Trip report-John Day River

[Carol]

My summer vacation for 2008:

The grande plan was to take advantage of an early vacation this year and do the John Day River, then move on over to the Grand Ronde before heading back home. As our departure date approached, it became apparent that the flows on the Grand Ronde , 8000 CFS, and not dropping was going to be an issue. So change of plan. After finishing the lower section, we would go back and do the shorter Service Creek run. Yes I know, it's doing it backwards, but with how vacations were planned, that is how was going to be.
This year's group consisted of: the Kruegers in their Dagger Dimension, Chuck Verhaegh with Jake in a Mad River Synergy, Jan Dooley and Alice with Ruthie and Yukon the dog in a Merrimack canoe, Loudenslager's (hopefully not former canoeists) in their just finished, year-long boat building project, a brand-new wooden drift boat on its maiden voyage, and with Kit and Charlie in the raft. For the second half of the trip, we would lose Kit, Charlie, and Alice, but gain Tim and Susie the Regal Beagle. With only one raft, unfortunately, the canoes were forced to carry all their own gear, but we survived.
John Day River, Clarno to Cottonwood
2600 CFS,

Clarno Rapid, and Klickitat video

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... type=&aq=f

Photos.
WWW.rapids2.myphotoalbum.com

On June 21 the Loudenslager's and Krueger's departed from Arcata, California at 9 a.m. in the morning and headed north on Highway 101 for Grants Pass and beyond. The Dooley-Verhaegh family had also departed, but were traveling at a different rate. From Berkeley, the Hewitt-Wright, family had also departed, and were heading up I -5.

East of Medford, Oregon on their way to Crater Lake the Krueger convoy received a frantic cell phone call from the Verhaegh family stating that the transmission in their van was in the process of failing on them, and that they were at the Honda dealership in Medford. Help! The Hewitt -- Wright family had also been contacted in the Klamath Falls area, and they were also on their way to Medford. We had a very pleasant 2 -- 3 hour visit with the friendly folks at the Medford Honda dealership waiting for everybody to regroup, find an appropriately sized rental car, and then rearrange the boats. Eventually we were off, and on our way to the LaPine campground south of Bend. Sunday morning we were off to the community of Fossil where Jan had been able to find a B and B for the group for the night. But first, we had to check out the public fossil fields up behind the high school, and found a selection of fossilized leaves. After a hearty breakfast, we set off to the put in at Clarno, got the canoes loaded, raft rigged, and drift boat launched for its maiden trip.

Monday was a relatively short day as Clarno Rapid ate up more time than we had anticipated. All the boats ran the rapid, but the kids and dog walked. Jan and Alice in the Merrimack filled up, and finally swamped below the drop. Eric put his first ding in his drift boat here also. Tuesday and Wednesday blended together with beautiful scenery of canyons and basalt formations. The wind started blowing abound two o'clock, which meant setting up an early camp and relaxing in the sun and water. Make sure you check out the photo of Jake, with his first fish!

Tuesday, we stopped at the spring at Devils Canyon to fill up on water. There we would have provided quite the entertainment, if there had been any boats passing. After we regrouped where the boats were tied off, someone discovered the first tick. Before you knew it, we're pulling up shirts, pulling out pants waist bands, going through hair looking for the little critters. And they were there! Time to move on!

Thursday the wind started about 10 a.m. the Synergy and Merrimack didn't seem to be slowed down much, but the Dimension with its 5 inch rocker, raft and drift boat struggled until we made camp, about 1:30 p.m. Try to remember that next time on the John Day, the Dimension is not an ideal choice, as just before we reached camp, we finally ended up towing the canoe downriver. We camped at the base of Palisades in a howling wind that finally ceased after 10 p.m.. Cooking became a very creative endeavor. Next morning we decide to get up at 5 a.m., to try and beat it. But of course, Friday turned into a calm, wind free day, arriving at the Cottonwood takeout at 9:30 a.m.

The early arrival at the takeout had everybody in an upbeat mode, as that meant that we can all start on the next phase in our vacations a little earlier. Well it should have meant that. One of our cars was missing. It finally turned out that a different shuttle company had mistakenly taken the car at the put in, green Subaru's are a dime a dozen it seems, and with the combined work of the Sheriff Department and our shuttle service, it was finally located, after a five-hour wait a very hot parking lot. Makes you wonder what happened to the car that was supposed to have been picked up.

Finally, the Hewitt -- Wright family has on their way back to Berkeley, the Dooley -- Verhaegh family back to Medford to pick up a van, and the Loudenslager -- Krueger's are off to Glenwood, Washington for a little R&R, to take a showers and do laundry.

Trip 2, Klickitat River
Klickitat River near Pitt @2000 CFS

Winters past we had cross-country skied to an overlook with Doug and Nancy with dreams of someday getting on the river. Saturday, my brother-in-law Doug, gathered us all up for a two-part rafting trip down the Klickitat River.

