Salt River 2010 by Von Isaman

April 6, 2010

Permit holder: Michelle Prejs. Trip Leaders Michelle and Mark Constable

Running order: Mark and passenger Michelle (raft). Larry Lewis (raft) and passenger Von Isaman. John Mundi (raft) and dog Riley. Alani Mundi (catamaran). Johnny Eoff (catamaran).

Friday. 2500 cfs at .

We gathered at the San Carlos Apache Tribal Lands put-in just below the Highway 60 bridge north of Globe, Arizona where we completed the necessary registration paper work and each deposited $40 cash towards such. Larry, John, Alani and Johnny stayed Thursday night at Pablo and Sally’s Bed and No-Breakfast in Globe, while Mark and Michelle gave Von a bed at their place in Thursday night.

The Apache’s had the put-in access from the parking lot to the river nicely cleared of boulders and debris that had decimated the put-in from the earlier season floods. The Apache’s work was much appreciated.

Rigging and related preparations were unremarkable. No one reported forgetting anything important. We launched early afternoon amid partly cloudy skies and some moderate wind. Skies at times were threatening and had some of us reaching for rain gear in anticipation of rain.

Michelle and Von had downloaded Don Sullivan’s (Tonto USFS) map and both had each map page securely laminated. Michelle and Von highly recommend downloading, printing and laminating (or printing on waterproof paper) Don’s map. Regarding the map, it appears that the mileage marked on the map does not correlate well with coordinates. The first day and a half, Larry () and Von found mileage ‘slippage’ as we proceeded down the river. The river miles were longer than map miles. Early the second day, we no longer made /map correlations.

Larry and Von concluded at the put-in that the flow seemed more than the Salt 2008 trip almost exactly 2 years to the day. The water seemed to be substantially more built up on the pillow rock at Kiss and Tell (rapid). The group refers to K&T as Baptism (the rapid you can see from the put-in). There was sufficient flow that the rock garden at Bump & Grind was all but washed out, Maytag, with some group coordination, could have been run left over the cobble bar, but we all ran it right, down the chute.

Grumman (known to the EP group as Reforma) is a rascal. In 2008, Greg (Young) drifted too far left from center and hit a hole. Greg was thrown out, the right oar tower was rotated and the oar lock was bent. John complimented Greg’s run by drifting left and hanging up on a large exposed rock and shearing his right oar lock. John’s situation was further aggravated by a full on thunderstorm, lightening inclusive. John affected his oar lock repair. Mother Rock and Overboard were unremarkable. With some coordinated scouting at the bottom of Overboard, there may have been opportunity to run it over the boulders. We all chose the far right run along the river bank. The rain had stopped, not to visit again for the remainder of the trip.

As we departed the rapids of Mule Hoof Bend, the flow was brisk, at times reaching 7 mph per readings.

Exhibition was fun and splashy. Cibecue was pleasurable as its boulder field was largely submerged, making the run much less technical. It was the first time in Von’s 7^th or so trip down the Salt that he observed Cibecue Creek to be running water quite well. It’s red color contrasted vibrantly with the relatively clear green of the Salt. Three Way was largely washed out, making for an easy, splashy run without concern for the boulders that lie in wait during lower flows. Raft Ripper was nearly possible to run river wide as the boulders river center-right were mostly covered by flow. Salt River Draw was a trickle.

The first glimpse of Saguaros stood sentinel river right high above -the scene of our first river thrill. Here, Mark’s oar tower malfunctioned, turning his oar such that his blade was parallel to the water. With no left oar control, Mark and Michelle ate the big hole, a very near flip sent Mark flying out of the boat with Michelle desperately hinging on to the tube rope, not realizing Mark was swimming. Upon Michelle’s realization of Mark’s dilemma, she manned the oars, such as they were, and was able to negotiate the raft through the rest of Mescal, avoiding the nasty wrap/flip rock at the bottom of the rapid. Mark found his way to the shore river left where John was able to recover him no worse for the wear-but Mark had to be cold. In the may lay, Michelle lost a few pages of her map to the river, with a couple of pages soon recovered by Alani as we entered the Salt Banks.

Just after Salt Banks rapid, we camped river left slightly below the Salt Banks waterfall and just above The Ledges. At this camp the Tammy’s open to a large, open, sandy beach with great sites. John prepared salmon. To say it was delicious goes with out saying for all of John’s gourmet river dinners. We are indeed fortunate to have John on our trips-he delivers culinary perfection.

The evening sky was clear. The night sky laid claim to the sliver of a moon with Orion near her side as they descended beyond the Salt Banks.

Saturday 2700 cfs

Morning broke clear but cool. Von had breakfast on-usual river cuisine. Larry got the coffee going. Instant oatmeal was the clear preference of our merry boaters. A note about John’s old dog, Riley. From rigging at the put-in to de-rigging at the take-out, Riley did not bark even once. He was a well mannered dog, chose to relax more often than not, and from time to time had moments of canine curiosity. At night he was dutifully posted under or between John’s or Alani’s cots.

