One Picture is worth a Thousand Words, approximately! 63bkpkr

[63bkpkr]

Well lets see what else I've found in those old slide boxes.

Could be most anywhere on the NFAR

Mumford on the winter river bed away from the log cabin



This is likely 1982 in Alaska with a glacier in the background. Rough country! And yes we did find some gold, that is my brother and I.

 

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[AlaskaGold]

That's the Matanuska glacier you are standing in front of. Neat photo

 

[63bkpkr]

So a few more views of life!

Somewhere above the NFAR

Son & I at the top about to go in, likely Mumford Bar

Fine stretch of water

Father (me) and Son coming out of Wildcat & almost at the top

Way up the Wildcat with high water at the Beacroft with high H2O
Beacroft with father and son one happy Son, Yum good dinner

a little outing Wildcat Camp on Wildcat, way up it

Below the Walker Mine on the Wildcat

 

[Duckwalk]

Hard to beat the taste of Fish and onion on a campfire. the only way to make it better is if that is bacon grease its cooking in. My dad always brought a mason jar with bacon grease on out camping trips to cook whatever we caught or hunted. Hard to beat camp fire fried squirrel over rice with red eyed gravy....

 

[Vance in AK]

That's the Matanuska glacier you are standing in front of. Neat photo

The glacier has changed a bit in the last 35 years hasn't it!

 

[63bkpkr]

Vance/AlaskaGold - that spot has had to change over even those few years (35) as to a glacier I'd think that is a short time. I was impressed with all the mud & junk out in front of it. I've been on a glacier in Europe, an odd feeling to be on this solid ice field between mountains.

 

[63bkpkr]

Vance/AlaskaGold - that spot has had to change over even those few years (35) as to a glacier I'd think that is a short time. I was impressed with all the mud & junk out in front of it. I've been on a glacier in Europe, an odd feeling to be on this solid ice field between mountains.

Duckwalk - the bacon grease would nicely season many things however in this place the bears are plentiful and I know that bacon grease smell would surely raise the fur on the back of the neck of some brute and it would be all business about getting at the jar of drippings!!

 

[Jeff95531]

Too true Herb. And if you walk on a glacier, stick to the "dirty" ice as the pretty wet stuff will make you lose 100% of your bodily functions as gravity steps in.

Btw, thanks for taking the time to post your pics Herb

 

[Vance in AK]

Vance/AlaskaGold - that spot has had to change over even those few years (35) as to a glacier I'd think that is a short time. I was impressed with all the mud & junk out in front of it. I've been on a glacier in Europe, an odd feeling to be on this solid ice field between mountains.

The glacier has receded almost all the way to the foot of the mountain coming in on the right side of the picture (almost straight above your head).

 

[AlaskaGold]

Vance/AlaskaGold - that spot has had to change over even those few years (35) as to a glacier I'd think that is a short time. I was impressed with all the mud & junk out in front of it. I've been on a glacier in Europe, an odd feeling to be on this solid ice field between mountains.

Man it has changed, as Vance said. Soon I will be up in that neck of the woods. It's only an hour or so drive from the house. I will snap a few photos of where I think you were when you took that one and post it so you can see the change. Beautiful country but changing fast.

 

[63bkpkr]

My Brother and Sister in law live in Eagle River, I was visiting with them during the time the Glacier/Herb picture was taken.

And a few more:

Down river of Sailor Flat Trail and on the NFAR Son doing wrist/arm exercises up Big Granite Creek

Camp off the NFAR Work 'stuff' w/woof & intrepid

A little Shine! U.S. penny for Size Taps playing at end of day

What's coming: 1972 and forward

 

[AlaskaGold]

Small world, grew up in Eagle River. Live just north of there now. You need to make a trip back up, it's a beautiful place

 

[63bkpkr]

Yes AG it is a beautiful place! I enjoyed the Moose Hunting Raft trip one year and then another time I did a twenty five mile day hike up and over with "only"one river crossing. The river was coming out of a glacier therefore really cold and painful to the legs. At the end of that day I was truly tired!....................63bkpkr

 

[63bkpkr]

So, back in 91 my backpacking buddy, Scott, says to me "let's go rafting"! Of Course I say OK! We join up with a couple of guys as one has some white water experience and start preparing for the trip down the NFAR from Euchre Bar to Lake Clementine. I sent off letters asking for info about what was past Green Valley as I had no experience beyond GV.. The critical response came the day after we left for the trip and fortunately was not opened by the wife at the time.

