Canyonlands Green River Canoe Trip 2009: Getting to Moab & Setting Up Camp

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2009

Jeff drove me to the Tulsa airport at 6 am to catch an 8:15 am Southwest flight to Salt Lake City where I was to meet Peter Martinelli, an organic farmer friend of Kim’s and Jess’s who was going with us and who had flown in from California. The flight was a bit bumpy, exacerbated by the woman next to me on the aisle who kept up an almost constant series of moans, shrieks and fearful “what’s that?” questions. The guy across the aisle from her ended up holding her hand and trying to calm her.

I was never so glad to get off a plane! Jess and Kim were already in SLC. They picked up Peter and then me when I called after getting my check-in bag about 11:30 am. We had to rearrange the 4-runner a bit to accommodate my bag.

The 4-runner was stuffed to the ceiling with camping, canoeing, biking, left-over skiing/snow-boarding equipment, and daypacks, as well as Peter’s and my luggage, cartons of wine and bottles of “spirits,” camp chairs, cooking gear, Jess’s computer, etc. Piled on the roof were several plastic bags full of bedding and gear artfully wedged between the two mountain bikes and bungeed down as tightly as possible.

I instantly liked Peter, a big, curly-haired, nonassuming guy who treated Kim and Jess as though they were his sisters and me his mother. All three called me “mom” the entire trip.

The drive from the SLC Airport to Moab, was nerve-racking: The wind was blowing 50 mph with 60 mph gusts, and we had to keep a constant eye on the bikes and gear atop the 4-runner. Every time we heard a bump or groan, I was sure that the load was about to fly away. The webbing straps slapped the roof, and depending on our direction, also sang and whistled. We stopped often to inspect and tighten.

We stopped for lunch at Big Mo’s in Price, UT. A little hole in the wall burger joint with an amiable cook who came out to apologize personally when the electricity suddenly went off (wind blew something onto the lines we decided). Peter, Kim, and Jessica had burgers and I had a turkey sandwich. We probably spent 45 minutes to an hour over lunch because of the wait for electricity.

We arrived in Moab at about 5 pm and immediately headed for Up-the-Creek campground in the center of town where Jess had reserved a site for us. Here we debated throwing over the camping and going to a motel because of the ferocity of the wind, but when we got to UTC, we felt it was sheltered enough to stay. We had to strategically place rocks and wrestle with our tents, nonetheless, but we managed to get set up.

Though UTC was far from a backcountry site—it had a super bathroom with the best shower heads this side of the Mississippi (even a heater in the b.r.), picnic tables, a utility sink, several drinking water pumps, even a couple of propane grills—this was a good place for the shake-down camp before we departed for four more nights in the utter wilderness.

One carted one’s gear to the tent site in little two-wheeled handcarts. We required four carts to get all of our gear to campsite #9. I set up my new MSR Hubba Hubba for the first time outdoors. It is a snap to set up and has good headroom. I discovered two pockets inside that I had overlooked when I set it up in the l.r. at home. I also discovered some loops for hanging a small gear loft or lantern. The two opposing doors came in handy as I positioned the tent so that the wind could whistle through rather than blowing it over.

The little cart we used to lug our things to the campsite

After establishing camp, we walked the main streets of Moab, looking in shops, checking out hotels for our night back off the river before departure, and finding a place to eat. We ended up eating at Miguel’s Baja Grill. Kim and I had huge quesadillas, mine shrimp, of which we could eat only two of the four pieces. We doggie bagged the remaining four for tomorrow’s breakfast. During the meal, Jessica wrote down all of our suggestions for tomorrow’s grocery shopping and we planned the meals we’d have on the River. With caterer Kim on the trip, this will definitely be a gourmet camping experience! Jess also wants to buy some more tent pegs and Peter needs to buy a few gear items also.

Peter, Jessica, and Kim in front of the fountain at one of Moab's two Best Westerns; I was trying to get the La Sal mountains in the background but. . .