Group of 3(2 underprepared 18-19 yrs old) for a trip to the ole bridge. Left at 7am to about 7 cars already parked. No one on the way, and arrived to the bridge in hot weather conditions. Other 2 showing serious impatience(I had described the trip very accurately to them), so decided to commence return route. Dropped into the river bank just upstream of BTN canyon. We took about 10 mins to inflate 3 of the $4 pool air mattresses and started down, other 2 people now alive and happy, occasionally taking jumps into the couple deep pools. Albeit, on one of those jumps(approx 10-15ft), the jumper did not jump away from the drop he told me he landed just 1 ft away from a protruding rock.
We continued past the bridge where there were 2 obstacles(previously scouted). Both were about 5-10ft high and downclimbable. However jumping them looked very harmful. Water current was fast but not crazy like 2 months back.
Past those were a couple nice longer waterways, one of which had some rebar put in to allow a jumping height. Thus ended the bridge section.
There were only a few places to raft ending in the confluence w/Devils Gulch. Didnt know there was so much water in the gulch. We continued on, but the use trail grew quite erratic. One of the group with extreme impatience(of course picking up the pace would exhaust him further even though he was carrying no backpack or weight) now that the rafting was over, so we did a 50-80ft scree climb to the main trail.
Finished at 3pm thankfully, many people out and about now, parking lot about 1/2 filled. A different trip for me, almost everone I saw was way offcourse for some reason, a noticable amount of more trash(likely leftovers from the 4th), and some new grafitti pointing the way. The most concern to me was a guy with no short or backpack and his daughter walking slowly (4-5 yrs old wearing a dress) but he saw us and started towards us and the main path. He looked like he was spent and would be turning around(whew).
All in all, the water level was too low for rafting. An intertube would have been a lot better, but more water is needed. Of course going earlier in the season increases the whitewater amount...maybe 3 weeks earlier would have been better.
East fork SG river-BTN trip 7/10/08(no pictures)
I would think this is the section someone would boat. I dont carry a camera during 2x trips as I find water will eventually get to the camera. There is one recent picture of the area on Flickr though..
Of course during the rainy season, this section in particular, those 2 obstacles would be a challenge to pass without a boat, on that trip it was still harmful to get down them by following the water and not downclimbing on the non-heavy water side...water was still fast moving chute. During rainy season, its whitewater rapids.
Of course during the rainy season, this section in particular, those 2 obstacles would be a challenge to pass without a boat, on that trip it was still harmful to get down them by following the water and not downclimbing on the non-heavy water side...water was still fast moving chute. During rainy season, its whitewater rapids.