The Descent of the Mighty San Juan

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Trip Start Sep 15, 2007 Previous
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  Mexican Hat, Utah, United States
Thursday, September 27, 2007

Hello, all! Just got off the river yesteday. Our descent down the mighty San Juan started with a couple minor set backs. First off, my dad forgot the oars for the raft. But we managed to round some up at the last minute from a friend he has in Bluff, UT. Then...minutes before leaving, Allison had a little accident. But I'l let her tell you about that one. All I can say is, she is one tough girl! There were 10 of us on the first half of the trip...7 adults and 3 kids...Allison, my dad Nigel, my little brother Noah and his two friends Lily and Nico, my famous actor uncle Adrian (see "It Came From Outer Space II") and his son Tyler, my step mom Nancy and her friend Beth. The first night we camped right across the river from some Anasazi ruins. Before dinner, Allison and I paddled across the river to check them out. Very cool! We looked for them last year but couldn't find them. The next morning as we were packing up our tent we found a tiny scorpion. It was no bigger than a quarter. My dad said, "Yup, those are the ones you gotta watch for." The next day and a half we had a mellow paddle down the river without incident. We got to Mexican Hat (the half way point) by early afternoon of the 3rd day, where it was Allison and I's turn for food duty. We made some mean tuna fish sandwiches, unpacked the belongings of those who were not continuing on, and restocked on food, ice, and water. Myself, Allison, my dad, Adrian, and Tyler then continued down the lower half of the San Juan. When we found a place to camp and started unloading the wind started ripping, and we got caught in a thunderstorm. There was a brief calm between the rainfall, so Allison and I quickly whipped out some magnificent chicken fajitas. It was a rough night! It poured on and off all night and the tent felt like it would be ripped apart. But the next day the weather was beautiful again. We stopped on a sunny beach for lunch, dried our wet camping gear, and hiked high up on the canyon wall. That night we found a small beach to camp on. As we were unloading we noticed the water had risen a foot and a half in about a half an hour. The already muddy water turned red and even muddier, and we noticed lots of logs and debris coming down. As we made dinner and enjoyed the warmth of a campfire, the water continued to rise and rise, and our beach got smaller and smaller. We continuely had to move our camp and gear back. Adrian and Tyler moved their tent, and the spot where it had been was soon submerged. Allison and I decided to leave our tent where it was and take our chances. It was hard to sleep that night. Allison and I would wake up and continually check to see if the water was closing in on our tent. It came close, but never got to our tent. It began receding by early morning. We later learned that the river flow went from 1000 cfs (cubic feet per sec.) to 8000 cfs overnight. It made boating the next day a lot more exciting. The waves were a lot bigger. Allison and I were both cold so we did our best to avoid them. We stopped for lunch at John's Canyon where there was a nice waterfall. My dad, Allison, and I climbed up above the first waterfall to a second one. I was impressed with Allison's climbing skills. We went back to the first waterfall and took showers beneath it before heading down river. In the late afternoon we came upon Government Rapid, the biggest rapid on the river. It was especially big because of the high water flow, but we all ran it perfect. We set up camp on a beach at the bottom of the rapid. The almost full moon made it a beautiful night. The next morning the water was already significantly lower and Government Rapid didn't look half as bad. We floated down to Slickhorn Canyon and hiked up it to some deep water pools and waterfalls. When we got back on the river, we were planning on camping at a place called Steer Gulch, but it was mosquito infested so we decided to move on. While we were there, Allison and I were able to paddle about 200 yds. up the narrow canyon. It was really beautiful. We couldn't find any camping beyond Steer Gulch so we ended up just floating to the take out and camping there. More mosquitos! We packed up the next morning, had lunch in Mexican Hat and drove on back to Flagstaff. This morning we picked up the bus from the shop and now we're hanging out downtown...Gasp! The end.
Silas

