Nate Herbeck and I sat at the top of a four-foot ledge holding on to the over grown
brush to keep from going downstream in our kayaks. Unknown to us at the time we were
sitting above the second gorge. Jason Schroeder had gone around the corner to scout.
So far, the entire trip had been this way. We would paddle as far as we could see then
one person would get out and come back with directions. We had already completed a big
portage around the first gorge that contained a few slides and a 30+ foot waterfall, which Nate ran.
Jason came back around the corner with a stern look on his face. There’s an eight-foot pour
over around the corner with a shallow run out then it gets mellow for a minute. “Where do I need
to run it?” I asked. “Down the center, punch it hard, but it’s shallow.” I peeled out, charged
the four foot ledge on the right, Dropped into a tight rapid that tuned left and spit me out
into a pothole, ahead of me was a very distinct horizon line that gradually poured over the
lip. I quickly back paddled and eddied out on river right. I tried to scrape my way closer to the
lip without going over. I couldn’t see the bottom of the drop. .
Nate came around the corner and kept going. I saw his helmet come out at the bottom, which
reassured me there was no huge hole down there. I peeled out just as Jim Pytel came around the
corner. He hit the eddy on river left as I yelled, “I saw Nate come out, and it looks good!” I
rolled over the top and got a brief glimpse of the rapid below me. I tried to hold a left stroke
and pull a boof stroke in the middle of the drop. As soon as I followed through with the stroke
I was immediately slammed to my left side. After that came the worst beating I’ve ever taken
upside down in my boat. I felt the front of my boat hit rock, then my elbow, and then my head.
I kissed the inside of my elbow to cover my face and the hits just kept on coming. Elbow,
shoulder, head, over and over until I dropped into a small hole. I reached up to roll and
tangled my paddle up in some brush. O.K. You win. I pulled out of my boat, grabbed onto the
brush, swung myself into an eddy and pulled myself out of the water. I fell against the wall,
beaten and out of breath. I looked upstream and Jim was out of his boat giving me a hand signal
to see if I was o.k. He directed my view into the eddy where my paddle was floating around. I
looked downstream and my boat was moving around the corner fast. Nate Yells “I’m going to follow
your boat as far as I can.” I jumped down to get my paddle and watched Jason and Jim run the rapid.
Jim came by and asked, “Where’s Nate.” I motioned downstream; I was still out of breath and tying to
figure out which way to get out of here. Jason asked, “Should I stay here with you.” I looked up
the canyon wall and thought about it. “No, stay with those guys, but keep an eye on me. I’ll be
about half way up the canyon so I can see the creek.” He took off then I realized during my
swim the water had taken my left shoe. “Damn It!” This was not going to be easy.
I scrambled up the wall and found a deer trail about 300feet above the water. I made it to
the next bend, looked down and saw my group out of their boats on river right scouting. I got
Nate’s attention and he motioned for me to go downstream. I went about 200ft further, looked down
and didn’t see anyone. “WTF!” I went a little further and nothing. At this point I was above the
third gorge and from what I saw they would have to get out again, but I saw no one! I sat down for
about five minutes with a million questions going through my head, most of them I didn’t have an answer for.
Did they pass me?
Did they find my boat?
Am I close to the take out?
How far down river have we gone?
If I’m on my own which is the fastest way out of here, going downstream or up and out of the canyon?
I soon realized, I was on my own. A terrible feeling when your already soaking wet, wearing only one
shoe, carrying a paddle and the sun is going down. I had to move quickly. O.K. What facts do I know
about the situation that I’m in?.
*The guidebook said there was a tributary on river left that doubles the flow a half -mile from the take out.
*My inner layers are wet so staying in here overnight is not an option!
*If I don’t keep moving I’ll be crossing the tributary in the dark!
*Everything I could use right now (headlamp, food, water) is in my boat somewhere in the canyon!
As weird as it sounds I decided to rely on the safety of the canyon and proceed downstream. I followed the
game trail around a few more corners and crossed three small tributaries. At this point daylight was down to
about half and fading fast. Finally I saw what might be a bigger tributary coming in about a 1/4 mile ahead.
Right before I got there the deer trail cut down to water level. There I found a big, brushy, woody mess
blocking any safe passage in a kayak. I looked for portage tracks and saw nothing. Just downstream was Bowman
creek adding a lot of flow. The trail I was on ended at Canyon creek and reappeared on river right. I had
three options here:
1) Cross the tributary and proceed on river left to the bridge and possibly get cliffed out in the dark above the road.
2) Go back up to the woody mess and try to cross the log that was half way across the creek. If I missed the log jumping to it I would be in the water for a few minutes.
3) Swim straight across Canyon creek and continue down the game trail to the road.
I chose to stay in the water as little as possible. As long as I didn’t get taken around the corner I
could tell swimming across the creek was the fastest option. I backed up about fifteen feet from
the water, just upstream of the tributary, took off running and tried to jump across the creek as
much as possible, feet first. I hit the current, it took me under and I popped up on river right.
I crawled out, made my way up to the trail and it was pitch black. I followed the trail the best I
could, holding my paddle in front of me, pocking at any possible drop off. At this point I was starving
(I hadn’t eaten since 8am, which was only two pieces of bacon), dehydrated, very bruised all over my body,
and my left foot was swelling from hiking without a shoe on. My pace was slowing down rapidly.
