"What is Dale doing now?": Green River Rescue Course

I'm currently the Varsity Coach for the 14-15 year old young men in our ward. Nearly a year ago, we decided on a canoe float trip down the Green River as a high adventure activity. I have 3 adults and 13 young men going on this trip. It's been a lot of work planning this activity. Most of the boys have some experience in canoes, but none of them have experience in white water.

The trip is part of the high adventure activities sponsored by Camp New Fork. It's planned for 4 days down the upper Green River. I went down this section of the river three years ago with my nephew Matt. It was a lot of fun then, hopefully it will be equally fun for the boys in my ward.

For my own preparation, I decided to take a River Rescue Course on the lower Green River near Green River, Utah. My co-worker, Dave, told me about the course and he also wanted to take it. Dave recently bought a raft and has yet to use it, so it will be a good opportunity to gain some experience. Dave also convinced me to go down a day early and float the river before we take the river rescue course. He would take his raft and I would take my kayak, but is that like putting the cart before the horse? I thought the idea was to learn and then do. But what they heck! It's a good way to get some experience.

On the Green River

The river rescue course occured on May 13 thru 15. Dave and I went down a day early as planned and spent the day floating the river from Nefertiti to Swasey Beach. Dave took the raft, I took my kayak. After getting the raft rigged and got on the water and as I was approaching the first rapid, I was thinking "What am I doing." Those waves were the largest I had ever seen from my kayak. I made it through the first set of waves and my nerves settled down a bit. I made it through the next few sets of waves which were even bigger. Then my confidence exceeded my abilities and when I was almost done with a set of rapids a rogue wave just reach out and flipped me over. I don't know how to do an eskimo roll, so my plan has always been that if and when I flip, I'm going to bail. The plan worked well. I was out of the kayak in seconds, but boy was that water cold. I'm glad I had my wetsuit and an excellent life preserver on.

In the Green River

I pretty well rescued myself and was on shore draining my kayak when Dave made it back up to where I was. He helped me get back in and off we were again. We went down a few more rapids and then I rolled it again in similar circumstances. Nearly through the rapid when I rolled. This time Dave was close by and I just climbed in his raft and pulled up the kayak and rode the rest of the way to Swasey Beach.

After beaching his raft, I walked back up to the campground, changed clothes, grabbed my bicycle and rode the nine miles back up to Nefertiti and brought Dave's van back down to the boat ramp at Swasey's Beach. We loaded up his raft, went back to our camp site changed clothes again and headed into Green River for dinner and the first session of our river rescue course.

The River Rescue Course
The class met for dinner at Joe's Tavern and then went over to the Green River Museum for the classroom instruction. We had introductions and background, then talked about safety, did some rope work and set up a Z-drag system.

After class, everyone went back over to Swasey Beach and camped near our campsite. The next morning, the staff provided breakfast and then we loaded up and headed up toward's Nefertiti. We didn't go all the way though, we stopped at a launch point just above one of the rapids. We then practiced some rope throws, talked safety some more, then got in the two rafts and pushed off.

Practicing Rope Throws

Once through the first rapids, we pulled over and practiced rope throws with a person in the water. Each of us took turns and it was a good experience. When I was in the water, I was surprised at the amount of force against my body. When I threw the rope and the swimmer hit the end, the water force was also great. It takes a lot to hold on at either end of the rope in a fast current.

Rope Throws in the River

At Swasey's Beach, we also practiced setting up the Z-Drag to flip a raft. The water was cold, but the air temp was hot. At times we were wearing jackets and other times we were wearing a lot less.

Setting up a Z-Drag

We also practiced flipping rafts in calm water and then we flipped the rafts in the middle of rapids. We also took turns abandoning a perfectly good raft in the middle of good size rapids just to give people in the other rafts the opportunity to rescue us. Fortunately we all had wet suits and good life preservers. The trainers always had one raft and a kayak in rescue position just in case anything went wrong. It was good experience and gave me more confidence as I prepare for our Green River Canoe trip in July.

Practice Flip in Calm Water

Flipping rafts in the rapids

After all the practice on both days, we loaded up the rafts at Swasey's Beach, had lunch, and then took off. As Dave and I were leaving in his van, we saw the ultimate beach party getto blaster. At first, we couldn't figure out what it was, so we had to get out and take a closer look.