Mountain Classroom: Trading Bennie the Bus for Canoes

For six days this spring, Mountain Classroom traded Bennie the Bus for canoes, working their way down the Green River through Labyrinth Canyon with guides from Canyonlands Field Institute. Read the complete account from Cortland ’27 below!

Cortland '27

Final phase here we come! With the gate of Hunter Canyon group site closed behind us, we started our 1:30 minute drive up to the Green River, which consisted of the Kane Creek road… with the trailer, skinny roads, big drop offs, and abnormally large rumble strips created by ATV and side-by-sides. It was a scenic drive down Main Street of Moab.

We arrived at Ruby Ranch and put-in just up river of Labyrinth Canyon, we exploded across the put-in, packing our dry bags. After some Tina-style cold cuts, we had our safety and rigging talks (Rig To Flip!). Before pushing off, we did some name games and an icebreaker question… if you could have any condiment come out of your pinky finger for the rest of your life, what would it be?

River Day 1

The time had come, time to push off and say our goodbyes to Bennie for the next six days. We didn’t have too far to go, only about five miles, and with the river running at about 2000 CFS, the paddle was pretty easy. We arrived at our camp and set up our kitchen right under a large cliff, which we later climbed. After camp was set up, we were given some free time; some of us explored, some wrote letters, and others did art or school work. It was 5:30 when the chow circle was called. Outdoor Ed companies are known for their variety in systems and traditions. While on a trip, when two different programs are working together, it is tradition to share and combine their systems. That night, chow circle was a little different than our normal circle. We started by bowing and asking the chefs what was for dinner. Then we experienced a new practice, where the chef reads a quote and everyone turns out to face the river for a few seconds of silence before turning back into “peace and chow” to start serving. Dinner tonight was some… well, a LOT of boiled chicken with broccoli and mashed potatoes. Afterward, everyone was in a deep food coma, dish washers finished putting the dishes back and weatherproofing camp for the night, and others were already falling asleep.

Meet our  Canyonlands Field Institute (CFI) Guides 

• Bret - Trip Leader, Buffalo River expert
• Alina - Ski Patrol at Canyons, Park City, rookie at the Vail strike 
• DG Tal -Tal (Talia) - might shave her head if given a pineapple
• Jade - only 3 years older than us…

River Day 2

Will and I woke up before everyone else to take our stuff out of our tents and waddle down to the kitchen to start with some pancakes (or squancakes where you flood the whole griddle and then cut them up after). Alina helped us out by cooking at least 5 pounds of bacon in a Dutch oven. When chow circle was about to be called, a very loud propeller noise came from the river, as two bush planes banked around a canyon wall and brushed the water right past our camp and waved their wings before pulling up and disappearing beyond the canyon walls. If anyone was wondering, the squancakes were a big hit with MTCLRM! 

After breakfast and dishes, we put our Bedrocks, Chacos, and Tevas in four wheel drive to go up the canyon wall. We went up the path up to the rim with some scrambling along the way. Halfway up, we found some resurrection moss growing on top of some biological soil crust, the only plant that is known to be able to grow on top of this soil crust. Once we finished our scramble onto the rim, we were stunned by this oily type of rock, while standing on a big flat slab of sandstone and other sedimentary rock as far as you could see. For hundreds of years, scientists and geologists have not known how these metamorphic rocks got here in a land of only sedimentary rock – ‘tis still a mystery. We made our way back to camp to get on the water and move downriver to our next camp. Along the way, Will and I found a sand bar to have some quinoa wraps and some swimming time. Our next camp was a little more difficult to move into with a very steep river bank to make it up to the river bench where camp and kitchen were going to be. Again, some free time before dinner, and before you knew it, Will and I were calling chow circle. With only a few diced onions, diced peppers, and only one piece of chicken, there were fatalities in the process of making fajitas to the sandy ground! Our quote was ready, and our moment of silence was taken in deeply before grubbing, followed by the evening norm of dishes and evening meeting.

River Day 3 

 Wow, it was cold this morning, and with camp being on the river left (east side), we did not see the sun until we were pushing off to paddle. While everyone was still ice cubes in camp, we had breakfast; hamscram and then dishes, another two part fire line and a brutal carry of the kitchen box down to the boats. After a long morning of dysfunctional mobility for some, we had our boats rigged and were off! Off for a day of paddling, at some point while on the river a flotilla was formed consisting of many people like Freya, Will Jade, Ted, Talia, Emi, Tina, etc… the last boat pulling up was Annie and Elliot who attached on the side of the flotilla not realizing that if they were on the outside they needed to paddle to keep from not running aground or running into a river bank. The undertaking of this job was too much for them, so they pushed off and started trying to squeeze in the middle so they didn't need to paddle. Rule one of a flotilla is that if you’re joining, you join on the outside. Long story short, they got very wet from splashing and had to bail their boat out of a lot of water. Everyone was very short of breath from all of the laughter and giggling that came with this fight.

We made good time on the river today and made it to camp just in time for everyone not to get too grumpy before lunch. Emi held a short English class to introduce us to a section of poems from a book that we were to read for another class later on! With some free time before dinner, Alina taught us a new game called Water Bottle Shoe; lots of laughs were had in playing. 

The cooks went to the kitchen after our game, and everyone else got a short masterclass on how to make cake and cornbread in a Dutchie with charcoal! They both turned out amazing and so did the chili. Before bed, Brett held a star class. The closest town is Moab, which is a national dark light pollution city, requiring it to have its admitted light pollution to a minimum. This made the stars super bright and easy to see. Brett told us about how different cultures used to use the stars and the stories behind constellations and about Beetlejuice! A star that could go supernova in 2 minutes from now or 700 years from now. With some big yawns towards the end of Brett’s star show, some decided to just stay out and cowboy camp through the night.

