May 21, 2011

Kayaking the Verde River (White Bridge to Beasley Flats)

I joined this Desert Mountain Paddlers for a day of floating down the Verde River today,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif and it was way fun. I haven't done much moving water paddling other than a day ofhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif white water kayaking down the Cispus River in Washington and playing in the surf with my touring kayak in the Pacific
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I left my place in south Phoenix a little before 7:00 am, and easily made it to the meet up spot at the White Bridge put in on the Verde River (Camp Verde, AZ) for the schedule time of 9:00.

Ron, the Canoe Guy, was leading this paddle, and he was the first one there. Shortly after I showed up, the other two paddlers (Eric and Bill) arrived. We unload our gear and shuttled the cars down to Beasley Flats Rec Area (off of Salt Mine Rd). The round trip shuttle took about an hour, and we were on the water about 10:15.

Ron, the Canoe Guy, did an outstanding job guiding us down the river. He set the tone right for the paddle by having a short safety talk. His guidance was super helpful. Thanks, Ron.

Strange enough that we actually had rain in May???, but the water level was about 80cfs when were on it. I'm pretty much a rookie on find the proper channel, but the butt dragging was pretty minimal. And we actually had to paddle in the slow spots. There are several class 2 rapids, but was extremely tame. I only had water on my deck a handful of times.

I paddle in just a heavy lycra shirt and shorts, capped off with a pfd and bicycle helmet. I opted for a baseball cap halfway down the river.

The 10 mile float took us about 4.5 hours, as we pulled into Beasley Flats at 2:45.

Very pleasant day on the water. Mildly exhilarating, nice scenery, good company, and virtually nobody else on the river. That I don't get, how can there be so few people actually not doing this???











Interested in more AZ paddling adventures, check out Desert Mountain Paddlers.

Here is a vid of the day:

2 comments:

Bob W. said...

Hey,

Glad you joined the group. Hope you can make some of my lake day trips.

Couldn't get the sound on the YouTube video.

Bob W.

u2metoo said...

Thanks for the group suggestion, Bob.

Yeah, I've gotta re cut the video with a song that is acceptable to Youtube. Drat!