Regardless, I was just stoked to get an invitation to run a stretch that I really wanted to get in my quest to run the entire Green/Colorado basin.

Not once did I pull my stove out; this trip was really well equipped: big kitchen, great food. Meals included a fantastic smoked prime rib (don't even ask how they do that) and delicious elk steaks. A commercial outfitter could not have done better.

I won't go in to details about this stretch since they are widely available, other than one. Water throughout the Rocky Mountain west was very scarce, with a snow pack well below 50% of normal. The gauge at Jensen (just below the take-out) showed 2200 on June 16 and fell to 2000 on the 19th. Keep in mind this is daily average. Dam releases at FGD dropped it much lower at times. At one camp we found all of our boats high and nearly dry on a gravel bar. I was a little worried about the larger catarafts and rafts getting through some of the riffles and gravel bars, but they only hung up a few times. Any lower and we would have been in trouble. The Yampa was very, very low, 486 on the 16th and 375 on the 19th. We had to work very carefully around gravel and sand bars.

At that level, the crux of Hell's Half mile was a problem. A large rock, known as Lucifer, sits squarely in the only channel big enough to float a boat. Lucifer at this level was almost exposed, with a big pour-over and a significant hole below, and especially to the right where the main current went. Suffice it to say that I missed my line, went over Lucifer sideways, and yet still managed to stay upright. As the second boat through, it turns out I did OK. Many others behind me high hung up at this crux, but nobody flipped. Beyond that the river was very easy at this level, although shallow. One boat that inadvertently took the far left channel needed some help getting off the rocks.