San Juan River Float

Alan and I floated the San Juan River between Sand Island outside Bluff, UT, to Mexican Hat. Alan paddled a solo canoe and I rowed a raft. We spent three days on the water. We had one layover day spending two nights just below 8ft Rapid hiking around the second perched meander.

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20230404

We left Longmont in a snowstorm passing a multi-car wreck on Hwy 93 south of Boulder. Driving conditions improved before Idaho Springs. Somewhere along the way with Alan's custom painted canoe on the roof of the car another we passed took a picture of us: the canoe on the car with it snowing. Shortly thereafter Alan received a text message with the picture of the canoe on the car in a snow storm. The folks that took the picture recognized the custom canoe as made by their daughters boyfriend out of Missoula, MT!  - small world story. Lunch was had in Glenwood Springs at Slope and Hatch. The winds blew fiercely on I-70 in eastern Utah. Arrival into Bluff by 6:30 and had to wait about an hour for a table at the only restaurant open in town, The Dusty Rose. That staked us pitching tents in the dark at Sand Island by the time we finished eating.

20230405 - 1300 cfs

Frosty morning. Started packing gear for the river at 7:20AM. An outfitter already had two Hyside rafts in water waiting for clients when we arrived at the ramp shortly after 8AM. We proceeded to inflate and rig the raft. Val of Val's shuttle service arrived about 9:20AM. With the boat loaded and the keys and payment made to Val, we had late breakfast and coffee at a picnic table next to the San Juan river. After donning drysuits, we launched. Our first stop was at the foot holds cutout of the sandstone by the previous inhabitants. It was a tricky spot to pull the raft over only achieved with Alan's help grabbing the bow line and me straining my right injured shoulder pulling against the current. Alan grabbed the rope and held me; no way I could have pulled over by myself. Saw more foot holds and many petroglyphs. Floating on down to Butler Gulch we again tied up. Here we saw more petroglyphs facing the river and hiked up the water filled gulch a spell. We came upon some supposed 'Rescue' dogs barking at us while being refrained from running at us by two women who'd hiked down from some road to the north. The next stop was near the east end of River House on river left to visit ruins.  We found pottery shards. Walking a tiny bit further we came to another alcove with what appeared to be older ruins. The first River House camp on river right had a large OARS party. The second campsite had a dory/raft group. The third had the outfitter we'd met at the put in. They were just there for lunch and let us tie up. We had lunch. They left. We set up camp. We walked the short distance only along a single track dirt road to the River House ruin. Alan flew drone. Back at camp we had dinner. Or rather I had dinner. Alan didn't finish his first bite and vomited. He was having a severe headache and this was likely the root cause. He couldn't eat anything. There was some gallows humor about using his white gas to set him alight in his canoe drifting down the river should he have a turn for the worse!

20230406 - 1570 dropping to 1200 cfs

We waited until the sun was shining on the tents before rising. I got up before Alan. There was a cow grunting more than mooing. I went looking for it. When I found it, the bull cow was 30 ft from my tent. It was a beautiful rusty red. It stood there looking at me as I sorted out gear. Eventually it wandered off bellowing. The night had felt colder than the previous night and there was frost on the tent. The sky was clear of clouds again. Alan emerged from his tent with a thumbs up - he was feeling back to normal. In the cold air, breakfast was eaten and coffee enjoyed. We sat there looking out over the San Juan River from camp chatting and indirectly waiting for it to warm up. The OARS group floated past waving. Eventually gear was packed and stowed on the boats. We set off shy of 11AM just as the dory group came into view up river. We came upon the outfitter group camping near Chinle wash and had an exchange about the cold night as we floated by. The confluence with the Chinle river brought two different colored rivers paralleling their flows in the San Juan river. The Chinle was red and the San Juan brown their waters flowing side-by-side. We pulled out just as the San Juan river turned west into the deep canyon. From here we hiked over to the Diatreme outcrop. From the outcrop we  stared at two long eared donkeys as they stared back at us with Mule Ear mountain as the backdrop. The dory group was headed up toward the Diatreme as we were headed back to our boats. We spent the next few hours floating to our days final destination just below 8 Foot Rapid. Along the way we ran 4ft and 8ft rapids and a bunch of minor ripples. Here we settled in for the evening. Alan invited me to choose songs for him to play from his three-ring binder full of 70's folk pop music. He's got a gift for remembering the words and melodies playing the guitar for accompaniment. We talked of all manner of things until the stars were again visible. I tripped over a large rock moving gear to bed down and had to do a little first aid just below my knee where I skinned it.

20230407 - 1000 cfs

Alan and I decided before going to bed the previous night that we would get out of our tents when the temperature reached a comfortable level. This morning that occurred about 9AM. The sun had risen high enough to clear the ridge across the river to the east and the sunlight struck the tents. There was no frost or frozen water this morning like yesterday. The tamarisk shows tiny buds of green. The San Juan river level had dropped; the raft will have to be dragged a little to float it when we leave. With breakfast eaten, coffee enjoyed, and the call of nature answered, we set out to hike around the second perched meander immediately south of 8ft Rapid.

The clockwise hike involved a little scamper to mount a ledge that formed the Pouroff. From here we watched as the 'steam river boat' (white raft with family) and the OARS groups turned the corner and descended through 8ft Rapid. The hike from here followed the gravel filled wash that wandered lazily up the broad valley. It was easy walking punctuated by massive piles of donkey doo. No way could one donkey of made the piles we came across. It's as if the donkeys agreed on a communal place to defecate or it was a butt-to-butt poop feast. The return was very similar with the exception of a couple of side canyons entering and one small ledge we stepped down. We ate lunch in the shade of a small alcove that seems every type of creature in the area must visit periodically: donkeys, mice, bats, coyotes, etc. The entire loop around the perched meander was either 3.5 or 4.7 miles depending on Gaiagps or Garmin.

We spent the remainder of the day hiding from the sun's rays enjoying the quiet and solitude of the river valley. Many rafts floated by leaving us wondering where they would all find places to camp. As the evening dusk emerged, so did many small tan bats. They darted and fluttered in the waining light.

20230408 - 800 cfs

The temperature this morning was the most pleasant yet. The coffee tasted good. The raft had to be placed back in the river after the water level dropped through the night. Down river we paddled/rowed. We passed four different groups: OARS, dory, couple in raft, and 21 people in many rafts with half the group of kids. The kids, as only kids can, were wading, swimming, and squealing in the the cold muddy river! We past Lime Creek where I'd experienced a flash flood two years earlier, Sulphur springs, and the Mexican Hat rock still balancing. Once at the Mexican Hat take out we quickly disassembled and deflated the raft and loaded the car for the drive back to Longmont.