A Few Take-Aways from our Thanksgiving on the River

As the happy prospect of a traditional Thanksgiving shared by extended family faded with the skyrocketing coronavirus cases in Colorado, we came up with an alternative plan that ticked all the boxes: Thanksgiving dinner on the river, one night of camping, 5 people, 3 total households.

*Everything tastes better on the river, especially at Thanksgiving*

Four of us (Audrey, her husband Pete, me, and my husband Harry) were old hands at river camping. The new twist to this trip was bringing my 80-year-old mother, who had never done an overnight river trip. (In fact, she hadn’t even done a day trip before.) But she was totally game: Being outside would certainly be safer, and the novelty of spending the holiday camping helped compensate for the disappointment of canceling the big get-together with the whole far-flung family.

*Contemplating the canyon walls with coffee in hand*

All in, our overnight in Ruby-Horsethief Canyon on the Colorado River was fantastic: Good food, decent weather (more details on that to come), and an experience that was a complete diversion from the current troubles of the world. Here are a few take-aways from this excursion that we’ll apply to our next holiday river trip.

Go big on the cold-weather gear

We’ve done some cold river camping (Salt River in early spring), but not this cold: The high on Thanksgiving was about 42 degrees, and the low that night was 28 degrees, so it was a frost-covered scene in the morning. We would not have persevered with this plan if any rain had been forecast, as that would have made for a dangerously cold situation. As it happened, we got a few drops in late afternoon, but then the moon rose in a cloudless sky. Here’s how we kept everyone warm.

We picked a river stretch with only Class II rapids, and few of those. The Colorado River through Ruby-Horsethief was running about 2,500 cfs on Thanksgiving, so there was slim chance of anyone falling in the river who didn’t want to.

We wore ditch boots on the river. Everyone in the rafts wore tall, waterproof boots that you can wear with thick wool socks. Certainly not the footgear we would choose for a big whitewater trip (certain drowning once the water seeped in the top), but fine for mellow water and they make loading and unloading in icy water much more pleasant.
We wore down coats with waterproof layers—even on the river. Again, not something we would do for a whitewater trip. We started with high-tech base layers (stuff we would ski in), put splash pants (or dry pants) over that, and layers of fleece on top with down jackets. And another waterproof jacket over that, either a paddling jacket or Gore-Tex outer layer. Balaclavas and wool hats. Water-resistant, insulated gloves.
We brought hand warmers. For those whose hands got very cold, we stuck some of those skiing hand warmers in their gloves.
Some of us invited dogs into our tents. We all sleep on very thick Paco Pads, which are not only more comfortable but also super-insulating. And we had plenty of warm clothes and down sleeping bags rated for zero-degree temps. But nothing beats a warm Lab snuggling with you.

With some variations on this basic clothing strategy, everyone stayed fairly toasty on the river, even though we had a few drops of rain.

Be ready to set camp fast

Although everyone was in fairly good shape when we landed at camp, we had only an hour or so of light to get camp set up and serve Thanksgiving dinner. We divided and conquered on camp set-up, focusing on these four essentials first:

Warm people up. We immediately set up a tent for Grandma, and tucked her into the tent with a couple of sleeping bags and an appetizer.
Start a fire. Getting the firepan set up and a fire started (we brought our own kindling and wood in an old dry bag) before the sun dropped any lower was imperative. (Also, we needed the fire for some of our Thanksgiving dishes.)

*Getting the fire started before the sun goes down is key*

Set up the groover. Because we had a newcomer on the trip, we went to extra lengths to make sure the path to the groover was well-lit and not a long hike from the main camp. We also set it up even faster than we would have otherwise, just to make sure no one had to wait while also being cold.
Get the food started ASAP. We brought two campstoves just in case, and ended up using both as that helped us speed the dinner preparations.
Get lights set up quickly. We usually don’t bring a big camp lantern on river trips, relying on headlamps. But because darkness would fall by 5 pm on this trip, we secured a couple of these 400-lumen Nite Ize lanterns to add some clarity. We used our arsenal of Luci lights to guide people to the groover and added some solar string lights for holiday cheer.

*Luci lights lead the way to the groover*

After about 30 minutes in the tent, Grandma emerged to sit by the fire and have a sip of wine.

*Thanksgiving appetizers and cocktails by campfire*

Have fun re-interpreting the Thanksgiving meal

We stuck to tradition on some aspects of Thanksgiving dinner, but experimented a bit as well.

Crackers, cheese, and sausage for an appetizer.

*Simple appetizers to get food eveyone’s bellies quickly*

Honey-baked ham. No prep needed! (Could also have been a smoked turkey.)
Pheasant posole, made earlier in the week and frozen in plastic bags, then heated on the campstove. (Here’s a post about planning river meals that talks about the advantages of pre-cooking stews and sauces.)
Sourdough bread: Supposed to be homemade but turned out like a pile of rocks, so this was store-bought. We wrapped it in foil and warmed it by the fire.
Green beans. We brought a bag of trimmed, cleaned beans, put them in foil with a dousing of olive oil and Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel seasoning (garlic, sesame seeds, etc.) and set them on the fire, turning a few times.
Cranberry chutney. Made at home, no river prep needed.
Mashed potatoes. We cooked just a few in a small pan, drained off most of the water, added a half stick of butter with some salt and pepper, then mashed them with a handheld masher.
Stuffing: Made at home, wrapped in foil in camp and warmed in the fire.

Although this was certainly more dishes than we’ve ever had on a river trip, this whole thing took only about 40 minutes to get ready. Some things, like mashed potatoes, you just don’t skip at Thanksgiving in my family, even if you’re on a river trip.

*Cranberry chutney went well with the apple pie*

What we would have done differently

Here are a few things we missed that we’ll get right next time.

Double-check for waterproof kitchen matches. We thought we had these tucked away in various places, including our first-aid kits. But in the morning, when our click-button lighters were being stubborn in the freezing temps, we could not find any matches. We were able to get the stove lit, and then got the campfire started with kindling lit from the stove. But it was dumb not to have matches.

*Cold morning in camp: We took time for a morning fire to get everyone warmed up before we started packing up camp*

Have some water set aside in a heatable vessel for the morning. Most of our water, whether in 5-gallon jugs or in personal water bottles, was frozen the next morning. We were able to coax some water out of a jug eventually, but next time we would set aside some water in a kettle that we could heat on the stove to get the coffee started while waiting for the sun to warm everything up.
Don’t discount the difficulty of the small things for newcomers on a super-cold trip. For older people who are new to the game, factors like getting up in the middle of the night a few times for a bathroom break gave us some concern. If you’re not steady on your feet in the first place, leaving your warm sleeping bag cocoon in 20-degree weather in the middle of the night for the trek to the groover is not a welcome prospect. One aspect that helped: Our campsite (Mee Canyon) was on a huge, level bench above the river. You had to scramble a bit to get up there, but once there, it was level ground, which helped navigating in the dark.

*Mee Canyon camp on Ruby-Horsethief is on a level bench above the river, which helps navigating at night*

In a year filled with the disappointment of countless missed gatherings with friends and loved ones, this Thanksgiving river trip will stand out as one of the best coping mechanisms yet for us. I suspect that this won’t be our last Thanksgiving on the river. There’s always room for some new holiday traditions.