On the upper section, where the Loudenslager -- Krueger's, and his cousin Chris. At the hatchery, we were to pick up his wife, Nancy, son Jeffrey, Isabel an exchange student from Honduras, and dog Rascal. Chris was to switch from raft to kayak, and possibly the Kruegers into their canoe. Both upper and lower sections of the Klickitat are beautiful with waterfalls, basalt cliffs similar to what the John Day offered, and Pacific Northwest Firs coming down to water's edge. At the hatchery, we ate lunch, stuffed Chris into his itsy-bitsy kayak, and the Kruegers opted to continue on the raft. It was a tough call, as any particular section was doable, but the Klickitat is a glacial fed river, coming off of Mount Adams, so the consequences of a cold long swim were not acceptable.

The upper section of the Klickitat, is definitely a solid, continuous, class 3 for approximately 5 miles plus, with negligible opportunities to eddy out. The lower 10 mile section , from the Klickitat Salmon Hatchery to Leidl Campground, starts out just as continuous, but gradually mellows as the miles go by. Doug did a great job of negotiating holes to cool off over dressed passengers. It would really be nice someday to come back when the flows are lower, and hopefully canoeable.

Trip 3, John Day River.

Service Creek to Clarno.
1600 CFS.

The Loudenslager-Kruegers, Dooley-Verhaegh's, and Tim Clohessy all met up again Sunday midafternoon at the Service Creek Campground. After unloading the cars, the guys took off to set up shuttle while the gals set up tents, all under an ominous sky of roiling black clouds, flashes of lightning, and claps of thunder. About a half an hour later, we were hit with wind gusts, accompanied by rain, that basically flattened the tents. A good Samaritan, from Prianeville, along with his two sons helped re-stake tents and weigh them down with large rocks. After shuttle, we all enjoyed a huge chef's salad à la Chuck, and reorganized gear. We sure missed not having a raft along to carry everything, mainly water and the Scat Packers!

This upper section of the John Day River has a different character than the lower section. A lot more farmland adjacent to the river, gradient not as steep, and geology not as spectacular. But, I think some of the canyons made up for it. We were up bright and early Monday morning, on the river by 8:30 a.m.. Our days were just as long mile wise, and nobody missed the wind. The thermometer had been cranked up, resulting in numerous water fights that were really enjoyed.

Russo Rapid was the big one for this section, and was on day one, followed by Fossil or Homestead Rapid on day two. On Russo, the current is aimed directly at the base of basalt cliffs with several large holes at the entrance. Jan and Tim in a very loaded Merrimack lined Russo, the other crafts negotiated the drop successfully. Fossil rapid wasn't nearly as threatening, and we all did well. We didn't have as much competition this week for campsites, and ended up with some very nice ones. Our last night, at mile 122.3, lent itself to a very nice evening hike up to a close by knoll for a panoramic view of the surrounding area. Susie Beagle and Jake did a good job of leading us up the trail.

A relatively early start Wednesday morning, back in farmland again, resulted in a noontime arrival at the takeout. There we enjoyed our last lunch together, d-rigged, loaded up vehicles and headed out. The Dooley-Verhaegh family to Bend, Loudenslager's back to Arcata, and the Kruegers and Tim to Klamath Falls for a quick overnight visit with friends at Klamath Lake before heading back to California.

It was a great two weeks. Maybe not as exciting as the Middle Fork trip last year (launching at the top at 1.66 feet), but still fun. We did learn that it's possible to load the Dimension with our personal gear, 6 gallons of water, and food for three meals for nine people, and have an almost acceptable profile.

Happy paddling,

Carol

[billhay4]

Nice photos! and trip report.
Different river than at 3600 where we actually had some Class III to deal with. We never did identify Clarno, but there were several rapids of the same difficulty on the first day. Rest of the river was very fast water that allowed us to complete the lower trip in 2.5 days.
I've put some photos up at http://billhay.nventure.com/john_day.html
Bill

[squeakyknee]

Great trip report.

[Open Gate]

Cool !

This is what this board is all about I live at the other end of our beautiful continent and can enjoy(dream of) your beautiful water and landscapes with TR like this.

Tks for taking the time to write it up and mostly keep bringing it on

Gaétan

[Carol]

Bill,

Thank you so much for posting the link for your photos of the John Day. I really enjoy looking at other peoples pictures of trips I've also done. As we'll look at the world differently, what we take pictures of, also differs.

Carol

[billhay4]

Thanks, Carol, wish I had your skills with the camera.
We put on June 17 at 3600 cfs. Different river. Weather was sunny, but cool the second day. Took off 6/19 at noon or so.
We kept looking for Clarno rapids but never really identified it. Had a number of good Class III's the first day. I'm sure one of them was Clarno. I did identify the rapid with the big boulders, Basalt I think it's called. Lots of potential for problems for the beginner at this level. We maneuvered in and out of the rocks fairly easily.
We're too old whitewater paddlers who are used to paddling, not floating, so we made very good time. This is not a good way to run the John Day, however, as everyone else floats and you tend to catch up with the groups that put on the day before. We had trouble finding a good campsite the second night because of this and ended up paddling 31 miles.
Nice river, but way too many cattle have been in these dry canyons over the years and have left a lot of signs of their presence.
In addition, I saw lots of fishermen, many of whom are doing a lot of damage to the fish population by not fishing properly. First, lots of small fish are being kept or killed. Second, I don't know how many times I saw a fish dragged across the top of the water by some yahoo, then picked up with dry hands and tossed back in the water. A sure way to damage a fish's outer coat and lead to disease.
The outfitters in the John Day need to do a better job educating people they take down the river.
Bill