Liquidlogic Ladies Lounge: Westwater in November

The Remix XP9 arrived at my house two weeks ago. I had never paddled the boat, but knew I needed to have a whitewater kayak that has plenty of space for my tent, sleeping bag, food, beer, water, down coat, firepan, and a poo system. I filled the kayak with 2 drybags, warm clothes, first aid kit, one breakdownpaddle, two waterbottles and about 5 beers.

Dave and I decided that we need to run Westwater Canyon as a kayak self support trip to get ready for the grand canyon in January. Little did we know that a major snow/rain strom was coming our way. Luckily I packed my down coat and 3 pairs of wool socks.

We arrived at the put in, dropped our boats and gear off; the ranger made sure we had a fire pan, poo system, and 1st aid kit. He looked at us like we were crazy.
(dave got to put the fire pan on the floor of the kayak which fit perfect in his XP10)

We dropped the car off at the take out and biked 14 miles of the kokopelli trail back to the put in. During the ride we saw a few antelope running off in the distance.

We arrived to the put in and started paddling down stream. I was nervous at first because I think I had at least 50 pounds in my boat; but the remix was fast and very responsive. The first 5 miles of flat water went by fast. The gorge was beautiful and surreal, I felt like I was flying over the waves. I think I got about 4 feet of air off one wave.

We arrived at our campsite and started making dinner. It's so nice to have everything you need in your own kayak! It's nice not to have to rely on a raft, and it made me realize that you don't need much to enjoy and survive the outdoors. Sometimes I think we get caught up on material things and think we need paco pads, kitchen table, camp chair, etc... for a river trip. When it comes down to it, aren't we trying to get away from normal life? Back to simplicity?

It did rain/snow for about 4 hours that nite, and the tent collasped from the weight of the wet snow mixed with the intermitant rain. I thought a bear was crashing our tent at first! After Dave moved the snow off the tent, we were able to fall back asleep, thankful to have a warm dry shelter.

I can't wait to take the Remix XP9 down more rivers....The Salmon, Selway, Illinois, Virgin, Escalante, and Catacrat canyon are some of the rivers on our list...Starting with the Grand Canyon in January with the Liquidlogic Crew!