# Camping issues on the John Day



## shappattack (Jul 17, 2008)

Can't comment on the crowd, but the map is pretty old. There are indeed several camps marked on the map that do not exist. There are several pretty nice (and legal) camps that are not marked on the map at all.


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## Cambo5150 (Mar 22, 2017)

We ran Clarno to Cottonwood last year. Early June, water was high. We had a heck of a time finding a campsite every day. River was super crowded. I wonder if the sport is just becoming more and more popular. When you blank on lotteries you go where you don’t need to win the lottery. I’m wondering if this is going to be the new normal. I also did Stillwater Canyon on the green last year. Same thing, super crowded no campsites. One night we pulled over after dark and camped in a not so great location because we ran out of daylight looking for an unoccupied camp.


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## jbomb (Apr 10, 2015)

We also did Clarno to Cottonwood this year under the new permit system. The river felt full, but not ridiculous like previous years at prime time (especially at the ramps). Got checked for our permit 3 different times by rangers, they said they were having a huge poaching problem with people pretending ignorance. I didn't get information on any penalties doled out, sadly.


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## flipper42 (Apr 8, 2011)

yes the covid thing is having a big effect on outdoor stuff in general everyone is trying to get out of the house it has ruined alot of our plans in the process


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## Learch (Jul 12, 2010)

This is the first season for the new permit system, so I am not surprised they are not citing for following the rules. I had friends on the same stretch just a few days before you, and they used the same camps they always get. I'm sure that Covid has affected things, and the JD is having a great season water wise. In fact, of the 3 or 4 separate groups who have run it in the last 5 weeks, you are the first one I had heard mention the scarcity of camps. There is a reason they started to limit permits, hopefully the limits will help. We have some incredibl overnight rivers in Oregon at our disposal, but I get tired of running the limited out ones where you are hunting for camps. I do like the shoulder season trips where the weather isn't ideal but it slows river traffic significantly.


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## striper42 (Mar 12, 2015)

I floated with a big group (24 people, half kids) twickenham to clarno 6/19-21, my first time floating the JD. It did feel busy at times but we found campsites without much trouble. A buddy had done it a few times before and had a good plan for grabbing site X if available, if not grab Y, that kind of thing. We were checked twice, day 2 morning and at the takeout. At the takeout, an OSP officer was giving some folks ahead of us tickets (guy was grumbling about it but didn't say what for). Then the OSP came to us and just checked our permits and was real nice. So I assume that dude ahead of us got a ticket for no permit. Someone else said a lot of folks have been poaching as sort of an F-you to the new permits. Hopefully they check enough permits and write enough tickets to cut down on that in the future. 

Great time, hope to do it annually now.


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## Soup76 (Aug 19, 2009)

Learch said:


> This is the first season for the new permit system, so I am not surprised they are not citing for following the rules. I had friends on the same stretch just a few days before you, and they used the same camps they always get. I'm sure that Covid has affected things, and the JD is having a great season water wise. In fact, of the 3 or 4 separate groups who have run it in the last 5 weeks, you are the first one I had heard mention the scarcity of camps. There is a reason they started to limit permits, hopefully the limits will help. We have some incredibl overnight rivers in Oregon at our disposal, but I get tired of running the limited out ones where you are hunting for camps. I do like the shoulder season trips where the weather isn't ideal but it slows river traffic significantly.


Agree. I was with a smaller group (7) in mid June and we had no problem finding camps either. New permit system seems to be working in my opinion. Smaller groups make it easier, obviously.


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