Owyhee

Beginning in Duck Valley, the river is braided and meanders through a willowy marsh rich with bird life and exotic flowers.  As the crow flies the distance from launch to Canyon Mouth is about a mile, but the actual river distance is longer due to the meanders.  At the canyon mouth there is a solar panel on river right and maps show a road over there.  We did not visualize any access.

The whitewater begins immediately when you enter the canyon with a couple of class II rapids, and then class III's.  The BLM map calls the section 'continuous class II-III+' and names only one rapid, Tombstone.  Do not be fooled.  The character quickly becomes class III in character and the continuousness lasts for five miles and could cause some people to rate it a IV.  This whitewater is considerably harder than the class III's below Garat.  Tombstone rapid is obvious for the rock at the top, but it is not the largest nor the hardest rapid in the series.

The rapids taper down after about 5 miles but there are still class III rapids periodically until about mile 8, after which it mellows considerably.  If you plan to camp, do it soon, because the river drops into a low gorge with limited camping possibilities.

The low gorge continues with alternating calm and class II whitewater for 10 or so miles.  This is Garat Gorge, pronounced 'Grat' by the locals, as would rhyme with 'grok'.  When the walls begin to get higher, and you reach a pool from which you can see an overhead pipe downstream from a horizon line, you have reached the infamous rapids of Garat Gorge.

Pipeline is first, class IV(+).  Scout or portage right.  At high flows the rock pile from which we scouted will go under water leaving sheer walls on both sides.  Pipeline rapid looked like an easy run on the far river left, avoiding a hole and the rocky jumble in the middle.  It is deceiving, because the left wall curves outward just below the drop.  We ran two boats into this wall before deciding to

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