San Juan

[Bo_Beck]

Got invited on the Lower San Juan for May 14th. A long time ago I rowed a baggage boat on the upper. How is the hiking opportunity on the lower section? Suggested hikes?

Different note: Will try for a mid April Escalante River trip. Hiking in at Egypt. This will be my first as well!

[River]

Are you putting in at Sand Island or Mexican Hat? If you need a guide book, the Rivermaps Guide to the San Juan River has excellent maps. They also have downloadable GPS coordinates on there - great for finding some of the smaller campsites.

As for hikes between Mex Hat and Clay Hills:

Mile 31.3 River Right - Hike up to Mendenhall Cabin on the top of Mendenhall Loop (also fun to be dropped off at 30.1 on river right, hike up to cabin, and then meet boats on other side at 31.3)

Mile 44.6 River Right - Hike up Honaker trail to the rim. Highly recommended. Also be sure to hike out to Acrophobe Point part way up - an "interesting" step across a crack with a great view.

Mile 59 River Right - Hike up Johns Canyon. To get up to the lower pouroff, start at the plunge pool and follow a trail downstream about 1/4 mile at the base of the cliffs. Then you have to find a small break in the cliffs to find a spot to hike up. The climb is about 15' - a rope and possibly harness may be useful. After that, you'll regain the trail and hike back downstream to the pouroff.

Mile 66.5 River Right - Slickhorn Canyon is a must. It's a great hike to several pools and artifacts of oil exploration. Plan to camp at Slickhorn A-D to allow time to explore up the canyon as far you want to hike.

Mile 70.5 River Right - Grand Gulch is also a must stop. We usually plan lunch and a couple hour hike there.

Mile 76 River Left - Oljeto Wash is a spectacular canyon that is worth hiking. Note that you technically need a Navajo Nation permit to hike on the south side of the river.

I'll try to dig out a few photos later. Hope you have a great trip.

Erik

[Scott P]

How is the hiking opportunity on the lower section? Suggested hikes?

Hiking opportunities are excellent. The list above is a good one.

My favorites of all are Johns Canyon (excellent pool and climb up to the middle of the canyon) and Slickhorn Canyon (lots of nice waterfalls and pools). Don't miss those no matter what.

[Bo_Beck]

Are you putting in at Sand Island or Mexican Hat?
As for hikes between Mex Hat and Clay Hills:

We put on at Mexican Hat on friday the 14th at about 1:30PM

Mile 31.3 River Right - Hike up to Mendenhall Cabin on the top of Mendenhall Loop (also fun to be dropped off at 30.1 on river right, hike up to cabin, and then meet boats on other side at 31.3)

Didn't get this hike in. Got a late start to the day at Mexican Hat, and I flipped my IK at the very first rapid :-). It was a windy cool day and we made our way to camp at mile 36?

Mile 44.6 River Right - Hike up Honaker trail to the rim. Highly recommended. Also be sure to hike out to Acrophobe Point part way up - an "interesting" step across a crack with a great view.

Did this hike the second day! What a great hike! Thanks for the beta!

Mile 59 River Right - Hike up Johns Canyon. To get up to the lower pouroff, start at the plunge pool and follow a trail downstream about 1/4 mile at the base of the cliffs. Then you have to find a small break in the cliffs to find a spot to hike up. The climb is about 15' - a rope and possibly harness may be useful. After that, you'll regain the trail and hike back downstream to the pouroff.

Did this hike as well! Thanks again for the beta!

Mile 66.5 River Right - Slickhorn Canyon is a must. It's a great hike to several pools and artifacts of oil exploration. Plan to camp at Slickhorn A-D to allow time to explore up the canyon as far you want to hike.

And once again! Thanks again for the beta!

Mile 70.5 River Right - Grand Gulch is also a must stop. We usually plan lunch and a couple hour hike there.

Yep...lunch was good and went up a mile or so!

Mile 76 River Left - Oljeto Wash is a spectacular canyon that is worth hiking. Note that you technically need a Navajo Nation permit to hike on the south side of the river.

