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Show Record Utah, to the mouth of the San Rafael, there just a few of what we call riffles. I recall no groundings on sand bars. There were some patches of swift water, but we had no serious difficulty. 1783 We probably were hung up on sand or mud bars maybe two or three times between Green River, Utah, and the mouth of the San Rafael, but those were mere incidents, all the day's work. Through Labyrinth Canyon we had quite a little trouble with sand bars, sometimes getting out and pulling the boat over; and at other times I would rock the boat from one side to the other, thus loosening it, and the current would take it away. From the end of Labyrinth Canyon to Cataract Canyon, we possibly grounded once or twice. Our boats were flat bottomed without rudders and we had a skag that could be detached. In the more quiescent parts of the river we attacked the skag to the boat to keep it from swinging too much 1784 and took the skag off in the swifter parts. A skag is a kind of keel that projects from the under side of the boat down into the river, covering the stern half of the boat. It would be dangerous to leave the skag on while running rapids, where we went stern 1785 first. We carried cork life preservers with us. Our trip through Cataract Canyon was one of rather continuous effort. The water is somewhat turbulent there, with a great many rocks in the channel. 1786 We would look over a rapid before running it; pick out the best channel we could and then go through. I should say we found about forty what we call rapids in Cataract Canyon along its stretch of about forty miles. We lost no boats in the canyon. We portaged some of the rapids, but I don't recall how many, taking 1787 our boats out of the water at some places. At other places we lined the boats through; sometimes unloading them and other times lining them through without unloading. We did not ship enough water in any rapid to sink a boat. In one instance I purposely went into the heavy waves of a rapid in Cataract Canyon, where it appeared to be free from rocks, in order to get a picture of the boat in big waves. However, I didn't try that any more; the boat |
