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| | | Tonto Kayak - Rye creek to Gun creek, AZ | | | |
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Tonto Kayak - Rye creek to Gun creek, AZ
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| Hiking | 5.00 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 5.00 Miles | | | |
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| no partners | | Jeff and his friend Leslie wanted to run this creek again while the flow was still high enough so I tagged along. I met the two of them at the take out at about 730 where they had camped the night before, after making some coffee and breakfast we hit the road and got to the put in around 9:00. The weather was warmer this time and the water was flowing a little lower (only about 550 cfs) but the flow in Rye Creek looked a little more aggressive than it had earlier in the week. This was about the point that Jeff and Leslie let me in on the fact that Leslie had never actually paddled before and this was going to be her first (class III) run. I had known that she was inexperienced but I figured she had at least had some flatwater experience before... We put in and about 100 yards in she dumped and swamped the boat. We talked it over and decided that Rye is really the hardest part of the trip since it's so narrow and there's very little room to maneuver. We wound up recovering the boat twice on the 1/8 mile stretch of Rye Creek. Once we got into Tonto proper things shaped up a bit, we all made it through the first class III run with no problems, as soon as we finished it though, leslie tried to eddy out and lost it, so one more recovery was in order.
There are three sections that are class III. The first one is right at the confluence and is probably closer to a II+, the second is a short drop into a hole with a tricky approach. The third is a long wave train followed by a chute between two large fins. The wave train wants to spit you into one of the fins on the side, but you have to brace hard and drop into one of the two large holes in the center of the chute. We all made it through the first rapid fairly handily and with no spilling. At the second we took out to scout (and to portage Leslie's kayak - which we all agreed was the best idea) before Jeff and I ran it.
We both agreed on the best line, and that it would be a crappy place to swim if the line didn't work. I agreed to go first and just when I thought I had it lined up perfectly, an eddy line grabbed the boat and pulled it sideways right before the first big hole. I went down before I even had a chance to right myself. I bailed from the cockpit and stuck my legs in front of me. I managed to get one good breath of air before the hole sucked me in. Fortunately the current recirculated me pretty quickly and I popped up just in time to see my boat speeding towards me. I grabbed it and held on until the rapid was through and then drug it to the other side. Unfortunately my paddle was pulled from my hands somewhere in the hole and I didn't see it anywhere. once I was back on dry land I made my way back to the fins and found Jeff standing on top trying to lasso my paddle out from the hole. It was recirculating over and over. It would float down a little ways, the blade would get caught and the whole thing would pop up and get sucked down, pulled upstream and start the whole cycle again. Apparently I also went through that cycle once before getting spit out. I don't remember it like that at all though.
After I dried out a little Jeff made a nervous go at it and ran it smooth. He got a little hung up at the same eddy I did, but managed to learn from my mistake and kept the nose straight. After the crux it was all pushy wave trains and funny eddies through the narrows. unfortunately that was where leslie really made some wrong turns.
One particular turn in the canyon required keeping the boat far right to avoid getting pinched between a wall and a giant boulder, I don't know if she just wasn't paying attention or wasn't ready for the current to pull her left be she found the worst possible spot to place the boat and got hung up really sideways against the boulder. She bailed and lost the paddle to the rapids. I chased down her paddle and was eddied out a little further down the creek just in time to watch the boat float by on the other side of the channel, just out of reach. I couldn't see what was going on upstream but knew we had at least one boatless boater. So I found a bank and got out and climbed up to make sure everyone was still intact.
When we all regrouped on the side of the river we decided there were only two possible ways to proceed. The river was all class II and there was only maybe a mile and a half of creek left. My advice was for her to swim behind the boats and we would play safety after each rapid. She didn't feel comfortable in the water and wanted to walk the ridgeline out. I thought (and still think) that was a terrible idea. Even thought the actual canyon was only a mile or so long there was probably four to five miles of walking, in the desert, of trail, along the ridge - with countless tributaries cutting the gorge. After a lot of discussion and some heated argument Jeff and I both offered our boats to her and one of us would swim the remainder. She was afraid she would lose another boat and refused this offer. After that she just started walking away.
Both Jeff and I spent another five minutes looking at each other. We both thought it was a horrible idea and we were both terribly opposed to this course of action but there was little we could do short of physically restraining her at this point. Everyone has to make their own decisions so we gave her our water bottles and a whistle and a flashlight and let her go.
We finished the creek and nervously changed out of our gear. We ran the shuttle and picked up some extra food at Jake's Corner. We both thought that we were going to be out looking for her in an hour or so and wanted to make sure that we had enough to make it through the night. It probably took an hour and a half to run the shuttle and another half an hour at Jake's Corner getting supplies and making phone calls to let some people know what was going on. When we got back to the take out we started packing things up and deciding on a plan of action to start searching for her when all of a sudden a bright green dot appeared at the mouth of the canyon. As it got closer we were both sure that it was her dry-top bobbing along in the water. Fortunately she was in it. She had wandered along the ridge line for a while and then decided we were right about the terrain and descended into the canyon to swim the rest of the way.
We were all relieved to have her back safe, but I was done. As soon as she had changed into warm clothes and we were positive she was OK I split. Lesson learned. Make sure you know who you are going with and what their skill level actually is. She never should have tried running that river but she made it through without injury. All's well that ends well. |
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