70 miles on the John Day River

Larder for a Northern Shrike Basalt column over looking painted hills
Spawing carp

The longest un-damed river in Oregon is the John Day. This desert oasis is remarkable for the beautiful scenery and exciting white water. It is best to run this in the spring between the winter floods and the summer droughts. Mostly snow melt feeds this river as it cuts through impressive colorfull canyons on its way to the mighty Columbia River. Spring is also a beautiful time to be outdoors with the flowers blooming and the animals with their babies. I was determined to make a 50 mile canoe trip when I recovered from spine surgery. When Chuck Morgan and Martin Wheedle invited me on a 70 mile adventure to share I was anxious to attempt it. I had a lot of fears that I would not be able to keep up or even complete a 70 mile trip paddling a solo canoe. They both took rowing pontoon boats but I wanted a canoe. I tried to get several family members and friends to paddle a tandem canoe with me, when this did not happen. I opted to accept the offer of Mike Graybill to use his 14' solo canoe. It was with great reluctance I accepted such a genrous offer. I was afraid his pristine boat would be damaged bouncing across rocks and rapids that ranged up to class IV. I began my research on the internet and found great maps and a river guide from the BLM office in Pinville.

The first day was June 12, 2007 Martin and I drove two rigs 400 miles to the Cottonwood Bridge. Leaving my car and trailer and packing all our gear in his truck we drove on through Fossil Orgon to Clarno. This is next to the National Fossil Bed Monument. There we met Chuck in the late afternoon and I launched the canoe. We spent the first night camping on the river 3 miles downstream about a 45 minute paddle and a 30 minute drive.