We suffered a "full-body workout" 6-day raft trip epic adventure in May 2011 on the San Juan River with our friends Jerry & Angie.
We launched on May 6 at about 407 C.F.S., then river flow went down to about 325 C.F.S. for the next two days. The river normally has 3 to 10 times as much water in early May.
We all just wanted some river fun in the warm and sunny springtime South Utah climate.
We don't go looking for an "epic adventure" ------- but we found one.
Day one, fun floating with lots of petroglyphs on the cliffs along the river.
Note what seems to be a Mastodon in the chest area of the large figure above.
In warm lovely weather, we did several short hikes, found numerous wonderful petroglyphs, and some great pictographs, as well as some "way cool" ruins.
In late afternoon, we rowed hard downstream against the upstream wind.
To our surprise: there were numerous minor rapids that were somewhat challenging at the very low water level. We also encountered a fair number of spots where we ended up dragging our boats through shallows. We finally reached a nice little campsite about 6:30 in the evening.
Day two, we rose at dawn and decided to make some miles, before the afternoon upstream wind hit us. The realization started sinking in that the river was so low we were going to have to row, rather than float, down it. Otherwise, we simply couldn't get the 84 mile trip done within our 6 day time-frame. The rest of the trip, non-rowing float time likely totaled less than an hour.
Heidi running our raft & The Mexican Hat on day 2.
Day three: we rowed through "The Goosenecks" where the river loops around many old meanders. Several small herds of desert bighorn sheep and many species of birds made for other interesting views. The river gradient increased and we ended up rowing 19 miles to a great little camp, with a nice sandy beach. It got very windy that night and it became obvious that the weather was changing.
A BLM River Ranger floated by in the evening, and informed us that the river was only flowing at 325 C.F.S.
Heidi & Jerry, discussing dinner.
Day four started windy & cold, and it rained for our morning float. By early afternoon, we arrived at Government Rapid, our "big" rapid for the trip. The San Juan is not noted as a thrilling white-water river, but we had been thrilled by some of the Class II rapids that we barely could bump through in the very low water. Government Rapid is a Class III rapid, and when we arrived: there were three rafts tied up above it, with the occupants scouting the now very challenging rapid.
The BLM River Ranger ran it first. It was not a clean run, but he pin-balled through the tight passages without getting stuck. Next through was an old fellow of 67, who had been down the San Juan numerous times. Of course he mentioned: he had never seen the river this low and challenging. The old guy's raft bumped slowly over some rocks covered by shallow water at the start, but he made it without any major problems.
The old guy's younger rafting pal pinned his raft against some boulders midway through the rapid and spent about 10 minutes pushing and bouncing it free.
Then came Jerry & Angie's turn and they stuck in the exact same spot as the previous raft. Working as a team, they were able to free their raft in about 5 minutes of pushing and bouncing.
At this point the BLM River Ranger counseled me to try a different entry into the rapid.
As Heidi & I approached the rapid: I saw the way!
I could ignore the facts!
This nearly impossible rapid was------no real problem for me!
The four other boaters who had pin-balled their rafts through Government Rapid, or had hung-up: simply did not have a competent rower that "knew how to row" tight low-water rapids.
Then my raft pinned on the same huge rocks in fast water.
We were able to free our raft in just a few minutes of stress-induced, adrenaline-charged, power-lifting.
After we got off the big rocks we were pinned on: I jumped back into my seat and started rowing.
We lurched a couple of feet and stuck on another rock that was just underwater and was under the center of our raft.
In the below link to a youtube video of this incident, I get behind my seat, stand on the rock, and lift our cataraft off it (one of the advantages of a cataraft).
Heidi & I both do some pretty quick jumping, (for old farts) into position, as the raft finally breaks free.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPUkbGSZ_PA
From the foot of the rapid, it was only a few miles down to our designated camp at Slickhorn Canyon. We arrived, unloaded boats, and just had time to set up camp before a thunderstorm hit us.
During the cold, windy, and wet evening we had one break in the weather, just long enough to cook and eat dinner.
We also broke out the "Nerve Tonic" for an unusually sincere toast to: "cheating death on the San Juan."
Day five, dawned mostly clear and windy. We actually slept in for the only time on the trip, since our next designated camp was only 5 ½ miles downriver. After a leisurely breakfast we hiked up scenic Slickhorn Canyon, and admired the great scenery and interesting small marine fossils in the rocks, then packed up camp and launched on the San Juan.
Magnified view of Crinoid stems & brachiopods in water polished limestone.
From Slickhorn down, we were in rafter's hell. Lake Powell, at high pool, once extended all the way to Slickhorn Canyon. It is much lower now, and doesn't quite extend to the Clay Hills takeout: 16 miles down-canyon. Those 16 miles now have almost no current and have numerous mud-bars, due to build-up of river sediments. The river channel is very indistinct, and that and the mud bars combine with strong upstream winds to make for slow and miserable boating.
We camped just above river level, on a goose-crap covered mud flat, and hoped the river would not rise and flood us out during the night.
Oh yes! It was cold and windy, and the mud flat smelled like drying mud flats smell.
But it was scenic, & cold.
Up at dawn, and we quickly discovered the river was rising fast and our mud flat was starting to flood. We "made haste" in eating breakfast and loading our rafts, then we were safely away before we lost our mud flat to the rising river.
Of course we had upstream wind, even in the early morning: but we rowed the final 11 ½ miles non-stop, in about three and one-half hours. The rising river seemed to give us some downstream current in most spots, and I only stuck our raft briefly on one mud-bar
The last mile of wind, mud-bars, and "flat water."
Would I do it again? Not in only 6 days at those low water levels. However it was a great exercise and weight-loss program. I shed five pounds in 6 days.
Best Wishes,
