[pct-l] Fords in the North Cascades

[goforth at cnw.com (Joanne Lennox)]

Most rivers onthe PCT in WA are bridged.  the reroute around Glacier Pk is 
different, streams in the NOrth Cascades can be swollen from either heat, 
rain, or snow pack in any month of the year.  the snow pack is low but there 
is still plenty of snow up there to  have rivers run high in June.  Glaciers 
melt all through the summer, and one good 90 degree day can change a river 
from a nice smoooth flowing clear stream to a silty much deeper river. 
Depends on the drainage of the river.  What river did you actually have in 
mind to ford????----- 

Most of the big rivers I have crossed by scouting up and down the course to 
find a crossing log.  North Cascades rivers are in deep woods, and sometimes 
you can find a way across without fording the whole width.  It is still 
dicey.  Once I bushwached up the NOrth fork of the Nooksack, Crossing the 
White Salmon in a gorge on the N. side of Mt. Shuksan.  When I came back the 
water was way over the log that I had crossed in the gorge, it had been a 
warmish day and crossing there was out of the question.  So I went back to 
the Nooksack, which was a far larger river.  Eventually I found a small 
spruce, bobbing and weaving in the current, but it crossed the deepest side 
of the river.  In a very precarious way, and using the side branches and a 
stick for balance, I managed to use about half of the length of the tree 
before it got too small and wobbly, and I had to step off into the silty 
swirling water.  Fortunately the water was shallow enough that I could keep 
my balance, but I just did not know how deep it was going to be.  It is not 
something that I would do today or recommned to a person inexperienced in 
the North Cascades.

I have crossed a number of large rivers on surprisingly small logs.  They 
are often slick.  It is much easier then it looks, especially if you lean 
forward or have your legs up as you shimmy accross - this leaves very little 
to counterbalance  the imbalances that moving  and a pack produces.  We have 
a slack wire here between two stumps and I can walk one across 30 feet, but 
for a one foot wide log across a North Cascades river, my butte is on the 
log.

Joanne