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Solo San Juan Canoe Trip

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Feb 3, 2016
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White Mountains Arizona
A good trip on the San Juan, very few rain showers, good river flows (always a concern for SW river trips) and most important of all very mild winds. Nothing, but nothing will turn a nice spring southwest canoe trip into a test of endurance like wind will :- ) A 20 to 30 mph day will micro-burst up the canyons at two and three times that speed making cooking, pitching shelter just about everything nearly impossible. The week before I launched two 18ft rafts, with outboards operated by a Navajo outfitter were both pancaked, literally lifted off the river and slammed back down upside down :- ) Those guys aren't rigged for that kind of fun, they lost coolers and outboard motors and gear of all kinds, stuff floated down the rio like a big yard sale along with 16 tourist haha

I had over 1000 cfs flows the whole time, which is a lot of fun in a canoe, a lot of the unrated riffles and such get to be long wave trains with 3' waves and the Class II and III stuff start looking pretty sporty. The rapids on the San Juan aren't difficult in a technical creeking sort of way, but the speed and volume of the river creates big waves and holes. It's a different experience than splashy creek runs and for most folks used to running technical stuff the water seems 'big' to them. The other thing that that stands out to folks not used to southwest rivers is the muddy water, it hides the rocks and the depth of the holes, it really changes how you read the river, it makes it really easy to miss the pour overs and ledges. The speed and volume of the river, even in the 'flats,' make landing feel more like an eddy out, you generally don't get to meander to shore or you find your self swept into the russian olive trees or tamarisk tree's. A lot of the bank also drops off real fast, making just jumping out with a painter a sketchy move :- )

I was planning on 11 days, but a couple issues on the home front cut my trip a little short, my wife got a serious sinus infection, probably caused by mold on a remodel job we are doing and was in a bad way :- ( we don't have family in AZ so I cut my trip down to 8 days. I camped right above Government Rapid and ran straight though the lower section that requires campsite reservations and took out early.

I put in at Montezuma Creek, UT on and camped at Recapture Creek the first night and layed over there the following day, it's above the usual Sand Island put in and not often traveled, but there's some good hiking and interesting stuff to see. A note about the upper, there aren't any rated rapids up there, but the river braids into tight channels that you can't scout, and there are many real deal, day wrecking stainers in there requiring far more boat control skills than the rapids in the two canyons.

I left there and paddled into Sand Island to do my 'check-in' with the BLM River Rangers and headed down to Butler Wash for some more lay over days :- ) Butler Wash (google it) is classic southwest hiking goodness, lots of tinjana's (earth jar), rock art and ruins. It gets blown by most folks trips because it's only a few miles below the usual Sand Island put in and folks are wanting to get some miles after launching. Because of the that there aren't any camps shown in the guide books, but there are a couple good ones above it and i usually stay a couple days there on every trip. My idea of good layover camps are places I can hang my Hennessy Hammock, I don't live like a savage out there haha

I also camped at 'Midway' camp in the upper canyon, there's a small grainery ruin and rock art there and a side canyon that allows hiking out of the river canyon, I layed over there too, it's more 'drive-bye' country and I wanted to explore it with some thoroughness, it was very worthwhile :- )

The rest of my trip was pretty much the same, I like to camp in passed over area's and I enjoy exploring area's of archeological importance.

My Nova Craft Supernova in Ex. Tuff Stuff worked like it was made for Class III river trips and I like that boat more every time I use it :- ) very dry, stable and maneuverable in big waves and holes even if I don't always do my part haha I was loaded fairly heavy with a #4 Granite Gear pack, smallish dry box, day pack and a small 'soft' cooler with some solid frozen meat and too large frozen Nalgene bottles, to round out my meals, it works well for the first week of a trip and I replenish the ice at Mexican Hat and drink the water. I like outdoor cooking and my kitchen is based around a 10" anodized aluminum dutch oven (2.6 lbs), I plan about 50/50 meals that take prep and those that don't. When the wind is howling, I'm not messing with stoves or DO cooking. When I'm doing less lay overs and more miles i back off the cooler and DO and get more 'backpacker' with my chow. All this said my gross boat weight was about 205 lbs of paddler and just over 100lbs of load including 2 gallons of water, I could cut that by 25% easily if I wanted, but hey I like baking biscuits and making sausage gravy on lazy river morning layover days haha

