courtesy of: Gary Worob
THE VERDE RIVER: FIRST TIME
Imagine yourself in a valley that once was surrounded by wooly mammoths and saber toothed tigers and ancients no longer known on this planet. Then imagine all of that disappearing before you and replaced by a peaceful society that farmed and spent days by the river making arrowheads and spear tips and hatchets from the abundance of natural raw materials. Then see the end of that civilization through the remaining cliff dwellings once around every turn. Now view the high banks and cliffs with a new appreciation as every turn is a historical monument and each bank and cliff contains ancient artifacts and legends. This is the Verde Valley and we are in Cottonwood, Arizona only minutes from now infamous Sedona and the red rocks, but a light year from civilization.
We put in at Tuzekoot National Monument Park, an easy enough launch with a short carry down to the banks of what looked like an easy enough adventure until the very first turn and one of many, very many portages, drag throughs and overages and round abouts and cliffs and waterfalls and vast number of chutes to experience without a clue of the next turn. It was great.
In a minute I was staring down the throat of a class 4 rapids, short but luring and looking at alternatives and not wanting any part of chickening out. This was a must do as it may not have a mate to match and what the heck, we were there for a good time, not a long time, so I thought.
I braced for the onslaught and was catapulted through and spit out onto flat water in seconds but loved every second of it and wanted to do it all day. It was great. Then everyone followed, screaming and laughing all the way through. We wanted more, lots more. We got what we asked for. Almost immediately we ran into lots of chutes and areas where we hadn’t a clue what to expect. Worst feeling of all was water totally backing up and sounds of waterfalls and not knowing anything upcoming. Only Oland had paddled this before in the spring with his son in an inflatable kayak and said it was an easy paddle. NO PROBLEMO! WRONG!
We hit places where there was no visible exit and dragged boats over and around lots of growth and undergrowth and found chutes appearing where waters had seeped through what looked like myriads of beaver damns but were more likely the results of monsoons flooding the valley and leaving lots of debris. Once we came out of a maze and the water turned into a class 3 series of chutes that careened around bends like hair pin turns on a bumper car or go kart track. These were great and fast and no time for anything but full speed ahead and who cared what was next. I usually went first and tried to holler back the results but the chutes were fairly long in places and I doubt that anyone heard me. They were too busy holding on, two big barges and one too long Kevlar cruiser.
At one point we came upon what looked like a recent bulldozed damn that ticked us off as it was rude looking and obtrusive and we portaged everything and cursed the bulldozer that unnaturalized what should have been a neat rapids. Then way more chutes and some signs of civilization but we were pretty oblivious. My youngest nephew was obviously excited by the whole ordeal as he devoured a whole bag of chips…big bag. And then the coup de gras.
I had moved back to see how the Kevlar was doing and came around a bend to just in time to smash into a tree downed across the river and started to get out when the Kevlar came sideways too fast to avoid an upset and flipped upstream, pinning the canoe exactly between both banks and filling up too fast to be able to pull it out before the big sound hit. I was yanking and prying as hard as I could but the current had it trapped and then it bent right before me and gave in. I managed to pull it out then but the damage was done and it looked like the Kevlar racing canoes I used to see in the north, only the two bulges, one on each side were amidships and not desirably located. So much for this brand new misplaced vessel. The metal gunwales were defiant as I tried to reform the boat and evaluated that it was not going back into any former shape with them on, and fortunately there was only one 5 inch crack that was not leaking. The boat was paddle able but not new anymore. It did take all my effort to keep it tracking and the faster I paddled the worst it got.
Well, the crew, when we caught up was alarmed and relieved as we were quite a ways from them and not at all looking like we were pleased. But, we were okay and continued more chutes and more amazing scenery and paddled to the main bridge and happily shuttled the vehicles back and then most went to George’s great Greek restaurant for a wonderful dinner of spanakopita and gyro’s and Greek salads and smiles all the way around.
One piece of advise: don’t do this trip.
My brother did, however, say after that it was the most he had laughed in a long time and actually we all laughed a lot. Rivers can do that to you.
TRIP FACTS:
Put in: Tuzekoot Nat’l Monument =easy carry to the river, maybe 200 yards
Water flow: varied but not much more than 70 cfm with water at about 64 degrees
Degree of difficulty: not for beginners at this time of year; varied from Class 1 to 3 but with lots of carries/portages and wrestling
Take out: rt. 89a bridge=easy
Total paddle: about 4 hours without lunch break and plenty others, and about 5 miles?
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