Drove up to Auburn, had some food, dropped a car off at Lake Clementine and drove around to the Euchre Bar trailhead, shouldered our packs of food, camping gear and rafts (2 man yellow rubber duckies) and headed down the trail. Had a nice meal around the camp fire and settled down for the night. In the morning we inflated the rafts and started the float trip down river. I should note that the water flow at that time was 92 cubic feet per second so we portaged A Lot. We went into the white S curve at the end of Euchre Bar and headed into the first canyon full of rocks, rock walls, a jammed tree or two and some mighty hot sunshine. In general we made it through the first canyon OK. Going through the 8' wide entry portal to Green Valley was special to me as by that time I'd not been in GV for some years. From the entry portal to GV the Giant Gap/Lovers Leap Gorge loomed before us even though it was some distance down river. As we swung through the turns below Snake Head Point we, my buddy and I, were lucky enough to find a two man cross cut saw about 6' in length. The unlucky part was that we found it snagged into one of the rafts air bladders. After the repair and moving the saw off to the side wall about where the creek comes out of the sidewall on the Alta side of the river we continued on our way towards our evening destiny. Somewhere under Giant Gap is a 4' waterfall, we were not aware of its specific existence though we soon learned about it.

Somehow I became bow man for our raft at the start of the trip so I got to see what was coming first. This must have been exciting for me as by the time we were about to enter Giant Gap I was almost hoarse from yelling instructions or maybe just simply screaming, with pleasure and excitement of course. Our rafting companions who were following us were likely not having quite as much fun as I/we were. One of these fellows was supposed to be teaching all of us but that never worked out. So, with tepid water all around us we swept past the old cabin/mining area on the Foresthill side of the river and into the Gorge we went. Now that I'm writing this I recall a section of the Fellowship of the Ring of Hobbit lore movie where they passed by high walls with the carving of the two giant sentinels on either side, going into Giant Gap Gorge reminds me of that though only the carvings of Ma nature are there. Once in the canyon one can hear the echo's of the water as it breaks up on the rocks (other more dainty stories might call this the "babbling of the water") I will stay away from being Poetic about this trip, the water was breaking up on the rocks and I did not want to be breaking up on the rocks. At one point it is obvious that the tone of the echo's is more like a roar. The walls are 10' to 12' out to 15' in a few spots at the current level of the water and the water is relatively deep say 8' to 10' though the depth is more of a guess as I did not get out to check it.

As the sound before us grew the pucker factor also increased. Exiting a bend in the river I could see down stream there was a good sized jam-up of rocks from the canyon walls caving in. We were floating along at a comfortable rate, not to slow and not to fast, though the angle of the river through the gorge is steeper than the river angle at either end of the gorge so we are moving faster than we were going through Green Valley. As we approach the rocks I can see there is a good sized irregular gap between the rocks and a falls at that gap, the raft starts to turn sideways, I jam my oar into the water performing a breaking action on the left side, the nose straightens out and over we go. The nose of the raft bends with my weight dumping me into the water, I feel the current energy of the falls drag me down(this is called a reversal where the energy of the water pulls the river in front of the falls back into the dropping water) and down I go spinning, holding onto my paddle. As I reach the point at which my buoyancy is greater than the force of the reversal I start to go up and the river carries me forward and of course I come up underneath the raft. I come out from under it and break the surface for a nice breath of fresh air! As the other end of the raft went over the falls it dumped my partner into the river as well (I will note here that of all the rafting trips I've taken down the NFAR even knowing the falls is there I've never managed to not fall out at that spot).

We pull our raft over to one side to wait for our rafting partners. My buddy climbs the rock jam back up river and waits to guide the next raft through. I take the time to pry open the new/clean paint can that is keeping my dry land camera safe. As the second raft approaches I am ready to photograph their thrilling ride/incident. Scott guides them expertly so their raft goes nose first over the falls, bowman goes out, aft man tips over backwards BUT unfortunately all of their gear is pulled from their raft and drops to the bottom of the river. We are approximately right below the highest point of Giant Gap, the walls are nearly vertical and now we must dive to reclaim their gear and it is heading into late afternoon and we are in shadows.

After having most of their gear recovered we refill their raft and float forward. Again, this is our first trip down the NFAR and I/we are now in unknown territory nor do we really know just where we are at. A few river bends further down we come to a wide spot and decide to spend the night there. The gear of the second rafters is soaking wet including their sleeping bags. There is drift wood here and we get a fire going. My buddy and I share what we can with them including a new "Space Blanket" (remember those?). They are advised to roll up in the blanket and stay close together during the night for warmth. That did not happen. Turns out the gorge is very windy at night and under different circumstances that would not have been troublesome but fortunately it was not so windy that it blew the fire out. Rocks do not burn so we had no fear of starting a forest fire in that location as there was no forest to burn Down there. The night was uncomfortable and restless.

