Personalizing the Green River

Dan and Lisa -- my dear friends and ex-Earthworks coworkers -- introduced us to western rivers with a 6 day, 40+ mile wilderness float on the Green River in Utah, just above where it enters Canyonlands National Park (Ruby Ranch to Mineral Bottom, for those who know about these things).

Before this trip, the Green River has been almost mythical to me: John Wesley Powell; the epitome of beyond the 100th meridian; a wilderness remnant, soldiering on into the 21st century.

I have since learned that pissing in a river for a week* demythologizes it.  We are now intimates -- me, my river trip companions, the Green River, and the tens of millions of Los Angelenos, Las Vegans, Phoenix-ites and everyone else who will soon be drinking (and my have already drunk!) my urine.

I compose myself after taking care of business.
Photo thoughtfully provided by Dan Randolph

Urine aside, I can't recommend a float on the Green River highly enough.  Jawdropping scenery + blessed solitude = enforced serenity.  And that's the serenity I need; it's not coming to me spontaneously.

Hope to post more on the River float, meeting Mike and Max Eisenfeld, and more pics, later.

*Dan Randolph, river man, informs me (and the BLM corroborates) that one must urinate directly into the Green and NOT into the beaches or other areas near the river.  He tells me that there isn't enough water in the land to decompose urine solids (urea?) -- and so if we were to pee on the land (and others did the same) we would cause it to stink (and presumably burn it, the same way overfertilizing does).