Named Dolores, and christened with a bottle of Jameson whiskey, the classic oar craft has since toured local rivers, including the San Juan, Colorado, Green, Animas, and, of course, the Dolores.
Here’s some highlights of its journey so far.
Dolores made its maiden voyage on the Desolation-Gray Canyons section of the Green River in April, 2014 for a ten day trip.
“It snowed and snowed, a surreal scene, and very cold,” Spear said.
Later in June, Dolores was banged up during a minor crash in Eight-foot Rapid on the San Juan River.
“Dories don’t bounce off rocks like rafts, so I got the first dinger out of my system and learned how to do a patch job,” Spear said. “They run the water superbly, but are also fragile, so it makes you really concentrate on your line through the rapids.”
Multiple Dolores River runs were made in 2014, with one in June from Stoner to town that included a fleet of local dories piloted by boaters Curtis Patillo, Jim Hall, Andy Hutchinson, and Tim Cooper.
“We had a flotilla of dories with the river running at 2,800 cfs, what a sight,” Spear said. “The wave trains felt like a roller coaster.”
Then in March, 2015, it was Labyrinth Canyon, also on the Green River, and flat water the whole way for 85 miles.
“For more excitement, we did some epic hiking up on the rim,” Spear says. “We found lots of natural arches, and the weather was gorgeous.”
The streamlined construction of dories effectively slice through rapids, and have turn-on-a-dime responsiveness, Spear said.
“What I’ve learned is that you can use eddies (a hydraulic feature) to pull or push you onto the right track, whereas with a raft, that technique doesn’t work as well,” he said.
Next up is Cataract Canyon on the Colorado, then the mother of Western Rivers: the Grand Canyon in 2016. Stay tuned.
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