Deso Sept 09

What an amazing, mellow, stress free trip, though Dave & Bugs frame may beg to differ.....Photos (C) Jeremy Christensen, Ky Frye & Dave Inskeep

Deso: Day Negative One

It's been so long since I've done a real river trip, I feel, I'm ashamed to say, a bit out of practice. I am finding myself actually having to think about what I need to bring, as opposed to having it already packed in my car from the last trip as things were the last couple years. But tomorrow we arrive at Sand Wash for 7 days in Desolation and Gray Canyons, and I'm so excited I think I just peed a little bit.

Last few months have been busy with work, and preparing to (FINALLY) move into our permanent Salt Lake residence (only 5 months after getting back) but it's looking promising - the finishing touches should be completed by the time we get back from this trip, and we'll be ready to move in. Ky and I still haven't even unpacked from North Carolina, so the move should be relatively painless.

I have been trying to find the time and money to put the Plascore shoe on the dory, but haven't yet managed to, so that is still a work in progress. She won't be coming on this trip, 2400 cfs is a bit below my threshold for the wood boat on Deso, so Grey Boy, my 16' Achilles bucket gets the nod this time, fresh off a trip down the Middle Fork Salmon with Rupert "Ray Ray" James III. Hoping 7 days on the water will give me the time to find and fix the slow leak in the starboard chamber.

We were also planning to bring Everett (furry buddy) but he somehow got injured in the last couple weeks and has been slow to recover. Had us scared for a couple days, obviously in pain but not emanating from any discernable location on his body. Thankfully I can report he is on his way to a full recovery, but unfortunately for all involved he will have to sit this one out as well.

Pics and trip report to follow.....happy trails.

Flotsam

Managed to sneak away for a couple floats these last few weeks, getting out on the Moab (Colorado River) and Green River dailies. I wasn't able to use my Desolation Canyon permit over Memorial Day because of work but managed to transfer it to some friends who were able to put a trip together for the high water. I surprised them by driving down to Green River the day they were supposed to take out, and posting up at Nefertiti until they floated past, joining them for the last few miles of river and a beer & burger at Rays. It seems really strange not being on the river more this spring but damned responsibilities keep popping up, and the economy and Ky & my lack of permenant jobs have put a damper on our free wheeling ways for now. But we're planning for a fall Deso trip, followed by some time on the Salmon in Oct. for Steelhead fishing, and another Grand Canyon trip (Ky's 1st!!) next Spring.

Thieves In The Night

I did something dumb the other night and paid for it. I left my camera in my truck overnight and it was stolen. A Pentax DSLR body, 3 lenses, half a dozen filters, and several memory cards tragically full of pictures from the last several months. The camera can be replaced, but unfortunately the pictures are gone.

In other news, I am slowly moving towards shoeing the dory with 3/4" plascore. This will (I hope) give me a worry free bottom that will withstand the occasional rock hit without requiring an immediate repair.

When I built my boat, I didn't know any better and used 3/8" Okoume for the bottom. This would be fine if I was the type of person that only floated calm water or just didn't hit rocks. But I am neither of these and my boat has taken some hits requiring on-stream repairs. Not to keep the boat from sinking, but to prevent water penetration into the wood. Knowing what I know now, I would have used 1/2" fir or another longer grained wood rather than Okoume, or more likely I would have used plascore. It's light, and it's impervious to water damage. So even if you put a gash all the way through the bottom (unlikely) you can just put some gorilla tape over it and call it good until you get home, then take the time to make a permanent repair, instead of wasting time with rough repairs on the river which only have to been removed and replaced once you get back home.

This raises one of the issues I have with commercially built dories and drift boats. Everybody wants to be able to say they build an "indestructable" boat but we've all seen that no matter what material or process you use to build a boat, it is no match for the power of the river should the river decide to show you. I am much more interested in having a boat that is reasonably impervious to the occasionally rock hit, while being as easy as possible to fix in the event of something more significant. Which is why I like plywood, plascore, fiberglass and epoxy. And when the most suitable building materials are also the most attractive, why would you want anything else?

So Larry helped me join a couple pieces of 3/4" plascore to get the length I need, now I just need to order some biaxial glass and I will be ready to do the layup.

I thought about vacuum bags and other elaborate systems, but decided to go the simpler route, relying on the chemical bonding properties of the epoxy to do the work for me. Once epoxy cures fully, new epoxy added will not chemically bond to the old epoxy, making it necessary to scarify the surface to allow a physical bond. So for the new shoe, after the first layer of the layup, everything else will be done in one big push in order to chemically bond the subsequent layers.

I have sanded the bottom of the boat with 80 & 120 grit. Next I'll lay down a layer of biaxial glass fabric using a slow cure epoxy mix, allow it to begin to kick, then lay down the plascore sheet and evenly weight the sheet down with sandbags, bags of pottting soil, etc. (which I'm hoping will more evenly distribute the pressure than hard sided weights) and allow to set up for 24 hrs. Then pack the open cell edges of the plascore with thickened epoxy, and finish with another layer or 2 of biaxial glass over the top, overlapping several layers of biaxial tape at the chine.

Home Sweet Home

Managed to escape the southeast, no worse for wear, and have landed back in Salt Lake City to start a new job with the Utah Division of Wildlife, and pick up where I left off building boats, floating rivers, and catching fish. Went down to the workshop today to check up on Larry and see how his new 16 footer is coming along, and it is awesome. It's a one-off design, with a plascore bottom and is going to make on hell of a fishing boat. Can't wait to get it out on the crystal waters of the Green. We are also scheming on a few new projects, including a pram, a jet sled/power drifter, and an all-plascore whitewater dory. I am thrilled to be back on the right (as in correct) side of the continental divide, and excited to dive back into building and rowing boats. I am hoping to start posting on here a lot more frequently, so check back often.....and I am thrilled to have heard from a lot of people interested in wooden boats who have come across this page from one source or another, so feel free to drop me a line - I am always happy to talk boats and floats.

Fish Will Be Jumping Into This One

Progress report from Larry - bottom is on, and looking mighty fine. This is a one-off design based on some design principals he and I settled on after many hours in the shop and on the phone, and hundreds of emails back and forth about what would make the perfect dory for fly fishing. This one is long, wide, and carries it's width further back into the tail than either of our current boats, accommodating a rear passenger/angler.

Utah Legislature Upholds River Access

In an admittedly surprising turn of events, the Utah Legislature today voted down a bill which would have severely limited public access to Utah's waterways. This is great news to anyone who cares about Utah's rivers and streams.

If you were not familiar with HB 187, it’s a piece of legislation in response to last years Supreme Court ruling that gave anglers access to virtually all bodies of moving water in the state. This Bill, would have negated the ruling and more critically removed waters that generations have had the opportunity to fish.

Today's positive outcome is due in no small part to the tireless organizing efforts of anglers, boaters, business owners and many others who spread the word about this ill conceived bill, and brought others into the fray to make calls to their representatives and to the Governor. Your voice was heard by the right people, and the bill was shot down.

From one river rat to many, many more - my sincerest thank you to everyone who got involved.