Lars and I got a late start-at just after 1 pm, the latest yet.

We got in our kayaks and began following the twisting, braided current. Thankfully there was no wind blowing in our faces, but because the river has less gradient than the last few days our progress was slow.

Jokes were the most common form of communication between us as we adopted the name “meander-thols”.

After about 14 miles the river passed under and to the north of Interstate 70. On this stretch there are many islands and some pristine areas where it appeared there is little or no influence by civilization. After more than 50 miles of seeing natural gas drilling rigs perched in all sorts of places, this was a particularly welcome change.

Far to the south is the largest flat-topped mountain in the US. From the Department of Redundancy Department, what name would a mesa such as this have? Grand Mesa.

Farther along, at the entrance to Debeque canyon, the river made its way back to the Interstate and flowed along it through the remainder of this beautiful spot, the first desert landscape we have seen.

It was fun to trace the remnants of the old stagecoach road above the railroad on the north shore as we floated along. This is also mostly visible from the highway, so you may want to watch for it the next time you drive through here.

Several trucks honked at us but, interestingly, no cars did. Later in the day we found out that several friends had actually honked at us from their cars; obviously because of the guard rail or some other reason(s) the sound was not audible to us. I guess it could have been due to the almost non-stop laughter resulting from episodes such as Lars inserting large goose feathers into the top of his helmet in an effort to look like batman. My impression of him was more like an ass with sore ears.

The two biggest challenges of the day were not from the river, but from two large dams blocking it. It was difficult to find places to get our boats out and back in, but making our way through the weeds and sharp rocks was quite literally a real drag.

At just before 7 pm we made it to Palisade where, after travelling 35-plus slow miles we were happy to stop. The weather was still cooler than normal, in the sixties all day, but fine. Our only regret was that we didn’t make it farther downstream where the nice folks from US Bank were hosting a cook-out. It definitely is not typical for me to miss something like that!