desolation

Camped at river mile 77, the 3rd or so camp on the right. (Rock House rapid area....something like that)

Mosquito's were not bad, but we did take those coils and burned one all night at each camp.

The wind seemed to be extreme at the Steer Ridge camp so if you think wind is coming it might be a good one to avoid.

Only on the 2nd day did we face heavy upstream winds, but we were always on the water before 8:30 AM and in camp before 1 PM, except the first day when we launched at 10:30 AM and hit camp around 3 PM.

On our 4th day we had about 15 miles to float from Wire Fence to Rattlesnake. We pushed off at 8:15 AM and were in camp before 11:00 AM.

Staying Roosevelt was a great idea and staying at Frontier was even better. We parked the trucks and could walk to the liquor store across the street and to the Frontier Restaurant. (Make hotel reservations early (435) 722-2201)

At the restaurant you only need one meal for two people. I am sure that even Andre The Giant would have given their portions a "thumbs up." The food was good too!

We filled up before leaving Roosevelt, but even on an early Sunday morning the Sinclair in Myton was open.

It took us 2 1/2 hours to drive from Roosevelt and launch at Sand Wash, with boats rigged on the trailers.

The river Ranger (Jim I think he was) showed up at the perfect time and gave us our orientation and check out, along with some good advice about camps and rapids. I think I have talked to him on the Idaho White Water site before, but didn't put two and two together at Sand Wash.

Deso is a trip well worth doing, especially if you are trying to avoid 9 foot flows on the Middle Fork.

The scenery is great and the side canyons offer some great hikes. We even took the hike at Rattlesnake because we arrived at camp by 10:30 AM.

Many people we met were not too friendly. Not mean or ignorant. Just tight lipped and not talkative. We concluded it is due to camps being on a first come basis.

When we found the two camps above Wire Fence Rapid were already taken we pulled out of the rapid to take the camp that exists about mid-rapid. That was a mistake because Wire Fence had the best waves thus far on the trip.

Then when an outfitter came along with a group of about 20 teens we let them stay there with us. It was around 6PM and the next camps were 5 miles down river. This camp was on a large flat and we scarcely heard a peep from the outfitter's group, but we did end up moving our groover due to their encroachment.

When he asked I told the outfitter that we were bound for Rattlesnake the next day. He said that was where they were going too, but never offered to let us stay with them, so I didn't extend an invitation to him either. Bad move on his part because he was never going to beat us there.

We did however invite two other groups to join us if we managed to snag Rattlesnake and since we did those two other groups also had a camp waiting when they arrived. Still we were under the person/camp limit and as far as I know, no one had any gripes.

Ranger Jim had told us Rattlesnake was a bottle neck and highly sought after camp because it was just ten miles from Swasey's Rapid take out. So we never had any intentions of monopolizing the camp if we got it.

So my advice to Deso floating people is to not fight over camps or race for camps and then exclude other groups if your group is small enough and the camp is large enough to accommodate others. People seem to smile more when treated with a warm welcome as opposed to an icy glare. It's called Desolation, not Isolation. ;)

apple pie for dessert. actually it was a bit warm outside for hot pie, but no one complained.

rod, randy y, randy h, blake, melinda, jed and tom at rattlesnake camp on our last night. bill and cindy, who had passed us at wire fence, joined us at this camp and snapped this photo.

Everybody has it happen. While floating around a river bend they
surprise some other floater or floaters who suddenly behave is if
staying in front of them is most important matter of the day.

Drift boat man was one of these. We were approaching him as we
lazily floated along the green river and he suddenly sprinted off as
if we were the police and he was running drugs.

Lazily floating along is really not our style, but at close to 20,000
CFS on the Deso you really don't need to row much in order to make it
to camp. In fact we were making camp by noon each day and hardly
dipping an oar. We were almost forced to float no matter how much
the inactivity was killing us.

An hour or so later we once again caught up to drift boat man and he
immediately sprinted away again. Suddenly and idea for fun was born.

We allowed drift boat man to round the next corner and make it out of
sight and then we put the oars to the water and began making tracks
as if we needed to complete the entire trip in one day.

Soon we were very close to line of sight with drift boat man and so
down went the oars and out came the drinks, feet up, relax, lay back,
sip your drink and let drift boat man row like hell to get away.

As soon as he was out of sight we were once again at the oars and
closing the gap between he and us.

Apparently drift boats are not as fast as cats, or if they are he
wasn't able to row as fast as we could and each time we came into his
view the gap between us was getting smaller...............and yet
each time he saw us we were just relaxed, kicked back and sipping our
drinks.

The last time drift boat man came into view Randy H just kept rowing
and rowing hard. Now that the gig was up we all followed suit and
drift boat man relented the forward position to us.

We were never sure if he was racing us to some camp, or why he was so
interested in staying in front. All we knew is that for a while he
must have been wondering why we were drifting along faster than he
was rowing.

At 20,000 CFS the rapids along the Deso do not pose much of a
challenge. So, even though some of the wave trains are fairly big
and fun, you kind of need to invent some of your own excitement and
this was just one way we found to create a laugh or two.

I have read that floaters often run the Deso in preparation for the
Grand Canyon. Personally I think an early May trip from Cape Horn
out to the Snake would be better preparation, but what do I know?

Anyway just prior to the Drift Boat man encounter we ran into, for
the second time, a couple who was on their 3rd trip back to back down
the Deso in preparation for a September Grand Canyon float.

Naturally with a large group of 2 cats and 2 people it was necessary
for them to grab every large, good camp all the way down the river.
And since it was only their third trip back to back is was also
paramount to not share those camps with anyone else.

We had first passed them as they were camped at Rock House and we
camped a mile or so down river.

At around 10:30 AM the following day we caught up to them on their
lunch stop, which was immediately ended as they dove for their oars
and attempted to speed off down river to stay in front of us.

At this particular moment the head winds were kicking up a bit and in
passing we discovered that they had left their camp at 6:00AM and
were on their way to Steer Ridge, same as us.

Normally we would have welcomed such a small group to share a large
camp like Steer Ridge with us. The problem was that these two just
didn't seem too friendly and then they flat out lied to us.

"Oh the scout for Steer Ridge Rapid is just around the next corner
and you really ought to scout it because we know of a guy who drowned
there in a big hole"

Well hell we were still 8 or more miles from Steer Ridge, even a
green horn like me had that figured out. Furthermore we had quickly
discovered that at these water levels a person almost had to try and
get into trouble. We doubted Steer Ridge would throw anything too
serious at us.

It was not long before the GC prep couple was far behind us and we
were actually boat scouting Steer Ridge rapid, looking for both the
killer hold and the camp. We never did find the killer hole, but we
did eventually find the camp quite a ways farther through the rapid
than we first thought it would be.

During the later afternoon calm the GC prep couple passed us by, not
even bothering to come over and see if they could share the camp with
us. It was a big camp and we would have scarcely known they were
there had that been their desire, but if you are not a friendly type
and also not willing to ask then it's not likely you will get an
invitation.

And one last thought. If you leave camp at 6 and someone else leaves
essentially the same camp at 8:30 and catches you by
10:30...........it's probably foolish to think you are going to stay
ahead of them ;)