At first heavy light we were all up packing for the 30 to 45 minute ride to Pickering bar, if we had only known! At Pickering we stopped for the day so that equipment could be dried and some sound rest could be had. Getting to Pickering was interesting as just before the calm water there is what I call the Stair Step Falls. All one needs to do is line the nose of the raft up to the center of the chute and hold on! Falling out of the raft at this location would not be a good thing as the rocks are right there. At this level of the river the chute is narrow and ones knuckles are exposed to the rock wall on the immediate right side, but since I was in real need of holding onto the rope that went all the way around the raft I did not especially mind meeting the side wall with my knuckles. Let's take a break for some pictures -




What morning raft preparation would look like

Our raft "The Invincible", yes those are backpack frames on the tubes

"S" curve at entrance of first gorge

Waiting Saddle up

At the 4' falls Committed

Heading down On the surface

Looking down the canyon In Giant Gap Gorge 4 the night

"Stair Step Falls" about center Just past stair step

Investigating the incoming creek Scott on top

Our raft from the top of creek falls

 

[63bkpkr]

So the last two pictures should be swapped and they are just before the Pickering Bar where we stopped for the day/night.

Possibly looking up river from Pickering Bar Possibly looking down river from Pickering.

The early takeout at the first Colfax Bridge

So we spent the day and a night a Pickering Bar piecing their equipment back together, got up the next morning and we decided to revamp our raft and put both inner tubes into the raft as we no longer had a floor. This allowed the second team to start about 45 minutes before we did. The theory was that we would quickly catch up to them as they had always moved slowly. We complete the raft mods and get going down river to catch up to the first raft. We are now down river by about 2 hours and still no sign of the first raft and its two occupants, I am concerned. We know that we have not passed them so we keep going only we are really stroking those paddles. Finally way in the distance we catch just a quick view of yellow raft. We continue the pursuit! Turns out they had decided to really push hard to see if they could beat us to the first bridge. We are obviously gaining on them! Just as we catch up to them there is a wide spot in the river with a huge amount of caved in side walls on both sides of the river. They go way of to the right looking for a passage. I'm looking at the surface of the water that I've now learned to read (just a tiny bit) and I can tell there are turbulence lines on the surface indicating faster water over by a big long hunk of rock that has an opening at the front of it. We paddle over, I look down the tunnel under the rock and I can see light at the other end, I turn to Scott and say something like "there is light at the other end lets go"! At first we are both sitting up paddling down this narrow tunnel but as we approach the other end the ceiling of the tunnel starts to slope quickly down towards the water so that as we exit the tunnel we are both laying on the raft pushing off of the ceiling of the tunnel. To this day I've no idea how the other raft got around the rocks and I don't care as We Won! When we arrived at the first Bridge from Colfax we decided to end the rafting but we needed to get back to our vehicles, one at Lake Clementine and one back at the top of Euchre Bar trail. I made the trip back to Clementine and retrieved my 56 Chevy Station Wagon, drove back to the river and collected people and gear and then we went back to get Scotty's Jeep.

Due to the "race" there were no pictures taken on the water that last day and the last picture shown here is back at the water fall after the stair step falls and it depicts Scott doing his climbing thing up the side of the falls.

We arrived safely back at our homes having had an exciting adventure and well sun tanned/burned.

Then, the next trip planning began for next year as the water was way to low for another trip in 1971.....................63bkpkr

There are three more trips that could be put up here if anyone would be interested, same river, different water levels, different rafters and new adventures.

 

[gold tramp]

I always like lookin at your stuff Herb, havnt been out of the desert now in i think 6 years forgot what green looks like thanks takes me back to when i was youngster and lived up north, Petaluma to hayfork n back, summer hiking trips.
Thanks.
Herb.................

 

[Aufisher]

Awesome trip! Great photos!

 

[Jeff95531]

Some of your finest story telling Herb...if not the best. I felt as if I was there with you the whole time. Only you could crash and burn and think "PHOTO OP!"
for catching your buddies pending crash. I know what you had to go thru to complete and post that story...thank you for all the effort...it was worth it in many more ways than one.
Jeff

 

[63bkpkr]

Thanks back to you gentlemen and as you well know the sharing is also fun! Trips like these in a place like this are amazingly exciting with dazzling displays of scenery with unexpected "things" popping up every now and then.

This first trip was an eye opener for all of us and we wanted to do it better the next time so right away we began listing the pro's and con's of the trip and gear. A larger raft and more water were the obvious choices then better paddles as the "yellow rubber duckie" paddles are just darn worthless after about 20 minutes into the trip and then they bent in half. The inner tubes inside the raft helped the stability of the raft as having the tubes tied to the sides of the raft stiffened the raft making it a touch easier to cause it to move towards a certain direction.

The paddles are important as the stock ones become very sharp as they are used to fend off the rocks so the next ones had plastic blades with 6061-T6 aluminum handles (pipe) with a nice 'T' grip at the top and are roughly 4' in length. The new paddles were custom built by myself and we were all impressed with them for the next few years of rafting. I still have them and likely they will be part of my estate!

The following year we came across some fellas dredging in the Pickering Bar area. They called us over to take a look at the gold they were finding, nice looking stuff!

More later...........................63bkpkr