If anything the SN actually displays better manners with a load on. I know lots of folks fuss about moving the seat fore or aft, but loaded for a trip that seat works just right for me, though I may raise it an inch or two. I have the big pack rigged right in front of my knee pads and secured by glued in PVC 'D' rings, I kneel 80% of the time I'm paddling. I put my river toilet behind me under the airbag and my firepan under the front airbag along with a dry bag of charcoal (drift wood sucks for the DO) that is also my trash bag. I fill the rest of the boat with NRS nylon 'long' solo canoe air bags. I would take in a LOT of water without bags even when things go well and pinning solo with the flow and volume of the San Juan would probably be the end of my canoe :- ( The BLM rangers cut several canoes off rocks every year, they made sure to tell me that when I checked in haha

These are the high points of my trip and an overview of how I do it out there. No swimming this time :- ) I come close at times doing something silly or pushing the edge of my skill level and of course I left some sand colored gel coat here and there and know what nakid Tuff Stuff looks like. My wife (rafter and kayak hippy) looks at all the scratches and exposed fabric on my otherwise glossy and fair craft and just shakes her head and ask 'What was going on in there?' haha She doesn't get the whole composite canoe thing, my Dagger Genesis didn't show the abuse :- )

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My loaded boat, getting that lived in look, I like all my gear loaded below the gunnels, but my hiking shoes end up drying on top of the airbags most of the time :- )
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My breakfast in progress, that Rubber made box fits inside my #4 and is also my prep area.
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A tom getting some springtime loving next to my camp LOL
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Looking down Butler Wash towards the river
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Some rock art is hard to interpet, this one not so much :- )
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These steps were chipped well over a thousand years ago, they always lead somewhere interesting
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In this case to this hidden tinjana (earth jar), very cool.
 
Very cool photos.

Did you know that the steps led to that pool or was it a happy discovery after you clambered up to explore?

About the rock art photo, what is your interpretation? It looks to me like a guy laid prostrate by smoke from a pipe blowing through his head.

I gotta back to the SW soon as well.
 
Wow. Spectacular. I'm jealous.

Those micro wind bursts you speak of sound spooky. Glad you didn't get any. Although a total aerial wind flip in your canoe might be something worth experiencing! And a 2.6 lb Dutch Oven? Wow to that as well. Didn't know they came that light. I've always viewed dutch ovens like barbells and weights: best left in someone else's boat!

And I like the sound of your quality low and tight rig for your Super N. Sounds like it's doing you well. I love a canoe that can handle gear for days and remain highly maneuverable. It brings out the joy of travelling by river! I as well keep everything low and tight. Always ready to be upsidedown (of which I do a might plenty). On my last trip I checked out my PVC groover and slipped it under my stern float bag but I quickly found I'm going to have to at least modestly strap that down as well. Float bags are so susceptible to fluctuations in hot and cold temps. In the hot sun of course they blow up like a balloon but when flipped into cold water they quickly deflate which then makes anything stuffed under--like my poop tub--freer to roll around. (It's round shape doesn't help.) Can't have that. It makes leaning to the gunnels (of which I do a might plenty) and getting back upright that much more difficult!

I've also taken to bringing along a dry bag that serves as my dry wet bag (it's actually an old bag that is no longer "completely" dry). I slip my hiking/winter/camp boots/shoes into it along with anything else that might be wet, say, my tarp or rain jacket or cotton undies that hit the water the night before (har har har), to keep water and dirt and mud from getting all up into my sleeping bag and getting everything else wet and then as well to keep them from getting more soaked than they probably already are by riding in the open air. It works fairly well at keeping everything semi-civilized.

The old man launches from Sand Island either today or tomorrow.

Thanks for sharing!
 
I had no idea where the 'moki' steps were going :- ) The picture from the bottom is what I saw when I hiked to the base of the cliffs after spotting them with binoculars. These steps were in cliffs well upstream the BLM Sand Island put-in. I thought I was headed up to a grainery or dwelling, less likely a wall of rock art, because I couldn't see the tree's or the the nitch that tijana was hidden in. There were lots of pot shards below though, but that is always the case. So up I go :- )

There are steps all up and down the Sand Juan, most of them aren't in the scenic canyon runs but between them because the Anasazi needed to farm the flood plain areas between the river braids. Lots of folks blow though these area's, but if you bushwack though the wall of invasive tree's and brush to explore the side canyons you see some good stuff. That takes time though and most folks are going for the 'big picture' and don't have time for it. My first couple trips were like that, but now I research and target areas.

The rock art pic was part of a big panel that showed guys with rifles and wide brimmed hats in a shoot out with guys with bows. That guy in the pic has an arrow though his head :- ) It likely predates 'cowboys' (read mormons) and the brimmed hat guys are likely Spanish. The history in the area also leans that way.

