San Francisco River (near Clifton/Morenci, AZ)

30 October 2004

The participants were John W. and Skip in "Old Blue" and John H. and Bob P. in Bob's Blazer. The day started with breakfast burritos at Los Jilbertos in Safford about 9:15. We left from the Conoco station in Morenci a little before 10:30. The weather was clear and cool -- perfect for wheelin' and generally tooling around. It took about 2 hours to drive down the San Francisco to the Gila. The San Francisco was running about 65 CFS, so the deepest crossings were about 2 feet deep with significant current. However, unlike the Gila, the San Francisco has a gravel bottom almost everywhere. So the crossings were easy going. A few tall sand hills made the upstream trip slightly more interesting.

We saw 6 Bighorn sheep on the way down, and 7 on the way back. (It was the same group of sheep, so we either saw 7 or 13 depending on how you count.)

Early dinner was at La Paloma in Solomon on the way home. Every good wheelin' trip should have at least 2 meals of mexican food!

Trail Rating: 3+ if you stay out of the deep water.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.