Stoked on the RG

By Brian Gardel

My friend Marty and I just returned from an amazing 5-day, semi self-support trip down the Green River through portions of Utah and Colorado. Beginning near the Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming border, we put-on at the base of Flaming Gorge reservoir and paddled a 20-mile stretch of the A-B-C section through crystal-clear water. Often referred to as the “giant aquarium”, this section is renowned for world-class fishing. And with over 100,000 fish just in the first handful miles and red canyon walls that reach over a thousand feet, this stretch certainly didn’t disappoint.

We met with the rest of our posse later that evening after reaching Brown’s Park, and over the next 4 nights enjoyed beach camping and floating by day through the deep, scenic canyons of Lodore and Split Mountain, from Brown’s Park, through the Uinta Mountains, past Echo Park and the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers, and on down to our takeout in the heart Dinosaur National Monument.

This is an incredible multi-day trip that I’d recommend to anyone. Marty and I both had an absolute blast paddling our Karma RGs all loaded down with camping gear and supplies. Fortunately we also had solid medium flows for the entire trip, which made for some fantastic surfing every day on those perfect glassy waves that dreams are made of.

Next trip… the Middle Fork of the Salmon in a couple weeks. Can’t wait!!!