Private trips are amazing!!!

I can't really complain about my job in Grand Canyon. Sure it is hotter than hell, and I have to deal with toilets a lot, and people that have never been camping and pretty hard physical work all the time, but I'll be honest and say that I have a pretty rad job. It's so cool to be out there in nature and enjoying the scenery and showing people what the desert can be for them. However, one of my main complaints about the job is that I don't really get a summer. I haven't had a real summer in 6 years and this year is not going to be any different. One thing I am determined to do is do more private boating. I would love to get my own boat and eventually do more trips on my own and just with friends.

My friend, Jason (aka The Bag) put together a trip down Deso and it was so great! Besides the two day Westwater I did last year this was my first multi-day trip with friends and it was AWESOME! About half of us had been guides at one time and I think that made us realize just especially how wonderful it was to not be filling up water bottles, answering real dumb questions (ie ... (this one is my favorite and it gets asked at the put-in) "So, is this where we're going to get off the river?" ... seriously? Do you think this is Lagoon-a-beach?) and pretty much having to be "on" all the time and cook three meals a day for 28 people for 8 days straight. It was great!!
I was in charge of food and that was a bigger ordeal than I thought it was going to be, but it was pretty fun to do and fun to go to Costco and fill a flat bed and regular cart. It turned out to be a lot of work but was so great. We had 15 people there, and it ended up being a pretty random group, but everyone got along great. It was a bit of a pain getting the shuttle and everything worked out, but once we were rigged and all ready to go we slept at Sand Wash under the stars. I remembered how much I love being under the stars! When we finally pushed off the shore, it was such a great feeling!! We set out for 6 days and it was great.














We had some great limbo contests, swing dance parties, and leg wrestle contests.


We camped at one of our favorite places and it is a really good camp with a nice sandy beach that is great unless it's windy which unfortunately it was. Here we are sitting on the beach trying to pretend it's not blowing sand into everywhere, eyes, ears nose (it made for some great fiberglass -esque boogers!)



To get away from the wind we went on a hike to this sweet natural bridge.



One of the dudes that came brought his kayak but ended up swimming in a couple rapids so he let me take his kayak the rest of the time. It was really cool. I haven't paddled in a while and it was great. Erika had her boat too, so we got to kayak a lot.


Of course in Deso, the inevitable wind brought the rain and it even hailed a little the last night.



We all took turns cooking and the last days team pulled off dutch oven enchilada that were amazing!

We all brought dress up clothes, but the last night since it was raining no one got them out so Jos and I pulled them out the last morning. I've got to get the picture of both of us together.