John Day River Trip, Day 8 on the water.
Most people who run this section of the John Day River take out at Cottonwood Canyon State Park, but we decided to go 20 miles further and take out at McDonald Crossing, the historic crossing site for the Oregon Trail.
People typically don’t run this section because most of the land is private, there are very few campsites, very little shade, and almost no protection from the wind.
For the first 5 miles the river is flanked on both sides by moderately used trails coming down from Cottonwood Canyon State Park. The legality of various camping here is unclear so we stayed on a mid-river island. There’s really only one good campsite in this entire 20 mile stretch of river and only a single night stay is allowed.
This entire area sits in the middle of a massive wind farm (not visible from the river) and it’s easy to see why. The wind here is no joke. After landing and setting up the tent the first thing I did was put a 15 pound rock in each corner inside the tent, and a gust of wind still picked up the tent and turned it over, damaging the tent in the process.
Because of how the canyon bends, for the first 10 miles the wind blasts down the canyon at your back, which might seem pretty great until you turn the corner and realize that you’re gonna have to fight that same wind for the next 10 miles. We were lucky that it was only 25 mph at our backs and 15 mph in our faces the next morning because any higher and it might be literally impossible to get to the takeout.
So it’s not the most hospitable stretch of river and it’s not quite as scenic as the upper stretches, but because no one goes here we saw more animals and stumbled upon more animal skeletons and other curious desert artifacts. (See yesterday’s video)
Overall it was a beautiful, albeit challenging trip. We did some essential research and development for the canoe designs and made some great media, but because of my chronic health issues, I got super sick about halfway down and I’m still only functioning a few hours a day right now. Hopefully that will change soon! On to the next project…
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