BikeRaft Gila Safford-Morenci Loop AZ.

[southwestbackcountry]

Here's a short report of our latest G.E.T. adventure, inspired by Scott's and Brett Tucker's trips.

http://southwestbackcountry.blogspot.com/2014/01/gila-get-loop-raft-bike-and-hike.html

[AZTtripper]

Nice, pretty impressive loop. Scott and I exchanged several emails on boating and biking loops for AZ. The Gila Box was the only thing I could think of, most of the other rivers are just too rocky. At least every thing that I have done, Salt and the Verde being the main two. We did think that the Gila Box and the Black Canyon Byway seemed realistic. The GET with both a bike and a boat, does seem to be a bit much.   

[southwestbackcountry]

... The GET with both a bike and a boat, does seem to be a bit much.  

Word.  A bit much, perhaps the road bike version would be acceptable to some. Thanks for checkin out the route. I've wondered how to do the Verde as well...

[ScottM]

Great report - way to give it a go.  Sorry if my report came off a tad too optimistic about rideability.  We definitely ran very light kits, knowing how much hiking potential there would be.  With a raft, I can only imagine the rideability would plummet pretty quick.  Hats off to you for completing the loop, though, and capturing some great photos.  It's great to be reminded of some of the cool spots on the Safford Morenci trail.

IIRC, you can shuttle some of the Gila using the back country byway, which would at least be dirt road.

[southwestbackcountry]

Great report - way to give it a go.  Sorry if my report came off a tad too optimistic about rideability.  We definitely ran very light kits, knowing how much hiking potential there would be.  With a raft, I can only imagine the rideability would plummet pretty quick.  Hats off to you for completing the loop, though, and capturing some great photos.  It's great to be reminded of some of the cool spots on the Safford Morenci trail.

IIRC, you can shuttle some of the Gila using the back country byway, which would at least be dirt road.

Thanks Scott.  We were determined to raft, and carry through, so we knew we weren't going to be riding much of the trail due to weight, which is why we brought our huge packs to put everything in.  We mainly wanted to do a 'wilderness' return to Clifton from the Gila, and your trip interested me enough to try it out. Glad to have done it once, but wish we had more  time to explore up/down Eagle Creek.  The other major factor of how the trip went was just how short the days were.

Thanks again for your report of the trip you took through there, it helped a lot.

[AZTtripper]

Yeah I've done Verde trips at the Solstice and they are not at much fun as just one month later. Night riding and hiking are one thing, night boating is a hot season activity.

I've done Verde stretches with a bike shuttle just not carrying the boat.

So here's a possible Verde Wilderness run with a bike shuttle. I would have to clear this with the shuttle operator but. If you drive to Sheep's bridge and leave your rig. Ride the bikes with the boats on the Bloody Basin road then Jeep trail to a ford of the river at Childs. Use the boats to ferry the bikes across the river. Then ride the Fossil Creek road to Camp Verde. I can get you the number for a person who runs the shuttles. My thinking is you can just pay her a small fee to put in in the back yard and leave the bikes with her. You would get to boat part of the class I-II White Bridge run all of the Beasly to Childs class III and the Wilderness class II (which is almost harder and just a good as the III) and get out before the lake.

[southwestbackcountry]

Yeah I've done Verde trips at the Solstice and they are not at much fun as just one month later. Night riding and hiking are one thing, night boating is a hot season activity.

I've done Verde stretches with a bike shuttle just not carrying the boat.

So here's a possible Verde Wilderness run with a bike shuttle. I would have to clear this with the shuttle operator but. If you drive to Sheep's bridge and leave your rig. Ride the bikes with the boats on the Bloody Basin road then Jeep trail to a ford of the river at Childs. Use the boats to ferry the bikes across the river. Then ride the Fossil Creek road to Camp Verde. I can get you the number for a person who runs the shuttles. My thinking is you can just pay her a small fee to put in in the back yard and leave the bikes with her. You would get to boat part of the class I-II White Bridge run all of the Beasly to Childs class III and the Wilderness class II (which is almost harder and just a good as the III) and get out before the lake.

So the shuttle operator would just hold the bikes at the put in basically?  sounds good.  And, How much riding/river is that?

[AZTtripper]

Just a very rough track gets 70 some on the bike and 60 some on the river. That's rounded up from my quick and dirt tracks drawing.

I've done Beasley to Childs in 2 days we made Sheep's Bridge in 5 on one trip. Usually we were in canoe's so the flat water of the lake was no biggie. The shuttle is basically paved to there. The shuttle to Sheep's Bridge is very wash boarded so they don't really like to drive Bloody Basin. The bike shuttle leaves BB sooner so you'll have as much rough rocky jeep trail as you will two wheel wash board on that segment.