Then I saw it. Headlights lit up the right ridge then came around to the left. Yes, I’m so close to
the take out. I picked up the pace. I dropped down the ridge, closer to water level. This should be it,
why do I not see the road? I stopped for a second to think about which angle to proceed down stream. All
of a sudden I heard a truck get closer. Headlights came around the corner and lit up everything. I was
standing 75feet from the bridge in the woods. The truck passed and looked like Jason’s truck. Yes, There
going to run the shuttle, I thought. Hopefully Nate is down there, If not at least I can get some water
and a power bar out of someone’s boat.. Once again, I was wrong. Jason’s truck was still at the take out
untouched by the rest of the group. Oh Shit!
There’s no way they could still be on the water!
There’s no way they could have run the section above where I swam across!
O.k. I need to change and figure this out. One minor detail, I forgot to ask Jason where he put his
keys that day. I know where he usually keeps them, but they weren’t there. After 20 or 30 minutes of
searching around in the dark I was getting very cold. I jumped in the back of the truck and shut myself in.
How did I beat them to the truck?
Did they find my boat and wait for me there?
Where the hell are they now?
I huddled up in the corner of the bed, trying to stay warm. After about an hour, I was starting to shiver.
The only thing I could do was get out and start moving around. I walked back up to the bridge and started blowing
my whistle, if nothing else I could let them know that I was out and try to guide them this way. Soon two cars
came down the road, turned the corner and kept going. Yea, who’s going to stop and help someone standing in the
middle of nowhere wearing a bunch of weird clothing? As soon as the cars passed I heard a whistle. I kept blowing
my whistle and hearing the same thing back. What a relief. It got closer and closer, but it was coming from high
up on river left above the road. I kept trying to guide them closer, soon I hear “Ryan”…”Ryan.” “Where are you?”
I said, as loud as I could. “Over here!” I could tell it was Jim. “Hey, up here” I looked up and could make out
a figure about 30feet above me, cliffed out. “How far off the ground am I?” he asked. “About thirty feet.” “Do you
see a notch or any way I can crawl down?” I went up the road and the cliff grew and grew up to about fifty feet.
I came back and said, “No it gets bigger, move to your right about twenty feet.” “O.k., stay where you are I
can see your helmet and that’s it. What am I looking for over here?”
I replied, “If you sit down, then turn and hold onto the top of this rock you’ll only be about fifteen feet
from the ground. If you want I’ll stand under you and break your fall a little” It couldn’t hurt as bad as
what I just went through.
“O.k. back up for a second” I stepped back and heard a few loose rocks hit the ground, then SLAM, Jim
hit the ground hard. “Are you o.k.?” I asked. “Yea, Happy New Year!” Ha, in all the excitement I forgot
this was the last day of 2005. Then he asked, “Where is Jason and Nate?” “What, I thought they were with you!”
“No” he says. “I lost them after dark on the hike, did you get into the truck?” “No I’ve been freezing,
I can’t get in the cab.” To my disbelief, the first place he reached for the keys he found them. “Damn I
know I checked there!” “O.k. let’s run up to my truck, then find cell service to call around.” We got
within a couple miles of the put in and we got service on Jason’s cell phone. I called Todd so he could
call Heather (Nate’s wife) and explain that they hiked off the river and we’re looking for them. Jim
called his girlfriend and explained the situation. Then Todd called back…”Hey Jason and Nate are on their
way to the take out.” That’s all I heard before the call ended. “O.k. let’s get your truck and head back
down.” After I dropped Jim off I came back up Soda Springs Rd. A couple houses were lit up with flairs
and bonfires out side. All of a sudden a 4-wheeler pulls out in the middle of the road and stops. “WTF?”
An old, drunk guy pulls up to the window and says:
“I’ve been watchin you boys for the last five hours.”
“Oh yea, we were…
“You boys been huntin!”
“Huntin, No, we’re kayakers, we put on the creek back there.”
“You so lyin to me, you been huntin!”
“I’m not a hunter, I’m a kayaker!”
“Kayaker, weres you kayaks?”
“There at the take out, we had to come back up and get the other truck.”
“Where you kayaking around here?”
“At that creek beside the truck that you’ve been watching for five hours.”
“You so lyin to me, you can’t kayak that. You huntin and the cops are gonna git you!”
I had to bite my tongue. I knew at this point he would never get it, no matter what I said, and after what I had just been through, I gave up.
“Hey man, Happy New Year!”
And I drove off to see if Nate and Jason were at the take out. As I went back down the road the clock read
8:48. Three hours and forty-eight minutes after dark. To my surprise Nate and Jason were at the take out with
a very friendly Vancouver man who was out here visiting relatives. We talked to him for a couple minutes,
thanked him for his help and left to get food. We were all starving and in total disbelief at what we all
just experienced. No one made it out with their boats. The next day we went back in and recovered our gear,
and I found out that the canyon walls were @700feet high from water level to the top of the ridge on river left.
In the end, I wouldn’t change any of those moments. It all worked out and we all learned a lot. So
when you decide to go on an adventure of that nature you can only hope that what you learned from your
previous trips will get you through the next one. As Billy Jones would say “Keep adding to your little
bag of tricks!”
Keep Creekin
Be Safe
~Ryan Scott~