It’s hard to train for this type of hazard. If you come upon them without an opportunity to beach before you hit the sweeper, its either go under, go over, or get pinned. I’ve done both under and over on past trips but have been spared from disaster. My boat has enough room for me to lie down in the bottom as low as the highest cargo, and by pushing down under the sweeper I only need about 18” to get through. Dragging over, assuming you still have control of the boat, is heavy work. I’ve only done this once and hope to never repeat the feat.

For those planning to run the Escalante in the future, just expect that every cut bank with trees could present a sweeper. This is true of all rivers unless guys with chainsaws go through and clear the trees. Trees? Cut banks? Yes, you will have sweepers. I think all the sweepers I encountered were from this year because they were all putting out leaves. The one the BLM map warned about wasn’t there any more.

Typical upper stretch scene. The pale gray-green trees are the invasive olives.

There is a new hazard for 2011 about half way down but you'd have to be unconscious to fall into it unawares due to the large pool it creates above it. The people doing the Russian olive removal have put the cut trees/brush into the river. These are now hung up on sand and gravel bars in many spots creating interesting "olive bar" features, but they were easy to paddle around. The big chunks of olive trees are cut into small sections that don't tend to bind, but at one point a tree had fallen over a small rapid and there was a river wide dam of olive brush hung up on the rocks and the tree. I portaged it. I considered lining it but figured if I hung the boat up in it, it would be very risky to get to the boat and unload it. The portage was easy.

I expect this hazard will be there until a big water year blows it out. In addition, beaver are on the river now. They are making a comeback all around the southwest. They drop a lot of willow and cottonwood into the river channels. Bad for us boaters, but good for them and all the other riparian species.