3:45AM - The cell phone alarm startled us after a less than rejuvenating night's sleep. Hot water for coffee, some donuts for breakfast, and we headed off from our base camp for the 2 hour drive to the put-in.
6:30AM – We were all dressed and very conspicuous looking when Ben saw headlights coming. The four of us shouldered our boats and scrambled down the trail in the ambient light to hide just over the hill from the parking lot. Tensions were high, and we couldn't be seen, we couldn't be stopped. Not this early, not without at least a taste of this fine river. We watched with relief as the headlights passed. The girls came down to bid us farewell and take a group put-in photo before driving off to play for the day.
We made our way cautiously down the dark, muddy slope to the river where we put on as the morning became barely light enough for us to see each other.
7:15AM - “It looks runnable, but I think a portage is the best option” said Pat from shore after scouting the first major rapid we had come to. Ben thought otherwise and decided to run the BIG boof over a deceptively sticky hole. The book had spoken of kayakers catching a “free rodeo lesson, in the pre-dawn light.” Ben very nicely illustrated this when to all of our amazement, his 92 gallon mega-rocker was cartwheeling and doing all kinds of rodeo moves in the hole with Ben. After his extensive beatdown and swim, Bradford, Pat, and I decided to portage.
7:35AM – The sun was rising, Ben's boat was recovered, everyone was surprisingly warm, and although tensions were still running high, so were spirits, and excitement.
8:45AM – Some flatwater, a fun boof, and a boulder garden behind us, a big rapid with a sheer wall on the left and some nasty sieves on the right faced us. Just downstream was a footbridge over the canyon, at which each of us took turns casting nervous glances, hoping no one would be hiking on such a cold, October day. We decided that it was definitely class V but we were up for the challenge. Bradford went first, got squirted and flipped in his suboptimal craft, and headed straight for the sieve. Luckily Pat sprinted down to help pull his skirt and recover his boat. I'm pretty sure his paddle and pogies are still in the sieve. Needless to say, the rest of us decided to portage, Pat had a spare paddle for Bradford to use, and we passed under the bridge over a 8 foot ledge drop, and around the corner.
10:40AM – The second gorge petered off after numerous fun rapids, 2 of which we scouted, and another we should have (Pat was the only one who remembered the line). Our hands were cold, but our spirits were still warm and ready for more action. We were passed our creek landmark and soon found ourselves deep within the mysterious third gorge.
12:25 PM – Lots of scouting, rapid running, and one drop portaged by everyone led our crew to the conclusion that the third gorge had been the best so far. We were too cold at this point to step up to all of the challenges this amazing stretch had to offer. We came out of the canyon somewhat regretful that we had portaged such quality drops, but happy to be there and glad to escape it's clutches with no carnage. There now remained a lot of flatwater, another footbridge, and 2 more class V canyons in the run.
2:10PM – The flatwater was over, we still had yet to see a soul, and the fourth, California style gorge was among us. Bradford and Pat were too cold from the flatwater to hold their paddles, so they began hiking. Ben and I stuck to the water and with one portage, we enjoyed the few other rapids before beaching at the falls where we met up with the other two.
2:50PM – The falls portage and flatwater between canyons was over. An excited Ben grudgingly agreed with the group consensus of portaging the first three crux rapids of the fifth and final gorge. The portage in the afternoon sun warmed us up and we enjoyed the miles of very fun class III and IV which led us down toward our hiding spot.
4:10PM – After randomly coming across a trickle of warm water dribbling into the river, I hiked up to find a moderately disgusting, waist deep, hot spring pool in the weeds in which we huddled together and tried to stay warm in our wait for dark.
7:15PM – A shared pot of black bean ramen noodle soup, bagels dipped in refried beans, some chalky coffee, and a short hike had kept us warm enough so far, but we were all restless and it was finally starting to get dark enough to continue down to the takeout. We called the girls and gave them the one hour heads up. We were headed to the most exposed and potentially consequential part of the river.
8:00PM – We made it successfully through town, under the bridge, and were on our way to freedom. It was pitch black, but we didn't care at this point. We boogied on down through the darkness, bumping off unseen rocks and noticing that class II is kind of challenging when you can see absolutely nothing.
8:40PM – Headlights and warm hugs greeted us after what had seemed like an eternity (it pretty much was) since we had left the girls smiling faces at the put-in a whopping 14 hours earlier. We had done it. We are all now proud members of the YLA and can't wait to return. What a great way to finish out an awesome season.
The second day was hardly as entertaining as the first, but it was a beautiful canyon and anytime we became bored with the whitewater all we had to do was look up.
