# Dolores River Blockage



## rtwalker (Jun 12, 2011)

We arrived at the Bradfield Bridge put-in on Sunday 6/16 and was told the river was totally blocked by a downed tree 3 miles below Snaggletooth. A sign at the put-in by the Dolores County Sheriff's Office said it was impassible and "a portage would be necessary and safety a prime concern".

We took our chances and ran Snaggletooth on Tuesday the 18th.

BAD INFORMATION was passed onto the sheriff's office!!!!!!!!! The so called down tree was about 1/2 mile below Sanaggletooth and came out at most 30 feet from the right hand bank with a cataraft wedged underneath. There was no issue passing by it! We did not find any other blockage down stream!

Don’t ask me how this cataract got stuck under the tree. It made no sense whatsoever. Must have been some extenuating circumstances!

If running the Dolores have fun!


----------



## powrider686 (Aug 12, 2009)

Thanks for the update, was wondering about that tree.


----------



## rtsideup (Mar 29, 2009)

I think that the "extenuating circumstance" was sucking at rowing. Same cat was pinned in Snag just prior.


----------



## rtwalker (Jun 12, 2011)

Well ......we were having a big laugh at our campfire that night about how this could possibly happen........but heard that he had a swimmer in Snag that caused him to hit the tree!!!!!! We certainly questioned that!


----------



## b.pi (Nov 10, 2012)

My buddy with the BLM went down Monday to see if it was as bad as reported, hopefully he’ll post the picture he took. He talked to the guy who gave the same story that rtwalker said. Still doesn’t make a ton of sense. And also either the swimmer of the rower actually got pulled under the tree and was washed free luckily. Could have been a lot worse.


----------



## jamesthomas (Sep 12, 2010)

Does that ponderosa have green needles on it. If not it seems to me it was there in 17. Not a new hazard as I recall and I might add it was easily missed.


----------



## rtwalker (Jun 12, 2011)

No........the tree was totally dead and looked to be missing most of the top portion!


----------



## JFOinCO (Oct 9, 2017)

We put in the 14th (6/14), and I recall seeing a giant (30+ ft) dead ponderosa on the river right ready to fall into the river. If it's same one, I'm happy it didn't fall across the river, because that would be a definite blockage.


Don't have any pics unfortunately.


----------



## JFOinCO (Oct 9, 2017)

Now that I think further, the flow was at 3400 that weekend (friday/saturday) and decreased to the 2000s Sunday. Maybe that is how the cat got stuck.


----------



## jborof (Dec 15, 2009)

That tree was there in '17 it was newly fallen then as it had green needles on it. in between Island and the Wall river right. Plenty of boats that flip in Snag are still roaming free that far downriver so I hope there was no one in the cat when it got there! Happy boating!


----------



## keltiekarma (Sep 30, 2008)

*Cataraft stuck in tree*

We watched the cataraft go thru Snaggletooth, he hit the rock and dumped the passenger, got him out before end of run. Then we floated by them trying to derig the cat stuck on the "blockage" tree. A group we had been pacing down the river helped them out, they got everything off the boat, left frame and deflated tube. The cataraft was trying to land to recover from the swim of Snaggletooth and got hung up, it was two brothers that were newer to boating. The group that we met up with brought them out and they were going to go back in a few days to try and get the frame and tubes. Unfortunately, they were flying solo and not too experienced. Luckily they were okay and river karma had their back.


----------

