Gila River Day 1

I was almost warm enough last night. My thick inflatable bargin sleeping pad was only thick enough if I lay my whole body evenly on the pad…curling into my usual side position dipped my hip to the ground, and that ground sucked the warmth out of me.

When we did finally emerge outside the tents everything was covered in frost and ice. Brrrr. Our friends were warm blooded and were not excited by the frosty morning warning.



Eventually the sun hit camp, and made the duffle shuffle go a little faster. How would we possibly fit all the food, beer and gear into our little boats? The inflatable kayak folks had a much easier time as they can strap just about anything to the tops of their long boats. We packrafters have to fit it inside our boats, or smartly strapped to the outside. Mike was in the other packraft, and this would be his first overnight trip in his craft.

Somehow we were packed and almost ready to go when our shuttle driver came and gave us some useful beta on the river (he had just paddled it a few weeks before) but the spike in the river level after the heavy rains of the days before would provide a wild card. Would the flows have lodged some trees across the river? New strainers, log jams or hazard trees? We all got a safety talk from Kirk who has taught, guided, and explored flooded rivers like this for years. We are in good hands with Kirk at the helm.

The water was a chocolate brown, but not thick with dirt and mud. The brunt of the flooding was over and the water levels were going down now. We paddled past cliffs and treed flats, noticing where the water had crested in a much bigger flood. Folks were getting used to their boats, and we had clear sailing for the whole day.




Numerous cairns marked where a trail crossed the river back and forth, and Slow Ride, Shake n Bake and myself were pretty sure we had hiked some of this on the CDT gila alternate years before…and I could even have sworn that I had a cold wet camp at this very spot 5 years ago on my thru-hike.  I’ll have to go back and check my blog; my camp at this spot ended with a windy sleepless night on the river….I woke to snow and high tailed it to Doc Campbell’s that next morning with promise of a food box and the stellar Gila Hot Springs.




Our afternoon at camp consisted of a few lazy hours in the sun in hammocks or laid out horizontal in some fashion. Slow Ride lent me a book about the Gila river, so I read a few pages before closing my eyes too.

Later around the campfire we passed bags of wine and told stories.



The night was clear and blissfully warm.

You Can’t Plan a Pandemic – Gila River Packraft – Day 0

It was time for a river adventure. Our friends in Tuscon, Slow Ride and Shake n Bake (two thru hikers I met in 2008 when I was giving trail magic on the PCT near Elk Lake – and who have since become my trail angels numerous times) suggested a Gila River paddle about a year ago, and we’ve been looking forward to it ever since. Add in a global pandemic, the first coronavirus cases found in our communities, paired with a plea for people to isolate themselves, and we knew disappearing into the wilderness for a week was probably the smartest thing we could do. (We started our trip March 12)…

Slow Ride (SR) and Shake n Bake (SB) invited a few friends of theirs on the trip, all teachers in Tucson. Mike, a music teacher, was in a packraft and relatively new to paddling rivers. JJ had been on a few rivers, including our beloved Umpqua River, and was in an IK (inflatable kayak) and had just escaped his science classroom and was ready for a break. Mika, a middle school teacher (and former peace corps volunteer who had stationed in West Africa like me) who was also in an IK and was ready for some down time.

We were all guessing at what kind of world we would encounter after our float…the United States had just started to isolate and quarantine, the lines at Target were still civilized, but we all knew that the thin veneer of human decency can be punctured by panic and fear….both emotions increasing in the collective consciousness by the minute.

To the river!!

Kirk and I had spent two days driving down from Oregon through numerous torrential downpours, and knew the water levels in our wilderness float were bound to go up. Desert rivers don’t always run, so the influx of water would give us a nice push down the river.

The Gila was the first designated Wilderness area in the United States, and is one of the largest. It is truly amazing terrain, and the Continental Divide runs right through it. SR, SB and I had all hiked the CDT and had many memories of fording the Gila River on our treks. They had also hiked the Grand Enchantment Trail, which traverses the area. We were eager to get back and track some of our steps, but from moving water this time.

