River Trip Planning - Labyrinth Canyon in May

steve

steve

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I'm planning a trip with some friends in Labyrinth Canyon in May and I have a lot of questions. This is our first river overnighter trip in decades. We'll be renting sea kayaks from texsriverways. They'll take care of our BLM permits for us. I understand the regulations about needing a fire pan for fires, and for packing out our own waste.

We're planning on Ruby Ranch to Mineral Bottom, 3-4 days. Is it worth another day or two to put in at Crystal Geyser, or is that stretch boring?

How are the mosquitoes and biting bugs in May?

Any side canyons or hikes we should explore while we're there?

Any other insider advice for us?
 
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I have some opinions on this, but keep in mind I've only done it one time which was just this past October.

My impression of the landscape near Ruby Ranch is that you definitely shouldn't bother with the upper stretch between there and town.

Do at least 4 days for Ruby to Mineral! We took it easy and didn't paddle too much over our four days. We only really had time for one decent hike. I guess we could have paddled faster but what fun is that ? I could easily spend a week or more on that stretch of river. I doubt I'll ever do it in less than 5 in the future.

On bugs, I'm purely speculating based on elevation and time of year. I doubt they'll be terrible but you've got room so definitely bring a can of juice.
 
We did it in May: http://edarnell.com/Trails/page200.html

I don't remember any bug problems, and I usually mention that in my trip reports if they're bad, so they must not have been a problem.

We did it in three days, which was a little rushed. I would definitely do at least 4 days, and 5 days is probably better.

Because we were rushed, the only real hike we did was at Bowknot Bend, so I don't really have any advice on other hikes.

And I agree with Nick, I wouldn't start any further up river than Ruby Ranch.

It's a great trip!
 
Nick said:
My impression of the landscape near Ruby Ranch is that you definitely shouldn't bother with the upper stretch between there and town.
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Truth.

We only really had time for one decent hike. I guess we could have paddled faster but what fun is that ?
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Do the climb to the top of the Bowknot notch, well worth it. The side canyons are largely similar and are rather bland by southern Utah standards (IMO, of course). That being said, the Hey Joe mine is pretty cool. Spring Canyon is nice-ish for the scenery. Hell Roaring gets some motorized use. Labyrinth has some interesting sections from what I've heard between the river and the NPS boundary.

On bugs, I'm purely speculating based on elevation and time of year. I doubt they'll be terrible but you've got room so definitely bring a can of juice.
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My brother and I ran into no bugs at the end of April in Labyrinth last year.
 
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Hey Steve,

I did this second week of June last year. Bugs were not really bad, but camping in calm winds you will definitely need bug juice. There are a ton of cool hikes that you can research - just depends on how much time you want to spend. You can do bowknot in an hour or spend a bunch of time there. Definitely don't miss that view. In kayaks, I would plan on 3 easy days plus 2 nights plus whatever time you want to stop/stay to hike. Sounds perfect to add a day and plan a couple of nice hikes!

-Eric
 
Awesome, that's just the info I was looking for. Thanks guys.
 
Were you guys able to filter and drink the river water, or did you carry your own? I understand it's silty, but if I backflush my sawyer mini frequently, I should be ok. I hear the water is quite salty as well.
 
Good to know. Half the trip reports I find talk about filtering the green, and the other half bring their own water. I'll plan on brining my own. I forget just how much weight you can carry in a kayak.
 
I took my own in a collapsible jug from Walmart. I don't do cow water if I can help it.
 
Aldaron said:
We did it in May: http://edarnell.com/Trails/page200.html

We did it in three days, which was a little rushed. I would definitely do at least 4 days, and 5 days is probably better.

It's a great trip!
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Great trip report, thanks for the link. That gives me lots of info. I'm not really one who likes to get in at camp at 2pm and dink around for the next 10 hours before going to bed. I usually prefer to arrive at camp around dark. If you were to stretch it to 4 or 5 days, would you spend more time hiking and exploring, or more time sitting around camp reading?
 
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sixstringsteve said:
If you were to stretch it to 4 or 5 days, would you spend more time hiking and exploring, or more time sitting around camp reading?
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Thanks!

I'm like you...I don't like to get into camp early, either. And I tend to get out of camp early in the morning, too. I'm also a little hyper at camp, so I usually find myself just exploring around when I have down time. So, if I took more time on that trip, I would have probably mostly paddled up side canyons more like Ten Mile, and I would have hiked around more in places like Horseshoe, Trin Alcove, and some rock art sites.
 
That describes me to a tee. Thanks, that sounds like a great option. I'll definitely be planning on taking the extra time to do those things.
 
It was good when we were there. We spent a good portion of our time just floating and we made good time. When people talk about dragging boats, it's hard for me to wrap my head around that because the river was fast and swirling with deep eddies when we were on it.
 
Did you have any difficulty locating good, sandy campsites with that much water? It was way low when we went in October but I still felt like it wasn't the easiest thing to locate a good spot.
 
Nick said:
Did you have any difficulty locating good, sandy campsites with that much water? It was way low when we went in October but I still felt like it wasn't the easiest thing to locate a good spot.
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No, I don't remember having any problems. We saw practically no one else on the river, so we weren't competing for campsites.

I usually start looking for a site about 30 minutes before I want to stop, though, and I'll take the first site I come across.
 
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