The Ledges, Little Boat Eater, Rock Garden, The Cheese and Rat Trap were victims of the 2700 cfs flow. Rat Trap did look a little busy left of the fang rock that is left of river center, so we ran the fang rock right without incident. White Rocks rapid was very big, turbulent, splashy, and raucous. In Von’s opinion, the biggest, most fun and longest ride of this trip. The big boulders on the left were gone or at least mostly covered. In 2008, Greg went too far left, found one of the many exposed boulders. What followed was what those who observed saw as the slowest flip they had ever seen.

At mile14.6, there is a 30 foot cliff jutting into the river right. The bee hive here was exceedingly active. Scores of bees were buzzing about the white comb filled void in the conglomerate rock face. For Von, this was the first time in about 3 trips the bees were present.

At mile 15 the river makes a sharp left turn. Approaching mile 15 the river widens and a river wide cobble bar is before you. In lower flows, I’ve seen many boats get hung up here, some requiring considerable effort in getting free. However, there is a good run far left, though it appears counter intuitive because it is next to the cobbled shore.

As we proceeded downstream Granite required its usual vigilance through the right slot. John caught a bump on his stern from the rock on river right which tossed Riley into water. Riley was quickly brought back aboard.

The canyon breaks at Gleason Flat. In low water, at mile 18.3 the river wide diagonal riffles command that you take a page out of the African Queen and walk your boats through the ‘canal’ on river right. However, today’s flow enabled us to continue downstream over the well submerged riffles. We faded left on a braid and finished with a narrow passage between some partially submerged Tammies. Near the bottom of Gleason, we beached on a cobble bar in the river for lunch. There were plenty of good sandwiches and fixings courtesy of Mark and Michelle. The day was full sun, but there was a biting north breeze. Some of us ate lunch partly chewing and partly chattering. Lunch was with purpose as we anxiously anticipated Eye of the Needle just around the bend.

As Mark and Michelle rounded the bend to Needle, Michelle was on her whistle with an authoritative eddy out river left signal. A group we had passed, and had been passed by from time to time since launch on Friday, had landed just above Needle. This group had three or so rafts with many kayakers. Initially, we thought there was a situation at Needle as many from their group were at Needle rock looking about. The group waved us through and we began our run. As we approached Needle, two people from this group had situated themselves at the rapid with video cameras-nice professional video cameras. They filmed us as each boat in our group had great runs. Needle was running the most water that Von has seen there. It was definitely run-able on the right. Only once has Von observed a right run there-by Pablo some years ago. The volume of water going through the Needle stacked up on the large house rock immediately below the rapid; this surfed our boats out into the main channel. There was no worry of hitting the house rock and being tossed into that tough little eddy on the left.

We continued towards Black Rock. John directed us to float down to the corner of the turn (river right) to commence our scout. It’s easy to eddy out too far above the corner to scout This leads to a relative lengthy hike for the scout. The corner eddy could only accommodate John, Mark & Michelle and Johnny. Alani, Larry and Von eddied out just above the corner. Von hiked and scouted above Black Rock. The others drew their bearings from the corner with Decapitation Rock looming ahead and BR in the background on the left. Von’s photos of the trip have shots of M&M and John slipping around Decap and making great runs right of the monster BR hydraulic. The run finished with Johnny, Alani, and Larry and Von. Johnny eddied out just below BR to act as rescue.

Larry felt the river behavior above Decap was not typical of other years. As Larry and Von approached Decap, Larry was anticipating the flow to push us out and in position to make the slip move below Decap. There was no pushing out, only fast and direct flow straight towards Decap. Realizing this, Larry began rowing hard but to no avail. We took a direct broad side on Decap. SNAP! I looked back from the bow and the right oar had been broken cleanly in half. Larry had only the left oar to control us around Decap, make the slip move behind Decap and steer clear of the monster hole. Von went forward towards the bow to affect a high side.  They caught just a minor portion of the hole and came through okay. They quickly put the right side spare oar into service. The Decap broadside not only snapped the right oar, but it rotated the right oar tower inward more perpendicular to the frame.

As our group was beginning our BR run. The video/kayak group from Needle arrived and eddied out river left immediately above the rapid. Larry commented before his run that if he were to screw up, every one in our group and the other group will know it. Prophetic. I wonder if anyone from the other group had a camera on Larry. We guess not, or it would have been on YouTube by now.

This was the fist time Von observed that BR was very run-able far left. Lots of flow.

Camp was at at mile 25.5. This was everyone’s first time camping here. It’s a good place for a small group like ours. Hess was running a couple of inches deep when we landed, then cycled down to an inch or so, then back up later. We had to traverse a little water crossing back and forth the creek as some of us camped above Hess and some below. The kitchen was below…well, the kitchen was in Hess Creek, but the dry part. The afternoon was delightful as Alani was inspired to go for a run up the creek. For dinner, Larry attended to the mass quantities of steaks as John and Alani prepared the side dishes. Speaking of dishes, Larry brought his blaster and galvanized buckets-dish washing was easy and fun.

