Listening For and Heeding the Quiet Voices
A 7-Day River Journey of Discovery
Green River, Utah
September 6-13, 2025
7 days in a remote canyon setting,
45 miles of flat-water paddling,
Limited Spots
Guides: Scout Wilkins & Lauren Bond,
Pricing: Standard: $2895
The deposit and cost of The River’s Path Canoe Adventures are non-refundable. We strongly recommend purchasing travel insurance through our partner Outward Travel to protect your investment.
Join us this September for an extraordinary canoe expedition on the Green River with The Rivers Path and special guest explorer and guide, Scout Wilkins.
This journey, embodying and using the principles of Scout’s game WordTrails, invites you to step away from explanation and into the realm of direct experience and deep listening.
The Invitation
For seven days, we’ll travel the flowing waters together, creating a rare opportunity to:
- Experience the world through the principles of curiosity without explanation
- Develop a relationship with uncertainty as a source of wisdom rather than discomfort
- Practice listening for the quiet voices that often go unheard beneath our mental chatter
- Discover what emerges when we set aside our need to analyze and simply allow understanding to arise
- Practice the art of conversation, with self, with the river and with each other, as a desire to understand, connect and get good together.
What to Anticipate
We will move through the landscape as quiet receptive explorers rather than tourists, allowing the river itself to become our teacher. Each day offers a new invitation to:
- Engage with the natural world through wonder rather than categorization
- Practice the art of deep noticing – both in the outer landscape and your inner terrain
- Participate in gentle practices that help us shed the habit of constant interpretation
- Experience the rich potential that exists in the space of not-knowing
The Journey’s Gifts
What might you take home from seven days of listening to the quiet voices?
- A more comfortable, intuitive relationship with uncertainty and the unknown
- Fresh ways of perceiving that aren’t filtered through habitual thinking patterns
- An embodied trust in your personal capacity to navigate life’s flow without constant analysis
- A lived experience of the safety of wisdom arising naturally when space is given
- New stories and metaphors that can serve as portals for continued exploration
Meet Your Guides
Scout Wilkins (she/her)
Utah Guide
As a naturalist, intuitive, energy worker and life coach, Scout is a lifelong explorer and guide who uses nature to help people open and trust, so they can bridge the gap between the external world and their inner human landscape.
Her speciality is in facilitating conversation between all aspects of the human psyche: analytical, somatic and spiritual.
In this she is supported by WordTrails, the exploratory game she has created, which offers a space in which explanation is taken off the table, leaving wide open space for curiosity, wonder and awe.
Scout offers gentle guidance and tools that respect each person’s unique journey while fostering meaningful connection.
Scout’s personal coaching/guiding website: TravelingLight.life
Get a feeling for who Scout is, as well as a bit more about WordTrails at this recent podcast: https://www.2lives.org/listen/scoutwilkins
The world of WordTrails
Upon registration, each participant will receive a copy of WordTrails to be playing and deepening with prior to the trip itself. There will be a series of three Zoom calls to answer questions and support entry into this space of no explanation.
You can visit the website to learn more, at https://wordtrails.com
The deepest truths often speak in whispers. This journey invites us to quiet the demanding voice of explanation so we can hear what’s been waiting to be heard.
Space is limited to ensure an intimate experience. Reserve your place for this September journey with The River’s Path today.
Lauren Bond (she/her)
Lead Guide
Lauren Bond has always belonged to the river. From a childhood of following streams to the deep kinship she has found in Labyrinth Canyon and the St. Vrain as an adult, her life has been guided and shaped by the water.
In 2004, she floated through Labyrinth Canyon for the first time. She didn’t yet know what she wanted to do with her life, but she knew this was the place. Today, she can confidently say that this is, indeed, the place. She has been on over 60 journeys through Labyrinth Canyon, and she has no doubt that this canyon brings a magic of its own, far beyond what she can offer herself. This collaboration with the river emerged when she followed the wisdom shared by waterfalls, trees, birds, and a very sweet porcupine. There is no place else she would rather be.
