East Fork Owyhee River Adventure – There and Back Again, Really

There’s Always One in the Bunch

I blinked once or twice, not sure if it was the multiple double-IPAs or if Ken had really said “yes”. Now, before we go too far, not THAT kind of yes…this was far worse: I think Ken just encouraged one of my wild fantasies (bear with me) about paddling the Owyhee River. I sort of thought he might either be mildly interested, or maybe since he’d already been there he’d just laugh at me and end it all there.

Nope, it wasn’t the beer. Ken was definitely interested in a self-support paddle on one or more reaches of the Owyhee River. Holy crap! I’d been dreaming of this a long time. Now it looked like I might have someone hold me accountable to my own wild plan. Worse, he was even nodding when I talked about doing the upper main Owyhee!

Lest We Forget         

So we got through that camp in 2019 with a few more Owyhee references. But as I sat there sipping a beer at our 2020 camp, Ken asked me how the plans were going for getting our Owyhee River trip together. I sat quietly for a few seconds, realizing he wasn’t joking. Once I come up with an idiotic plan I expect people to smile and forget it. That’s the proper response. Now Ken called me out on it and I wasn’t going to crack. If anyone backed out, it would just have to be him.

As the fall wore on and we got into winter, I began to realize the Owyhee trip was not fading. Ken and I had mulled over doing this a number of ways. After I’d researched all of the named rapids on the upper main, I realized we would not be starting our first paddling trip on that monster. So it looked like it was coming down to the South Fork or the East Fork. I felt the South Fork might be more straightforward.

The South and East Forks of the Owyhee River

The South Fork Owyhee comes from Independence Valley, Nevada, crossing agricultural land and entirely undammed. Some limited dams are present on several tributaries, but basically the flow is unchecked and hard to catch right. It has the benefit of requiring zero portages, but does have a fair amount of class II and some real class III rapids to manage. Finally, the best takeout is had by paddling upstream from the confluence with the East Fork to Crutcher’s crossing. I love this river!

Ken had sentimental reasons to prefer the East Fork, which basically comes from Wildhorse Reservoir and its tributaries in northern Nevada. His dad and he did some of this trip in hard shell kayaks about 20 years ago and he wanted to see it again. Sounded like a helluva plan to me, as both canyons have their romance as far as I’m concerned, and Lee’s story about his and Ken’s trip is one of the most memorable I’ve ever heard. We would try the East Fork Owyhee River from Garat Crossing to Crutcher Crossing, legendary names for me as my dad and Lee tramped about that desert for so many years!

Gearing Up – Owyhee River Boat

Tammy and I own a 14-foot Hypalon canoe made by SOAR. It is a heavy-duty 80-pound gorilla that was meant for multi-day river trips. Jonesing for a new sleeker inflatable kayak, I tried to convince my wife to make a new purchase “for safety”. No dice. We weren’t spending the extra money when we had a “perfectly good” boat already. The upside to Tammy’s decision is the SOAR is capable of holding double the total weight of the big inflatable kayaks. The downside we would learn about later….

Ken did his own research and landed on the same boat Tammy and I had. He and Katie were gearing up. They had gotten their boat out on the Carson River and some other paddles to see if they could work together. I’m here to tell you that a really solid test of your relationship is to paddle a tandem canoe together. Forget about rivers and whitewater! If your relationship survives flat water you are pretty impressive. Tammy and I knew we were in for some difficulty, so we compensated by watching a ton of YouTube canoe and whitewater videos. It helped.

Final Plans – East Fork Owyhee

We had our gear (boats, paddles, throw ropes, life vests, tag lines, dry bags, fire blanket, WAG bags, shovel, GPS beacon, maps, cameras, GoPro, clothing etc.). We had a rough timeline. Now all we needed was the right weekend with the right flow. I had finally convinced Tammy to come on this trip despite her better judgment. I’d shown her a “low flow” video by a husband/wife team on the stretch we were running with an identical boat on the East Fork of the Owyhee River! She made it very clear that much more flow than 70 cfs and she was out!

Things were not looking good as flow peaked in late March and dwindled toward our Memorial Day weekend target. We were about ready to pull the trigger on an early launch into 60 cfs conditions when the Duck Valley tribe elected to open up the irrigation from Wildhorse! Wham, we were in business as flow jumped to over 100 cfs! Add in a few light rainstorms and we were looking really good for this trip. Little did we know….

Bad News

Just a week or so before launch day, we got the bad news that Katie couldn’t join us. This was a real bummer as it was meant for a couples’ outing and we were keen to complete it with four people in two boats. I know Katie really wanted to be there, but she got an opportunity to bring forward another much higher priority event in her life and she really had zero choice. Dang.

Ken and Katie talked it out and they decided that Ken had to be out on that river with us. I had already checked Tammy to see if she’d still want to go with only one boat. We did have an 8-pound packraft as a backup. I knew though we’d be hard pressed to go as a pair. Little did we know… but that is for another day. Ken confirmed his plans to join us and we set up our epic shuttle logistics for this lifetime trip!

Class V Shuttle – East Fork Owyhee River

I had figured I might be able to use a dirt bike to make a truck shuttle work. Luckily for me, Ken proposed we do the shuttle the old fashioned way with two trucks. The shuttle for this trip is on the order of four hours from the takeout at Crutcher’s Crossing to Garat Crossing. Our trip in was nearly five hours from Owyhee to Crutcher with two trucks. The trip into Crutcher is not bad, but you will need a high-clearance 4WD, preferably with low range (or good brakes).

Garat is another matter entirely. You will want a legitimate 4WD to get into and out of Garat crossing. Low range is not an option for this one, unless you stop at the gate that is about ¼ mile above the put-in. The last little bit between the kiosk and the river is steep, gravelly, and it takes a hit to get up over the rocks in the gravel. It made me wince on the way back out, but all went well after my third try. I always try the soft crawl, then a little more juice, then finally enough to worry I could break something.

Well, anyway, we left Owyhee around 5:00 and go into Crutcher’s after taking the road less traveled. The frogs sang us to sleep as we camped out in the beds of the two trucks. We awoke the next warm morning to clear skies and a sense of optimism about the trip. We carefully stowed keys in two places and placed the jump-starter in Ken’s Tacoma as an insurance policy. Crutcher’s crossing is a long way from nowhere and we did not want to chance anything we didn’t need to. We piled into our truck for the climb out and the trek (on the road more traveled thankfully) back to Garat Crossing.

Stay tuned for Part 2 as we figure out this whole adventure….Part 3 and Part 4 for spoilers…