River Day 4

Some cowboys slept in a little late this morning, but that’s ok because today was a slower day. We didn’t have far to go, and our chaos cards were going to be great! Annie and Georgie cooked up some “river potatoes” for breakfast to get us ready to pack up camp, do dishes and get on the river. Today was flotilla day, and in the spirit of the chaos card, we were not allowed to paddle except for steering. As we bobbed and floated down the next 4 miles to our camp, lots of great conversation was had, and laughter shared as we tried not to get sunburnt and keep the tan lines of the abstract straps from our shoes from becoming more prominent. With another large fire line up a steep bank we set up camp and found SHADE, lord was it needed… and it was so nice. 

After some lunch we all started hiking up this trail, it was steep but we crushed it. It brought us up to a saddle on the rim where we could look down the other side and see the river that we would be floating tomorrow. Next, Jade taught us a poetry exercise, and Emi’s English class followed that. After everyone was schooled out we wanted to consume a little more information, so we walked across another large saddle with the river below on either side of us to a wall where there were inscriptions. Some classify as historical and others graffiti, we had an organized argument on what years are classified as historical vs. graffiti and we came to a general sense that if it was more recent than the turn of the century, then it was graffiti, and if it was pre-WWII, it was “mega historical”, which most engraving fell under! 

We made our way down from the saddle in the afternoon blazing heat, just wanting to get in the water. Once the trail flattened out, we hopped into the water and floated down to our campsite to complete our second Chaos Card of the day, Swim Day!!! Chefs went to the kitchen, free time was given, big rocks turned into big thermal drying racks for clothes, and shade was found for journaling and letter writing. A loud call for chow circle was called, and everyone rushed over to the kitchen, and shortly after, everyone was eating their spaghetti and meatballs under the shade from the last sun of the day. The norm pushed on with dishes, evening meeting, and weatherproofing camp for the night. One tent group felt confident in the weather and decided to take down their tent to cowboy camp again. I can tell you, as one of the cowboys, the weather held out for us!!

River Day 5 

Today resulted in a longer day on the river, around 10 miles. The paddle was long, but so many stories to be told and information to be consumed. Today I was in a boat with Lila, and Brett was in a boat with Tina. Tina and I are in charge of our Student Lead river trip. As a group, we decided that we wanted to go to the Buffalo River in Arkansas, and Brett just happened to grow up minutes away from the section that we are running and has done that section of river in canoes upwards of 70 times. Brett knows the river like the back of his hand; literally, he has a tattoo of the Buffalo River on his forearm. 10 miles felt like a breeze while talking with Brett, Tina, and me, as we were trying to consume all of this information as fast as Bret was giving it to us! Nearly impossible.

We made it around our 5 mile point where we could look up and see the saddle that we had class on the day before, from there it was only another 5 miles to camp, another sand bar!!! We love beach camps! With our out of camp challenge and some fast paddlers, we made it to our campsite soon enough to have lunch at camp and lots of time to swim! Talia and Brett taught a water rights class to us. In class we learned about water rights in the Colorado Plateau going down to Mexico, and how we are running out of water. Point being, the West Coast is struggling, and no one is getting the water they want and need.

As a MTCLRM group, we liked to fidget during class, and beach class fidgeting was digging down to water. With many holes from class, we connected them to make bigger and bigger holes to finally just one BIG hole. Say 2+ feet deep and 10 feet by 4 feet wide. Once the hole was complete it was time for recruiting. It started with Emi, then Jade and Talia, then Will and Freya. As they got into their swimsuits and sat down in this large hole, Elliot, Annie, and I, the hole diggers, along with everyone’s help, started to push the sand back in the hole filling it up all the way until it was flush with the surrounding beach. All you could see were the heads of 5 people. Then for the hard part, getting out, we let the victims of the hole try to unbury themselves… that didn't go too well. After watching some struggling, we helped them. By the time everyone was out of the hole, they were running to the river, trying to get all the sand off while trying not to cry because they were laughing so hard.

After everyone was cleaned off and hungry, Tina and Hailey got in the kitchen to make some brats for our last dinner on the river. Dishes happened, and evening meeting ran until dark. A few attempted to cowboy camp but with the wind and flying sand and rain at about 12:30, we were all back in our tents.

River Day 6

Last day on the river, it’s bittersweet. We all loved the river, but had sand absolutely everywhere in our clothes and bodies. About a mile away from the take-out, Brett gathered us into a flotilla to do a trip debrief. Just like rose, bud, thorn, we did an activity where everyone shared a rock, a stick, a raven, and a gardener.  A rock was something that rocked, a stick was something that would stick with you, a raven is something or someone that you will be raving about, and a gardner it someone who helped you grow. After everyone went, we had a short talk about how the take-out is going to look like and work, then we separated and paddled the last stretch in sun showers to the take-out.

Day 7 with Canyonlands Field Institute

We woke up to some luxurious Cheerios, bagels, and yogurt to prepare ourselves for The Talent show! DJ Tal-Tal, our MC, started our show with a homemade PVC balloon horn. The talent show was all different types of acts: we had a podcast, Brett played his harmonica, and other acts! We are sure going to miss CFI! We had a long drive ahead of us to Durango, CO, so we said our goodbyes. It took a while, but with mostly no tears. The CFI team was waving as we were driving away. They said that they have never had such a hard goodbye.

Read More Student Reflections from Mountain Classroom Spring 2026