Westwater Canyon

This was the last year the BLM was going to allow unrestricted access to Westwater Canyon during the off-season so a few friends and myself decided to take advantage of it. We had two rafts, my new Riken Shoshone that was setup as an oar boat and my old Campways Shoshone that my friend Tim was going to paddle with 6 other people. Also on the trip were a half a dozen kayakers of varying experience.

It was a beautiful fall day with the river flowing at about 8000 cfs. High for that time of year, but you have to remember the mid 80's was a good time for water. Many others had the same idea and the launch area was crazy. Most people seemed to know what they were doing but a few looked thoroughly confused. It was going to be an interesting day.

By the time we got down to the Little Dolores, two of the kayakers had second thoughts about running the inner canyon so they got in with me. We tied their kayaks across the back of my raft. Now these weren’t the little short play boats you see on the rivers today, but 11 ½’ long Perceptions. I had to be really careful not to get too close and snag them on anything.

With the time, I was spending with the kayakers I lost track of Tim and crew in the paddleboat. We learned later that they had stopped at the Little ‘D’ for some reason or another. I had a good run through Skull and was able to beach my boat on the left at the bottom, just across from the Room-of-Doom. We tied up to watch the show while we waited for the rest of the group.

We watched a number of boats run the rapid and most made it just fine. Only a couple that hit the hole at the bottom flipped. When Tim and crew entered the rapid, it looked like they were sitting on an old gray tarp due to the fact the boat had developed a leak and had lost much of its air. They started the run dead center and didn't take a stroke the entire length of the rapid. If you have ever had a chance to sit and watch the big hole in Skull you would have noticed that about every 20 seconds it surges—it gets bigger and bigger then break on itself and then starts all over again. They hit it perfect. Just when they were at the bottom of the trough, it broke, folding the boat in half, and then swallowing it. It was gone… After what seemed like an eternity the boat shot straight out of the water landed upside down, picked clean, no cooler, no dry-bags, no people. I’m still kicking myself for leaving my camera in the truck.

Bodies started popping up, one after another, until all paddlers were accounted for. They followed the overturned boat downstream, all except for one that is, my friend Tim, who was thrown to the right when the boat flipped, hit the wall and was sucked into the Room-of-Doom, still holding his paddle of course.

I would describe the ‘Room-of-Doom’ as the garbage pit of the Colorado. A large circular notch carved out of the right side of the canyon the ‘Room’ has a tendency to collect a variety of floating debris. This day, from what we could see from our vantage point it held various sized logs and driftwood, a broken wooden oar, an old life jacket and a dead bloated cow and my friend Tim, with paddle in hand.

Now, at this point I had a real moral dilemma. On one hand there's my friend, whom I've know since the second grade, facing an uncertain future with Elsie the bloated cow—then there's my old raft, that's heading for parts unknown on its own. I elect to go after my raft and the other victims. I yell over to Tim my intentions and wish him well, hoping to see him again someday and takeoff downstream. Within short order, we have gathered all the paddlers and boat on a small beach a few hundred yards downstream.

Then we wait. Finally, after everyone has had time to regroup and start to express concern, here comes Tim in another raft. We learned that with paddle in hand, he had to scale the wall in the "Room" for some distance before finding a very well used trail out. He hiked to a point on the cliff where he could jump off into the river and hitch a ride with some other boaters. And all this before lunch.

Great trip and we all survived to go another day, even Tim.