This trip was originally planned as a work-related float which aborted due to the failure to draw a permit. Mark, never short of perseverance, saved the day by making 200+ phone calls to the BLM Monticello office (the new 2017 BLM web page) until a cancellation came through. Hop Sing, AKA Doran, grabbed the opportunity to fill the third and last slot on the canceled permit.

In order to stretch the trip a day, little visited Montezuma Creek was used as the launch site. The general consensus was that although it was worth doing once, we probably would launch from Sand Island on future trips. Shuttle was provided by Kathy of K and D Shuttles of Bluff. Cost was roughly $200 for the Bluff to Montezuma Creek section and for having a van/trailer dropped off at Clay Crossing prior to our exit date.

The rustic and very low-key Recapture Lodge served as base of operations for in and out days. Weather ranged from perfect to an out-day where sustained winds of thirty-five mph gusting to fifty made us evaluate ever doing another early spring trip. Those last couple miles from Ojleto to Clay were as hard oaring as I ever want to do.