John Day River, OR ... June 2007

Congratulations on a nice trip!

Was your first night's camp in a grove of giant old-growth juniper trees?  If so, I've camped there a few times... it is an awesome spot for sure.  Did you notice any owl pellets on the ground?  Last time I was there, I managed to rouse myself from slumber at the crack of dawn, and got to see a short eared owl returning from the hunt... went to roost up in one of those trees.

3-Weight,

Yeah, I'm sure that you're talking about the same campsite that we used.  I didn't know to look for owls though, so I didn't notice any.  I did use the sonar to detect a PERFECT 20' deep hole just right below where we parked the boats.  Could have fished it while laying next to the boats.  NO WAY am I going back down there without more time and some blood bait to try for some catfish in the evenings.

For real, the campsites just got slightly better and better until you get to the one that's marked as "last chance" on the map because it's another 9 or 10 miles from there to Clarno falls and nothing but farm fields on either side of the river.  So you've been on that stretch, from S. Creek to Clarno bridge... tell me how the next 75 miles below the bridge compares to the part that I was seeing.

Fishin-T

It gets better.

The Clarno Bridge (where you took out) to Cottonwood Bridge float is my favorite river trip.  The Big Bend reach that you floated (the deep canyons where the river went through all the twist and turns) looks similar to lower section. 

The first 6 miles or so from the put-in down to Clarno Rapid (Class III, IV in high water) is not so hot.  Lots of cows, lots of eroding stream banks, not much riparian vegetation.  Then when you get past the rapid, things improve.  Shallow canyons mixed with big open rolling hills.  At about 20 miles into the trip, they give way to the canyons, and until you get to maybe 5 miles from the take out, the trip alternates between the canyons and grasslands. 

The fishing in the lower section has been better for me, and the wildlife viewing as well.  Also supposed to be some nice side hikes up to petroglyphs.  Rock formations are more interesting (some areas where house sized chunks of lava form islands in the river, others where you have springs trickling out of the rocks and "hanging gardens" of plants growing on the cliff face.)  You can see the climate get more and more dry as you go down... the vegetation slowly changes.  With the campsites near the end of this section, the biggest challenge is finding shade.

In a raft, the lower section is 5 days, minimum.  To really fish it hard, you'd want 7.  Other than Clarno, no real rapids of note (Clarno will ruin your day though, if you screw up--I'd portage it in a fishing kayak).  Bigger dangers down there are cactus, rattlesnakes, and dehydration.

I'll see if I can scrounge up pictures from one of my trips.

ok, rather than continue taking over the willy smallmouth thread like we were i'll start posting this here.

i did find a BLM website that gives you points of contact to pick up john day and deschutes river maps, plus floaters guide... minimal price, $5.00 ; http://www.blm.gov/or/resources/recreation/johnday/boating-general.php

guys, what size rafts were you using.?? i'm looking at a combination of craft here, one 12 ft. x 5ft inflatable raft, one 14 or 16 ft canoe, one PT15 yak. i know it's probly not the best size for a river float, but it's what i got right now.

 so far it looks like a party of 5 or 6, which is why so many small craft. the raft can hold 1200lbs, or 6 people.. the canoe, 875 and 2. by the time we have everything in place, this may change to 2-3 rafts only, or a  multiple set of individual yaks or canoes... just not sure yet.

experience level in rapids among the party members is almost none..so going to have to go to class on this one, or very carefully plan to avoid anything larger than a 6 in deep riffle with a slight bubbly hump in it.  camping on the other hand, not too much worried about, thats a well covered item.

any major suggestions, please send them to me via pm. right now, this is planning stage only and a year out unless things change drastically.

thanx again for all the help and pointers

The spiral bound BLM float guide is worth its weight in gold, get it and the larger map (the float guide takes some practice to figure out how to read).

I run the John Day in a 13' self-bailing raft.  I've had friends do it in 15' rafts and 16' catarafts, but once you go that large you need higher flows to make the trip enjoyable (both to make sure you are not dragging and to make sure you have enough room to manuver in tight spots).  A 16' canoe works great to (but if your canoe paddlers are not white-water experience, don't put anything precious in the boat, Class II whitewater is nothing in a raft, but a challenge in an open canoe).  The kayak should be fine, but you may want to portage larger rapids (and certainly want to portage Clarno), just make sure you have everything strapped in good and tight.

If the raft is an oar raft with frame, I'd use it as the gear boat (rower + 1 or 2 passengers), then the other craft as fishing vessels.

Since you have low experience levels with whitewater, I'd do the Service Creek to Clarno section to build your confidence.  None of the rapids are that serious, and wearing PFD's the worst that can happen is a short swim.



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good to hear the guides from BLM are worth the investments.

thanx for the tips on the boats. i had been looking hard at the Sevylor HF360's. now i know i may want to go bigger. or have everyone bring their own kayak.

i think what i''m going to stress to the group who asked me to set this up [ why me i havent a clue] is that they at least get out on their own and try guided Yakima, Nisqually and Snoqualmie River floats this year or early next to get the feel and experieince they are all gonna need. there's a group that makes it living doing just that, in fact several businesses, here's one; http://wildwaterriver1.reachlocal.net/default.asp       if they don't, oh well, i'll cancel my participation the thing and let them figure it out on their own. 

Might also want to consider renting rafts/kayaks from Service Creek Stage Stop or one of the other shuttle services in the area.  For the John Day I would not invest in the high end Sevylor inflatable kayaks (and I'd look at the cheaper AIRE and NRS kayaks over them anyway).  Sevylor Tahiti's do just fine on the John Day.

kewl... i take it they're more durable than the sevvy's are? i looked at the HF360 today online. i can get it for $156.00 w/o paddles etc's. had seen first hand the inflatables by riverman products, but honestly i just cannot swing the 2 grand they want for one of them.
http://www.theboatpeople.com/iks_tandem.html        looks like a good place to start looking for the boats you've mentioned.. not forgetting our site sponsors, of course