This Week in Small Craft: July 21st, 2026
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Chesapeake Light Craft asks “Why We Sail?” and points readers to a video from sailor and author Christian Williams. It is a small, quiet piece about the part of boats that does not fit on a spec sheet. Not speed. Not payload. Not rocker. Just the reason a little sailboat can make a person disappear from shore for a while and come back slightly improved.
ATTENTION UPPER COLORADO RIVER USERS!
The river is currently UNSAFE and UNNAVIGABLE.
Info from our friend Jack Bombardier of Confluence Casting - as of July 20th, 2026
Upper Colorado River users should treat the Red Dirt Bridge section, between Pinball and Horse Creek, as unsafe and unnavigable until further notice.
A short, hard rainstorm triggered two major debris flows that changed the river in a hurry. The first came through Jack Flats and dumped a massive amount of woody debris into the Colorado. The second problem area is at Red Dirt, where wood from Jack Flats combined with additional flow out of the Posey Creek drainage.
The result is a serious obstruction. High water tore out a stout bridge that had spanned the creek, then carried it into the river. It is now blocking most of the right channel. Two ATVs were apparently on the bridge when it washed out. One is still strapped to the bridge, upside down in the river. The other is upright, dry, and, in one of the stranger details in a very strange scene, apparently ready to roll.
This is not a “boat around it and see what happens” situation. Wood, bridge debris, altered current, and blind commitment lines do not mix. Anyone planning to float this reach should scout carefully, check with local river managers, and be ready to change plans. Better yet, give this section room until there is clear, current information from people who know the reach.
Jack Flats itself sounds almost unrecognizable. The debris flow pushed rocks, trees, mud, and other material into the drainage above Jack Flats, building a large alluvial fan that cut the width of the river channel roughly in half. That kind of change does not clean itself up quickly. It may take a big runoff cycle to move enough material out.
There is one odd bright spot. The same debris flow appears to have created a new feature on the “Lower Upper” Colorado. The narrowed channel has formed a long wave train that looks like it could be fun once the hazards are understood and the reach is safe again. Since the first person (Jack Bombardier) to see it has claimed naming rights, we’ll go ahead and recognize the newly christened Jack Flats Wave.
For now, the wave can wait. Red Dirt Bridge is the headline. Treat the reach with caution, respect the wood, and do not let curiosity turn into a very bad afternoon.
Paddling Magazine has the story of Kelsey Pfendler, a Grand Canyon river guide who rowed solo and unsupported from Monterey, California, to Honolulu in a 21-foot boat. She covered roughly 2,400 miles in 43 days, 17 hours, and 55 minutes. That made her the fastest person to complete a solo row across the mid-Pacific and the first American woman to do it. Most of us get weird after three days in a tent. She rowed to Hawaii.
American Whitewater is tracking another Rio Grande access fight in Big Bend. The concern is U.S. Customs and Border Protection infrastructure in Brewster County, including proposed vehicle barrier systems near several critical river access points. That matters for Boquillas, Santa Elena, the Lower Canyons.
SFGATE reports that public health officials are trying to identify an illness that sickened roughly two dozen Grand Canyon rafters after Colorado River trips this spring and early summer. The first cases appear tied to private trips between Lee’s Ferry and Diamond Creek from May 18 to June 22. Symptoms included fever, chills, fatigue, weakness, joint pain, muscle pain, and in some cases hospitalization.
American Whitewater is tracking another Rio Grande access fight in Big Bend. The concern is U.S. Customs and Border Protection infrastructure in Brewster County, including proposed vehicle barrier systems near several critical river access points. That matters for Boquillas, Santa Elena, the Lower Canyons.
The monsoon question is back. Forecasts point toward better rain odds in the second half of July, and that could help slow big wildfire growth, knock down dust, and give some local reservoirs a little relief. It will not fix the region’s long-term water supply problem. It will not erase drought. It will not refill the Colorado River system because a few storms finally found the mountains. Take the rain. Do not confuse it with salvation.
Paddling Magazine reports that the Boundary Waters Canoe Area closed as wildfires spread across northern Minnesota. The U.S. Forest Service moved to evacuate campers as fires burned in Superior National Forest and inside the BWCA. Lightning, wind, heat, smoke, remote camps, and 1,900 affected campsites make a bad mix. Canoe country is not supposed to smell like a campfire unless somebody earned it with wet cedar and a bad lighter.