Dan was up earlier than me this morning, which is very out of character. I’d had a great sleep and couldn’t get enough, even though I was excited to get back on to the Animas river. When I rolled over to find Dan awake, he was reading my blogs on his phone, reliving our adventures in Mexico. My turn to make breakfast, we were up and at ‘em and I was making bacon and egg bagels. The sun was already warm which suited us just fine. After tubing in the storm clouds of yesterday afternoon, we were keen for the warmth of the sun as we floated in freezing cold water. Dan had found out that the same storm clouds of yesterday were due to start coming over Durango at around 2pm, so we hustled (well, our version of hustling anyway). We broke camp around 10am and Dan followed me back to Santa Rita park.
We planned to do the first five miles of the river today since we’d done the last three miles of it yesterday and this time, Cleo wasn’t coming. There were a couple of caution spots listed on the map and we figured it would be no place for a doggy who wasn’t a big fan of the water. At Santa Rita park, we parked Dan’s car in the shade and made sure she was comfortable with plenty of open windows and water, then we were off into town in my car to our starting point. We crossed a number of bridges that went over the river and we caught glimpses each time of the terrain we’d be covering.
At the launch point, you weren’t allowed to park near to the river between April and October, probably so that the tour buses can get in there and turn around. Thankfully it was early enough on a weekday that we found parking on the street only a few dozen meters from the launch spot. We pumped up our tubes, packed our bag and were off. We almost felt like seasoned tubers having gone through this yesterday.
We launched just behind three big blue tour boats into very calm but flowing water. We didn’t tie our tubes together this time, opting to float solo, but we did bring the rope just in case we changed our minds. The water was still freezing, but with the sun shining down, we were warm enough. Dan stored three beers in the bottom of his tube and soon enough they were plenty cold thanks to the water of the Animas. The views were again brilliant as we waded through the city of Durango. We went under a number of bridges where the flow sped up taking us under.
We ended up using the rope in the end, detaching it from both tubes and holding it in our hands so we could manoeuvre ourselves and spin around like idiots. Not sure what the people walking across the bridges thought of us, but we fancied ourselves some pretty competent tubers! At the first rapids, we were happy that Cleo wasn’t with us, she would have been out of the tube in seconds, even with Dan holding her tightly. They weren’t anything gnarly, but the tubes rocked violently as we went through them.
We knew the first caution spot after we’d hit it. It was a metre drop straight down over a self of rock. We approached it on the left side and realised after that if we’d wanted an easy run of it we could have gone to the right. Oh well! Neither of our tubes flipped and we made it through. On the approach, we noticed a girl in a bikini carrying a huge blow up swan, looking to launch into the river just upstream of the small drop. After we went through it, we saw her walking away, the swan nestled under her arm. She obviously reconsidered.
Carrying on down the river, in the calm spots, we spun ourselves around on the rope and made our own fun. When the rapids came, we tried splitting rocks and paddled when we had to in order to avoid any sharp objects. In a lot of cases, we lifted our arses up off the bottom of the tubes to prevent impact but in many more cases, we didn’t see the object coming and copped a scrape to our bums. All worth it.
After a couple of hours, we knew we were at the second caution spot. It was the widest part of the river and there were multiple ways of going down the set of rapids that lay before us. We couldn’t see beyond the top of the shelf so Dan suggested we get out and have a look. A very good idea. There were other people doing the same thing, but they were all armed with kayaks, helmets and paddles. No other tubers in sight. Hmmm.
The rapids were definitely gnarly, especially for a pair of idiot tubers like us. We considered a couple of different lines, but settled on the one running right through the middle of the whole lot that looked the smoothest. We stayed on the edge watching a couple of kayakers go through then we were convinced it was doable. Dan suggested this was video worthy so I stayed on the rocks while he went back to have first run. I managed to creep across a three meter section of rapids so that I could stand on a column of rocks near to the centre of the rapids.
Minutes later, Dan had topped up his tube with air and launched upstream of the white water. He paddled to get himself into position, slow at first, then rapidly when he approached the top of the rapids. He’d positioned himself perfectly and floated straight down the first section. Next, he hit a short fall then paddled himself right to a calm section. He’d been trying to stay in the middle where the waves were bigger but the current pulled him away. He finished at a long slide at the end then paddled himself over to the edge and came back to join me.
He had a huge smile on his face, as did I, and just as I thought about going to get my tube and following Dan, a huge group of blue tour boats approached the rapids and we watched as the guides encouraged their paddlers through the rough water. It was a stark contrast to what Dan had just done. We were glad not to have been in their path and also happy to watch the carnage as they went through the rapids sideways and backwards, screaming all the way (whether from joy or fear I’m not sure). The rapids clear again, it was my turn.
