Liquid San Juan

Moving a little too quickly lately, which hasn’t left much time for blogging. It was pointed out to us last week that we’re never completely offline or out of touch, but last week was an exception.

One of our favorite rivers is the San Juan River just southwest of Durango by 3 hours. We used to run the San Juan every Memorial Day for years, with all our local rafting friends. The habit was broken once we got hooked on sailing. The main motivation for rafting in those days was to get away from the hospital and the telephone. It’s still possible to get out of touch when you go down a river, in fact the next two weeks on the Colorado thru the Grand Canyon will pose the same disconnect.

Float trips provide some of the best relaxation we can recommend. Of course there are moments of effort in the rapids but the San Juan has very few. However there is one other drawback: In low water you have to pay attention to flow or you end up pushing the boat thru the shallowest sections. We only got out to push a couple of times when we weren’t paying attention.

This trip was a very small group: eight folks in 3 rafts, a canoe and an inflatable kayak. All folks we’ve rafted with previously.

It’s very hard to win a lottery slot on the San Juan River these days. Fortunately Bill Atkins snagged a cancellation in late March for this time slot, allowing all of us to join him.

Weather was cooler, with a little rain but not enough to dampen the camaraderie. As always, the meals were superb with BBQ’d Teriyaki Chicken, Southwestern Beef Burritos and Tacos, Shrimp Panang Curry and Green Chili Chicken Stew, to name a few. Rafting is the opposite of UltraLight camping as we literally bring the 3-tub kitchen sink for washing.