There have been numerous efforts to dam this free-flowing river. The pressures of too many people living in the desert with too little water was increasing each year, but so far the dams have been held off. This place is the perfect opportunity for humankind to put a pause on our greed and need to control everything, and just let it be for the animals, plants, for the possibility of a huge tract of rich wilderness that can be left without our imprint. There are actually very few like this…. almost none.
The Gila is also being considered for Wild and Scenic River Designation, which seems an obvious moniker. I will be supporting that designation however I can, although there is a lot of local resistance to this. Read more here, and get involved if you can!

So we made it to Tucson on a Friday. Met for dinner and drinks and nervously joked about the pandemic all around us, and decided to stop all the conjecturing, and try to be in the moment.
The next day we drove to Silver City New Mexico…on the way admiring the yellow super bloom that had carpeted the desert around the highway…a benefit from all the recent rain.

Kirk and I made a quick stop in Silver City to see Erika, a good friend, and one of my trail crew members from a summer in Durango Colorado 13 years ago. I seem to make it to Silver City every few years, so we’ve been able to stay in touch….the kind of touch that’s easier when you see each other in person every so often.

We met her beau, Cjell, the maker of Moné Bikes, and we got to see him work in his shop…an old van turned into a bike-making-palace.

After lunch and a quick walk around town we headed up the notoriously windy and steep road that takes you into the heart of the Gila Wilderness. On the CDT I encountered this section and stopped at the Gila Hot Springs, got a resupply box at Doc Cambells, and took in the history of the Gila Cliff Dwellings.

We all rendezvoused at the Grapevine Campground for our launch in the morning.

To the river!

Gila River Packrafting

It's been a minute since Kirk or I have posted here. We've been packrafting...a lot, but many of the trips over the past year or so have been adventures we've done before and written about, or are day-run road-side runs. Often Kirk will be in his hardshell while I'm in my Alpacka.

Anyway, we got down to NM at the start of March (before the shelter in place stuff...but at the start of everything), and did a multi-day trip on the Gila River.

I wrote about the trip over on my hiking blog, and now am posting it here for you!

I got a lot of gopro footage. I'm sure I'll get stir-crazy enough to make a movie out of it. Stay tuned...

July in the Mountains - Waptus River

Kirk and I had the first week of July slated for a week of vacation, and we still hadn't decided on where to go until the day before we left.

I figured: draw a 10-hour driving circle around Bend (I didn't want to drive farther than that), but turns out that includes the whole Pacific Northwest. Not much help.

We looked at packrafting the Bruneau and Jarbidge rivers in SW Idaho, but at low flows the rocks are reported to be tearrrrifying...tear...if..ying...tear. No thanks.

We thought about the Olympics, but we would be looking at a 4,000’ climb to get up the good alpine stuff, and we weren't feeling THAT ambitious.

We thought about rafting the lower main Salmon River, but it is a very popular stretch, and open to jet boats… With July 4th happening during our week off, we knew it would be one of the busiest vacation weeks of the summer.

So, when Kirk came up with a combo backpacking and packrafting trip in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Washington, it sounded perfect. I had hiked through the Alpine Lakes area 12 years ago on the Pacific Crest Trail, but that September the whole stretch was drenched in rain and fog and I really didn't see much. I was excited to go back and hike a little bit on the trail, check out some high alpine lakes, and do some packrafting.

It was hard to decide where to go even then. The area is massive and so full of mountains, rivers, lakes and trails that it really makes Central Oregon and our Cascade range look like child's play.

We let the rivers decide where we would go.

We drove to Cooper Lake on Friday and camped on the side of the road (Washington has so many free roadside campsites!). Kirk has been checking out the Cooper River, a short, stout whitewater run, that was over my head, so next we drove up the Cle Elum River. It looked promising, then we hiked in to the river Kirk really wanted to check out, the Waptus.

We were worried it wouldn't have enough water, but when we got to the confluence, it looked doable. It would be a mellow river with a few gorges…unknown gorges involving extensive scouting... so it would be a real adventure!

