North fork of the little Wind 3 day mission
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twin lakes,wind river mountains
The view of twin lakes was stunning,the granite landscape seemed other-worldly,and my backpack was working great.Only problem is that we had lost the trail about 3 miles into a 6 mile hike and were now deep into a bushwacking mission with retreat not really an option and getting cliffed-out by the granite a definite possibility.Several hours of bashing through brush and climbing over large boulders and scree fields and we came to an opening where we could see a way down.Stumbling and cussing and falling ensued as the brush just got thicker and the terrain got worse.I got so mad that I abandonded my delicate, careful moves to just full-on bashing down through limbs and rocks.My new method had yielded some minor injuries but I had gotten out in front of the crew a bit and took a seat for a moment.Silence all around me,all I could hear was the namesake winds that seem to blow constantly here.I stood up and tried to lift my 80lb kayak,but it was off balance and I fell down a small granite slab.I wanted to scream in frustration, but as I looked up I saw a pink ribbon tied to a branch ahead of me.I ran down to it ,knowing I had relocated the trail, and began shouting to the rest of the crew who I could hear struggling through the same hell I had just come through.Exhausted,beaten and bruised and we aren't even to the river yet,welcome to Wyoming.The camping at twin lakes was fantastic and pristine.After a few hours of rest Matt Wallace and I decided to paddle the upper lake and check out the raft lake gorge which has only seen 1 or 2 decents to our knowledge.1 mile paddle and 2 more miles of hiking and we saw very few good drops.A few of the drops looked great but the gorge had alot of unrunnable stuff and the one known drop called windscraper was high and had a terminal hole at the bottom.A great night at Twin lakes treated us to some of the best camping anywhere.We started day 2 off with a portage around a 400 foot cascade with a gorge at the end of it that may be runnable at the right flow,but looked horrible at our flow.We boat scouted what we could, ran a few good slides,a stout mini-gorge,and there was a portage around a 100ftr somewhere in there as well.Some tight boulder garden action led us to our 2nd camp at the old bridge and the put-in for the day run.Day 3 started off with a mile of granite slides known as the Cali section.I had scouted the whole set the evening before and we bombed non-stop thru the whole series of classic whitewater.The set of double duece and boofington hieghts had a portage in between them and there was a portage around a tight gorge full of wood.Some great boulder gardens treated us to some interesting lines as we got down into the rocky mountain mank section.This section is super-manky but lines can be found.We had a healthy flow and knew the fast approaching 3 stooges gorge was gonna be full on,so we proceeded cautiously until an extended scout revealed the deep gorge.This gorge is the main reason we are here,it has 3 waterfalls in a row,2 35ers and a 15-20.The hole at the lip of the 1st drop looked like it was fueled by a jet engine and our suspicions were confirmed that it was very high water for this gorge.Further inspection revealed a riverwide strainer in the 2nd drop.If you can't run the 2nd one,you can't run the 1st one due to being locked,so off I went to find a portage route.The portage was very strenuous and took over an hour to get back to river level and put us in some very exposed situations.Back on the river,the mank continued on at IV/V for a mile or so then gradually went to class 3 and some flatwater.We had finagled a hike-out point to Fort Washakie road,and upon reaching our rock cairns that marked the takeout I raised my hands to the sky and smiled a mile wide.The North Fork was a sick mission. |
The Box from Cheif Joseph Hwy
After the NFLW we took a few rest days and made our way to Cody WY to get ready to do the infamous Box canyon of the Clarks fork of the Yellowstone.The Box has a long,and sometimes tragic history.Local Ed Conning was kind enough to take us down the Shoshone on one of our rest days and he told us many gruesome tales of mishaps in the canyon.There were also more inspiring stories,like 9 to 5 in the box or the Doug Ammons solo run.
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| pilot peak from the car |
After running the shoshone,we paddled the day stretch and the honeymoon as a warm up for the box.Adrenaline on the day stretch was awesome, and honeymoon canyon was even more spectacular,with many great drops in an awesome canyon that is basically the start of the box.We camped at the put-in that night and prepared for the mission.We put on early the next morning with about 23 on the painter store bridge gauge.With the lines fresh in our heads,we blazed the honeymoon section and were at the green monster in about 40 minutes.About an hour of portaging got us around the unrunnable gorge and we put back in to a beautiful 4-5 mile meadow paddle before the next portage.Ankle breaker portage is where the portaging gets physical and dangerous.After ankle breaker the river starts to get good and build into sustained class 5 action.
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| Myself running double suck |
Once the action starting picking up,it just kept coming at us for miles with a few more big portages thrown in there as well.Hours of bombing thru one of the sickest gorges ever had treated us to one of the sickest kayaking days ever.After about 10 hours of paddling,Wallace found us a nice campsite below a beautiful cliff with sandy ground and a fire ring somewhere around Ross' Underworld.
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| somewhere on the first day |
After a huge 1st day,we again put on early and right away were back in the shit.Anticipation was high knowing we were close to the unscoutable, unportagables:deliberation corner and leap of faith.
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| Snolieguster boof ledge |
Day 2 started us out with some more awesome class V kayaking.Great drops with incredible scenery in the 3rd deepest canyon in north America,exactly what we came for.
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| Mason Robinson at calendar falls |
After Calendar falls gorge,we knew deliberation was close.My heart was pounding and my body was tired.We got out on the right to scout as much as possible.You can actually get pretty close to a good scout on the lip of the mandantory 8-10 foot spout falls in deliberation,but you can't see the bottom at all,or what's around the corner.All you can see is an eddy on the right after the drop,and I knew I wanted to catch that eddy.Feeling good about my line and not wanting to wait any more,I went first.
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| Mason looking at the spout |
We killed the first sequence and all caught the eddy for a look at the bottom.Turns out it was mandantory as well but you could scout it.This rapid lead into Dave's Chasm,one of the most spectacular parts of the Clarks Fork.Just thinking about floating through Dave's is better than kayaking many rivers I have been on.Next major obstacle was leap of faith.The 2nd famous un-un,leap is a 15 footer into some burly runout.Before leap of faith is a huge sieve that can be run at lower levels.If it is to high to run this,consider portaging on the left all the way to leap of faith.The drop was killer and probably my favorite rapid of the trip.
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| get out here after leap of faith if you want to live |
Another brutal portage after leap of faith and we reached the confluence of Indian and Sunlight creek,another awe-inspiring place in the box.The river stayed pretty solid for a bit,but eventually we exited the box and started pounding our way to the takeout.I don't think we caught another eddy till we saw the truck about 5 miles later.Exhausted,beaten and happy,we managed to avoid the rocks,the sieves,the undercuts and the grizz in the Box and all agreed that it was a top notch class V+ kayaking expedition in one of the most amazing places on earth.
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