With the roundup ending we endeavored to spend one more day and night in the area. We had some difficulty getting a consistent report on the difficulty of the section of the South Fork from Kirkham Hot Springs to Deadwood, but the most reliable info and views from the road suggested that the rapid immediately upstream of Kirkham would be the most notable. We thought this low flow creeking run (upstream of the Deadwood River which delivers most of the South Fork its water), would add nice variety to the runs we got in thus far. We started with a pleasant soak at Kirkham Hot Springs, this time busier being the weekend, and so beelined straight for our favorite riverside pool. After an appropriate amount of time I walked back to the car to suit up and run the long Kirkham Rapid (III) while Heather would prep and meet me right at the hot spring. The rapid ended up being a lot of fun, mild but some nice maneuvering in crystal clear, fresh waters (frontispiece). Beyond the hot springs was a sequence of a few mild II features surrounded by bedrock which we both enjoyed.
Though we had plenty of rapids on blind corners, everything turned out to be comfortably read-and-run and we cruised down with low stress levels, enjoying the scenery and clear waters. Surprisingly there was almost no wood issues. At Lowman we passed many cabins and homes that seemed dangerous too low to the river for my comfort, and then had some more twists and turns as we continued alongside the road to the Deadwood River access. We made good time on the 8 mile Class II run, which overall I thought was the best suited for beginning packrafters and thought it a shame it was not more popular during the roundup. This was the first day that was not absolutely roasting and we savored it.
As Heather wrangled gear in the large pullout, I took off my drysuit and lined up for what I thought for sure was going to be the crux: hitching back to the car. A few cars did pass with no interest to stop but within only 5 minutes a van stopped and it turned out to be Rachelle from the packrafting meetup headed to Kirkham Hot Springs! What luck! We chatted and I showed her the sights and she even was able to grab my parking spot in the now quite full roadside pullout. So in record time I retrieved the car and Heather and we were on our way back down the canyon. In Garden Valley we detoured to the small town of Crouch for a few groceries and a tasty banana cream pie ice cream, then we drove up the North Fork where we had our pick of sites in the Swinging Bridge campground. As it turned out we had the entire campground to ourselves and greatly enjoyed the white noise of the North Fork raging a short distance away and the deep shade of the trees. There was plenty more whitewater we didn't get up to but between the Grand Ronde and Payette I got about 91 miles in through 7 runs which was not too shabby.
No comments:
Post a Comment