East Fork Owyhee River Gorge – No Turning Back Now

Continued from Part 1.

Crutcher Shuttle Camp        

The itinerary called for us to shove off from Garat Crossing at about 10:00 am. I figured that we could live with a bit of a sleep in at the Crutcher Crossing shuttle camp. We woke to a warm sunny Memorial Day weekend morning, one of the first really warm days of the spring so far. After transferring Ken’s river gear to our truck, and our takeout gear to his, we looked for a semi-shady spot to park that wouldn’t be in the way. We carefully managed keys, jump starters, coolers, spare tires etc. Finally we piled into our truck for the short trip to Garat Crossing.

That short trip took the better part of four hours and the last hour was pretty much just grinding in 4-low off the rim. We crawled down some serious rockpiles, and it made me think we might have some fun trying to get out of there in anything but the best conditions. Arriving at Garat Crossing is very pretty, as long green grass offsets the river and the cliffs around it. Stowing our gear took a while, and as we later found out…we brought more gear than we needed.

Gear Notes for The East Fork Owyhee River Trip

A word of wisdom on packing your gear into bags and into the boat: Camp stuff can be buried deep. Everything else you should know where it is when you are on the river. This turned out to be an annoyance for me as I had not thought it through well. I soon learned with every passing day to pack the gear better and also cuss the gear we repeatedly packed and unpacked having never used. I’ll write an entire post on paddling gear and my findings as a newbie.

Water attacks anything not in a dry bag. Count on it. Not only that, any dry bag that is not carefully secured to the boat with at least two separate points of contact for each is also at deep risk of leaving you behind. While fold-top dry bags like sea-to-summit are excellent for keeping things safe and secure, I’d recommend at least one zip-open dry bag so you can access necessary items all day long. Anyway, since Katie couldn’t make it this time, we put a little bit of our gear in Ken’s boat so he wouldn’t be too light!

Are We Doing This?!

We quickly inflated our boats and packed and suddenly we were facing the truth. We would be 42 miles without access to vehicles or phones or anything that wasn’t in our boats. Apparently I wasn’t smart enough to be overly concerned by this. I’d never done a multi-day self-supported paddle, but hey, what could go wrong in the Owyhee River Wilderness? Off we went, and it seemed pretty ok at first.

Tammy and I quickly found out that the rapids, although not much more than riffles, all seemed to come at corners. We hadn’t quite figured out how to keep off the rocks and out of the willows. We finally tried a draw stroke to the inside to keep out of the mess, but it still wasn’t pretty. Much trial and error started take some of the fear out of guiding the 14 foot inflatable canoe through the tight obstacles. We hung up in the shallows on rocks when we weren’t dodging willows!

Getting Settled, But Hardly Kicking Ass

Gradually all three of us began to sort of get the hang of the whole thing. Ken managed to flip his boat once in a shallow area but nothing more than some sogginess involved. It wasn’t long before we were oohing and ahing at the amazing cliffs and scenery. The water was pretty doable, and there was nothing we felt we needed to get out and scout. I kept an eye on my GPS wanting to make sure we could find a decent camp.

Since we got a slow start to the day, we had limited camping choices according to the maps. Now I didn’t believe them. I’ve been on the South Fork Owyhee River many times and there were plentiful campsites along it. Within five or six miles I grew concerned. The willows, high banks, tall grass (full of rattlesnakes I was sure), and winding river was not presenting limitless camping sites. In fact it was presenting exactly no camping sites as the sun started to set within the canyon walls.

Land? Our First Campsite

I was really starting to worry as GPS camp after camp went by without much optimism. As we passed Battle Creek and later neared what I felt was our last real chance at a daylight camp, I saw a tall rock on the outside of a right bend that should be within 100 yards of our target after mile 10. Taking no more chances, we sidled up to the short cliff and I got out and climbed up. I saw what looked like a really small camping area with steep gravely banks below it. Luckily, this cozy tiny little camp worked just fine.

Now, if you’ve ever been out and about with me, I can be pretty intense (that’s the word I prefer) when I’m stressed, tired, and hungry. I was stressed, and I was cooking that night. I can only imagine I wasn’t the perfect host as I grumbled through setting up the fire-proof ground cloth, sand cover, and small chunks of firewood to make a legal fire. Conditions were dry and we all knew we would have to build a very small and careful fire in defensible space. Luckily, there was no wind and the site was sandy with lots of green grass, but still we were super cautious. This made for some slow-cooked steaks and a late dinner, but finally I relaxed a little just before bedtime.

Up and At ‘Em

I slept like a stone that night and woke sometime after sunrise. Ken was usually up first, noodling around with a coffee setup for which I was very grateful. I’m not a big breakfast person so Tammy and Ken compared breakfast freeze-drieds and did some horsetrading and got their feed bags managed. I enjoyed the coffee and the solitude and just a few minutes of pure relaxation.

We packed up and hit the river with the idea to get to Deep Creek that day. We planned a 12 or 14 mile day and we were averaging just a bit better than 2 miles per hour. Our average “pace” was something between 2 and 3 mph for most of the trip. A number of times we had to paddle flatwater and the winds shifted to push us backwards. We dug in and I regretted for Ken that Katie wasn’t there to help. It was a tough slog through parts of it, but we just kept going forward.

Deep Creek at the Confluence of the East Fork Owyhee River

The day was beautiful, but it was a hard paddle. We were grateful to find Deep Creek at mile 23.5. This is a beautiful and huge gravely campsite that made for easy setup. Deep Creek itself is a clear creek coming into the East Fork of the Owyhee and has a fair number of smallmouth bass populating it. We decided that for this camp we would really relax and enjoy, so we cracked open some still-cold beers and set up camp.

Chorizos on the menu and Ken cooking, so I just helped with wood and then relaxed. Mormon crickets kept us company up the beach a ways, but they didn’t mess with us much in camp. If a person were to bring their fishing pole (Ken did, but it didn’t last past the first day…willow food) this big deep pool should be a great place to bring some in for a fish fry. Tammy brought some Peanut Butter Stouts and we luxuriated in camp that evening.

Our Plan

That evening we all agreed to attempt to get below Owyhee Falls before camping the next day. It turns out that was a solid plan…or we could have added a day to the trip. We kept moving forward, dreading some of the shallow “rapids” that forced us out of our boats and into shin-barking boulder fields. Unlike day 2, the slack water was to be cherished and the fast water just meant extra work on the rough boulder patches.

Rickard Crossing was a sentimental moment for Ken and for all of us. He and his dad, Lee, had started in hard-shell kayaks at this point many years earlier. Those knuckleheads had slid their kayaks down from the main rim(!) over talus rock piles to get to the river. Two Mountain City boys figured they might as well give this a try. I promise you they had some great stories to tell from it. We took some time to look at the path they took down to the river and I reflected on that adventure of theirs with admiration.

East Fork Owyhee River – Below Rickard crossing

We tell you some more in Part 3 as we enter Lambert Gorge and begin to hear the rapids at Owyhee Falls….and our final chapter in Part 4.