The John Day river is an amazing place to paddle board. It has a 70 mile section of wild, red rock canyon that is only accessible by rafts, drift boats, and yes – stand up paddle boards. This trip was even featured on OPB years ago. This was my third SUP camping trip on the river, but the first to tackle the full section. The others started at “30 mile creek” and avoided the sections of rapids.

Preparation

Permits for this section can be hard to get and you need to be flexible. The river level can change rapidly in the spring and I only suggest attempting it between 1000-2000cfs.

We were able to convince my brother and two nephews to join us for the trip. They have an aluminum drift boat – though, this would be the longest trip for them in the craft.

We were each on Hydrus XL paddle board. These boards are large and stable enough to hold all our gear. It was convenient to have the drift boat hold the river bucket, but otherwise we were completely self supported.

It is important to note that I had some issues with one of our brand new Hydrus boards 2 days before the trip. The company responded quickly and was awesome – though, it was admittedly too late for them to resolve things before the trip. Luckily, I was able to borrow a board from a friend on the way out of town.

6/10

It is a 3.5 hour drive for us and even longer for my brother to reach Cottonwood Canyon state park (the take out). On the way up, he dropped the boat (and kids) off at the Clarno launch. Meeting up around noon, we parked his truck and trailer across the river at JS Burns and all jumped in our vehicle. It is then over an hour to get back down to the starting point.

Boards were quickly filled, loaded and we were finally on the water. Even before it enters the wilderness, this first section was really beautiful. Golden hills give way to to a few rock features. There are a few houses and roads, but they are sparse.

Everyone was tired from the drive, so we decided to camp about 5 miles in. This is just before the first set of rapids and would give us the chance to tackle them fresh the next morning. rapids

Camp for the first night was nestled on a green bank near some tall cottonwood trees. It seemed nice at first, but then the bugs came out. Ben, who was excited to sleep in a hammock, quickly abandoned that when he started finding ticks. Then the mosquitoes came out… and it turns out that my brother hadn’t brought a tent. Luckily, we had packed an extra one. it was small for them, but they all managed to pack in for the night.

6/11

We managed to tackle all three sections of rapids in one day. The clarno upper rapids are class III with a small dip and several rocks to avoid. After a moment of scouting, I put on my helmet and ran all three boards down (on my knees). The drift boat also had no problem navigating around the rocks.

Just after is the larger class IV lower rapids. Here the river is flowing faster and has a single, larger chute to navigate. We all got out and scouted for a long while. Even though they were all a bit nervous, the drift boat made it through flawlessly. We decided to be cautious and unloaded the SUPs and portaged the gear around.

This time, I decided to attempt standing for the rapids. First run went nearly perfect – though, I got a bit hung up on a rock after the drop and had to go down to a knee. Bolstered with confidence, I ran it twice more, but thing only got worse. On the third run, I was thrown from the board and ended up with the largest bruise I have ever received. Hurt for a few days, but no major damage.

The rest of the day was mostly peaceful with long sections of class II to liven things up. At the end of the day we stopped to scout the Basalt rapids (class III). Not very technical looking, but poor navigation would push you into a series or large rocks. Feeling a bit banged up already, I opted to run the loaded boards on my knees again this time using a kayak paddle (which feels a bit like a cheat code). The drift boat, on the other hand, was thrown around a bit. They managed through fine, but hit every rock on the way down and ended up threading between the two large rocks. They even temporarily lost a paddle, but Joey was amazingly able to grab it as it caught up on the next rock.

That night, we camped on a lovely island backed by a basalt cliff. This time there were no bug issues at all. Ronin slept in a hammock (with netting), between two large juniper trees.

6/12

The third day on the river brought us past “30 mile”, the only other way in or out on this trip. Several rafts were being loaded as we passed and they were surprised to hear that we had taken SUPs down the rapids.

From this point, the river enters 40 miles of wilderness area without roads, telephone poles, or any other signs of civilization. As the river meanders, it cuts huge bends in the increasingly impressive red rock cliffs. Big horn sheep are common to see on the banks. We past several large herds on this trip.

Ronin was really getting comfortable on their board. At first they were mostly sitting, but now they are standing through even the biggest class II sections.

The wind started to pick up in the afternoon. Not as bad as on previous trips, but it does push the small SUPs around. Several times, I had to lean down just to decrease wind resistance as the headwind tried to push me up river.

After about 15 miles, we camped at a lovely spot with good swimming and decent fishing. The drift boat double well as an aluminum fishing dock and the kids caught several fish for their dinner.

6/13

A beautiful cloudy day as we traveled through the heart of the wilderness area. Lot’s of bighorns and chuckers along the banks.

By midday, we had already traveled about 15 miles and rounded the bend at hoot owl rock. There is a beautiful set of campsites here and some of us wanted to stay. However, the teens all wanted to keep going. The winds did pick up again and Sam was pushed off the board by one of the bigger gusts.

After another 5 or so miles we did find a nice hidden camp spot. There were two perfect trees and Ro/Ben set up dueling hammocks across from each other. Ended up being a surprisingly chilly night.

6/14

We were all up early to beat the wind. After a few more miles, we starting spotting burned areas on the left bank. This was all fresh and as we continued on the breath of the fire became apparent – there were still active crews putting out spot fire all the way back. We could only hope that my brothers car was still safe.

The scorched ground continued all the way back to Cottonwood (and beyond), but had not crossed the river. The car was safe. Cottonwood state park, on the other hand, was blackened. Luckily, the cabins and farms were spared. The campground however, will need some time to recover.

The initial plan was for Sam and Ronin to wait at campground while I shuttled the car back. Instead, we had to all jump in the truck for the long ride back.