New mandatory portage! Huge logjam in Lower Black Box! – San Rafael – 02. Bridge at San Rafael Campground to I-70 (Black Boxes 1 & 2)

Logjam Coordinates: 38.99158 -110.47234

There is a new hazard near the entrance of the Lower Black Box that must be portaged.

About 500 yards after Swazy's Leap (which marks the entrance to the Lower Box) you will encounter your first major rapid which involves a steep drop far, far left. Scout on boulders, careful while scrambling. (Class III/IV)

200' downstream there is another small rapid that is easily read and runnable, however you really want to be very careful as the strainer is coming up!

A massive logjam nearly 10+ feet tall goes from canyon wall to canyon wall and requires boaters to eddy out on some shallow rocks on river left and scramble (felt like 5.6 moves) about 10 feet up onto a ledge to traverse around it. Using throwbags we then lined and pulled up our packrafts to walk across the logjam and put-in back downstream.

At higher flows I could see portaging this to be quite difficult if the eddy rocks are submerged and if you can't touch the river bottom. Set safety from upstream with throwbags for whoever is traversing as a fall into the river subsequently the strainer would be very bad.

See our visual trip report for some footage of it: https://www.instagram.com/p/CrXvN6Qvpzb/

Reporter	James Xu
Gauge Reading	350 cfs at SAN RAFAEL RIVER NEAR GREEN RIVER, UT
Flow	Medium Flow