Whew! We're back in civilization! Sorry about the sudden end to the last entry- we were leaving Silas' dad's house right then heading for Mexican Hat and I had to log off really fast. The raft trip this year was pretty eventful...I'll start with the 'little accident' that Silas mentioned. Any worriers out there who are reading this- don't worry! Everything's fine. But right when we were putting the boats in the water to start our trip I was standing about knee deep in the water and I stepped backwards off the cement boat ramp and scraped my toes on the edge of it. At the time my foot hurt, but I was more concerned with having gotten my shirt wet. Anyway, once I had wrung out my shirt and was about to get into Silas' kayak, I pulled my foot out of the water to look at it and see if I had actually scraped it or if it just hurt. I was definitely not prepared for what I saw- my big toe and second toe were bleeding and the toenail on my second toe looked kind of loose and like it was sticking out at a funny angle. I just stuck my foot back in the water and got Silas' attention and told him that I had hurt my foot and based on his reaction when he looked at it, I knew it was messed up. At that time the raft had just started down the river and everyone else was getting ready to go so Silas' dad gave me a hankerchief to wrap my toe in until the raft (with the first aid box) could pull over. The one thing I felt very luck for was that there were 3 nurses on the trip- Beth, Nancy, and Silas' dad. Once we pulled over Silas' dad looked at it and said that he thought it would be best if we pulled the toenail off, so he got out his first aid kit, pulled it off and cleaned it and wrapped it up. He asked if I wanted to keep it, and of course I did...but I knew I wasn't ready to look at it yet so Silas took it and put it in the ziplock baggie that his camera was in. (I'm still not quite ready to look at it, but I've caught a few accidental glances of it when Silas has been getting his camera out. Yuck!)
Anyway, after that we were ready to go and had a nice relaxing day of floating the river after that.
One thing I learned on this trip...I think I'm getting old. I've never used a sleeping pad while camping before, but on this trip I was definitely feeling it. I had convinced Silas that neither of us needed one since I hadn't used one on the trip last year, so he had left his in the bus. He had a hard time sleeping even from the first night, but I was okay until about night 4 or so, but the thing I probably laughed hardest about the whole trip was on night 2 when Silas slept with a lifejacket on. See, the night we slept at Sand Island (before we put in) he was saying that his ribs and hips were hurting, so the first night we were on the river he brought the life jackets to the tent and slept on them. This seemed to work pretty well, but I think he was rolling off them or something, so he came up with the idea of sleeping with one on (the way you would normally wear it) and one inside his sleeping bag wrapped around his waist. God, it was so funny to see him in his sleeping bag with a life jacket on. Even now when I think about it, I can't stop laughing. I was planning on taking a picture of it the next night but then he borrowed a sleeping pad from one of the people who left at Mexican Hat, so I didn't get the chance.
The next night it started pouring right as we reached the place that we were going to camp. Actually, it was the wind that was worse than anything at that time- we could barely get the tent set up because the wind was blowing so hard it would rip the stakes out of the ground and almost flatten it. We finally put a bunch of rocks in it to weight it down and then went to make dinner for the troops. I have to say, our fajitas were AWESOME! I had been kind of worried about being on food duty, but it turned out to be much easier than I had been thinking. I think this was probably partly because everyone was so hungry when meal time came that they were happy with anything.
There was rain, wind, thunder, and lightning almost all night long, but in the morning as we started to pack up camp the sky cleared up and it ended up being a beautiful day. I'm actually kind of glad that it rained one night- I think it made us all appreciate the good weather so much more after that.
The next day we got to John's Canyon and there was a waterfall flowing into the bottom if it. Up until that time I had been trying to keep my toe as dry as I could, but I couldn't resist taking a shower in the waterfall. It was cold, but so worth it. It felt great to be (semi) clean! After our showers we had lunch then headed on down the river to Government Rapids. It was much bigger than I rememberd it being last year, but we all made it through.
The next day we encountered something that Silas had told me about last year, but I hadn't experienced yet- sand waves! I don't know how to explain them at all- I guess the conditions have to be just right and these rolling waves just appear out of nowhere and you almost feel like you're in the ocean rather than in a river. That day we also hiked up Slickhorn Canyon to some pools and waterfalls. Last year we didn't get to do many of the hikes that we had been wanting to, so it was cool that this year we got to do several hike/climbs.
That night we ended up floating all the way to the take out due to the mosquitos that were infesting the beach that we had been planning on camping at. Silas and I were back on food duty and we whipped up a mean (and hearty) spaghetti sauce. We thought we had made way too much, but it ended up all being eaten. Silas' dad had saved a beer for each of us for the last night, so we enjoyed them with our dinner along with the almost full moon in the sky. It was a perfect last night on the river.
The next morning we packed everying up and headed out. Silas, his dad, and I were in one truck and Tyler and Adrian in the other and somehow we got on the topic of how Silas' parents met and his childhood. I got some good 'Silas' stories out of it...like the fact that Silas cried a lot when he was a baby until they started giving him goat's milk, which seemed to solve whatever had been wrong. Oh yeah, and on the way home we took a quick drive through Tuba City which is where Silas lived when he was a little kid. I had heard a lot about it from Silas and he had said that most of the houses in his old neighborhood where boarded up, but I was still surprised when I saw it. Just blocks and blocks of houses and businesses with the windows and doors boarded up. I got some more good 'Silas' stories from his dad as we drove though town, but I don't want to embarass him too much, so I'll leave those for Silas to tell...if he wants.
Allison

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

Allison's little accident	Allison's foot baggy	Lookin' down at the boats	L to R: Adrian, Tyler, Nigel
Allison at a waterfall	Allison taking a waterfall shower	Side canyon	Side canyon 2
Anasazi ruins	Packing up	The river below	Morning after the flood
Shower time	Nigel vs. Government Rapid	Slickhorn pools	Captain Silas
At camp with the crew	Government Rapid	Government Rapid #2	Moonlight paddle
Most of the crew	Silas relaxing

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