Smith River, Part 2/4

DAY 2: Upper Scotty Alan to Lower Bear Gulch, 17 miles

It's a beautiful new day!  Breakfast, break camp, pack the rafts and off we go.  It is sunny and warm, and any apprehensions about controlling the rafts are gone within the first hour as the confidence of controlling the raft quickly builds.

    


The river is brown with lots of silt due to it cresting.  It's a bit wider now than when we started the day before, and the canyon walls rise 1000 feet around us.  We had no cell service shortly after we had put in the day before, and will not have consistent service until our takeout.  It's really wonderful to get away from civilization.

We did see other rafters, but the permit system limits the number on the river.  Over our 5 days, we would leapfrog past the same ones that would pass by us later.  One group we passed by a number of times was an outfitter that provides service for a fishing tour.  There would be a single individual in a large raft and lot of gear that would go ahead and set up camp for the fishing tour ahead of their arrival into the next camp every day.  One of these rafts was run by a young man name Crawdaddy (I'm not sure if we named him or that was the name he gave us), and anytime he passed by us we would ask him for a beer -- it was obvious he had a very large supply.







After a few hours we stop for lunch underneath a large cottonwood tree.  The weather and the views are both fabulous.  The most surprising wildlife that I saw that day was a pelican.  I had never heard of fresh water ones.

    



The sides of the canyon had some color to them, as well as many caves.  There are some larger caves that have trails to go explore them, but we did not do that this trip.  We eventually reached a spot where we could see three Teepees and covered wagons ahead on the shore.  We have reached Heaven on Earth Ranch .

The ranch is the only commercial facility to stop at along the river.  Set in a charming location, it has a 9 hole golf course and a small store for resupplying rafters.  We naturally stopped there.

They do not have a liquor license for a bar, so they cannot sell drinks.  On inquiry, for a donation friends traveling down the river can be provided with a libation 😉, and a number of donations were made 🙂


    




Hanging out at Heaven on Earth, libation in hand, with their pet calf Bella who really enjoyed being petted.  It is a gorgeous sunny day with the thermometer showing about 78 degrees.




Most of the crew remained at Heaven on Earth for a while, rented clubs and played 3 holes of golf.  My understanding is that many more donations and libations were also procured during that time.

Paul, Penny and I floated downriver in Pickle, since our campsite was only half a mile further just around a bend in the river, and we wanted to pitch our tents and take a rest (being elders y'know!). We successfully floated down, set up the tents we had, cracked a few beers and waited for the rest of the gang.  After an hour and a half or so, I asked Paul about some gathering clouds off in one direction, and he assured me they were blowing the away from us.  We continued to wait for the rest of the gang.  As we waited it began to get more cloudy, and a small breeze became real wind.  The sprinkling rain turned to a downpour, and then ....



... we got pelted with pea size hail, in addition to thunder and lightning.  Mind you, this is just Paul, Penny and I at camp.  The other three rafts have not yet appeared and had to float down the river in this weather!!  I was fortunate in that I had all my gear with me in the raft which included rain coat and rain pants.  Paul and Penny had some of their gear in one of the other rafts.  Paul did have his tent which was set up and I had also set my tent up.





Despite the thunder and lightning, we took shelter under a tree as the wind whipped hail was painful.  My brand new tent got it's first test of inclement weather, and kept admirably dry inside.

At that point we could see the remaining rafts coming down the river.




It was a chaotic scene as the rafts beached, with everyone taking shelter under the trees.  It was very wet and very cold due to the wind.  Since I had rain gear on, I grabbed items which I thought would be most useful, which were the stove and propane, in order get something warm to eat and drink when the storm subsided.  Keith had the very good sense to pull out the kitchen shelter and set that up.  There was quite a bit of hail inside the rafts.





With the shelter set up, the stove was brought inside it, set on the ground, and turned on to provide heat.  I asked if there was anything I could bring anyone from the rafts, and the cold, wet com padres unanimously requested beer, which greatly helped revive everyone's spirits!.





Austyn made sure Grandma Christine stayed warm inside the tent Paul had been able to set up.




The aftermath of the storm is that misery loves company, and this was one of those bonding shared experiences of the trip that brought the group together.

The storm did pass, and as the sun peeked back out equipment and clothes were hung out to dry.  The Lower Bear Gulch campsite area did remain muddy, with pools of water to navigate around, but a delightful dinner and campfire that evening ended the day on a very high note.  The evening campfire conversation focused on both the storm, and who won the round of golf they played.





DAY 3: Lower Bear Gulch to Park Flat (3), 7.9 miles

A sunny morning in no hurry, I took the time to climb up a nearby hill and get a view of the river and the campsite on the left side.  Such a pretty area!





Today is a short day, floating just shy of 8 miles total.  The weather is superb, which allowed for fully drying everything out, then load the rafts and off we go