Utah Volunteer Time Ending

Monday 8-25 was a very slow day, it has been cool, foggy in the morning and drizzly all after noon.

Foggy sunrise at
Greendale Overlook

  We quit about 12:00 and headed into Dutch John to drop off the money from the Spillway, then headed to the Flaming Gorge Lodge for a nice lunch.  We were headed back to camp just coming up on West Green Lake, when the mountain lion/cougar ran across the road in from of us.  Wow, that was a first for us.  Back home a nap for Brad and Rudy then we headed out to do a couple of geocaches.  We managed to get 2 in about 2.5 hours, but it does help you find areas and things in your area that you would never have noticed otherwise.  Jim stopped over and invited us over for dinner with the family again, but after such a large lunch, we just stayed home and had burgers.  About 7:30 the rain started again, so we all headed in for the night.

 

Tuesday was another slow day, but the Vail Mountain School was there, they hired 6 guides from Flaming Gorge, so in the morning 12 kids went down the river to learn fly fishing and then about 12:30 the same guides came back, with 12 different kids....what an class trip.  After that the West Wyoming Community College brought a bus full of kids down for a raft trip.  Between the two schools, I think they made up over half of the counts for people going down the river.  Adam showed up about noon to do another afternoon raft trip and invited Brad and I to go along, so we decided to go.  A quick trip home, a short walk for Rudy, grab something to eat and back out the door we went.  It was an overcast day, no rain so the trip was wonderful once again, and it looked so different in the overcast compared to the bright sunny days.  Back home a quick dinner of sausages, then off to bed by 9:00 for Brad and about 10:00 for me.  

Elk on the run

Wednesday morning it is raining again, so we head to the Flaming Gorge Lodge for breakfast wraps and then went to the Greendale Overlook to eat.  After that we head down the mountain for a weekly shopping trip, in torrential rains.  Every parking lot was flooded, so we only made 6 stops and then headed back up the mountain, in the rain.  About 10 miles from camp the rain stopped for a few minutes and we managed to get a picture of about 6 Elk running back into the woods.  We carried groceries in the a light rain, then I swept the RV while Brad did a load of laundry.  At 5:00 it is still raining, our gauge has measured 3 inches of rain in a week, which is unheard of for this area this time of the year.  We hid inside and I just threw hot dogs in some baked beans and called it dinner...I think we are all tired of the rain. 

 

Thursday morning I am excited, I am going down Section 'B' of the river with Adam and Ben, and need to be at Little Hole by 10:00.  I left about 8:45, stopped for a breakfast sandwich at Trout Creek

Daily Sheep visit

Flies, called Mel and talked with her for a minute, then got to Little Hole early.  So I walked around with my trash picker and picked up trash, not much there but it kept me busy until the Old Moe girls got there and I chatted with them only to hear that the road to Indian Crossing is closed, and that is where we were to end our trip, but Adam and Ben showed up to say the road was open, but still a muddy mess.  They were a little late, so it was about 10:45 until we got on the river, but what a difference from Section 'A'.  The river is wider so the ride was slower and we didn't see another boater the whole trip.  We stopped and cleaned about 12 campsites on the way down and the ride lasted until a little after 3:00.  It was a beautiful day and I had a great trip on the river, Brad would have liked that section much better.  Back home to find that Brad had a busy day as well, cleaning out the last of the bins, putting tables away, fixing a hole in the laundry building, cleaning propane tanks and doing laundry....what a great guy. He worked so hard while I had a lazy day floating down the river.   Thursday night is our clean out the refrigerator and share with the other volunteers, but since ours was mostly cleaned out, we had bought shrimp to share and the last of the salsa Shari had sent us from the Wondervue Café.  There was plenty of food for all, and we all stayed and talked more than normal, it seems hard to believe that it is almost over. 

 

Friday was a work day for us, not a normal one, but they needed the extra help for the weekend, so we went in.  Surprisingly it was a slow day, only about 150 people, but Terra, the new intern, was in the booth with me learning what I did, so she could take over after I leave.  Jake, Adam and Ben were
at the spillway, heading down the river once again, but being a chilly morning, I didn't envy them.  Terra worked until about noon, then she needed to head out for another job, but Brad and I were there until 1:00.  Ben and Adam were going down the river again about 2:00, this time taking Don and Jan with them.  We just hoped the rain held out and they had a nice trip, which it ended up they did.  We headed home to watch the temperature drop then a quick lunch and Brad and Rudy's daily nap.  After that they headed out for a walk, but I picked them up at the visitors center as a storm had blown in.  We paid some bills, cleaned out the old magazines and then when Jim came home we headed outside for a very chilly happy hour.  Jim brought over some cheese and crackers and stayed for burgers on the grill.  We all headed in about 7:30, it was getting cold and the rain was back.  About 8:30 I headed out for a cigarette and heard the Elk bugling, so I told Brad and of course he thought I was crazy, but headed out the door about 5 minutes later and heard them for himself, what a great way to end the evening. 



On a 3 day camping trip,
but I liked the
'Hand' painted theme!!

 

Saturday the morning started out slow.  Jake showed up about 8:30 to help Brad on the ramp and about 10:30 he was ready to leave.  Thank goodness he didn't we ended up with almost 700 people going down the river.  Brad and I ended up working until about 2:00 and when we left Jake was still there...wow, what a change a few hours can make.  We headed home and watched the temperature go from about 75 at the ramp to 67 on our hill top, a bit cooler.  We had a quick snack of nachos and salsa then Brad and Rudy headed out for a walk....take notice 'no nap'.  About 4:30 I started the white sauce for Mac and Cheese when Brad asked me, over the walkie talkie' what Rudy was barking at.  Now I can't see anything since I am standing at the stove when Brad yelled it's a Badger, now they are really mean, so I throw the pan off the stove and run out the door, but by this time Rudy is headed back to Brad...yea.  Back to cooking, I made mac and cheese(with hot dogs) for dinner for Brad, Jim and I, then Fred took some when he got home, but there are leftover for our trip.  We all talked until just after 8:00 then headed inside to get ready for Sunday. 

 

Sunday once again started out as a slow day, but until we left at 2:00 we had just over 600 people go down the river.  Not a bad day for a Sunday.  We head home, no nap again, we threw our uniforms in the laundry and had a steak dinner planned with Jim.  Brad cleaned the car while I did some cleaning in the Moho, then about 5:00 we quit work and started dinner with Jim.  He brought over potatoes and onion wrapped in foil and I got zucchini wrapped in foil ready for the grill, then Brad got them started while we all enjoyed happy hour.  I kept checking on the laundry while Jim and Brad worked on cooking dinner and about 6:00 the steaks finally got put on the grill.  We had a great evening, lots to eat, with leftovers for Brad and I.  I think we stayed outside until about 9:30, none of us had to work on Monday so we had a nice night.