The trips that I have been on have all been at about 200 cfs if you get lucky and hit at least 3-400 you could likely shave a day off of the trip.

Let me know if you want me to ask if this can be arranged.

[southwestbackcountry]

Let me know if you want me to ask if this can be arranged.

Thanks for the info.  Sounds like a good long trip.  I'll look at it more.

[AZTtripper]

Yep fairly long, as I laid it out it's like well this isn't just a weekend jaunt.

[wahday]

Another great trip and report. Well done!

[southwestbackcountry]

Another great trip and report. Well done!

Thanks Wahday

[ScottM]

Hey SWBC -- resurrecting this thread and wondering what packrafts you used?

I'm interested in running the Gila box and also revisiting Johnny/Midnight Canyons.  I also have learned there are a couple potential hot springs to look for.

I'm thinking of either not having boats for the ride/hike, or not having bikes for the river... so not as pure as you guys did it.

It's interesting that you had comparable flows to Brett and he did it in April...

[AZTtripper]

Scott are you talking about hot springs on the river, if so there is a spot where hot water bubbles up out of the sand. It doesn't amount to much just kind of a neat thing to see. Stopped there on a trip at 600 the other trips I did were at higher flows and I think its all under water then.

 

[southwestbackcountry]

Scott,

I'm still impressed you took bikes through there and went up that slot… dang. Good stuff.

We used Alpacka Yaks, and you can get a cargo zipper so as not to carry stuff up on top of your boat, but inside instead. They're about $1200 with the 'cargo fly' zipper.

Since I started monitoring the flow gauge on the river, I, like you, was surprised at the flows.  In fact we decided to do the trip BECAUSE they appeared about the same as Brett's trip, and saw in his pictures what the flows did to the river (low, but enough to not scrape the bottom too much). One thing to note about this trip, is that the Gila added 100 cfs, which doubled the size of the SanFrancisco (which is the river we started on), BUT, the Gila has just been regulated by NM to be 'diverted' upstream from there. So this trip will become a thing of the past sometime in the future…

You should do it, if you're thinking about it, because that canyon is sweet. Not to mention the Morenci trail/ Bonita and Eagle Canyons...

[AZTtripper]

As long as you don't care about the riding aspect of river running the Gila Wilderness in NM is a sweet section of river. Not sure who does shuttles anymore I think the guy we used got very sick. I guess you could ride the roads a lot of it would be part of Tour Divide. 

Several write ups https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=gila%20river%20wilderness%20run
One mentions the guy I met who wrote http://www.high-lonesomebooks.com/cgi-bin/hlb/3648.html?id=BCisMSvU

[ScottM]

We used Alpacka Yaks, and you can get a cargo zipper so as not to carry stuff up on top of your boat, but inside instead. They're about $1200 with the 'cargo fly' zipper.

Since I started monitoring the flow gauge on the river, I, like you, was surprised at the flows.  In fact we decided to do the trip BECAUSE they appeared about the same as Brett's trip, and saw in his pictures what the flows did to the river (low, but enough to not scrape the bottom too much). One thing to note about this trip, is that the Gila added 100 cfs, which doubled the size of the SanFrancisco (which is the river we started on), BUT, the Gila has just been regulated by NM to be 'diverted' upstream from there. So this trip will become a thing of the past sometime in the future…

You should do it, if you're thinking about it, because that canyon is sweet. Not to mention the Morenci trail/ Bonita and Eagle Canyons...

Ah, the Yaks -- makes sense.  The interior cargo storage is a nifty little feature.

I did see some mention of NM deciding to mess with the Gila (above where AZ messes with it).  That does give some good motivation to give it a go, though I wouldn't mind a little faster flow than what Brett and you guys had.

Thanks for the response, and initial trip report!

[ScottM]

Scott are you talking about hot springs on the river, if so there is a spot where hot water bubbles up out of the sand. It doesn't amount to much just kind of a neat thing to see. Stopped there on a trip at 600 the other trips I did were at higher flows and I think its all under water then.
 

Right, I think sometimes people create temporary pools to catch it and soak in it.  There's also one off Eagle Creek I'm curious to check out.

Thanks for the links on the upper Gila.  I had wondered about running that, too.

[AZTtripper]

Yeah the upper Gila is pretty sweet, I've only run that one once. Short window of run off for rafting a bit more with the canoe pack rafts should be able to go lower and there's a trail the whole way so you could always walk.

Near Eagle Creek sounds right I could see digging enough to have a small pool.