Wood River Expedition Or How We Became Movie Stars (sort of)

Thanks for the video.  I laughed VERY HARD at the first line:

“All I can think about now is getting Luke and I safely home to our families . . .”

For some reason this caused me a wonderful chest-heave of delight.  Don’t know why.  I’ll have to watch the rest.  No sarcasm intended, btw.  The quote is a great way to start off a backcountry adventure video.

Thanks for posting the video – It really puts the narrative of your trip report into perspective.  Unbelievable!  Glad you’re both okay.

After full viewing I have a few questions.  I wondered about what gear you lost like packs but at the end you mention two packs were lost.

It seems like the adventure was really marred by the failure of gear, in this case the rafts both splitting seeming “so easily”.  Is this a common feature of these rafts?

And no one mentions hypothermia that I can tell.  And the water looked cold.  And since you were in the water most of the time, was hypothermia never a problem that required fixing?

Tipi – If you can read the article it will explain a lot.  They both had drysuits.  There’s also another thread where they give some more explanation regarding the trip.  It’s the kind of article that BPL used to have regularly and made having a paid subscription worthwhile.  I’m hoping this is an indicator of the stuff to come.

Tipi rafts don’t typically split like that.  I’ve beaten on lighter rafts without that happening. My was because of a 4 foot drop that didn’t show in that film (although I mention it).  Also there were layers of very sharp sedimentary rocks, almost like knife blades. That is what got Ben.

Kevin no promises but Ben and I are planning another trip for this summer. Another first decent with potential to go haywire.

Edit – I just spoke to Kelley from Kokepelli rafts today and he shed some light on why the rafts might have failed. The Alpacka rafts that most packrafters are used too have a different valve. No matter how hard you try you really cannot over inflate them. So if they hit something sharp its sort of like poking a mushy balloon with a pen. You can puncture it but its not easy. The Kokepelli rafts have a one way Boston valve. With that you can force a lot more air pressure into the raft, like maybe twice the pressure. A stiff raft is nice but too stiff makes it more prone to catastrophic failure. Kelly showed me how much air pressure he put in a raft. It was a bit stiffer then I typically get my Alpacka raft but not the surf board like stiffeness that you get by forcing as much air as possible in there. Lesson learned I will not over inflate my Kokepelli next time.

Glad you could laugh at my distress, Tipi :). You can watch the full version of this trip on my YouTube channel (being released in episodes) and also I have pics with the story on my Facebook which would help explain more.

And this year’s trip is going to be bigger and better and wetter…

Nice edit.

I think it’s great that you two both captured footage and put it out there.  The moment that sticks in my mind is when Luke’s boat goes flat, fills with water, and gets dragged off in spite of Luke’s considerable efforts to hang on.  Good illustration for all of us when/if that ever happens.

Yeah lucky thing I put my camera on before the run Dave. Obviously I was in no shape to be thinking about filming once things went south. When I look back at the footage taken after that I can sometimes tell who was feeling better. Normally the one who was less worn out would think to grab a picture or some video. Definitely a good learning experience. I’ve run all kinds of “what ifs” through my head while preparing for trips but the idea of losing two boats at once and temporarily losing contact with each other really wasn’t something I’d thought of. Its easy to imagine it getting a lot worse (not finding each other, ending up on opposite sides of the river, not finding Ben’s boat before night etc).

I believe you where the one who pointed out that adding rivers to the equation means you can get in trouble a lot faster then on a backpacking trip (maybe that is part of the reason I love it so much).

I learned to whitewater before I learned to backpack.  That water, in a remote area, with that boat, is a little terrifying.  I would enjoy that boat and high-riding pack in class II water.  Beyond that, I’m walking.  The scenery, especially early on in the lake, is just spectacular.

Ben C, the water was nothing beyond our paddling experience, but it the high-riding (and heavy) pack did effect handling more than I had anticipated in the lower volume Nirvana.

Just got my new boat today and it has a t-zip cargo fly, so that’ll get the centre of gravity much lower and get the bulk off the front.