So, I'm getting ready to go back to college....In Texas! What this means is that I'll be getting a great education, as well as being very very far away from the mountains and rivers of Wyoming which are so near and dear to my heart. I'm thoroughly excited about this new adventure in my life but am going to have a hard time adjusting to the lack of mountains and amazing rivers. So, this morning I decided to drive over to the North Fork of the Little Wind and spend a day by myself paddling one of my favorite rivers in my favorite mountain range, the Wind River Range.
The Tetons on my drive out of town!
I left my house at 5:30 A.M. and went into town to get some gas and food. I ended up leaving Jackson arond 6 A.M. and was lucky enough to drive through Grand Teton National Park at Sunrise. What an AMAZING start to my day. A layer of fog was covering the valley, and I was able to get an amazing view of the Tetons, as well as several incredible views of the Sun rising over the mountains to the east-side of the valley.
Driving over Togwotee Pass my mind began to play tricks on me. Paddling by yourself is a special thing and paddling hard Class V by yourself, comes with some heavy mental baggage. To successfully run Class V solo you've got to confront your fears and face them head on and going into the Wind River mountains alone, to run this river, I had alot of fears. Luckily, I had a 3 hour drive to go through them all and by the time I got to the put-in and began hiking down, I'd come to peace with most all of them.
My Reservation Permit...Don't paddle on the Res without one!
One of the things that excited me about paddling by myself was getting to go at my own speed. I'm a paddler who likes to move swiftly both hiking and on the river and although I treasure the comraderie I get with fellow boaters I was excited to just do my own thing and see how quickly I could complete the hike-in, paddle, and hike-out. The hike-in took me about 35 minutes and I found myself eating a granola bar and sipping some water at 9:45 A.M. on the banks of the river.
I shoved off at about 10 A.M. and paddled through the mile-long California-section without getting out of my boat or catching an eddy,letting my Nomad stay at speed and cruise over the smoothe granite slides and glide through the pools. After about 10 minutes I reached the first "big" drop, "Double Deuces." I was fortunate enough to first D and name this rapid last summer during the rivers first descent and it's become one of my favorites. The drop consists of two 15-20 foot waterfalls with a 5 foot pool connecting them. This made for a fun boof/stomp into meltdown off the second-half. I was nervous at the top but after running it and having a good line, I felt more confident and ready for the next drop.
Double Deuces from the top!
Immediately after Double Deuces is a nasty boof/slide drop with a heinous pocket on the river left towards the bottom. Last year this drop was unrunnable due to a log in the bottom slide portion but thanks to high water floods this year, the log is now gone. I wasn't sure if anyone had run the drop yet or not but saw a great boof onto the slide and the water was low enough a guardian rock was keeping most of the flow out of the death-pocket. Feeling good, paddling well and knowing I needed to take advantage of this day as much as possible I decided to give it a go and ended up having a great line. The boof onto the slide was smoother than I anticipated and I cruised right past the pocket. Cha-Ching! My smile was ear to ear as I cruised downstream through some classic Wyoming/Rocky Mountain Mank!
After a brief amount of Mank I came to the second double drop, Boofington Heights. Here I didn't even get out of my boat. I knew the line, hey diddle diddle off the first slide and drive right to super boof off the second. It worked out just like that and I didn't skip a beat and kept cruising downstream through more quality boulder infested mank.
Alot of people don't like the Rocky Mountain Mank, and I used to be one of them. But the more time I spend paddling in it, the more I love it. This run would be a Slalom kayakers wet-dream. Tons of back and forth moves, doufek's used repeatedly, boof's galore and a million micro-eddies if you feel like going that route. (being in a Nomad I prefer to let my boat plane and keep it's speed, as it can get going really fast if u let it do it's thing!)
Myself, above some of the steeper mank sections
Soon I'd cruised through the Clark's Fork Rapid and found myself at the portage gorge. I portaged, sat down on the cliff above the nasty slot-drop and pulled out my cell phone/camera to take a picture and check the time. 10:45, I was cruising. I have a GZ one Boulder cell phone and it worked great as a camera for the day. (although I didn't trust the waterproofing enough to not put it in a drybag) After a 15 minute snack I kept moving downstream.
Below the portage gorge, the mank get's pretty steep. I got out to scout the steepest section to make sure my low flow still had enough water to make it through all the rapids, it did. I had a few bumps here and there but over-all good smoothe lines and quickly found myself staring at the infamous 3 amigos waterfall gorge. Gulp.
Above the first 40
Now I got nervous. Two 35-40'sh foot waterfalls followed by a 20 footer, all gorged in, and I was all alone. I spent a few minutes scouting and building some courage. (this included a full 5 minute conversation, out loud, to myself) Finally I was ready and I got in my boat. I took a quick look around, realized how privileged I was to be in that place at that time with the ability to do what I was about to do and found a moment of total peace. I pushed off, paddled the entrance and BOOFED THE CRAP out of that first 40 footer. I landed with my bow down a bit after a nice stomp move and it really didn't hurt too bad, not that I would have noticed as I was now ecstatic! Fist pumps and yelling ensued, I'm sure scaring all the animals within a 100 mile radius. I took a quick picture and caught the river right eddy to scout waterfall 2 and 3 from the lip.
Below the first 40
Waterfall two looked great at low water with a very defined ramp/lip and number 3 is always straight forward. I paddled off and all went incredibly well. I took a minute sitting in the eddy between waterfall 2 and 3 and just took it all in. I was boxed in between two waterfalls in a pool about 30 feet long and 20 feet wide. I was in the middle of nowhere, all alone and I couldn't have been happier!
The final 2
I paddled the rest of the boogie/mank down to the take-out and had a quick snack before starting the hike-out. The Little Wind hike-out isn't very long but it's super steep up-hill and can take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours. Determined to get a good work-out out of my day I put my head down and grinded it out in 45 minutes, not bad seeing as I had a 5 minute delay after almost stepping on a Ratllesnake and almost peeing my pants.
After the hike-out I was treated to a lovely 2.5 mile jog back to my car and found myself on the road heading home at 1:15 P.M. exactly 4 hours and 15 minutes after starting the run. Not bad.
A quick note to anyone wanting to say anything about soloing. First, don't knock it til you tried it. Nothing is more meditative and spiritual than kayaking alone, by yourself, just you and the water. Second, just because I choose to push myself while soloing doesn't mean you have to, just go out to your local back-yard run or playspot and paddle alone sometime, I think you'll like it. And third, if you're not comfortable soloing or paddling alone, then don't do it, but don't judge others for making the decision to try and obtain a deeper relationship with the river.
Cheers everybody!
Austin R.
No comments:
Post a Comment