Brief San Juan River report
 

We ran the San Juan River from Bluff to Mexican Hat, Utah, in three
days. This was a party of six people, four canoes and a cataraft. We
were going to go all the way to Clay Hills, but we were not making
enough miles per day to get there, taking into account our reservations
for campgrounds downstream, shuttle, getting back to school, etc., so we
left in the middle of the trip.

None of us had ever been in a mixed canoe-raft group, and we failed to
allow for the relatively large speed differential. We made 11 miles on
our best day, around 1500 cfs.

On the second day, the wind became very strong, one or two people almost
flipped, so we sat on shore for a while and then camped right there.
The group made multiple good decisions, including that one. A good
group of compatible people.

I managed to flip in Ledge rapid, I should have scouted it. Luckily
everything stayed dry (except me) and I only lost the sponge, which was
found a few miles downstream.

We hope to go back some other time, maybe run the lower section.

Richard

On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 00:25:44 GMT, Richard Ferguson
wrote:

(snipped)

I managed to flip in Ledge rapid, I should have scouted it. Luckily
everything stayed dry (except me) and I only lost the sponge, which was
found a few miles downstream.

We hope to go back some other time, maybe run the lower section.

What class in general is this river? What classes of rapids did you
go through? Is it suitable for novices?

Cyli
r.bc: vixen. Minnow goddess. Speaker to squirrels.
Often taunted by trout. Almost entirely harmless.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli
email: lid (strip the .invalid to email)

The San Juan River is generally rated class II, with Government Rapid on
the lower section rated Class III. Ledge rapid was rated Class II, I
believe. I was told that Ledge was not one of the more difficult
rapids, that Eight Foot rapid was more difficult. Of course I had no
problem on Eight Foot rapid, just shipped a little water. Would I flip
if I ran Ledge again? Probably not, but I would study it for a few
minutes first. As I understand it, all rapids can be portaged or lined.

Having flipped my boat on the river makes me not enthused about sending
novices on it. ;-) To me, the flip was not that big a deal, I changed
clothes and kept paddling. I don't think that everyone would be so calm
about flipping. I don't claim to be a great paddler, but I paddled
about 20 days in 2004, a good part of that on class II water, so I am
not a novice. I understand that there are guided canoe trips on this
section, so they are probably shepherding some novices down. A google
search should identify which outfits are guiding on the river, you could
call them and get their view on novices.

This is a permit river, you need to apply to the BLM for a launch
permit. There were two of us who submitted for a permit, but only one
of us drew a permit.

Richard


Cyli wrote:
On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 00:25:44 GMT, Richard Ferguson
wrote:

(snipped)


I managed to flip in Ledge rapid, I should have scouted it. Luckily
everything stayed dry (except me) and I only lost the sponge, which was
found a few miles downstream.

We hope to go back some other time, maybe run the lower section.


What class in general is this river? What classes of rapids did you
go through? Is it suitable for novices?

Cyli
r.bc: vixen. Minnow goddess. Speaker to squirrels.
Often taunted by trout. Almost entirely harmless.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli
email: lid (strip the .invalid to email)

On Thu, 07 Apr 2005 03:37:37 GMT, Richard Ferguson
wrote:

The San Juan River is generally rated class II,


Thanks. I'd line down them. I don't mind flipping, but I'm old
now...

Cyli
r.bc: vixen. Minnow goddess. Speaker to squirrels.
Often taunted by trout. Almost entirely harmless.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli
email: lid (strip the .invalid to email)