We left the parking lot with a week's worth of food, boats, backpacking gear, and if we had weighed our packs I bet we were both tipping 60-70 pounds. It was painful. So painful that I wasn't sure my body could do it, and I have rarely felt that! We were to hike in 9 miles with the full load. Eeeeeee!

We made camp the first night about 4 miles in at the top of one of the gorges with what looked like a fun granite slide and drop. We had already passed a waterfall with a series of no-go drops, so we already knew the river would hold more surprises, and we would have to portage some stuff.

We huffed and puffed our way to Waptus Lake (on the PCT) and cached our boats.

We spent the next few days hiking to some incredible lakes including Spade lake (holy cow, the trail goes straight up and reminded me of the Appalachian Trail...no switchbacks up the 2,000’ climb. Brutal.)

Then we went up to Deep Lake.

And Peggy’s Pond by Cathedral Pass. Wow!

This was on the PCT but I didn't remember any of it.

Peggy’s pond was still under snow but we found a dry patch under the towering Mt. Daniel for an incredible view. I must say, PCT hikers don't know how good they have it. The minute the trail intersects a path that doesn't continue to Mexico and Canada, the character changes immediately…no switchbacks, quick elevation changes, scree. But on the other hand it is efficient.

We made our way back to Waptus Lake and our boats on a hot sunny afternoon, so I had to dive into the lake. COLD. Yes the lake is fed by snowmelt, and yes it was unbearably refreshing. We inflated our boats and paddled around a bit and enjoyed the bliss after some pretty challenging backpacking.

The next morning we loaded up the boats to see what Waptus River had to offer.

The calm and pleasant paddle out of the lake lasted about a mile before the first gorge.

We got out river left to scout, and could tell the entrance was clean, but we didn't climb the next bluff to see deeper into the canyon. It's crucial to scout these places because they are so committing. Once in a granite gorge like this, there is no out. Often sheer cliffs prevent portages or walking around rapid, and narrow canyon walls can easily trap logs and make deadly barriers. So, since we couldn't see farther in, we decided to do the smart thing and walk around.

The portage on river right looked more doable, so we picked up our fully loaded boats and walked around.

On top on the river right side we dropped boats to get a better look at the rest of the gorge, and to our dismay saw it was a go. The gorge was clean and runnable, but we were already mostly around and wouldn't go back. Bummer, but we should have either taken the time to scout the whole thing, or be happy we made a smart choice with the unknowns we were facing.

The next 4ish miles were a braided river channel complete with several knarly log jams and gorgeous deep aquamarine pools.

We huffed and puffed over the log jams and had several clear miles before the next gorge.

First we ran the granite slide and drop that we had scouted on the hike in. Fun!

We pulled over and had lunch, and decided to scout the next gorge, the whole gorge, this time. It looked to be about a mile long, so we left our boats and bushwhacked up and down the steep cliffs.

We were able look down the steep wooded slopes for most of it, and it was clean. No logs blocking the way, but a few of the rapids were in the Class IV/-V range with no portage  / scouting potential, and I didn't feel comfortable running them.

Kirk wouldn't boat it alone (any Class V packrafters out there that don't mind some brutal backcountry wilderness river trips? Kirk could use a big water adventure partner). Anyway the whole gorge ended with a series of waterfall drops (35' triple drop) that looked good if you had a hardshell (not so good for a packraft), but no way to set safety on the second crux drop of the triple drop .

So we walked back to our boats while dodging a quick thunder storm, and picked up our boats to  make the whole journey back again.

We made camp with a view.

For our last day of paddling it appeared from the topo lines on the map that we might have another gorged section on our hands, but after launching that morning and padding for a short while, we realized the terrain wasn’t as narrowing as it looked, and it was all a go.

We were in some fun Class II/III water!

Beautiful pools of water peppered with fun rapids marked most of the run that morning. Towards the end of the run the drops started to get bigger, in the Class III+ range, but all were clean and good splashy fun.

I wore my gopro for the boating, so got a lot of footage of the river, stay tuned for a video!