October Middle Kings

October 23, 2009

Photos

By Darin McQuoid

Yesterday afternoon we took off the first out of season descent of the Middle Kings. In the normal season the 12-14 mile hike in over 12,000′ Bishop Pass takes 10-12 hours, and then most groups spend four to six days on the water. It’s been called the "trip of a lifetime" and we knew it would be even more epic in the off season. On Wednesday, October 19th we hiked from sun up to sun down and almost made it to the river. We spent a windy night around 10,000′, got some light snow, woke early and pushed another hour and a half to the water. Putting on the river was low, but became better three miles downstream with the confluence of Palisade Creek. From there on we skipped documenting our progress in the name of making time and hoping for warmer weather at lower elevations. All told we emerged after four days total, exhausted by the hike and long days on the water. With our speed descent not much time was available for taking photos of rapids, and we were all focused on conserving our precious amounts of energy. The short days combined with cold weather made it a survival mission that we were all glad to have done, but probably won’t do again in the off season!