Lauren holds an MA in Environmental Leadership from Naropa University, and is a certified Transformational Wilderness Guide through the Earth Based Institute. Lauren worked as a naturalist, river guide, wilderness guide, and environmental educator before she started leading her own river journeys with The River’s Path in 2010.
What to Expect – Overnight Canoe Trip on the Green River
While the exact itinerary will change based on the theme of the trip, some things are common for all trips down through Labyrinth Canyon:
We’ll canoe a total of 45 miles down the Green River through the steep canyon walls of Labyrinth Canyon in Utah. The trip begins at Ruby Ranch (located just south of I-70) to Mineral Bottom (located near Canyonlands National Park). Four to five days of paddling will be interspersed with layovers at wilderness campsites along the canyon. Paddle days are usually 7-15 miles each or about 3-5 hours of gentle paddling. The river has no rapids and hardly any current. It is muddy and shallow (except for high water in May and June)
While in camp, in addition to our theme program activity, we may swim, take short hikes or explore side canyons. After we all pitch in during camp setup, we’ll have plenty of free time to relax, enjoy our surroundings and have the opportunity to get to know each other as we experience the beauty around us. Then we’ll come together each evening around the campfire.
The River’s Path guided overnight canoe trips involve staying deep in the wilderness with no electricity or cellular reception, and in case of an emergency, evacuation will be done via rescue boat or helicopter. If you need to have medically necessary equipment that uses electricity or need to stay in contact with someone at home, the guides will have a texting device available. Please contact Lauren Bond at 303-859-7174 or lauren@theriverspath.org to discuss.
Temperature changes quickly and can be unexpected, so it is important to bring items from the packing list in case of any drastic changes. Rain and thunderstorms can pop up at any point. Temperatures for each month can range from the high 60s and low 30s for March to the high 100s and lows in the 70s for August. Please see the NOAA graph for Labyrinth Canyon monthly weather averages.
The section of the Green River we will be on is considered a Class I river with no rapids. This is essentially a flat water trip.
Each canoe accommodates two people and they include two Crazy Creek camp chairs with backrests. Canoes will carry all of the personal gear and camp supplies.
The River’s Path will supply 2 dry bags, one large and one small, for your personal gear.
Group gear provided includes: canoes, paddles, life jackets, canoe seat backs, camp chairs, full kitchen setup. Supplies provided include: all food, shade canopy and river toilet with a privacy shelter.
Your personal camp gear that you are responsible for includes: tent, tarps, sleeping bag, and anything else you need that is not provided. That being said, we highly recommend you approach this with a minimalist mentality. Everything you bring, along with your canoe partner, must fit on your canoe. We will supply you with a complete packing list.
While many adventurists kayak the Green River, the amount of gear, supplies, and coolers of fresh food on our journey requires canoes.
The River’s Path will provide food and drinks for all meals and snacks. We can accommodate most diets including vegetarian, vegan, paleo, gluten-free, and dairy-free. The water is too muddy for most portable water filtration devices, so we will pack all drinking water.
If you have other needs or concerns, contact the trip guide, Lauren Bond at 303-859-7174 or lauren@theriverspath.org
It’s important to note that this is a collaborative experience. To form a strong community and have an even more powerful, life changing, memorable experience, each individual in the group will participate and share in camp responsibilities. Everyone helps with setting up and taking down camp, unloading and loading canoes, cooking meals and cleaning up. Each individual must bring their own tent, sleeping bag and pad, as well as other items on the packing list. Those using a hammock must provide an appropriate setup for that.
During your trip through the Labyrinth Canyon you’ll find a slow meandering river with steep colorful canyon walls, amazing side canyons (and maybe evidence of ancient civilizations), incredible stars, unforgettable sunsets, and a hushed serenity you’ll find no place else. No matter where you look you’ll see the unforgettable and awe inspiring colors and sounds of nature.
You might consider long sleeved shirts and pants, bug lotion and head netting if you are extremely sensitive to bug bites. Birds like golden eagles, peregrine falcons, canyon wrens, screech owls, and more can be seen along with small animals like beavers and larger ones like desert bighorn sheep and deer.