Nighttime rescue of three from Arkansas River in Brown’s Canyon after raft flips

Three people, a guide and two passengers, were rescued at night after a raft flipped on the Arkansas River in Brown’s Canyon.

Jeff Hammond, a river ranger with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, was getting ready for bed about 10 p.m. July 6 when his phone rang, according to a CPW news release. The Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office called, notifying Hammond of the incident and requesting his expertise and aid.

“They told me a boat with three people in it had flipped in Zoom Flume in Browns Canyon,” Hammond said in the Friday news release. “They had made contact with one person and two were unaccounted for. All three were still in the canyon and needed to be rescued. So I quickly got back in uniform, grabbed my gear and jumped in my truck.”

Late-night rescues of boaters on the Arkansas River are unordinary and the 13-mile, boulder-strewn stretch between Buena Vista and Salida, where the search and rescue was carried out, presents dangerous challenges.

Two Chaffee County Search and Rescue (SAR) North Team members met up with Hammond and the trio on all-terrain vehicles navigated abandoned railroad tracks that parallel the river to reach the Zoom Flume rapids.

“I was told an off-duty commercial raft guide had taken two people out on a private trip around 7:30 p.m.,” Hammond said. “That should have given them enough time to reach their take-out spot at Hecla Junction. But they never made it.”

Cellphone service in the canyon is spotty, but the guide was able to text 911 for help.

Meanwhile, another team from Chaffee County SAR South, headed northbound from Hecla Junction on electric bikes that they had ferried on a raft across the river.

When Hammond’s party reached the flume they heard shouts for help.

“We found the two friends who had been tossed out of the raft,” Hammond said. “They were on the river bank on the west side. They couldn’t hike out because they were cliffed out by the canyon walls.”

Hammond bushwhacked through brush to the water’s edge in the darkness, his headlamp lighting the way.

“There was no moonlight in the canyon and the water was roaring through the rapids, just upstream,” Hammond said, describing the scene. “I scouted the river, plotted a course to the two victims and put my kayak in the water.”

Hammond, an expert kayaker with long hours on the Arkansas since joining the AHRA in 2017, was a bit apprehensive, but determined. He reached the stranded pair, who were uninjured and not in immediate danger, and promised he’d return for them. He paddled back across the river to begin searching for the missing guide.

She was found about a mile downstream, also on the opposite side of the river from the railroad track. She too was uninjured. Hammond again paddled across the river, the guide and Hammond loaded his kayak into her raft, and they paddled back across the river to the waiting SAR members. They then loaded the raft and kayak onto the ATVs and all went back upstream to rescue the stranded pair where Hammond made his third and final roundtrip river crossing. The SAR members drove the two friends to Nathrop, then returned to get the guide, Hammond, and his kayak.

At 2:30 a.m. Hammond texted his fiancé to tell her he’d soon be home.

Things went well during the rescue and actions taken by the guide and the two friends contributed to the positive end results.

“First, they were all wearing life jackets,” Hammond said. “That’s the biggest thing. And they had a cellphone. Even though they couldn’t make a call, they could send a text for help.”

No one panicked. When they realized they wouldn’t be able to hike out, they stayed put and planned to wait for daylight when commercial rafting trips would be able to help.

“If things go wrong, don’t compound the problems,” Hammond said. “Call for search and rescue. It’s free and safer than wandering off into the wilderness. We’d rather get a call early and start searching than get a late call and face a more complex rescue.”