Wyoming Kayaking

The following is a guest post originally written by Riley but edited recently by Dad.

While Mom, Jake, and McKenzie went to Washington Dad, Jordan, Benners and me (the Rilinator)went kayaking in Wyoming. We kayaked The Greys River, The Gros Ventre River, The Snake River, and The Hoback River.  It was ACTION!!

 

We started out on the Snake and Hoback with our oldest rafting homey, Jason.
 

The Hoback was a beautiful alpine run similar to the upper third of the Middle Fork of the Salmon.  Grandpa and Grandma ran shuttle for us and took pictures where they could.  I (riley) was super stoked and looked so awesome with my Colorado helmet.

Then after the Hoback the big boys kicked me off their team and put me on the shuttle/film crew while they ran harder stuff on the Greys river.

I begged and pleaded to go with them but Dad said I would die.  So I begged and pleaded some more and they still went without me.  Then when I saw them do it I knew that father loved the other boys more than me because I totally could have done it.  Dad said after running snaggle tooth rapid that I DEFINITELY would have died.

Snaggletooth was the hardest rapid on the Trip.  They did it twice and said it was even scarier the second time.  It was a long class 4 rapid.  But we learned later that Wyoming classes are harder than other areas so its fair to say this was closer to a 4+ or 5-.   Jordan led the run LIKE A PRO. . .PRO. . . PPPPRRROO!  Ben and Dad said they were terrified the whole time.

Then back at camp Jordan forgot to bring any pants on our week long trip and tried his blue wrestling leggings against the evening mosquitos.  He lost and Dad made fun of him because Dad brought pants.

I look sooooo cool with my shades and hoodie.  You got to be awesome to sport a hoody this well.

Dad slaved and cooked for us because Mom wouldn't come and cooking is woman's work.  But then again, dad cooks more than mom...so whose job is it really?  Dads says he self identifies sometimes as a "cook".

While the benevolent father prepared evening meals we took his fly fishing gear and caught wild cut throat trout.

Waders are for friggin wusses.  All we needed was sweats and old sneakers and the fish flocked to us.

I caught a fish. Then Ben took a turn and caught one.  Then I would catch several and then Ben would catch one and I would catch more.  Basically I am a jedi fly fisher like my father before me and Benny is more like princess Leah.

Then the Gros Ventre.  Basically there was this huge landslide in like 1920 and the whole mountain came down and blocked the river and made a sweet lake.  So when the big boys put their boats in the lake and paddled toward the end, the river just sucked them right out from calm water into class 3 rapids.

Dad said this is maybe the prettiest spot he ever floated on a river because the Teton range is visible in the backgound and the river water was glacier blue, and fast and rough.  They only got pictures in the smooth sections but said the rapids were almost continuous class 3-4 for 20 minutes!

 I think Dad must have been trying to kill us because every time we saw buffalo he insisted we get out of the car and get "closer . . . closer . . . QUIT BEING SUCH A WUSS AND GET IN THE PICTURE".

The Tetons were super awsome.  We saw ski lines everywhere and could see why this is the backcountry ski center of the universe.  Ok, alaska is big too but we haven't seen it yet.
 

Jenny Lake was the clearest water ever.  It was cold but clear as tap water.

Benny derives his super awesomeness powers from his hair and this is apparent early in the morning when his hair is allowed to run free like a herd of wild stallions but it is not stallions but wild ben hairrions on his head.

We got to hang with Grandpa by the river and Jordan tried to attract all the mosquitos to his naked chest because Grandpa said his brother, Uncle Kenny, said that hair doesn't grow on steel.  So then Jordan thought he might be immune to skeeter bites.  He wasn't.
 

Then we drove home and saw a double rainbow in the book cliffs near Green River which was basically like nature showing us how much it approved of our most excellent adventure.

We weren't sure nature was actually talking to us but then 10 minutes after the double rainbow we saw this sunset.  So ya, the trip was awsome.  Like, almost as awsome as we are.