Going home sore and soggy

Our spring bear hunt was bittersweet this year. We’re heading home without a bear stored in our luggage but we do have a bag full of wet and soggy clothes. We worked our butts off this year and I can’t say I’m disappointed with our efforts. We put in over 40 miles hiking and packrafting through likely terrain as we attempted to navigate rain and intense winds. We hunted until dark every night and it wasn’t for a lack of effort that we didn’t successfully harvest a bear.

But what we did successfully take away were experiences and lessons learned. We hiked many trails and explored terrain we hadn’t seen before. We tried new trails that led us through dense trees and along marshy lakes where boardwalks were only a foot wide. We returned to old haunts and reminisced on past memories and made comparisons multiple times on how much crappier the weather was this year and how late the spring seemed to be.

One of the trip highlights included a bonsai packraft trip right before dark one evening. We made a last minute decision to pack the raft a mile and a half up a trail, launch it in the lake, row to the outlet and float down the river back to the road. We left the trailhead around 6 p.m., made it to the lake and had the raft pumped up and pushed off a little after 7 p.m. We started across the lake just as the wind began to pick up.

We rounded the last bit of cover as we paddled out from the protected bay and were instantly blasted by wind and waves that broke over the bow. Water splashed across my beautiful bride who was holding on to the guy-line for dear life.

I angled the raft into the breeze to take the waves as straight on as possible. Once I cleared the corner and had a straight shot to the outlet, I spun the raft to now have the wind directly at our backs and happily took the assist to the river.

Hooligan were running thick and the river bottom seemed to be in constant movement as thousands and thousands of the small oily fish darted below us. Dozens of eagles erupted from their perches on the cliffs above as we slid into the current. I imagine we were one of the first to make the float this season and I’m sure they were as surprised to see us as we were to enjoy their escort down the river.

I admit I was nervous to float down a glacial river I had never been on before. It was especially stressful considering it was our first true packraft trip together, both of us in the raft together with gear. Ultimately I was impressed with the raft’s maneuverability around the few submerged trees and sweepers along the float despite having a decent amount of weight in it. I had really thought out the positioning of packs and persons after our trial run a few weeks ago and it paid off in dividends.

We floated into the takeout around 8:30 p.m. The two miles from the lake were cold and wet and we made good time with the prompting to get back to a warm car as Emily’s lips began turning blue. It was an awesome experience and an outstanding introduction to packrafting.

I’m hoping to head out again soon to chase bears. Bear hunting is really just getting started and fishing is about to pick up. I’ll be juggling both as we move into June and we can all only cross our fingers for a warm summer to come!