boat to the back and towed it north for an hour before he, Kelly and some of the cousins went to scout for a good camping spot. The place they found looked perfect. It was sandy for landing and LOTS of playing, high cliffs on either side providing more shade during the day, places to hike/climb around on the red rock and great for open water swimming. We didn’t find out the downside till later in the evening when the neighbors cranked up their music. They were a rowdy group who partied late each night. They ended up leaving the same day as Jen, Brett and girls, so the rest of us had a couple of quiet nights. Luckily, our kids were so worn out by the end of each day that they managed to get some decent sleep.

Instead of going chronologically, I’m going write about activities and start with the wild one. Isaac LOVED the tube. I witnessed a few wild rides with some combination of Jaimi, Kaeli, Jen and Isaac. (The 3 moms went once together, but we all managed to hang on, not sure how.) Andy managed to knock someone off sometimes, but apparently the best ride happened when I was back at the houseboat with the younger crowd. The first thing he said when he came back was, “Mom, now I really know what it feels like to have the air knocked out of you.” And with a huge grin he gave me a play by play account of the roughest ride ever which ended in the tube barrel rolling and all three riders getting thrown off. Matt reported that he flew a good 20 or 30 feet before hitting the water. Good warm up for cliff jumping later, I guess. The little girls loved the tube too, but their rides were considerably more gentle. Jess was happiest going straight. Anytime we went near the wake, she got nervous. Makenna would ride without me at times and didn’t mind a few bumps, but nothing too crazy. It was nice to have 8 cousins to match up for rides at varying levels of intensity. There was an easy, medium and hard group.

Most of the waterskiing and wake boarding happened first thing each morning, when the water was fresh and smooth. Andy and Kelly were certainly the experts, but the rest of us gave it a good effort. I couldn’t get up on the wake board for more than a few seconds the first morning I tried, so I gave up and switched to skis for a couple days. Sore muscles became a constant companion, but I am happy to say that now, almost a week later, I can once again completely straighten out my arms. I did try the wake board once again Monday morning and was very happy that I got up and stayed up. Maybe someday I’ll learn how to control the direction and be able to left and right. For me, skiing is easier, but the wake board is an intriguing challenge.

I guess the cliff jumping should be stuck in here—it’s another rather wild activity. Matt and Isaac jumped with Jen and her family the first time. I just heard about it. I think everyone had a turn. Matt and Kelly’s families went back to the same spot Monday. It was great spot for climbing around and anyone not interested in jumping had lots of fun chasing lizards all over the slick rock. There were also easy access spots to climb out of the water, yet many tiers that jutted out at varying heights for jumping. Jess tried a 5 foot drop a few times, but spent more time going off 2-3 feet with Rylee. Makenna surprised me by going off the 15-20 foot spot. It took her a couple minutes to work up the nerve to do it, and afterwards took a break on the boat. But later when Kelly was nervous about it, Makenna swam back, climbed up and jumped again to help Kelly. I think she did it once more after that too. I did that one a few times and felt perfectly content with that amount of stomach lurching. But Isaac dragged me up a few more feet (5-6 higher). He now loves to remind me how he is braver than me because I took forever going off. It’s true that I waited so long that Matt drifted in the boat and lost the good shot. So then he told me I had to do it again so he could get a picture. And now we even don’t have the camera. Se la vie. (spelling?) The point of all this is either wow, we have brave kids. Or uh-oh, we have crazy kids.

Andy brought two kayaks which were a big hit. The big cousins took younger cousins on expeditions multiple times a day. Their favorite spot to go was to “Clam Cliff”. They found hundreds of shells there (aquatic hitchhikers) which were carefully stored in ziplock bags to be treasured evermore. The kids would also take it in turns to escort their swimming parents with the canoes. Jen, Kelly, Matt and I did plenty of swimming. We can’t be sure of the distances, but it always felt like a good workout. Once when I swam out to meet Jen and Kelly, I found they had been choreographing a synchronized swimming routine and I got badgered into joining. We swam back to shore to show the crowd, who were mostly digging in the sand and covered in red dirt. After the first performance, we were met by stunned silence followed by some nervous laughter. The kids apparently thought their moms had finally cracked. But the second time with music went over a little better. We had hoped they would make up a show of their own, but it never happened. Too much else to do.

The sand/beach area got loads of use. Jess wanted to go out and play before breakfast each day and would be out doing the same thing until bedtime at night. Lots of little castles were built early on, but Matt and Andy helped build a fortress. They used 5 gallon buckets and a cooler to make huge blocks and had the kids working in assembly line fashion. There were diggers, kids to add water, kids to stomp through the wet sludge like a primitive grape press, there were kids adding dry sand after the forms were dumped out and fixing cracks and smoothing out spots. It was a big undertaking and it may be still standing right now. It withstood the winds that almost carried the boat away. Andy also introduced the kids to the Dam Race. The kids try and build bigger and bigger dams as he pours a big bucketful of water down the “ravine” every few minutes. They held off the flood for a long time before the dam finally broke.

The little kids also loved the simplest Lake Powell sand game of all. It’s the same one I remember playing for hours as a kid. Cover yourself in red sand and wash it off. They would play it everyday and never get tired of it. They would goop it all over legs, arms, life jackets and plenty would end up in their hair, then go splash it all off.

