San Rafael River, a Utah Canoeing Trip Report.


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	My daughter Jennifer, and my grand daughter Kacelyn (10 years old), and I, signed up for what we thought would be a rafting trip on the San Rafael River. This is something we have never done before and it sounded fun. When I met up with the guides for the trip, I realized it was a canoeing trip, and my heart fell. I don't have much experience with either rafts or canoes, but I felt a raft would be safer for my grand daughter. We were told that there was some miscommunication and Kacelyn and another little girl would not be allowed to go. Jennifer took a crying Kacelyn home. She later went on a biking trip with her mom.
I decided to go anyway and try it. How hard could it be?
We launched the boats in a place called Fowlers Crossing on the San Rafael River. There was going to be 6 canoes and our guide Nathan in his kayak. We were divided up into 6 groups with the 6 most experienced teamed up the other 6 inexperienced. My partner was Dr. Cook (the most experienced), and we were to take the lead. A decision he was probably later regret (me, the least experienced)! Before we left the guides secured all of the loose items to the canoes, which later I would be thankful for since I stored my camera in a freezer bag in my daypack.
Since the San Rafael can only be run during high water (May 1st through June 5th) there was quite a few people
	around. We had almost gotten all of the boats in the water when 4 cowboys decided to cross the river between a couple of our boats. One of the horses panicked and threw his rider and then proceeded to stomp on him in the river. He had to be rescued by his friends. Because of how close the horse came to one of the canoes, one of the families decided not to continue. The San Rafael River is a very beautiful river. It winds through a canyon with towering walls. The river was running high and thick with muddy brown water. It has what I was told class 1+ rapids. We were to travel on the river between 15 to 20 miles, depending on who you asked.

I was starting to feel confident and thinking I could do this when the canoe tipped over the first time. It was a shock to my system to find myself suddenly thrown into the ice cold muddy water. It took me a few seconds to breath normal while the guide was yelling for me to get to shore which, I did still holding on to the canoe and my oar. I'm not a strong swimmer, so to be on shore safe was a relief! Once back in the canoe and traveling again, I was chilled but soon warmed up. Since the temperature was in the 80s, it actually felt pretty good to get cooled off.

	We were traveling down river and enjoying the view when some how we got ahead of the rest of the group. Then it happened again! This time because of the current I lost my paddle and the banks were too steep for us to climb up so we had to float down the river holding on to the canoe. We thought we could drag the canoe up on shore in one place but the current soon ripped us back out in the river. Another kayaker rescued our oars and threw them up on shore on the left bank, but we were swept farther down the river before we could finally drag the canoe up in the reeds. This put us quite a distance down stream on on the other bank from our oars.

We had to wait for our guide and the rest of the group to show up. He was very upset and stressed to us why we needed to stay together. While on shore we discussed what might be happening to tip us over, and a water can which had been leaking, was removed our our canoe and placed in another one in a different upright position. We decided that the water can which was located under my seat may be shifting its position causing us to tip over. After a short break we were back on the river again. By now we were cold and I was very nervous. Without the water can the canoe did feel more stable, so I began to relax and enjoy the trip. The views were fantastic!
I didn't feel confident enough to get out my camera and take some pictures.
	We came upon a tree a crossed the river and we had to get out and drag our canoes around to the other side. Then everything went smoothly until we stopped at Virgin Springs to have our lunch. Another boat tipped over in the little bay and soaked the kids in it. They had fun playing in the water. It was nice to get out and walk around. A few of us walked up the canyon to see the springs. So far my camera had survived the dunkings it had taken. The next couple miles miles went pretty well. One boat capsized and another one tipped over, but both times the kids made it to shore okay.
We were behind schedule so we had to keep moving.
Just when I though I was going to stay dry we got too close to shore and a tree branch tried knocked Dr. Cook's head off. When he tried to dodge it then we tipped over again, but this time the canoe got stuck on a buried tree in the river. I stayed with the canoe again and tried to pull it off, but it was really stuck. Nathan our guide roped up and eventually worked it lose while we pulled on it from shore. We eventually had to pull the canoe up a 6 foot embankment before we could free it completely from the tree. This time I lost my oar and had to use one of the spare ones.

	After we started out again another canoe tipped over right away dunking the same two kids again. We pulled up near shore to wait for them ,when I just had to look over the side and tip our canoe over again! This time I was trapped underneath it, and my life jacket was holding me up inside the canoe. I managed to push myself deep enough to free myself! Our guide was rescuing the kids so he missed my close escape! After this I swore the next time we tipped over I was going to walk out! The guide told me we still had another five miles before we reached the pull outs. I was really cold. We were in a shady part of the river and it was getting late.
The rest of the trip went pretty eventful. We were really late for our rides and we had to just keep moving. The rapids were fun, but I just wanted to get to the pull out site near the Swinging Bridge, so I could get into my warm clothes and warm up. When we reached the pull out we were met by a couple more of the river guides who helped us drag our canoes to the trailer. I'm sure they heard my teeth chattering a mile up river! If we were to missed the pull out, then we would have ended in the Black Box. Which has never and will never be run by boats! The trip was great and I would even like to do it again, but not this year.