On the stretch from the Lakes to Green River, Doug and I had become habituated to early starts, usually on the river before 8 AM. Our average was 23.4 miles a day when we were on the river above Green River. From Flaming Gorge Dam down, we slowed only because we had to, our permit to enter Dinosaur NM specifically included the instructions, "don't get here until the afternoon of the 16th."

There are two very different ways to run rivers. Big multi-day trips (Salt, Grand Canyon, Middle Fork, Lodore, etc.) have fallen into a tradition of large kitchens, fancy meals, nice camp furniture, and so on. As a consequence the average river trip only plans to make ten to fifteen miles per day. While this might be great at chow time and leaves a lot of time for socializing, it means boats are large and heavy, and the set-up and tear-down every day take hours. I have been on a lot of trips where it was rare to get on the water before 10:30 or 11:00. All well and good, trips are vacations. But the reality is that on many western rivers the wind often blows, and blows hard, from about noon until after sunset. When it does, it blows up canyon. This was the weather pattern at least half the days we were on this expedition.

Doug and I went totally opposite the big trip style, packing as though we were each on a solo expedition. Each of us had our own light backpacking stove, and we cooked our own meals. We shared a few times when I had a meal that would feed two, but for the most part we operated as though we were solo trippers. This worked really well. Each morning I'd brew my coffee, Doug would make tea. I'd cook oatmeal or bannock, he'd make a freeze-dried breakfast. Nights were the same, and day meals were our own snacks. As a consequence we could agree to wake at 4:30 or 5:00, pack while we cooked, load our boats, and be on the way by 6:00 or 6:30, depending on how much mileage pressure we felt.

Beyond that, our boats are SOAR 14s, capable of running rapids up to Class IV, depending on the rapid, and oar rig vs. paddle. Yet they are light enough to easily portage or line, and the two of us can easily carry our boats, one at a time, around any normal obstacle.

At no time were we at the mercy of a big kitchen, heavy boat, and slow packer. On a major trip with heavy gear, the entire trip can only move as fast as the slowest boat. While that was true with Doug and I, every morning we could eye each other to see if one of us was falling behind, which usually led to a speeding up. Sometimes I was the slow one, sometimes Doug was. But never did we wait an hour or more for the slow one. It was a great system and throughout the trip I felt like the two of us played very well together.