Dan took filming duties as I followed his lead and put a few big puffs into my tube before carrying it along the well worn path upstream. I went a little further than him I think just to give myself the best chance of getting into position before the first drop. I launched, knowing I had an audience in people standing along the banks, but I focused on the task at hand. It was hard to judge the best position as I approached the rapids, but as I got closer, I understood why Dan had paddled so hard. I couldn’t get enough paddle force so did whatever I could, getting my feet in the water and my arms. Eventually I dropped into the rapids in the perfect spot, right in the middle. I yelled out as I went over the first drop, then again as I went over the second, essentially following the line Dan had taken. I too couldn’t keep myself in the middle and went down the right side, going down the big slide at the end and throwing my hands up in triumph. I had to paddle super hard to get to the edge before the next rapid that dropped down but I just made it. Dan was there to greet me as I got out of the water.
What fun! Now we were ready to continue on our way down the river, but we were keen to do that section again, this time together. Dan had lost his shirt during his run down the rapids since it had been stashed in the bottom of his tube, but we found it back at the launch spot. Knowing how rough it was, I put his shirt in our backpack and put it on the front of my body and Dan clipped it together at the back so it couldn’t come off. Then, we launched.
Dan was in front and I did my best to follow his line, but I was too far left. I ended up putting my feet into a pair of big rocks just off from the line I wanted and I sat there watching Dan go through the rapids. Once he was through, I managed to push myself off the rocks and propel myself down the white water. At the second shelf, I got stuck just after I went over it, my tube sitting in the eddy that formed at the base. I took me a couple of goes, but I pushed off the wall with my feet and kicked as hard as I could so I could eventually break free. It was easy run then down the last slide where I met Dan who was waiting for me. He re-launched his tube when he saw me coming and we went through the last rapid together. We hadn’t done this part yet and I suppose we were a bit blaze about it since we thought we’d been through the worst. Not true. Dan was just in front of me when we went over the big drop (maybe two meters) that created a huge wave coming back towards us at the base. We both flipped as we hit the wave. I didn’t see much of Dan, but I tried with all my might to get back onto my tube, but I couldn’t flip it. I saw that Dan had managed to get back in, but I was getting smashed by waves and rocks left, right and center. I decided to abandon my tube and just get to Dan’s so I could hold on to something floating. In the carnage, I noticed I’d lost the Teva from my left foot and when a wave hit me direct in the face, my hat and sunnies were gone.
When I reached Dan, he grabbed for me and got my arm and I gasped as I latched on to him. As I held on to the side of his tube as waves hit us, I already assumed my belongings lost, and was already feeling upset at the loss of my Teva, but just then, I saw it floating just behind the tube. I let go of Dan immediately and grabbed it, throwing it into his tube. Then, even more amazingly, I saw my hat floating just to our left. “Get my hat!” I shouted at Dan. He quickly said that I should get it while he got my tube, but I said I’d get my tube since he was already in his. We broke. I tried to stop myself going downstream so I could wait for my tube to reach me. My feet were already cold and with one less shoe, I was in pain as I tried to find footing amongst the rocks. Eventually the tube came to me and I was able to grab the handle. I managed to flip it and I tried to get back into it but the backpack on my front was getting in the way.
With tube in hand, I looked back to see how Dan was getting on. I could see he had my hat in his hand but he was out of his tube and it had flipped so again I feared for my Teva. We both scrambled over to the bank carrying our tubes. I got to Dan and he helped me the last few meters to the bank. Thankfully, he had both my hat and lost Teva in his hand. I could barely put weight on my feet they were so cold and I think sore from something they’d hit so I leant heavily on Dan’s arm to get to shore. Dan still had his hat but had also lost his sunnies. Dan unclipped the backpack from me and I realised that is probably what caused me to struggle so much since it was completely waterlogged and would have been dragging me down. It was the first time my waterproof phone case had been properly underwater and it had performed just fine. So after all of that, it had only cost us two pairs of sunnies. We sat in the sun and I put my feet on a hot rock to try and warm them up again. We laughed about what we’d just been through and Dan told me about what he’d had to do to get my hat back. As soon as he went off to get it, he was determined. He paddled furiously from the tube, knowing another section of white water was just downstream, he feared the hat would be lost so he tried to get to it before then. In a final reach before the white, he missed it by inches and came out of the tube in the process, hitting his knee on a rock. He managed to grab the hat just past the white water and flipped his tube back upright. Neither of us know how my Teva survived because Dan hadn’t known it was inside his tube, but somehow, it had survived the flip.
As we sat reliving our near-serious injury experience, Dan had a look at the map on my phone to see how much further we had to go until we reached Santa Rita park. Turns out we were already there so we made a move just in case the cold numbness of my feet was replaced by pain. Dan carried most of our gear up the nearby stairs and walked along the blissfully hot concrete path back to the car. My feet were almost warm by the time we greeted Cleo at the side door. Inevitably, she was happy to see us, just as we were to see her. We were both happy that we’d decided to leave her behind considering what had just happened.
