The CannelU found their share of hidden sand bars in unexpected
spots. They spent time shoving off, wading, and restarting motor,
put this kind of scenery (right) compensated for minor upsets..
.. - ,.-.. - .lil-i.:.
The Wildest
Picnic in
the West
v.
This annual family cruise down Utah's Green and Colorado Rivers combines camping and
boating with rugged adventure and spectacular sight-seeing
Photos and Text by ROBERT P. CROSSLEY
YOU BOUNCE over 196 miles of twist
ing, churning river channels in a
17-foot outboard boat A sand bar sud
denly looms up and sheers your pro
peller. Still you're luckier than another
"picnic boat" which ran aground on a
sand bar and had a waterway speedster
smash into its rear end.
You're warned not to turn down one river its
treacherous current will shatter your boat and
suck a person under water. Craggy cliff's rise
abruptly 2,000 feet, and there's only one way out
of the canyon in your trusty, bouncing boat.
Sounds like a harrowing voyage, and it is, but
the Merlin Cannell family found it literally a
picnic They trailered their boat 600 miles from
their home in Grand Junction, Colo., to Green
River, Utah, where they joined 517 other boating
camping families in last year's Friendship Cruise
down the Green River and up the Colorado to
, Moab, Utah. (This year's cruise is being held this
' weekend.)
What are the attractions of river picnicking to
Merlin and Bertha Cannell and their three teen
agers, Karen, 16, Shirley, 14, and Gary, 13?
Well, first there's the good fellowship of other
families with like interests, and there's neighbor
liness, too for example, firemen of the local
towns drove all the cars and rigs to the terminal
point, Moab, where the boaters picked them up.
The Cannells and their friends also found
spectacular scenery: granite canyon walls that
dwarf men and boats and pastel desert ex
panses that change colors from misty dawn to
fiery sunset. Each twist in the river turned a
page of history: an Indian fort still preserved in
the desert aridness, the old prospectors' canyons
with such names as Hell Roaring and Horse
Thief. Excitement came in the rough but navig
able rapids, and in the stretches of calm, boaters
made their own excitement by water skiing.
THE friendship cruise wends its way 128 miles
down the Green, then 68 miles up the Colorado.
In the evenings families pull into quiet coves,
unpack their picnic gear, and appease ravenous
appetites with campfire-cooked meals.
They can hear singing from camps up river,
and there are tales about the day's experiences
but not for long. Soon they are asleep, getting
rested for a dawn call and more adventures on
the wildest picnic in the West.
On a stretch of calm, Karen Cannell takes to
water skis. Brother Gary watches from stern.
family Wnkly. May It. IM1