The SJ has a long, long history of human occupation with the archeology often layed and consolidated in the same places.

The SJ is my favorite trip, it lends it's self well to solo canoe trips and the logistics are easly met. The off river exploration could keep you busy for many lifetimes. I'll post some more pics when I get some 'real internet'.
 
It's funny how us guys on Official Regional Swim Teams like our boats rigged low and tight :- ) I like a lot of of Cliff Jacobson's tripping philosophy, but gear stacked a foot above the gunnels makes me nervous haha

Next rigging im going to do to the SN is some type of glue in webbing tiedowns under my airbags for the stuff I put under there. Probably laced with shockcord to keep the stuff in the same place so my boat trim is consistent.

Even in my relatively high volume boat it makes a difference or at least feels like it to me. My boat likes all the weight in the middle, middle even a few pounds too fore or aft becomes noticeable when it comes time to ferry or eddy out.

My ferrying in the loaded SN generally gets done with a back ferry. I can't do the same kind of stuff I would pull in my Dagger Genesis :- )

So keeping my boat pretty neutral in trim is important for holding my ferry angles. The speed and volume of sw rivers changes the way I do things especially the timing and how much river space I need to set my boat over.

IMO It's not about the 'perfect' boat, but knowing your boat perfectly, so to speak. I practiced these moves a lot on this trip. 30 miles of strainers and tight braids was good training haha If not a little nerve wracking :- )

The DO is from GSI, I posted on it in the chow forum awhile ago. It's definitely a luxury item. Not as much in weight, but in meal prep time spent. Sometimes im in the mood to be the riverside gourmet, sometimes not so much :- ) So I try to balance the meal planning. This trip about half the DO meals seemed tiresome and I wanted to be hiking ect. But the heck, if I hadn't had them, I would have been sitting there looking in a bag of Mountain House, thinking "Seriously, this is how I eat now" haha

Speaking of sitting :- ) I really need to to come up with a good camp stool/chair that rigs well.
Sugestions humbly requested :- )

I don't really have one for canoe tripping, our raft trip loungers are just too big. So at the last minute I didn't take anything. Good Grief even a simple Colmen stool would have made life much better :- )

The downside with the DO is that it really needs charcoal for best effect. Charcoal's bulky and relativly light, but requires time to light. The DO didn't lend itself well to the Primus Crux stove I took for coffee/oatmeal etc. Next time I'll probably take a white gas stove, probably my trusty rusty MSR Whisperlite.

Ironing logistics out is half the fun for me and I fret over the details till I get things where I want them haha
 
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That backcountry is utterly mesmerizing to me. Like stepping back in time. Thanks Jag.

We feel the same way :- ) My wife and I are originally from MT and used to bounce in and out of the southwest pretty regular. One year I finished up a contract superintendent job on a hotel and we were feeling flush and planned on buying a couple acres around Ash Fork, AZ. The land there was less than a $1000 an acre for down to a couple acres, you could buy 3 acres for 3K it's arid, but still in the ceders and out of the way ect. We came out in our RV, did some more AZ land research and ended up buying 44 acres in the White Mountains along the Mogollon Rim for 19K, sandy loam soil, ceder and pinion, good aquifer water at 350ft with elk, antelope and mule deer passing though nearly daily. We haven't been back to MT in 4 years haha

It wasn't that MT was bad, my wife and I both are from the mountain west, just that the SW is a whole new sandbox to play in and I do miss somethings about MT. We used to do the Classic 'daily' white water run's almost daily and I miss that. Here the trips tend to be more epic, take dealing with permits (not bad when you get a handle on it) long shuttles, muddy water and banks, fickle seasonal flows and wind. No other place on earth like this :- ) Folks generally hate it here or become obsessed haha I boat with guys that have never tripped any other river but the Colorado though the Grand Canyon, some call it the 'trip of a lifetime' and others run it nearly every year of their life haha

Obviously we love the big white/brown water runs, but it's the off river hiking that really gets us out there.

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This is a big 'tank' up in Slick Horn Canyon off the SJ san jaun 042.JPG
Taking a breather upstream of Butler Wash
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I don't remember where this was haha
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Grainrey
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Above the big pour over in Grand Wash
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Pretty sure it's Grand Gulch :- )
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Ruin
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I don't remember where I took this
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Some how a lot of these show up on my GoPro 'Whats this thing doing, did I just run a short vid or take a still?' haha
 

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