The next day marked the beginning of several days off for Jake. This worked out perfectly for me as Ava had to head back to Seattle that same day. Jake and I had planned to climb a few Oregon Cascade volcanoes, but the recent snow storm made mountain travel prohibitively sketchy. After an hour, we had come up with an alternative plan: pay for a lift ticket at Mt. Bachelor and ski a full day on our way to Northeast Oregon for a 3-day kayak trip down the Grande Ronde River.
The exorbitantly priced lift ticket at Mt. Bachelor turned out to be worth it! We skied bottomless powder all day, and it snowed so hard toward the end of the day that we were skiing fresh tracks all over again. It reminded me of the good old days when almost everyday at Bachelor was bottomless powder, complete with goggle-coating freezing fog.
After driving from Eugene to Bachelor and skiing all day at Bachelor, we continued driving to La Grande where we stayed the night with my brother. Early the next morning, Wes helped us shuttle a vehicle to the take out (Troy, OR) and dropped us off at the put in (Minam, OR).
Jake and all our gear at the put in
We planned to float the 46-miles to our car in three days, spending two nights on the river. Jake paddled an inflatable kayak (IK) and carried most of our stuff. I paddled my hardshell and stuffed as much into the back of it as I could. With flows around 3,000 cfs, the river was higher than average, but far from flood stage. There were no gnarly rapids on this stretch of river, but we were entertained by abundant wildlife (elk, deer, black bear, bald eagles, mountain goats, river otter, steelhead, etc.), remoteness (most of the run was designated 'wild and scenic'), and weather.
Jake at our first campsite during the long-lasting hail storm
We ended up paddling 15 miles the first day, 10 miles the second day, and 21 miles the last day. Averaging almost 5 miles an hour while on the water, we really only paddled for about 10 hours in three days. We spent much of the rest of our time hiking, looking for shed antlers, fishing, and making fires.
The weather on our first day was supposed to be the worst. It ended up being overcast with patches of sun, followed by a late afternoon hail storm. This was quite tolerable, so we thought we would luck out with the weather. The second day was similar with the occasional snow flurry, but nothing stuck on the ground. On the morning of the third day, Jake paddled across the river and set off to find some shed antlers. I slept in and eventually got up to build a fire and eat breakfast. At about 10:30 it started snowing. Shortly after noon, Jake returned from an unsuccessful shed hunt. There were a few inches of snow on the ground by then.
Yes, I agree. Jake should join a circus.
Putting on my frozen wet suit was tons of fun. Jake's dry suit required much less mental preparation to put on.
Jake getting ready to paddle during the snow storm
Loading the snowy IK
Aside from cold hands and feet, we had an enjoyable 21-mile paddle through the snow storm. Only occasionally did the wind blow upstream, stinging our faces with icy snow pellets. During these times I wished I was wearing my ski goggles. Shortly before reaching the take out, the snow turned to mostly rain.
Snow paddling
We passed several steelhead fisherman within a few miles of the put in, and after that we didn't see a single person until we took out in Troy. Even than, we only saw one lone guy passing in a pickup truck. Turns out Troy is a bit of a ghost town this time of year.
The adventure wasn't quite over at the take out. The drive out from Troy back to La Grande required going up quite a ways to get out of the canyon. For most of the drive back, we were making fresh tracks through about 5 inches of snow on a gravel road.
2 comments:
looks like you guys thoroughly enjoyed yourselves. not just enjoyed yourselves, but thoroughly enjoyed yourselves.
these snow pictures are hardcore. you guys are totally nuts.
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