A fresh day, almost too hot out, and it smelled fishy at the outlet of the last lake into the Delta River proper. I broke out my little spinning rig, tied on a yellow Rooster Tail (I had already swapped out that nasty treble hook for a single, clinched the barb too) and promptly caught 5 Grayling on my first 5 casts. It was too early in the day to keep them for dinner, thus the single clinched barb hook.
It's not too far down the river before we hit the portage trail, which wanders through this very cool notch, where you have to paddle across a small lake, before the trail drops 100' in the last couple hundred yards. The BLM does a fantastic job of maintaining it. I started wondering about two of my buddies (I hadn't paddled with them before) as they tandem carried their red canoe by the carry handles, awkwardly, not on their shoulders, and were floundering along. I offered up, shouldered it, and finished the carry the proper way, which was much easier than watching them.
I use a removable thwart for portaging.
This is what we were portaging around.
The beach below the portage is a gorgeous little place, snuggled amidst some dramatic rock outcrops. Next time I'd like to camp there and spend some time fishing, exploring the falls, climbing an outcrop to check out the view. It would have made for a long first day and ya' just never know if someone will have pitched camp there before you.
The portage marks the start of several miles of rapids. The BLM calls them class III, at this level I'd say easy II, not too much maneuvering and there was always a channel to get through without scraping. Quite nice actually, or so I thought.
So far so good .......
Oops. They managed to find the only two big rocks in this one rapid, broached sideways, leaned upstream and wrapped it. Fortunately it was TWO rocks because if it was only one they would have broke that boat in half. At the put in, my buddy asked me where my z-drag kit was. "Ah, I wasn't planning on bringing it" "Just throw it in, you never know" maybe actually he did know as he had paddled with the red canoe buddies before. "Nope, that kit is like ten pounds of dead weight in my boat" "Ok, if you bring it I'll carry it on the portage". Well, them's fighting words, so I brought it along, and it even helped with my trim into the headwinds on the lake, and, of course we needed it. The boat came off without too much finagling nor any real damage beyond a good crease in the royalex and we were on our way.
It would have been a real trial had they broken that boat. There was absolutely no way out of there on foot, they make movies out of attempts like that would have been. No place for a float plane to land and even nearest site for a chopper evac was a mile back up above the portage. We did have an Inreach and a satellite phone but I'm really glad not to have to use them. An evac would have cost a pretty penny as well. We gabbed about being able to put 5 big dudes and their gear into one double and one solo, but that would have been asking for even more trouble.
Glad I brought the z-drag and know how to use it.
The rest of Day 2 was a joy. The Delta through here is mostly a meandering quickwater stream running through a valley surrounded by mountains. I love just watching the gravel bottom float by. We saw eagles, beaver, mergansers and moose. Camped on an absolutely perfect gravel bar, caught two grayling for dinner and released as many more as I wanted to, just perfect. Living the life.
It's not too far down the river before we hit the portage trail, which wanders through this very cool notch, where you have to paddle across a small lake, before the trail drops 100' in the last couple hundred yards. The BLM does a fantastic job of maintaining it. I started wondering about two of my buddies (I hadn't paddled with them before) as they tandem carried their red canoe by the carry handles, awkwardly, not on their shoulders, and were floundering along. I offered up, shouldered it, and finished the carry the proper way, which was much easier than watching them.
I use a removable thwart for portaging.
This is what we were portaging around.
The beach below the portage is a gorgeous little place, snuggled amidst some dramatic rock outcrops. Next time I'd like to camp there and spend some time fishing, exploring the falls, climbing an outcrop to check out the view. It would have made for a long first day and ya' just never know if someone will have pitched camp there before you.
The portage marks the start of several miles of rapids. The BLM calls them class III, at this level I'd say easy II, not too much maneuvering and there was always a channel to get through without scraping. Quite nice actually, or so I thought.
So far so good .......
Oops. They managed to find the only two big rocks in this one rapid, broached sideways, leaned upstream and wrapped it. Fortunately it was TWO rocks because if it was only one they would have broke that boat in half. At the put in, my buddy asked me where my z-drag kit was. "Ah, I wasn't planning on bringing it" "Just throw it in, you never know" maybe actually he did know as he had paddled with the red canoe buddies before. "Nope, that kit is like ten pounds of dead weight in my boat" "Ok, if you bring it I'll carry it on the portage". Well, them's fighting words, so I brought it along, and it even helped with my trim into the headwinds on the lake, and, of course we needed it. The boat came off without too much finagling nor any real damage beyond a good crease in the royalex and we were on our way.
It would have been a real trial had they broken that boat. There was absolutely no way out of there on foot, they make movies out of attempts like that would have been. No place for a float plane to land and even nearest site for a chopper evac was a mile back up above the portage. We did have an Inreach and a satellite phone but I'm really glad not to have to use them. An evac would have cost a pretty penny as well. We gabbed about being able to put 5 big dudes and their gear into one double and one solo, but that would have been asking for even more trouble.
Glad I brought the z-drag and know how to use it.
The rest of Day 2 was a joy. The Delta through here is mostly a meandering quickwater stream running through a valley surrounded by mountains. I love just watching the gravel bottom float by. We saw eagles, beaver, mergansers and moose. Camped on an absolutely perfect gravel bar, caught two grayling for dinner and released as many more as I wanted to, just perfect. Living the life.
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