Sunday 2900 cfs

Each morning of the trip, we launched from camp at about or so. The night had been clear as was the morning. Our merry clan departed and per the map, Devil’s Pendejo lay about one mile down stream. The group knows this rapid as Pendejo Wall. Again, good flow washed out a bit of the rapid’s excitement and the wall was a non-issue. Upper Coral was unremarkable.

Ahead are the always anticipated, fun and busy triplets of Lower Corral, Pinball and The Maze. We semi-eddied above Lower Coral to gather up before our non-stop descent. Again, the water level covered the usually prevalent rocks and such. The runs were fast and splashy.

At The Maze we went right of the house rock in river center. It’s a fun chute. The large rock that is usually exposed at the bottom of The Maze run was covered and offered no obstruction.

Our revelry in having well negotiated Lower Corral, Pinball and The Maze was brief as the diving limestone anticline geology was the harbinger. From time to time during the trip, we as a group had discussions regarding Mr. Quartzite. Larry and Von were well confident in their strategy to run it right, though we all knew a left run against the wall is also possible at this water level. A bit above Quartzite we eddied and had brief strategy discussions. To tie-up and scout from our position up stream would have made for a significant scout. It was decided that Larry and Von would go first-their full and unwavering intention was to run right. Larry had a beautifully perfect run. As they approached Quartzite, they made their way river right along the big house rock. Here the water begins to stack up and slows to almost nothing due to the constrictions posed by the rapid. Larry ferried his way right, squared up and ran the diagonal slot between the river center boulder, which had water pouring over it, and the slanted slab rock on river right. They eddied below and waited for the others.

Here it gets complicated. When Larry and Von said that we were running right, they should have emphasized very, very, very right. Way right. As right as you can possibly be, and then more. As our merry troupe approached, there was no right run because the paradigm one is searching for is a right run that is left of the dominate river center boulder that has water rushing over it. There is no indication that the run is right of this river center rock. The realization sets in that there is no run, but there is certainly a large impending hydraulic ahead. Fortunately, there was sufficient flow that even Quartzite seemed to be a little washed out. In 2008, two flips resulted as the flow was lower, seemingly to enlarge the hydraulic. Von’s raft was recovered 2.2 miles down stream, upside down with only a bent oar lock.

After Larry and Von, John ran next. He dipped and doodled and momentarily lost control of his oars. Riley stayed aboard. Then, Alani in her small cat boat. She looked just like a fine wine cork popping and bobbing about. It was fun to watch her come though. She had to be laughing. Following was Mark and Michelle, precarious-precarious-precarious, Michelle’s out, Michelle’s in…whew. All I can say is when Quartzite saw Johnny coming, its behavior quickly improved. Johnny came through in his usual cool and persuasive manner.

The painted warning sign for on river left was all but obscured. Only John and Johnny saw it.

The coble island below Quartzite was completely submerged, I reckon by at least 20 inches if not more. After Quartzite, Johnny continued through Corkscrew followed by the others. All eddied and were well exhilarated. Upon gathering, we proceeded down Sleeper, which was long, quite busy, splashy and fun.

The sky stayed blue and the air warmed. Michelle had us lunch at Cherry Creek. It was delightful. Cherry Creek was running fast, clear and deep. Its cool water pushed into the Salt, providing a contrast that showed we had lost some river clarity since the put-in. A huge soaring eagle kept us entertained. After buttoning up lunch an aire of frivolity was about. We pushed onward to mile 39.5 where we set up camp river right at the top of the long cobble bar above mile 40. A good camp. Nice landing beach. Good kitchen area. With time on our hands, Mark and Michelle set up the horse shoes. Von found a shady perch and broke out his water colors. The afternoon was warm, very Salt-esk. The geography was in repose, providing us a long, sun filled epilogue for the day. I dare say that we were the seven happiest people in the world.

John made Mexican cuisine for dinner. We had plenty of wood for the night fire. The moon sliver was larger than on Friday. It was higher in the sky, too, granting us a long good-bye for our last night in utopia.

March 21, Sunday 2700 cfs

Breakfast had unusual energy. The morning was cool as the early risers could see their breaths. Von had become inspired to make preparations from the bounty of food left over from the previous dinners. As was done on the Middle Fork 2009, the cereal, oatmeal and yogurt were stayed in the dry box and cooler. Today was breakfast burritos!

The float out to the was quiet with an occasional braid to decide from. Only one or two canyon wrens were heard. Some of the early blooming, diminutive desert flowers were out. The grass was now green and coming forth while at the put-in, spring was still waxing. This part of the float allows for contemplation and reflection. Suddenly, a bend is rounded and there spans the bridge. Sadly, the trip is over. We beach at the take-out. De-rigging commences. Boats rinsed, dried out in the warmth and deflated. Lunch is spread in some shade along the ramp embankment. All pitch in to load and secure gear.

and farewells are exchanged. All depart. Fantasy slips away and reality emerges. Mark, Michelle and Von reminisced and laughed all the way to . The lupines, daisies, and poppies waved in the breeze, welcoming us back.