spring run on the San Juan
Jun. 16th, 2025 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaWow, has it really been almost a year since I've posted here? I swear I was going to write up our Vermont bike trip last September (there was a draft here - one whole paragraph) but I never got that round tuit, so...here I am. (If you want to see some random photos from Vermont, no names or captions [sorry], they are here in a Flickr album.)
Anyway! This is not going to be the full monty, just a few highlights. Britt and I ended up bailing on our usual White Rim bike trip because he was still recovering from having a knee replacement in mid-February, and I had been having back problems for some time which didn't play well with bumpy riding. Our friends who put this trip together each year also had a San Juan river trip planned at the end of May/beginning of June, but had only space on the permit for 5; at the last minute, they checked and found out there had been a cancellation and they could invite more people, so, whee, we got to go!
It's possible that the last time we'd been on our boats was nearly 10 years ago; certainly we hadn't taken them out since we moved to our new house in 2019, so there was some scrambling as we made sure all our gear was in good shape and we remembered how to put it together! We loaded our stuff into our truck bed, and Ryan and Steve brought their raft on their trailer and hooked it on, and along with Michael, Jenny, and Chelsea we headed out of Durango early Friday morning:
We assembled our crafts, ate lunch in the meager shade we could find at the put-in, smoothly made it through Gypsum Creek rapid (which rudely lurks directly below the put-in), and then...ahhh, it's a whole nother world!
(The above photo was taken by Britt, in the lead in his kitty-raft and looking back; that's Jenny and Michael in their inflatable canoe, I'm in the yellow kitty-raft, and at the back is the cataraft with Ryan, Steve, and Chelsea.)
On the second day we hit the Honaker Trail in the morning while it was still mostly shaded. Because of our infirmities, Britt and I only hiked up to (what I just found out is called) Horn Point, which is a dramatic flat rock about 1.2 miles and 600 feet above the river - and to get out on it you have to jump across a very scary (only psychologically - it's not actually very wide) gap. The rest of the group went to the rim, while we enjoyed the views and then headed back down to get a start onloafing lunch.
The next day brought us to John's Canyon, which has a short but technically challenging hike to a really spectacular pool. The San Juan itself is so muddy that it's really a delight to climb up to this pool and take a swim in the comparatively clear water!
I haven't mentioned much about the rapids, but they were all pretty reasonable. The water level was relatively high, which made the hardest rapid - the Class III Government Rapid - much easier than usual, as the rocks at the bottom were covered by water. (It still made me nervous!) Mostly it was a serene float. Here's a typical view over my front luggage:
The weather changed on the fourth day, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as it had been quite hot. We had put up the tent that night (we'd been sleeping out), which was a good thing, because it rained a little, and it drizzled a bit the next day; as we had a short rafting day, our friends hiked up Slickhorn Canyon, where we'd been camping, but Britt and I just hung out and read under a tarp we'd set up as a shelter. It didn't rain much where we were, but apparently it rained a lot out in the land that fed the canyons, because on our last day, when we stopped at Oljeto Wash to hike up the very pretty side canyon, the stream was wide and flowing with thickly muddy red-brown water. We even found a mud-waterfall up the canyon!
From there, it wasn't a long ride to the take-out - in fact, with the high water it was fairly swift, and all the lurking sandbars had enough water over them that nobody went aground (a common hazard on the last day of this river trip). In conclusion,
Anyway! This is not going to be the full monty, just a few highlights. Britt and I ended up bailing on our usual White Rim bike trip because he was still recovering from having a knee replacement in mid-February, and I had been having back problems for some time which didn't play well with bumpy riding. Our friends who put this trip together each year also had a San Juan river trip planned at the end of May/beginning of June, but had only space on the permit for 5; at the last minute, they checked and found out there had been a cancellation and they could invite more people, so, whee, we got to go!
It's possible that the last time we'd been on our boats was nearly 10 years ago; certainly we hadn't taken them out since we moved to our new house in 2019, so there was some scrambling as we made sure all our gear was in good shape and we remembered how to put it together! We loaded our stuff into our truck bed, and Ryan and Steve brought their raft on their trailer and hooked it on, and along with Michael, Jenny, and Chelsea we headed out of Durango early Friday morning:
We assembled our crafts, ate lunch in the meager shade we could find at the put-in, smoothly made it through Gypsum Creek rapid (which rudely lurks directly below the put-in), and then...ahhh, it's a whole nother world!
(The above photo was taken by Britt, in the lead in his kitty-raft and looking back; that's Jenny and Michael in their inflatable canoe, I'm in the yellow kitty-raft, and at the back is the cataraft with Ryan, Steve, and Chelsea.)
On the second day we hit the Honaker Trail in the morning while it was still mostly shaded. Because of our infirmities, Britt and I only hiked up to (what I just found out is called) Horn Point, which is a dramatic flat rock about 1.2 miles and 600 feet above the river - and to get out on it you have to jump across a very scary (only psychologically - it's not actually very wide) gap. The rest of the group went to the rim, while we enjoyed the views and then headed back down to get a start on
The next day brought us to John's Canyon, which has a short but technically challenging hike to a really spectacular pool. The San Juan itself is so muddy that it's really a delight to climb up to this pool and take a swim in the comparatively clear water!
I haven't mentioned much about the rapids, but they were all pretty reasonable. The water level was relatively high, which made the hardest rapid - the Class III Government Rapid - much easier than usual, as the rocks at the bottom were covered by water. (It still made me nervous!) Mostly it was a serene float. Here's a typical view over my front luggage:
The weather changed on the fourth day, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as it had been quite hot. We had put up the tent that night (we'd been sleeping out), which was a good thing, because it rained a little, and it drizzled a bit the next day; as we had a short rafting day, our friends hiked up Slickhorn Canyon, where we'd been camping, but Britt and I just hung out and read under a tarp we'd set up as a shelter. It didn't rain much where we were, but apparently it rained a lot out in the land that fed the canyons, because on our last day, when we stopped at Oljeto Wash to hike up the very pretty side canyon, the stream was wide and flowing with thickly muddy red-brown water. We even found a mud-waterfall up the canyon!
From there, it wasn't a long ride to the take-out - in fact, with the high water it was fairly swift, and all the lurking sandbars had enough water over them that nobody went aground (a common hazard on the last day of this river trip). In conclusion,
(no subject)
Date: 2025-06-17 12:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-06-17 12:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-06-17 02:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-06-17 03:27 am (UTC)And Britt replied, "Well, nobody's gotten a permit..."
(which is true! This was the first trip in a while for all of us!)
(no subject)
Date: 2025-06-18 12:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-06-18 01:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-06-18 10:29 pm (UTC)Re: your photos of VT. This photo is of the road RIGHT by my house:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/svwindom/54074637514/in/album-72177720321305798/
We live right next to that covered bridge! (The Holmes Creek Bridge) Looks like you were standing at the end of my driveway to take the picture. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2025-06-18 11:17 pm (UTC)You live in a lovely picturesque place!
(the Faceless Old Woman is a Welcome To Night Vale reference)
(no subject)
Date: 2025-06-18 08:04 am (UTC)Wow, amazing photos! ♥__♥
(no subject)
Date: 2025-06-18 11:17 pm (UTC)Surreal
Date: 2025-09-19 08:58 pm (UTC)and really beautiful!
I'm so glad you got this chance to go back on the water.