Joshua showed up right on time. We had the gear loaded and were rolling almost within minutes. Luckily, we had the right protective material to keep his gleaming Mercedes safe from the slings and arrow of cam buckle rigging. The paddles fit perfectly in his trunk. There was a great, safe parking spot for his vehicle a short walk away from the Black Bridge RAP.
We put on at 10:45 and enjoyed a great float down through the heart of Camp Verde. For most of the stretch between the Black Bridge and the White Bridge, you see very few signs of Camp Verde. However, there's a half mile stretch where the houses hug up close to the river's edge. Basically, this stretch is one long lake-like area. In the Old Days, Capt. Harry King used to give boat rides on this lake. We saw his giant old pontoon boat beach far up on the river right shoreline. It's now a historical artifact and will probably never be used again anywhere.
My first trip on this stretch was 30 years ago this month--March 1981. I remember coming to the end of the lake and facing one of the most hideous diversion dams I'd ever seen, then or now. The amount of jagged rebar, gaping car bodies and rag-tag concrete chunks was simply incredible. Well, I had avoided this stretch for 30 straight years and I truly feared encountering the Diamond S Diversion dam again yesterday. Guess what? Time heals all wounds and the diversion dam was completely and totally different that my mind's memory of it. First off, the diversion structure (if you can call it that) was huge--much, much larger. Meanwhile, the river channel had been dramatically altered and nothing there bore any resemblance to what I had remembered. The width of the diversion is now probably 200 or more yards. Where the river once flowed is high and dry. All those car bodies, rebar, and concrete chunks sit like a mini-stonehedge sticking helter-skelter from amid a tangle of vegetation well away from the water on river right. The entire river now heads off into the Diamond S ditch channel. The diversion berm is so heavily vegetated I only recognized it from a few remnant concrete chunks sticking out. We were almost smack dab into the ditch channel when I realized the situation and made a quick U-turn. We found a small overflow channel across the face of the diversion beam and parked the canoe there while we scouted the abundant obstacles that now comprise the Diamond S diversion. It was a very difficult scouting hike as there is a true jungle of willows and cottonwoods that have pretty much taken control of the area. Meanwhile, the high flow floods have deposited vast quantities of debris within this jungle. So, we gingerly and carefully picked our way across debris piles and threaded a path through the riparian jungle to scout that tiny trickle of flowing water. Although we could only see perhaps 150 yards, what we saw was clear of strainers and the current did not appears to be overly swift. I told Josh we would portage far enough to get into the top of this channel below the rough and tumble concrete debris and then "take our chances." I reasoned that we would be able to stop before being swept into a pin or a strainer situation. After the portage, we were both a tad bit hesitant to begin paddling. Luckily, our next obstacle was visible far enough in advance that we were able to beach the canoe before getting pinned. Previous floods had washed some debris from the diversion down into a mish-mash of rocks arranged in such a way as to be impossible to navigate with a long canoe. I used my paddle for a brace while wading across the channel to then go downstream and assess what lay below. I could see some other small channels joining our little flow and reasoned that we were probably within perhaps a half a mile of the White Bridge and "should" be in a strainer-free area. Meanwhile, I stationed Josh in the middle of our channel while I towed the boat back upstream and then began a "thread the needle" portage/line of our obstacles. Once we had the canoe safely on river right, we towed it across the rock bar and put back int with the stern rubbing the trunk of a willow tree. It was one of the tightest re-entry maneuvers of this whole project. Numerous low hanging branches and punjabi sticks made our run to wider, deeper water pretty exciting. We both wore out helmets for that portion of the run. After paddling awhile farther, the White Bridge came into view and we stopped about a quarter mile upstream for a welcome break.
Here, we again tested our our HAM radio and felt very comfortable using it on the river. It definitely added another level of safety to our trip and we were VERY happy to have it. Our neighbor and HAM mentor N7NUU monitored the Mingus repeater all day while we were on the river in case something should have happened to us. THANKS, Gary!
After leaving our break area, we traveled without incident down through the various little channels and chutes below the White Bridge. We did stop to scout the mini-diversion not far below the White Bridge. The run there is very straightforward and not problematic. Choosing the correct channels in this stretch is not a problem if you can understand how to read water and have at least some degree of control over your boat's alignment when you are in the proximity of various trees and brush. We GPS'd perhaps 20 waypoints during the trip and took photos and made digital voice comments. There's nothing particularly dangerous on the stretch between the White Bridge and Beasley Flats. We finished our paddle at 3:15 so we were on the water for 4.5 hours. The total distance between Black Bridge and Beasley is about 13.5 miles but may calculate out to 13 even as our GPS records all our walking around while we are scouting and so forth.
Now for some subjective comments on this stretch of river. As noted, we first ran it 30 years ago. While, we decided never to run the Black Bridge to White Bridge stretch again after that first run, we made the White Bridge to Beasley Flats run the bread and butter of our river program for the next 20 years. I have no idea how many times I've run that stretch. It's way over 100 and could be near 200. I doubt that it is over 200 but it could be. Let's put it this way--it was a LOT of runs scattered over many, many years including many hundreds of people. I'm guessing we organized efforts that took perhaps as many as 800 people down this stretch of river. We took perhaps about 200 on those famous train trips above Clarkdale. We've traveled the White Bridge to Beasley Flats stretch in all kinds of conditions, seasons and circumstances. Once we even had to delay on of our trips while police conducted a manhunt along the river's bank. When the suspect was collared, then we could proceed. I mention all this background to make a point about what I observed yesterday.
The river in this stretch has made a miraculous turnaround. It is completely healed from all of the natural and man made havoc and devastation of the 1980's and 1990's. It's incredible. I had absolutely no idea that the recovery of this stretch of Verde River could be so stunning and pervasive. To put this into perspective, you have to realize that at one point, there was absolutely NO riparian vegetation anywhere along the entire floodway for this ten mile stretch of river. It was completely denuded of ALL vegetation. Every speck of vegetation had been scoured out and it was nothing but bare gravel. To see this stretch in its current condition was an awe-inspiring inspiration glimpse of the power of Nature to recover and heal those seemingly mortal wounds. Meanwhile, the stream channel itself has changed significantly and there are far more riffles than ever before. Some of the riffled probably ought to be ranked Class One rapids for novice canoers. They are bouncy and fun and delightful and resemble nothing like the 1990's. There are a few areas where riverside houses are visually very obvious but those areas are now few. The proliferation of the riparian recovery has screen out much of the former visual flotsam that was once painfully obvious on this stretch of river. It is now an absolutely delightful stretch of river in every way, shape and form. It's actually rather hard for me, personally, to believe that this could happen in such a relatively short period of time. I know that riparian species grow by leaps and bounds every season but still, it's hard to grasp. My last exposure to this stretch was in late Year 2000 so it's been 11 years since I saw this stretch. What an incredible turnaround and what a gift this truly is to our community. Amazing. Without doubt, this is the headliner day stretch of the Verde that's suitable for everyone. It shows what a desert river is all about and if people could somehow understand what the river once was, I feel certain that they, too, would be as profoundly amazed about it as I am.
God Bless The Verde River! Carry on.
Cheers, jp
Click here for the interactive track map from this trip shown at the top of this blog post.
Below is a screen shot of the waypoint map. Click here for the full version of this map.
