Today's plan is to paddle from Bignotti to at least Newton Lane. (See RAP MAP below.) If we get an early start, we might try to make I-17. If we are way ahead of schedule we will strive for the Camp Verde Black Bridge (AKA: Rezzonico Park).
Our water continues to be much below normal and barely above the record minimums for this date. The Verde at Clarkdale is running 79 cfs and the minimum is 74 recorded in 1972. Oak Creek is running 44 cfs at Cornville and the minimum was 29 in 1963.
Interestingly, 1963 must have been VERY dry. We checked the Cottonwood historical climate records this morning. The first 8 days of February in 1963 were all consecutive record setters, ranging from 76 to 87 degrees. Today back in 1963 is was 83 degrees!
Our weather today looks to offer calm conditions with a high near the long-term average for this date: 64 degrees. Chances are it will be in the upper 50's when we put on the river and the lower 60's when we take off. Except for the low water, this is an ideal early February paddling day.
We still will be using the Arizona State Parks Mad River Explorer. We have, however, obtained two much more suitable life jackets, a large dry bag and two helmets from the Verde NRCD. Helmets? Why? The helmets are for trees. If we attempt to run past a tree today, we're going to don the helmets just in case we misjudge the run and get tangled up in the tree. Most river strainers have a lot of broken, sharp, stubby branch remnants sticking out from their trunk. These things can wreck havoc with a human scalp!
Joshua Wheeler and John Parsons will once again be paddling partners. We've returned Max Castillo's old Garmin and will only be using the Garmin 60Csx. We're taking a back up digital camera in case our pocket model dies (as it almost did the first trip). We think we will have a much better rig set up for the canoe this time around. As anyone who runs rivers well knows, each trip rigging is slightly different than any other trip.
One of our goals on this trip is to obtain much better photo documentation of the Bignotti RAP. We will also spend some time scouting the best route from the parking lot to the river as well as the best landing spot. We will take some survey flagging to mark the route and beach. We might even take a couple of bow saws, pruners and loping shears to do some "trail maintenance."
We will be giving Joshua some pre-trip paddling lessons and additional safety instructions today. We might even engage in some pre-trip warm up stretching exercises and light calisthenics.
That's the plan, we'll see how it works.
Cheers, jp
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