[pct-l] Early Season Fording Techniques?

[m.karon at comcast.net (Marshall Karon)]

We probably saw that note in 2000. Said not to cross there  (right where the
path was) - too deep.

But, if you started at that point and waded just a bit upstream (like 10
feet), it was easy and not deep. We laughed at the note and wondered who
would ever attempt to go through the deepest part when a few feet away the
water was obviously not as deep. However, we could have been a day or two
later or earlier and at a different time of day. It was swift though and we
didn't really know what we doing - good thing, I think.

Marshall Karon
Portland, OR
m.karon@comcast.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Powers" <kdpo@pacbell.net>
To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>; <RBALCORN@cs.com>
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 4:51 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Early Season Fording Techniques?


> Here is a link to a few pictures in the high sierra taken early in 2000.
> http://home.pacbell.net/kdpo/pct/high_sierra.htm
> At the bottom of the page is my picture. I am wet up to my arm pits and
> crossing Evolution Creek (really a lake) for the 9th time. We tried to
cross
> the creek at the normal crossing. Semper Fi left a note saying the water
was
> to fast to cross there and to go back up the trail to the meadow. The note
> was 2 days old so I thought maybe the creek had gone down.
>
> I tried the creek with no pack. It was to swift and cold. The bottom of
the
> creek was washed out so it was just boulders. No way I could carry our
packs
> across there. We walked up stream along the banks. Nothing looked better,
so
> I crossed back and we went up stream.
>
> I crossed over and back 2 more times before finding slower and shallower
> water. Even then Marcia stepped into a hole that put her eye deep in the
> snow melt. As I crossed the creek for the last time with my backpack I
> thought I would like a picture of this. The camera was in the top of the
> backpack on top of my head. I had to dump the pack on the creek bed.
Marcia
> got the camera out and handed me the backpack again. I waded back into the
> creek and Marcia took the picture.
>
> After I finally got out, we put on our fleeces over our wet shirts, ate
what
> snacks that were handy, and started walking briskly to warm up. In a short
> time our shorts and shirts were dry.
>
> We had so many water crossings (what is a creek?) that we usually just
> plunged into them. Marcia was asking "Where are all the log crossing we
did
> last year on the John Muir Trail?" They were buried in the snow. We just
> wore our trail runners thru the water. Our feet were wet from all the snow
> and snowmelt anyway. As long as we kept walking our feet were fine. But if
> we stopped they got cold pretty quick.
>
> This is the only picture we have of the stream crossings. We had probably
> 6-8 other that were at least as scary. Usually the water was moving lots
> faster. And the mosquitoes were fierce. As we finished a crossing we would
> look down at probably 100 mosquitoes drawing blood from our arms. One
> memorable one is Bear Creek, a few hours south of Edison Lake. It was
really
> fast and scary.
>
> We learned not to cross the creeks late in the day. We crossed the
Tuolumne
> River just north of Donahue Pass just before dusk. We immediately set up
> camp and crawled into our sleeping bags to warm up. That didn't work as
well
> as hiking to warm up. We were cold for much longer even though we ate a
hot
> dinner.
>
> I have seen pictures from of other hikers who were a week or less behind
us.
> The authors of your book were just probably within a week behind us. The
> snow levels and water levels a week later were considerably less than what
> we had. You can see in the pictures the weather was quite warm. (SF had
> temps in the 90's that week.)
> Ken
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <RBALCORN@cs.com>
> To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
> Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 3:39 PM
> Subject: [pct-l] Early Season Fording Techniques?
>
>
> > I'm reading Blistered Kind of Love.  They talk about stream crossings in
> the
> > Sierras chest high.  This is early season - cold, snow melt water, etc.
> They
> > don't say how they dry off.  My assumption is they are hiking in quick
dry
> > synthetics and walk till they are dry.  For those of you that have done
> it, how do
> > you avoid hyperthermia? Do you take your boots off, etc?  I hike this
area
> in
> > summer, and take considerable effort to stay dry - boots off, switch to
> > lightweight river shoes, but water never more than thigh high, so
> wondering how you
> > early season pct hikers do it?
> >
> > Ralph Alcorn
> > www.backpack45.com
> > Shepherd Canyon Books
> > Publisher of We're in the Mountains, Not Over the Hill: Tales and Tips
> from
> > Seasoned Women Backpackers
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