I'll never tell where it is but there are lots of fun wavetrains, great hits, Class III boogie water through alpine forests interspersed with stretches of beautiful placid floating beneath towering red rock canyon walls. The weather is always beautiful until we're almost sunburned, then clouds roll in and there's some more rain in the high country. The wind is always at our back, on the shorter sections the shuttle is an easy hitch and passes a natural grocer, and we always seem to run into friends we've never met before and others we've known for years. There are beautiful sandy campsites with shady alcoves in the cottonwoods, cold clear side streams you can drink out, and always soft green grass along the banks with fragrant sage up high and mint flourishing at river's edge and around the hot springs. The landowners and fishermen smile and wave, and sometimes they invite us up to a big dinner after horseback riding through the forest, and we all hang out on the porch sipping iced tea or G&Ts while looking down on pastures spilling to the river.
The river flows warm and clear year-round, but I only swim when it's really hot out and the kayakers and another raft or two are waiting in the pool below enjoying my entertaining run. We can float like this for weeks, starting off in the highlands at about 10,000 feet where 1000 cfs gives a rocking time, down into the desert where the river swells to 20,000 cfs and there's a series of rapids just like Hermit that just get bigger and bigger with each one and go on for a couple of miles. There's no limit on layover days, the hiking is spectacular, and no one ever needs to rig in a hurry or get up early to make some miles. The takeout has endless hot showers, a guy that takes all our groovers to a scat machine for $5, and a bus that takes us all back up to the headwaters after a couple of nights in the funky little town where some dear old friends live and that has the great breweries and vinyards.
SYOTR,
-AH
The river flows warm and clear year-round, but I only swim when it's really hot out and the kayakers and another raft or two are waiting in the pool below enjoying my entertaining run. We can float like this for weeks, starting off in the highlands at about 10,000 feet where 1000 cfs gives a rocking time, down into the desert where the river swells to 20,000 cfs and there's a series of rapids just like Hermit that just get bigger and bigger with each one and go on for a couple of miles. There's no limit on layover days, the hiking is spectacular, and no one ever needs to rig in a hurry or get up early to make some miles. The takeout has endless hot showers, a guy that takes all our groovers to a scat machine for $5, and a bus that takes us all back up to the headwaters after a couple of nights in the funky little town where some dear old friends live and that has the great breweries and vinyards.
SYOTR,
-AH
