White Water

Day 4

In the morning we had a pancake disaster for breakfast. It was still delicious though.

We felt full so we packed up our things and inflated our boats. We parted from the land and were swiftly carried downstream.

For safety, we tried to stay close to one another, but not too close. As I would learn, there is a delicate balance to this. You want to be close enough so you can help your buddy if something happens. But not so close that you make the situation worse by joining them if they get stuck.

Channels were narrow and took tight turns. Shallow spots were everywhere and the treeline had started, making for tricky conditions. We stayed alert and tried to avoid bad channels.

We were launched into a narrow channel with a tight turn into a sweeper and strainer combo (sweeper is a tree that hangs over the water to clothesline you, and a strainer is in the water looking to suck you under). B went first and was able to paddle through unscathed. E went through and got stuck in an eddy (slow moving water) by the sweeper. The channel launched me into the obstacle course and into E. I paddled as hard as I could to not hit him but I did and bumped him into the strainer. As he tried to push himself away from the strainer it sucked his boat down just enough and he flipped. E popped out from beneath the boat almost instantly and was able to get himself and his stuff to shore. I was so glad he was okay. B was out of sight at this point and as soon as he was safe I needed to make sure she was as well.

B was safely waiting on shore just downriver. I parked my boat and went back to help E. We ferried across the river and B and took a break. Everyone felt a little stressed, but we were all okay. The constant white water and narrow channels was exhausting. Not to mention having to get out of shallow spots when we started to scrape.

We were making excellent mileage compared to being on foot. It felt nice to see different scenery as we moved. I was in awe at the beautiful turquoise color of the water. The adrenaline rush of being in white water was thrilling and exhausting.

Sweeping views up rarely traveled valleys revealed secrets for a few minutes at a time before hiding again as we moved quickly downstream.

We were all sitting in puddles of water in our packrafts. Our personal lakes. As we approached the seeming end of the valley he hit a very braided section and had to exit our boats on any occasions to line or portage it just a bit further. It became exhausting and we were all about at our limit when the loveliest of gravel bars appeared to us.

We knew it was home for the night. We pulled over and brought our packs and boats to our carefully picked tent spot. What an amazing spot.

Later in the evening, the two visitors we met at the headwaters passed us by. We greeted them and they went to find their own gravel bar.

E treated us to alfredo pasta with vegan sausage. We enjoyed our evening immensely, giggling uncontrollably at times.