Me, Jake, and the Green River

As I was adding all the copies of the "Garrett Gazette," I read the one about when Jake and I went canoeing on the Green River. Megan didn't write much about it, They had their own excitement going on at the time. So I thought I would write a bit about that, even if it's been a while.

The part of the river that we went down wasn't what you would describe as swift, adventurous, dangerous, or exciting. That late in the season, it wasn't even deep. It was almost a lazy river. I do think that the person who named the river is color blind. It is not a very green color at all. It's more of a brown color.

So Jake, a bunch of our ward's boys, those boy's leader's, their father's, and I got into that river with a bunch of canoes. I guess I'll back up a bit. We drove down to Ruby's Ranch, just outside of the town of Green River. I hadn't slept since the day before, so I was a bit worn down by the time we got there. It was already dark. So we ate dinner, and I threw down a tarp, put a sleeping bag on top of it, wrapped the tarp over the top of me, to keep out bugs, and went to sleep. I am glad that we slept fairly close to some diesel powered irrigation pumps, because I think it may have masked some of my snoring. I believe Jake slept on the trailer with canoes over head. He found out that bats think upside down canoes a couple feet up in the air is a nifty resting spot.

The next morning, early, a few of the adults took the trucks and trailers to the spot we were going to get out of the river. I think we all underestimated the amount of time that would take. But it wasn't bad hanging out with those boys while we waited. We played horseshoes, and gave a few of the younger boys the opportunity to practice in the canoes. We dragged them upstream about 15 yards, and sent them down. But they were antsy by the time everyone got back. We ate lunch, loaded a raft with all the food and general gear, and left in the afternoon.

As I might have said earlier, this part of the river, at this time of year, is a bit slow. I was in a canoe with Brandon Springer. He is a great kid! I guess it was a lot more fun in the water, because he was in it, by choice, more than in the canoe. I think it was a great way to stay cool. Most of the boys thought it was a great idea. But the laws of physics show that a canoe is faster in water than bobbing bodies, so we didn't make a lot of progress that first day.
As the afternoon was progressing to evening, we stopped for the night on a sandbar. It was dry, and had minimal bugs. Just before the dry sand, there was sand under about two inches of water for about fifty yards. I have to admit, that I have eaten that well while camping. We ate grilled steak, salmon, ice cream, and homemade rootbeer.

After dinner, those who felt so inclined, went and played football in the two inches of water. From what I saw, and heard, it wasn't all that shallow. There were pockets of deeper water to cool you off in a hurry. To round off the night, we had a spiritual thought from Brother Ostler, the Young Men's President, about being steadfast and immovable. It was fitting, considering the rock cliffs that line both sides of the river. I again threw down my tarp, Jake grabbed his sleeping, I grabbed mine, and we slept under a sky of stars.

The next morning, after a good breakfast, we headed out again. We learned some lessons from the previous day, and kept everyone out of the water. The canoes went pretty fast after that. We made up the time that we had lost the day before. Brandon and I did pretty well together. He may have been a bit disappointed to be with me. His biggest ambition, was to water war with everyone. While I don't mind getting wet, I had a different agenda.

I am fair skinned, I am white. I have often said that I am a vampire. The sun burns me. If I think sunlight, I'm burned by it. So, he would start paddling as hard as he could to catch up to this canoe, or that one. If we were in the shade, I would paddle backwards. And the poor kid would start paddling harder, while I sat in the back paddling the other way. Once he figured out I was doing it, I think it was a challenge to him. I am a lazy vampire, so then I just turned the canoe backwards. He, being a great kid, handled it well.

The only reason that this vampire is still alive, is thanks to Heavenly Father taking pity upon me, and the regular, liberal, use of sunscreen. I think the sunscreen was supposed to last an hour and thirty minutes, so I put it on every hour and twenty minutes. I didn't even get any pink.

The next night we camped on another sand bar. We had a great dinner of fajitas. And my favorite part of the night was a talk by Brother Humphries about God creating everything, but knowing each individual. He talked about the billions of stars in the Milky Way, which I think were just about all visible. Yet God knows each of his children, and their needs, and loves them as individuals. My paraphraing isn't doing any of his talk justice.

After that I threw down my tarp, gave Jake my sleeping bag, threw on my blanket, and went layed down to sleep. (Earlier, Jake had capsized his canoe, and his gear was wet.) There were millions of stars that night, maybe a few planes, maybe a few satellites, but no moon. I only know of a few constellations, but spent a few minutes with Jake looking at Orion, the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, and the North Star. I appreciated that.

Jake had shown me how great of a kid he was that day. He had fun, and acted in many ways like all the priests his age. There was a time that all the priests were back rowing the raft. The canoes are naturally quicker, so it was hard work. All the canoes were way ahead of the raft, which was pulling a water trampoline. I'm not sure why, but for some reason, they decided to untie the trampoline. I was so proud to see that when the raft came up, my son was counted as a worker, and not one of the boys just drifting down on the trampoline. And when there was something to be done for dinner, he was there helping. He gave me great pride to be his dad!

The last day was pretty uneventful. I paddled Skyler and brandon around for half the day, and then helped on the raft until we got off the river. While I was on the raft, I got to know Brother Boyer, Brother Ostler, Brother Hinton, and Brother Springer better. I was again impressed by Jake in how he tried to help as we loaded up to leave. Brother Yama lost his keys, and the broke into his truck, but he had to go back and get it later with some spare keys.

I have to say that this trip, was worth every bit of the time and money. I appreciated seeing that side of Jake. I am grateful for the young men leaders that took the time for these boys. This was great for me!