Thursday, August 9, 2012

Wyoming Part 1 - N.F. Bull Lake Expedition



So epic in every way! Our mission in the Wind River Range of Wyoming eclipsed the amount of effort of expedition's such as the Middle Kings!


An amazingly beautiful place that might not be suited for kayaking!


My original plan for the summer was to slowly but surely make my way from Cali up through the Pacific Northwest and into British Columbia, following the west coast and pushing north.  All was going to plan until I veared east out of Washington state into Idaho and then eventually to Wyoming putting my entry into B.C. over a month behind schedule. The best plan is no plan with a constant of Charge. And with this theory in mind I have been charging life and found myself hiking into the most intense arena I have ever visited- A first descent of the N.F. of Bull Lake from the base of the glacier's on Big Milky Lake into Bull Lake Proper.


Little did we know we would only make it 2 mile in 8 hours upon exiting this high mountain glacial lake!

Starting the hike early in the morning after being dropped off in the middle of no where, we presceeded to start our 11 hour death slog, in the rain, up and over a 11,000 foot pass, following game trails, keeping an alert eye for bear's, even further into the middle of no where!  So Epic!


Taking a picture, wishing this sick 35 footer into a box canyon didn't have a messed up chock stone in the lip.

Fresh out of the Lake on day 2 we started into the North Fork which to our knowledge was virgin territory and we were about to figure out why. Finding tons of the sickest whitewater I have ever seen, it seemed like every rapid had somethhing majorly messed up in the intro, lip, or exit!  It was messed up- so tempting to fire but so wrong.  Our descent of the North Fork was so heinous we only managed to make it 2 miles in a matter of 8 hours before our boddies were recked and day light fading.
Probably the first descent of this manky slotty tripple drop
Sold it for Jim Janney and he Charged!
Realizing I was going to have do an epic portage after I stumbled upon a 60 footer into box canyon!
Epic

Yeah we ran some shit.

Day 3 opened up and we were able to make serious river miles.  The rock we traveled over taxed our boats with gouges and major losses of plastic. We found some huge rapids and huge portages and the epicness of Bull Lake was close to overwhelming.  Firing hard we routed some sick rapids and staeady class 5 boulder gardens.  I was in a situation where there was only one way to go- down river!

Hagen-Daz aka the big one

This thing had the sickest lead-in.  Super snakey and steep!

Jordy "The Juggernaut" Searle


2/3 of the way through a 2 mile portage!

Truth!

On day 4 we made a savage 20+ mile push through epic portaging, big rapid's, long stretches of boulder charge, (where Jordy and Myself couldn't resist but leaving the eddies alone and we found ourselves in the flow paddling hard) broken boats, all the way out and across the lake to the take out!

Gotta love the portage!

Bull Lake Fall's

Firing the runout of Bull Lake Fall's
Below Bull Lake Fall's we found some sick boulder gardens


We agreed on the epic beauty of this mission and the fact that after completing it, we had done it and we would never have to do it again!


After 4 day's engulfed in granite we paddled into amazing sandstone cliffs!

Stay tuned for Wyoming part 2 - The Box of the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone!

1 comment:

Forrest McCarthy said...

A true adventure into the unknown. Good work. Sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs before you find a prince (or princess).