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Alex
05-23-2010, 12:08 PM
A friend from Cedar City invited me to go down Virgin River through Virgin River gorge in Arizona. It's the section that you drive through going down to Vegas. The stretch goes through the whole canyon and takes about 5-6 hours to get through on a kayak.

The river never runs big enough to float it, so the current flow is first in 7 years. I had to jump on the invite. I took my inflatable canoe with oars, I also had a friend on the front paddling.

Sadly, my battery ran out 1/3 of the way through it and I missed the big rapids. There are about 5-6 class III and one class IV rapids. The class IV was mean looking! Must make moves, rocks, obstacles, 4-5 foot drops and current. If you stay in the current, it was fairly simple, if you missed the line you'd be pushed into a nasty rock garden.

I loved this section, the drive through Virgin River gorge is never going to be the same again for me.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTAWI9rTGuE

Here are some pics from the trip:

Approaching the Big 10 rapid:
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A perfect run through Big 10:
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Virgin River fishery dam, I portaged my boat just in case (blue with oars):
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The guys ran it in a paddle raft
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accadacca
05-23-2010, 06:46 PM
Awesome man! That looks fun in the canoe, gotta try that. Looks like the perfect little river for a canoe. :clap:
moab mark
05-23-2010, 06:47 PM
Nice video. I have never seen a small rubber kayak with oars in the back, cool.

Mark
Alex
05-23-2010, 07:51 PM
It's not small, it's a 14 footer. I am thinking of making a small frame for it now for even more stability. Scott, it would be tough in a hard shell canoe. The rapids further down were pushing class IV, rocky, drops and laterals.
moab mark
05-23-2010, 08:08 PM
Are the oar locks just built into the rubber?
Bo_Beck
05-24-2010, 07:12 AM
This is AWESOME Alex! Can't wait to see the next half?! I really wanted to join you, but I got a call from a Ranger friend of mine up at Zion, and I had been promising to take him up the West Temple for a long time. Anyway, yesterday (sunday) was a perfect day for such hike (and probably the last chance before the heat comes), so we went up West Temple.

Man it looks like you guys had a blast!!! SWEET!
Alex
05-24-2010, 09:38 AM
Are the oar locks just built into the rubber?

Not built, they are called oar saddles. They attach to boat tubes with straps and have a full size oar lock.
Sombeech
05-25-2010, 03:38 PM
Wish I could have made it, I love that canoe.
Bad Gas
03-16-2011, 06:44 AM
This gets me excited. I want to run it. What do you think the minimum runnable flow is?