Green

2024-10-10

1,200-1,400 cfs

This was an easy level for kayaks/packrafts, would be a pain for rafts I'd think.  The beaches were excellent, but camping is not allowed if doing the daily section (which is what we were doing).

The rules require that boaters bring an extra PFD and helmet per 3 boaters, no exceptions for kayakers.  We found this very silly, as strapping those to the outside of our boats was a larger liability than the extremely unlikely event of losing either of those pieces of gear (Between my wife and I we have gone paddling well over a thousand times and never lost a PFD or helmet).  The phone call I had with a ranger before the trip made it clear there was no room for negotiation or critical thinking.

The run is as advertised, a run through the center of a mountain split by a river, pretty cool.  We only had one vehicle, and being cheapskates we decided to run our own shuttle, here is how I did that in case some other dirtbag wants to save the $100 on a shuttle:

At the end of the run I followed the Desert Voices/Sounds of Silence trail for 2 miles along the wash at the take out.  I then followed the wash itself for 4 more miles (gps on my phone was nice for this and the next step). This eventually met up with a ranch road (or it was at some point in time), and followed that out to the main dirt shuttle road, where I had left a bike.  I then biked about 7 miles downhill back to the put in.  This of course was followed by driving back to the take out to pick up my wife and gear.