Everyone wanted to be in Doc’s dory boat, but there were only four spots.
For the uninitiated, dories are small, 17-foot-long rigid boats that can run a river much more quickly than an inflatable raft.
We met Stephen “Doc” Nicholson, a retired dentist turned rafting guide, on an OARS trip through Dinosaur National Monument on the Yampa River, the last undammed tributary in the Colorado River system.
One of the best parts about a rafting trip is being so far off the grid that our biggest decision was where to put our tent for the night. There are no worries about missed emails since there is no cell service deep in Dinosaur National Monument — 211,000 acres of wilderness across high desert peaks and river canyons. There is the adventure, of course — the rapids and sleeping under the stars….