They also made quite a few fish traps, though none of them ever worked. Matt did catch one fish with a big bucket, weighted down with a rock and baited with some poppy seed muffin. That fish was named and fondly watched over until he made a bid for freedom and jumped out of the bucket after an hour or so. The kids panicked and helped him back to the water. Andy caught a fish too, with a fishing pole. But that caused a whole mess of problems when trying to free it and a little piece of the hook broke off in its mouth. There are a lot of people in this family fighting for fish rights.

One day, Friday perhaps, we went to see some Indian ruins. I think those who actually made it all the way up had a great historical experience. But to me, this part is mostly just a funny misadventure. It was hot and we had to park the boat on the far side of a 10 foot channel. No big deal, we were going to walk around and hike up. What wasn’t realized was that the water level was up significantly and the hike around ended up being much longer than anyone expected. We did not bring enough water along and it was hot. The sand was hot and burned some feet. The sand was irritating and was getting into other’s hiking shoes. And it was hot. We were a 14 person long line of grumblers, encouragers, and bribers. When we did finally get to the base of where the ruins were, Jen and I swam back to the boat (with running shoes on, thank you very much) to carry back life jackets for all the kids. My girls and her girls put them on immediately and came out to swim in the water between the ruins and the boat. Everyone was happy again. Matt, Isaac and Kelly’s family finished the hike and saw the cliff paintings and houses. When they came back down, Brett gave them their life jackets so they could swim out to us and he hiked back with the backpacks and cameras. It doesn’t matter how amazing and historical something is, hot grumpy kids don’t care. The next stop was an all out hit though.

On the way back to the house boat, we stopped by a cave. The water was cool in there and it was dark and it was all echo-y. Everyone jumped in the water and swam around as the boat bobbed in the shadows. Some swam to the back and touched the wall. The kids tried playing ring-around-the-rosie with lifejackets. We stayed until everyone started getting cold, then drove off for another adventure. There was a tiny canyon we passed on the way there that Jaimi and Kaeli wanted to explore some more. It was way too narrow to get the boat in so that first time Matt, Jess and Kelly stayed with the boat and played ping-pong with the walls. It’s so odd to have the crazy high walls so narrow even though the depth meter measured over 100 feet deep. The rest of us swam up to find a sandy spot that led to a rock hollow with a little pond. After climbing up the steep opposite side there were these crazy holes, perfectly round and very deep , cut into the rock. They were several feet across and we had to carefully shimmy around them. We dubbed it Holy Frog Canyon due to the weird circular holes and the cute little frogs living there. We went back Monday so the three left behind could see it. We brought a bunch of extra bumpers for the boat and anchored it on the wall through a windblown hole in the rock. We also brought along an inflatable raft to hold some water, snacks, and more importantly, the camera. We found the names of the first group written in the sand and took pictures, which we no longer have. Sigh.

Sunday morning we went out to Rainbow Bridge. I learned that it, not anything at Arches, is the world’s largest natural bridge. It was an easy hike compared to the ruins and made for a pleasant, beautiful morning. Once again, we took some amazing pictures, lots of individual family ones, lots of shots of cousins paired up together. . . . yeah. But it was a great spot. When we got back there was just time for a quick lunch before saying good-bye to the Muellers. They had to drive back to start school the next morning. They were sorely missed.

I have to go back though and mention the several hours of excitement when a storm blew in the night before. At least one of the anchors was coming loose and all the adults worked hard to pull the boat back, tie it off tighter and strengthen the anchor holds. That really doesn’t capture the intensity of it all, but this narrative is getting ridiculously long. After our boat was safe again, we saw the obnoxious neighbors’ boat break free and bang into the canyon wall. Oops. I have to mention this though. When Andy and Matt left to take the Muellers back to shore, Isaac was the only man left. When the wind picked up a bit and he went right out and started piling more rocks on the dodgy anchor and then packing shovelfuls of dirt on top. That’s what the men do. Protect the boat and the womenfolk.

That night was supposed to be the campfire night, but it was too windy. So we stayed in and the kids had a talent show. They were shy at first, but quickly got into it and kept thinking of more things to do. Everyone had a chance to be in the spotlight and there was much laughter and clapping and fun. Our kids still slept outside, but they were crammed together with Jen’s girls under the canopy to ward off any rain that might fall.

The next night we did the campfire and roasted marshmallows. Andy told an Indian story and at the very end, right as he finished the new neighbors let off an illegal firework. BANG!! Everyone jumped. But after we realized what it was, we quite enjoyed the show of 7 or 8 more. That night the remaining 9 of us started on top again, but it started raining sometime well after midnight and everyone finished up inside. The very last night was beautiful.

So that’s the stuff we did. The kids felt like they were rocking at times for a couple days after we got home. They were happy to have flushing toilets again and warm, fresh water showers. Though for camping, I don’t feel like we roughed it too much. We did have showers and a dishwasher and even washed one batch of clothes. They really didn’t mind pretty much living with their lifejackets on, but they don’t miss them either. All in all, it was a perfectly grand vacation.