The Taos Box & Shipping the Oars

In the winter of 25’ the snowpack in the Southwest was barely 50% of average.  This meant that the Rio Grande in the Taos Box probably wouldn’t rise above 600 CFS (cubic feet per second) during the spring runoff, which meant there wasn’t going to be a Box season.  But May and early June brought a series of rainy days, and miraculously the river in the Box has been running between 500-600 CFS for the past few weeks.  The cutoff for most boaters is 600 CFS, mostly because of the boulder at the top of Powerline Falls, which once exposed, blocks the entrance to this class IV rapid.  The river also slows down a lot, and if there is wind, then it makes for a long 15-mile day.  After a couple days of rain last week, Colorado sent us water, and the river rose to a whopping 750 CFS.  At this level there is plenty of coverage to get through Powerline and the rest of the boulder-strewn rapids.

However, at 750 CFS, the Taos Box is still very technical, and an oarsman needs to possess some excellent rowing skills.  It may help to adopt a point-and-pull technique—point the bow at the boulders and pull away from them.  Pushing your way through the Box at low levels can be done but it requires a lot more effort.  At rapids such as Powerline Falls, Dead Car, and Screaming Right, the boater must ship the oars so the boat can squeeze between two or more rocks.  Shipping requires the boater to pull both oar handles back towards the boater’s chest, which makes the oar blades flush with the bow of the boat.

Dead Car is a pool-drop rapid with a fence-line of rocks that stretches across most of the river.  There is a gap between two boulders on the left side.  The boater slides through the gap but then faces another set of boulders called the Lion's Head rocks.  The boater needs to ship the oars before the gap, and then un-ship them, pulling away from the Lion’s Head rocks.  The approach to the entrance is very important.  In my opinion, the boat needs momentum because above the entrance on the right is a small rock that creates a hydraulic eddy.  As the boater approaches the entrance the boat passes through the small eddy, and if there isn’t enough speed, then the eddy can stall the boat.  If the boater has already shipped the oars when the boat stalls, then the boat can easily turn sideways, and get pinned against the left and right boulders. Yikes!

I know all about this, but I was trying to time my camera to take a still photo right when I was sliding between the boulders.  I had my camera on a ten-second timer, but the moment I stopped rowing to push the shutter, my boat lost speed.  I shipped my oars right as a gust of wind blew upstream, and my boat stalled in the eddy and turned sideways.  My left front tube caught the right boulder, and my rear left tube caught the left boulder.  Rats!  This a position no boater wants to be in because the boat can easily flip.  I knew a pin was coming, so I leaped forward onto the left front tube and knocked it off the rock.  Released from its entanglement, my boat turned and floated through the gap.  I fell back into my seat, grabbed my oar handles, gave a couple of deep pulls, and easily cleared the Lion's Head rocks.

The boater also needs to ship the oars at the top of Powerline Falls and further down the river at Screaming Right (aka Enema). By then the boater should be well-versed in shipping the oars. Remember: get some speed going before you ship them.