Tyler Williams describes this as a classic southwest kayaking run. I feel like I've seen enough of the southwest to back his claim. I've said this before, but we were not prepared for the total magnitude of the adventure. If I had looked up the vertical drop from top to bottom for this canyon - 3500' - I would have been more prepared.
Here, Will and Dan are dropping through the gauntlet. I solo scouted this section from a rim scramble, and underestimated the vertical drop for the 4th of 5 walled-in rapids. I provided the team with this advice: 'follow the water'. This rapid ended up being a drop onto a shallow curler atop a boulder, or barely covered sieve, that flipped 3 of the 4 of us. Dan bruised his sternum from a chest impact on a boulder through his green jacket(!). I flipped onto my side and hit the same boulder with my cheek, which bruised and possibly fractured my cheek bone. Not sure what else we could have done - it's a must run section.
(Click for Youtube Video)
The gage seemed to be miscalibrated. It was reading 250 cfs at our takeout, but in reality we were lucky if we had half of that. I'd love to come back with double the flow we ended up with. Hiking out due to low flows was on the table on this trip, but that wouldn't have been very easy either.
Photo: John Baker
Photo: John Baker
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