When I first received a permit to run the Gate of Lodore section of the Green River through Dinosaur National Monument, I thought I’d invite a bunch of friends to spend a few days of running SOARs down the river. Then, during Canoecopia, I learned that a planned trip to Mongolia by Larry Rice and Cliff Jacobson might be cancelled due to the pending war with Iraq. I was disappointed that Cliff would not be able to paddle a SOAR, because his recently published Wilderness Canoeing Expeditions book made no mention of SOARs, arguably one of the best wilderness expedition canoes.
That’s when I decided to change the focus of the trip to include Cliff Jacobson, Larry Rice and other ‘gods and goddesses’ of wilderness canoe expeditions. Among the elite paddlers (besides Cliff and Larry) that joined me on this trip were Wendy Grater, owner of Black Feather Expeditions (www.blackfeather.com), Alan Kesselheim, author and contributing editor to many outdoor magazines, and Larry Bartlett, Alaska’s premier float hunting guide, Leon Werdinger, an outdoor photographer and long time river guide.
We were 12 in all, paddling a combination SOAR canoes, S12 solo, S14 solo and tandem, S16 tandem. The level of the Green was pretty low, but the Yampa brought in about 7000 cfs, and made the final day’s run through Split Mountain very exciting.
Of course we had a great trip. There were three well known writers on the trip. Each one will have an article in Canoe & Kayak Magazine in 2004 describing their version of the trip. I will let these guys do the writing. Watch for links to the articles on this website as well as additional photo essays.
Larry Laba
Owner / Founder
