Three days after our 4 mile roadend East Fork run, Keith and I were both eager to get some more exciting paddling in with a put-in from the Bridge to Nowhere, a 1936 highway construction for a road that was never completed due to compromising floods. The site is now a popular day hike 5 miles into the Sheep Mountain Wilderness and a bungee jumping site. I had never been before so was happy to use a packrafting opportunity to visit it, all the more better because the high river crossings, mid-week, and pandemic conditions meant we had the bridge to ourselves when we were there. Keith had previous paddled his kayak down from Devil's Gulch, a short distance below the bedrock gorge under the bridge; I was thrilled Keith opted for his packraft on this trip as we were able to make good time on the trail while also scouting much of the river on our way up (making mental notes of log portages). We only had to cross the river twice and happily by the time we approach the bridge my pants were dry. The gorge at the bridge was super interesting and includes a spooky "lost valley" where the river abandoned an enormous half-mile bedrock meander, presumably due to some landslide event. We spent a fair bit of time carefully examining the gorge from the bridge including a no-mistake waterfall death sieve downstream of the bridge. Once we were convinced we could run or portage everything, we readied ourselves at the bend in the river above the bridge. My boat was inflated and ready to go when I realized my critical mistake. I managed to leave my paddle shaft pieces at home which hit me with an immense sinking feeling. Embarrassing! Miraculously Keith had brought a spare breakdown, which saved the day.
Avoiding a stream crossing with some scrambling
Bridge to Nowhere
After a snack and some water we pushed off. I'll admit to feeling a little intimidated by the size of the features in this gorge but cleanly nailing the first and biggest drop of the run helped to ease my into the task at hand. Keith had a couple mishaps that I will chalk up to trying to maneuver his packraft like his kayak. Thankfully our portage around the death sieve went very smoothly, and the rest of the gorge had several more quality drops (and one kind of junky one).
Once out of the gorge and back to having a riverbank, the stress levels lowered a bit and my brain switched into fun mode. In all we had about 10 portages to bypass logs across the river, and several more that we could slide under with slightly scratched faces. My boat seemed like it took a beating between the overhanging branches and shallow rocks beneath but to it's credit remained inflated. The river was fantastically fast and engaging. It was a beautiful day out! We waved at gold miners, campers, and hammockteers as we rocketed back down the the trailhead. Again the crystal clarity of the water was striking and the temperature perfect.
We covered the 5 miles in about 2 hours, arriving at the trailhead to meet Rick who would join us for the roadside run. The roadside run went without incident. The most notable things was waving to people on the banks and a couple good surf waves we took turns on. The water was noticeably up from few days prior, and even from the morning, but the rapids in this section were much the same. At the Graveyard takeout Keith once again ran shuttle. I was thrilled to have a continuous 9 mile run with no flips! Though the run was hard on the boats (and us, we both admitted to being tired after), Keith and I had a great time and we now have our sights set on higher up the canyon and what other excellent drops (or death sieves!) may lurk beyond Nowhere. Thanks to Keith!
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