[Awclist] Tentative weekend club trip May 12 -13

[Mary Scofield]

Lisa Goodrich is planning to host a weekend trip (May 12 and 13) on the 
San Juan and the Animas.  AWC has been notified and we are awaiting 
approval of the trip. But, so you can start to think about while we 
await approval.......

Here is the information:

We are planning a club trip on the San Juan and Animas Rivers the 
weekend of May 12 and 13. The plan is the San Juan on Saturday and the 
Animas on Sunday.

The San Juan is located in Pagosa Springs 3.5-4 hours from Albuquerque. 
It is 14 miles long with fairly continuous class 2 boogie water. There 
is one easy class 3 drop at the beginning that can be very easily 
scouted a/o portaged. It's right in the middle of town next to the Hot 
Springs, so the really fun part of the drop is the audience. About 0.5 
miles beyond there you leave Pagosa and enter Mesa Canyon. Until the 
take-out, there are no other places you can take-out without having to 
trespass on private property owned by someone who doesn't appreciate 
trespassers. So if lives are not at risk, that is not an option. If the 
flow goes up (which I'm pretty sure it will), it gets more and more fun 
and actually gets easier because it becomes less technical. Because of 
the semi-continuous nature, the length of the run and the COLD water, 
this is not a run for beginners. You should be fairly comfortable 
running rapids like Gauging Station on the State Park or the rapids on 
the Chama. It is actually a bit easier than the Chama but much longer 
and more continuous. I'm not wanting to scare anyone off because this is 
a really fun river. I just want to make sure everyone who goes has the 
skills necessary to have fun and not have this turn into a really  long 
day for anyone. And the more people who go, the better.

The Animas is located in Durango which is 1 hour west of Pagosa. It is 5
miles long and mostly it is class 1-2, depending on the level. At higher
water, it becomes more continuous class 2. That is until you reach the 
Santa Rita Whitewater Park and Smelter Rapid. Smelter is definitely a 
class 3. It is very easy to scout and/or portage for anyone not 
comfortable with it. This would be an okay run for people with less 
experience, but you definitely need to have been on the river a few 
times and know how to control your boat. Here the water will also be 
very COLD, and if the water is up a swim at Smelter would not be a 
terribly fun thing--also probably not the end of the world, but staying 
in your boat is the preference.

In case, I didn't make it clear, the water on both rivers is going to be
cold. So even if the warm weather stays around, be prepared for cold,
especially on the San Juan since it is a minimum 3-4 hour run. Despite 
that, these are 2 of my favorite rivers to run. So I hope a lot of 
people can come up and have some fun. If you're interested email me at 
waterdawgg at gmail.com.

SYOTR
Lisa Goodrich
505-430-2320