John Day Trip Report Part 1 - Big Read/Pics Inside

We completed our kayak expedition down the John Day River. I have posted it up over at www.adventurekayaking.org

The actual link is here:

http://www.adventurekayaking.org/john-day-river

 I have posted part 2 of the kayak expedition down the John Day River over here at www.adventurekayaking.org

The actual link is here:

http://www.adventurekayaking.org/john-day-river

Note on those last two pics... not mine. Canoer with rainbow umbrella sent them to me, thought you guys might enjoy.

Great report on what must have been a fantastic trip.  When you first posted you were going that far on two kayaks was wondering how it would work out.  I have done different sections of the river over the past few years but never that far on one trip.  We usually have at least a raft or drift boat with us to carry supplies. 

Glad you gave the guy "what for" for tossing the cigarette in the grass.  Fires are not funny in that dry canyon.


Speaking of "pack out what you pack in"  didn't see a toilet on your pack list 

LOL, we used swag bags... yep, literally had a bag of shit in the back of my yak!

No joke about fires. You could see the remenants of the one that went through there last year/couple years ago. The River Pirates were floating through when it happened and said it was a mess. The were stopping and watering all of the Junipers they could at camp sites. Not a cool deal. I grew up around Enterprise and have had quite a few family members play fire fighter for the forest service through the years... stupid assholes don't realize how much of a tenderbox it can be this time of year.

Cool trip. I love long float trips, really gives a guy a chance to clear his mind and slow down.. What was the "expedition travel site" you mentioned you posted this on?  Sounds like it might be an interesting read.

Awesome float and nice write up!  I'm going to have to trade a backpacking trip for a week long float some time.

Thanks for sharing it with us!!!!

Wow......

That's what I want to do when I grow up.....and I think that pretty much decides for me which yak to get. (I'd been leaning that way anyway)

Being new to this all I'm assuming the shuttle was a pre-arranged way to get you back to your vehicle once you reached your pull out point?

Is this a paid service?

I'm chomping at the bit to head up to Seattle REI Friday to the OK sale......

N I C E, really good reporting on a multi-day float.  This really is how to do it.  Keep it simple and comfortable. Too bad about the frat boys, I hope they had fun.  Usually they pay for it later because they bring too much beer and not enough water.  Then they drink just a little from the river, because a little won't hurt ya.  Ha ha ha.

I just got back from a one day float from Twickenham to Priest Hole.  It only took 5 hours and that included plenty a fishing.  I'm glad you jumped on the careless smoker.  A favorite float in camp site burned a few years ago and most of the Juniper shade trees died as result.  I have to laugh about the shitter buckets though.  I asked a BLM Ranger how many he actually looked in each year and if inspection required visual observations.  Not so funny...

One thing I do in river camp is to locate fire rings, and make them go away to discourage the practice.  Only in summer though, I mean really...it's a hundred friggin degrees.
-Scott

Cool trip. I love long float trips, really gives a guy a chance to clear his mind and slow down.. What was the "expedition travel site" you mentioned you posted this on?  Sounds like it might be an interesting read.

The biggest one I usually am on is expeditionportal.com or advrider.com if you dig bikes.

I might just see you  up there, lol. We were knew to Kayak Fishing this year as well and it has been an absolute blast. That all being said, while the OKs did really well on this trip they are by no means the ideal tool for it. Consider this yak sort of like a swiss army knife, good for a lot of tasks, but excels at none... well besides fishing that is!

As for the shuttle... it isn't a pickup, rather they have your car waiting for you at the take out site of your choice.

servicecreek.com

Basically you go and tell them where you are putting in, where you are taking out, pay your money. If you are leaving from service creek, you can leave them a spare key there, and if not, you can tell them where to find one on your car. We did the former since we left from service creek. At that point, off you go to your launch site and your car is waiting for you at the take out site you specified. They have a great rep as does Donna in Fossil and we certainly had no complaints. Cost to shuttle my car from Service Creek to Cottonwood was $115. Not a very expensive vacation if you think about it, lol.

Wow......

That's what I want to do when I grow up.....and I think that pretty much decides for me which yak to get. (I'd been leaning that way anyway)

Being new to this all I'm assuming the shuttle was a pre-arranged way to get you back to your vehicle once you reached your pull out point?

Is this a paid service?

I'm chomping at the bit to head up to Seattle REI Friday to the OK sale......

Yeah, during our BS session with the River Pirates, they were commenting how much nicer the river is compared to when they first started running it. Said it used to be you would pull up to a camp walk 10 feet and see huge mounds of TP and shit, literally, lol. For the cost and portability in a yak, the swag bags worked fine for us.

I hear ya on the fires though... who the hell needs a fire in that heat! Not to mention all of the folks chopping down trees in campsites for fuel. Does take many folks to spoil a place for everybody.

N I C E, really good reporting on a multi-day float.  This really is how to do it.  Keep it simple and comfortable. Too bad about the frat boys, I hope they had fun.  Usually they pay for it later because they bring too much beer and not enough water.  Then they drink just a little from the river, because a little won't hurt ya.  Ha ha ha.

I just got back from a one day float from Twickenham to Priest Hole.  It only took 5 hours and that included plenty a fishing.  I'm glad you jumped on the careless smoker.  A favorite float in camp site burned a few years ago and most of the Juniper shade trees died as result.  I have to laugh about the shitter buckets though.  I asked a BLM Ranger how many he actually looked in each year and if inspection required visual observations.  Not so funny...

One thing I do in river camp is to locate fire rings, and make them go away to discourage the practice.  Only in summer though, I mean really...it's a hundred friggin degrees.
-Scott

On another note, I've gotten a few emails from folks asking about flows. We put in and if I remember correctly it was about 1100 when we put in and about 700 when we took out as measured on the service creek gauge. I will say this, it was getting shallow enough on that lower river that I was glad we finished up when we did!

nice trip report, looks like a great time! this has been on my list for a while, gonna have to get serious about it for next year.

Excellent write-up!  My gf and I did a mini float trip down the Willamette this last weekend, just 40 miles (Milwaukie to St Helens).  It was awesome, we had mentioned how we wanted to maybe try the john day next year, such an informative post.  Love how you included your gear list, well done man.