Canoeing John Day River

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Carol
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Canoeing John Day River

Post by Carol »

Asking for advice and information regarding the John Day River. A group consisting of three canoeists, one raft and one drift boat are planning on doing the Clarno to Cottonwood section of the John Day last week of June. Right now, the John Day at the Service Creek gauge is about 10,000 CFS, average for this year is 5000.
Question: what would the maximum recommended flow be for canoeing this section?

We are all experienced WW paddlers, but will have two children, eight and 10-year-olds, with us. None of us have done John Day River before.

Thank you,
Carol
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billhay4
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John Day Levels

Post by billhay4 »

Carol, go here: http://ahps2.wrh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrogr ... ,1,1,1,1,1 and you'll see a prediction for the John Day.
A friend and I are planning a trip this week, too, but postponed for a few days due to the level. We are both very experienced paddlers.
Couple of things: Clarno will be pretty big. You need to scout and perhaps have the kids walk.
The river may be muddy. Not ideal on this trip.
As you can see from the projection, it should drop pretty quickly.
Hope this helps.
Bill Hay
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Post by milkman »

By the last week of June, the John Day should be back at very reasonable levels for canoeing. I've paddled it from 600 cfs to 2100 cfs in canoes and you should be fine with kids at those levels, particularly with an experienced person in the stern. Clarno you'll definitely want to scout. There's a convenient eddy on river LEFT right before a hill and you'll see a trail up that hill where everyone scouts it. What we've often done is have inexperienced people walk the rapid and have the experienced canoeists run it.

All the other rapids are pretty straightforward and just require maneuvering skills to avoid rocks and holes. Nothing very tricky, all boat-scoutable. The hardest thing on the John Day can be winds. They often come up in the afternoon and can be quite strong.

Levels around 600 cfs will require lots of paddling. Below that it gets pretty bony. Levels of 1200 cfs to 2100 cfs are prime. Enough current to keep the boats moving.

Be sure to take lots of water. It can be hot. 30-mile creek is the only reliable place to restock water and requires filtering.

You should have a great trip this year. Plan on lots of swimming and some easy hikes around camp. Keep an eye out for rattlers. We don't see many, but you may encounter one.
Last edited by milkman on Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Marc Evans
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Post by Marc Evans »

Carol:

I ran the Clarno to Cottonwood section two years ago with my two kids, a friend and his daughter. The river was high, running at 3900cfs. We consisted of a tandem canoe, a support raft and an MR Outrage. We portaged the tandem around upper and lower Clarno, since the father and daughter who were in it were not that experienced. Upper Clarno is fairly easy as you could sneak on the river left. Lower Clarno has some ledges, which were easy in the raft, but could present a problem in a canoe. I saw others on the river with tandems and all seem to have portaged. The full portage is getting close to a mile in length. The only other rapid of note (minor at that) is Basalt (class 2). The big rock in the middle of the river is easily missed by going river right.

There are a couple of UTube videos showing what I think are upper and lower Clarno. A canoe running Upper Clarno in relatively high water can be viewed at


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcgqglx5 ... re=related


While a very poor run by a raft on Lower Clarno can be found at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrhZA26H ... re=related

If you like the rivers which run through the high desert of the great basin, you will like the John Day. I would like to go back some day an run the nearly 200 miles of the main John Day and the North Fork. If you would like to see some pictures of the lower section, let me know. I'll try to post them.

Marc
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Post by milkman »

Whoops, I gave you some misinformation. The eddy to scout Clarno is not on river right but on river LEFT! I've corrected my answer above.
Carol
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John Day River

Post by Carol »

Thinks everybody!

The link to the projected flows at the Service Creek gauge is great.
We were planning a five day four night trip, should we think about putting on upstream at either Twickenham , Priest Hole, Or Burnt Ranch?


Marc, I would love to see your pictures. Question regarding the portage. Is it a lined one? Or d-rig and haul everything on land? Or should I just wait and see and be surprised?

Carol
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Post by milkman »

I can't advise you on the other potential put-ins. I've always put-in at Clarno, which is about four or so miles above Clarno rapid.

As for lining or portaging. I've heard of people lining it on both the left and right sides. My guess is it would depend on flow.

If you look at the pictures of "upper Clarno," you can see that it's just an easy class II rapid right above Clarno. After you run upper Clarno, you want to get left to catch the eddy before the scouting hill. You can decide there whether you want to run the rapid, line it on the right or left, or portage it. The portage would be over the hill and not long or difficult.

I still think the best option is to have your experienced canoeists run all the boats through. It's not a hard rapid for experienced class III canoeists at the levels you'll probably see. In fact, it's a lot of fun. The John Day could use five or six more rapids like that.
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Marc Evans
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Post by Marc Evans »

Carol:

Milkman is right about Upper Clarno - basically a class II. Lower Clarno, which I seem to recall starts about a quarter to a half mile below, is more problematic. The one Utube video that I referenced shows it at a lower level (850 cfs). At nearly 4,000 cfs it is much more of a rapid than shown in the video. My friends simply walked their tandem overland, while I took all of the gear in the raft. The portage for the upper rapid was about a quarter mile, while the portage for the lower rapid was about a half mile - you simply link them together.

I've uploaded 16 photos of the Clarno to Cottonwood stretch on picasa, which can be found at the following link http://picasaweb.google.com/53kimbo/JohnDayRiver

You will notice that there are no rapids in the shots - typically of what we experienced, except for Clarno and Basalt rapids. Except for the first day, we were making 25+ miles per day due to the current and down stream wind. Both of which I hear are unusual for the John Day in June.

Have fun.

Marc
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