We both had a bit more recovery time sitting in the sun to warm ourselves, enjoying the soft grass. We went through what had happened one more time so that Cleo understood our ordeal. All of my body parts had come back up to temperature and I was walking fine. No serious injury, just cold. As Dan took Cleo down to the river for a dip, I deflated our tubes and packed them away inside his van. We drove back upstream to get my car then drove back to Santa Rita for lunch. As we drove, I Googled how much the tourists had paid for their big blue boat down the river and it was $62! We’d definitely got the better deal. During my search, I also discovered that the last set of rapids we’d gone down were rated Class 3! We really are a pair of idiots.
We were both starving so the burgers Dan cooked up were delicious, just as they had been back in Flag. We ate them on the soft grass and talked a while with a couple of hippie dudes with dreds who had a puppy and a young girl with them. We talked about dogs and calmness as the puppy Mojo tried to get at our burgers. They said goodbye with “one love” and blessings and left us feeling relaxed.
It was only mid-afternoon but we could see the storm clouds and were keen for an early camp. After a bit of a lie down in Dan’s van to relax our bodies fully for a few minutes, we drove over to Walmart (yes, again) to get some replacement sunnies and a few other things. We walked out with a case of beer, ice and the normal sunnies that Dan gets. I already had a spare thanks to the two for one deal I got in Mexico. I would miss my Baja sunnies. We’d parked on different sides of the carpark so I drove over to get a cold beer before we left. In the process of trying to get close to his driver’s window, I scraped his driver’s door with my wing mirror. “Bitch!” he said laughing. I left a black line along his door and I got what I came for.
Cold beer in hand, I lead the way to Lemon Dam, a place off the main highway that looked like a potential camp spot, not that it was listed as one. The drive there was gorgeous, it took us through alpine farmland that was almost comically green. It didn’t look like a place that should have warm temperatures and yet, it was pleasant. We climbed up to the dam and we stopped at the wall when we first approached it. It was pretty big and the pine-covered mountains that surrounded it made it very picturesque. We stopped for a photo then Dan lead the way down the dirt road that ran alongside it. It looked like a promising place to make camp but it didn’t work out that way. We checked out Miller’s campground, a National Forest establishment, but it was $20 a night so we weren’t interested. We drove the whole length of the lake and found only a day use area until we hit the end of the road where there were multiple private property signs posted. Since we were keen to just hang out a while, we went back to the day use area.
There weren’t many cars parked and the views of the lake were spectacular. We started a trend after we parked, people came in their droves and filled the carpark. The mozzies and bugs were out so we walked around the two carparks to see if there was a less buggy option anywhere, but they were thick all over. Cleo was in heaven diving her nose into holes and chasing bugs as we walked around. We stayed where we were and Dan set up my fly net over his bed and opened the back doors to the lake. We watched people launch their boats and cast their lines as we lay in bed and snoozed. I only had a short nap before I was overheating in the car so I got out and sat in the outside office blogging as I watched Cleo at what had become her favourite hole off in the distance.
Dan got over the sleepies soon enough too and we made the decision to move on. There were too many people around this spot, there was no opportunity to have a fire and we’d be illegally camped. It was 6pm so we still had plenty of daylight to find another spot. We weren’t sorry we’d come this way though, Lemon Dam was a beautiful, serene place.
I drove us back out to the main road where Dan had a spot of service on his phone so he got on to freecampsites.net. He found a place east of us, in the direction we were travelling, only twenty minutes away. Perfect. I followed him out. More beautiful farmland with cattle and horses everywhere enjoying the tall green grass and beautiful weather. I could see rain forming in the distance underneath the storm clouds but the ribbons of water didn’t seem to be touching the ground.
About halfway to camp, I had the perfect view of a squirrel try to run across the road just as Dan approached him. He made it past his right front tyre then decided he’d turn around. The result? A very dead squirrel. I’d never seen anything die so fast, he didn’t produce so much as a twitch. I got on the phone to Dan straightaway to tell him what I’d just witnessed, but he already knew, he’d been about to call me. He felt so bad but I assured him it had been a quick death and there’s nothing he could have done. I told him to try and not kill anything else before camp.
We got back on the main highway at Bayfield and shortly afterwards, turned on to a forest road. We stopped at the map sign at the entrance, then carried on to find the campsite a short way from the road that was plenty spacious with a fire ring. No bugs or mozzies here!
Cleo was in heaven yet again, running and prancing all through the forest leaving us in fits of laughter. She explored super far afield so that we had no idea where she was but she always came back, usually panting. We collected a bit of firewood, got some music going and I started cooking dinner. The sun was setting through the trees and while we couldn’t see the orange ball, we could admire the orange and pink colours spreading across the sky.
The chicken pasta with broccoli, bacon and tomatoes was ready just as Dan got the fire going and the night was just starting to cool off. The moon shone brightly above the trees and the clouds had cleared so we could see the stars.