Through the 2019 spring season, having pulled off successful runs on serious backcountry creeks and rivers in Colorado's San Juan mountains (Vallecito, Brazos, Pinos) on the heels of Bull Lake Creek I finally started to believe that I was up for the next major milestone, the Middle Kings: a legendary remote, unrelenting and punishing river that cuts a yosemite-like valley while dropping from over 8000' along the PCT down to 1000' in the Sierra Nevada foothills. This river, one of the benchmarks of North America class V expedition kayaking, had been our stated goal for that year.
The first few warm-up slides helped suppress the butterflies enough for Dan and I to take a crack at an oft-portaged drop: Squeeze Play (of course aided by half the flow kayakers typically have):
Dan had showed us portagers up on Money Drop and lead the charge down Breakfast Slide, a tempting but very long slide with a tough pothole at the bottom:
We camped just below the waterfall, and Dan and I were treated to some fantastic slides to start the day.
Even at lower flows, the 'runout' on Garlic Falls is a serious affair
Even though our 2019 Middle Kings run went better than we had expected, I had never felt more drained of adrenaline, worn down and beat up.
The Exit of Waterfall Gorge, 2019 (Photo John Baker)
Here's my video from that first trip:
(Click for the 2019 Video)
In the continuing spirit of exploring new-to-me terrain in the 2020 season, I had my eye on a couple of missions in Canada, Idaho and other Sierra Nevada runs. Every time Dan and I discussed ideas I would present a different one, but Dan settled into consistent promotion of another crack at the Middle Kings. We warmed up on a Cherry Creek lap followed by a low flow trip through cherry bomb, after which Dan humored me for a headwaters exploration run in a nearby drainage:
but I eventually relented and saddled up for Middle Kings round two. This year we had a much shorter and more scenic approach (the standard one over Bishop Pass), superior boats (Valkyrie prototypes) plus more confidence in our own selves. Allen joined us from Durango for his second packraft trip, his first being the Animas-Vallecito Skiraft linkup.
Subject to an inflexible schedule and meteorological whimsy, we ended up with a much lower flow this year - 600 cfs at Rodgers Crossing. But first, and possibly unique among Middle Kings paddlers, we got to fully enjoy our hike in over the Sierra crest.
Slab camp next to the put-in just above Palisade Creek
And we're off on the Middle Kings!
A tricky entrance resulted in this somewhat successful contortion
Clip of Squeeze Play
This gave us hope that some of the bigger features further down would go. We were right.
Money Drop
unnamed slides
Dan and I had portaged the above series of drops in 2019, while John took a ride in a weir hole just below the drop where Dan is pictured above. This year it proved problematic in different ways - I hung up on a boulder at the bottom and had to roll off it, while Dan took a faceshot to the large undercut boulder on the bottom left (!). Fortunately we were able to shake it off.
Dan probes Breakfast Slide
The pothole at the bottom of Breakfast slide is a difficult off-camber hit
The standard (kayak) line involves skirting the left side of the pothole, but with packrafts and low flows that part of the slide just wanted to roll you over your right side into the pothole landing. Dan's difficulty with this standard left line gave me pause and I eventually settled on a wall-tapping right line
Breakfast Slide POV
Waterfall Gorge was relatively easy to pick apart at low flow, but still demanded a scout and safety below the marquee waterfall given the boxed-in terminal hole lurking just below the large pool
Dan takes the plunge
Allen's last big feature before succumbing to a nagging shoulder injury
Dan and I ran some sections and portaged a good bit below here, careful to avoid Raw Dog gorge which looked incredibly spicy at this flow (or any flow). Allen, with his somewhat injured shoulder, decided to walk from Simpson Meadow down to Tehipite valley, skipping the Middle Four (and would hike out to a trailhead from there - no trail exists along the Bottom Nine below Tehipite)
It turned into a very long day pushing the whole way through Simpson meadow and the Middle Four to get to Tehipite, a splendid camp. Taller than El Cap!! We expeditiously avoided photo stops until the next day as we proceeded towards the start of the infamous Bottom Nine.
The last of the low gradient beneath Tehipite Dome
...and she disappears after the Bottom Nine starting line
Whereas our first run in 2019 had filled us with great intrepidation, Dan and I were now filled with great intrepidation and a little bit of confidence. These new boats were much superior even to the Alpackalypses we had used previously, in control, speed through features and rollability.
However, despite fewer portages and scouts than the previous year, the grueling nature of the Bottom Nine caught up to us. Whereas the upper slide sections on Days 1 into 2 had the air of thrill and glory, the Bottom Nine on Day 3 turned into an onslaught. Both Dan and I each had a particularly ugly swim as the day wore on, with Dan now nursing an injury (developed on Upper Cherry's Kiwi-in-a-Pocket) that cast a question mark over his ability to continue paddling. I was in no mood to take pictures or even video, and right after a scary swim where Dan plucked me out of a mid-river eddy just above an awful drop, we had no choice but to call it a day.
Dan assess his assets at the final camp. Upside-down no-longer-live-oak for scale.
In the morning we continued. Only a few of the more challenging rapids remained, and an overnight recovery had worked wonders. In the end, we had successfully paddled the Middle Kings, in packrafts, with only a handful of portages on the Bottom Nine.
Confluence!
Here's my 2020 Video from the Middle Kings run:
(Click for 2020 Video)
Finishing on fumes, we both agreed to take a year off from this one, and this time we meant it.
NOTE: the Middle Kings (sans Bottom Nine) was also packrafted in 2021 by another team around 1100 cfs. No media from that trip except a selfie with Dane Jackson at Tehipite.
Much respect for you, Dan T and Crew's linkups in these boats! You've legitimized packrafts as capable whitewater craft (in my mind, at least). The new Valkyrie design looks like a giant step in the right direction and I'm very interested in trying one.
ReplyDeleteFYI, Your enjoyment of hiking over Bishop Pass to access the river is not "unique among Middle Kings paddlers." 5 kayakers have hiked empty boats (~60 pounds including paddling gear) into the river and paddled to Garnet Dike campground in a day. I'd guess that's not much more weight than what you guys carried based on an estimate of ~10 pounds for the Valkyrie and 4 days of food and camping gear. I can confirm the unladen kayakers enjoyed their hike.
Big props for tackling these big trips in good style, please keep up the great videos and writeups.