Camped here and also meandered up the wash a half mile or so!

I'll try to dig out a few photos later. Hope you have a great trip.

Erik

I should be able to post some pictures soon as well as some videos of us taking turns running Government Rapid in an Alpaca Packraft!

[Alex]

Bad swim, or you were ok?

[Bo_Beck]

Bad swim, or you were ok?

Nah! Wasn't bad. I opted to start out in a tandem IK. I sat too far back and a "curler" just popped out from nowhere :-) I swam the whole set, and other than being a bit chilly from the cloudless day, and wind (nothing that a couple of swigs of wine couldn't cure) the day was awesome! When we got to Government Rapid I had a blast running it twice (once down the left side thru two heads) in an Alpaca Packraft, and then one more time in a duckie . The river was AWESOME, the hiking fantastic, camps perfect and the other 5 guys I was with were an absolute blast! We had one modified Cat Raft, one 16' baggage Avon, 3 IK's and one Alpaca Packraft. What a total blast, and I've fallen in love with the San Juan. We are planning out our October Colorado River Potash to Spanish Bottom Canoe trip, and then 3 of us will continue down Cataract in 2 Packrafts and one Cataraft support boat.

Cheers,
Bo

[Alex]

Let me know about the Cat, we are planning an October Cat trip as well. We will be in big boats through.

I am running Virgin river this weekend, if you want to join us let me know.

[Bo_Beck]

Let me know about the Cat, we are planning an October Cat trip as well. We will be in big boats through.

I am running Virgin river this weekend, if you want to join us let me know.

What day are you going to run the Virgin? I have to work saturday here at the store, but would possibly be interested if you'd be doing it on Sunday?

[Bo_Beck]

Let me know about the Cat, we are planning an October Cat trip as well. We will be in big boats through.

Looks like we're shooting to launch at Potash on Oct 11 and spend 4 days on the canoe portion. We then would begin the pack raft section down Cataract on friday the 15th. Hoping to either hike out Dark Canyon 3-4 days later or float all the way to Hite?

[Alex]

I will keep that in mind about Cat. We'd float all the way to Hite, will most likely have a motor.

We are running Virgin Sat and Sun. We will be at that campground at Exit 18 if you want to look us up.

[Bo_Beck]

Haven't had a ton of time to figure out pictures to post so I learned this Picasaweb thing and here is a link to the photos and videos of our 5-14 to 5-18 San Juan trip.

[Sombeech]

Haven't had a ton of time to figure out pictures to post so I learned this Picasaweb thing and here is a link to the photos and videos of our 5-14 to 5-18 San Juan trip.
http://picasaweb.google.com/11493492...anRiverMay1418#

That pack raft looked fun.

[Bo_Beck]

That pack raft looked fun.

It is a HOOT Justin! The amazing thing is that it weighs about 6-7 lbs. This weight includes the packraft, sprayskirt, seat, pump and paddle! It rolls up and all fits into a stuff sack that is maybe 7" in diameter and 18" long! I lashed my backpack onto the bow (just on top of my feet)with the shoulder straps up, and if you want to portage you just hop out, pick up the pack and put on the shoulder straps and walk! It is amazingly stable (you sit at water level), super durable (I bumped rocks and sticks) and it handles very agily and is quick to respond! I'm looking forward to our Oct. Colo. River/ Cataract Canyon packraft trip!

[Bo_Beck]

Check out this TR about Packrafting Cataract!

[Bo_Beck]

Oops, can't figure out how to upload a PDF?

[Sombeech]

Oops, can't figure out how to upload a PDF?

Try the "manage attachments" button

[Bo_Beck]

Try the "manage attachments" button

For some reason each time I upload the PDF it says upload error?

[Sombeech]

For some reason each time I upload the PDF it says upload error?

Go ahead and email it to me, I'll give it a try.
justinmcfarland@yahoo.com

[Sombeech]

OK, here we go. We had the upload limit on PDFs too low, it should accept up to 5MB now.

Thanks Bo