Table of Contents
Trip Reports
Natalie Wiest: Boquillas Canyon
Natalie Wiest: Burnham's Ferry
by Natalie Wiest
February
20-23 Louis Aulbach, Dana Enos, John Rich, Janice Frels, Fraser Baker
and I paddled the Rio Grande through Boquillas Canyon of the Big Bend
National Park. We put in at Rio Grande Village; and took out at the Heath
Canyon Ranch.
When
I caught up to the group at Seminole Canyon that Saturday evening, the
weather was frigid and I was dreading the thought of multiple days on
a low river, but my good weather luck apparently was riding along and
by the time we ran shuttle and prepared to put in on Monday morning it
had warmed up considerably. Day temps rose back into the 60s and 70s,
with nights in the 50s for delightful sleeping and skies filled with stars.
Increased
border restrictions meant we couldn’t go into the town of Boquillas,
but it looked very inviting from the water as we paddled past on our first
day. Water levels were about 400 cfs, barely enough to make this stretch
do-able, and the others not. Finding water deep enough to float our boats
kept us vigilant and several times we had to actually drag the boats through
too-shallow stretches, thankfully rather infrequent.
Just
a few weeks in advance of the spring break crowds, we had the river to
ourselves. John got somewhat of a rough and tumble introduction to canoeing
(not bad for a first time paddler!) but managed to stay upright for the
entire trip albeit checking out the reduced clearance of reed-covered
banks on the outside of turns. Dana too outdid himself with uprightness
for the entire trip; and I managed to do the same despite my new outfitting
of kayak-style seating high up on my canoe, with kneeling restricted to
whitewater segments.
Janice and Fraser enjoyed all the comforts of near-home in their palatial tent. We had time to explore some very interesting side canyons and candelilla boiling vats. I was pleased to have the opportunity of taste-testing Louis’ camp cookbook productions and proved myself (I hope) an able dishwasher in return. Fraser has posted an extensive set of trip photos to his Web site, so be sure to check them out at: www.fraserbaker.ws, clicking on “Virtual paddles”, then “Big Bend”.
After
our too-short paddling trip, John, Louis, Dana, and I went hunting for
some of the small settlements that had been destroyed when the park was
created. San Vicente was our first stop and we located its graveyard and
foundations of homes that were bulldozed to make the park look more natural.
By water or by foot, this is a great place to explore, hope you can make
it out there too some day!