In May and June I enacted a plan that had been on the back burner for a bit of time, a trip down the Owens River near Bishop, CA. I started May 30, 2011 finally hitting the water around 11 (after inflating the raft and packing the bike for a while. This is the first time I strapped my bike onto a packraft, so it took some fiddling to get it right - and it still wasn't right). At my first break I took off one bar end and twisted the handlebars a bit - that helped a lot. I strapped the bike on with both wheels removed and the back of the bike off the front of the raft. Next time I do this I'll strap the derailleur to the frame to try to protect it a bit as it was sticking out the front in a vulnerable position. I also used a Thai plastic beach mat between the bicycle and the raft to help protect the raft. I don't know if this was necessary, but my raft seemed to be fine after the trip. One final suggestion for taking your bike on a raft - bring some sort of chain lube for afterwards.
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I put in at the Pleasant Valley Campground and headed downstream. It took about 3.5 hours to get to the first bridge over the river. There was one split fork near the Happy Boulders and I took the right fork which might have saved me from a strainer. In general the Owens here is narrow and deep and very twisty. There are some undercut banks and the current tends to go sideways towards the outside of the turns. Normally it is possible to just go with the flow and dodge the occasional rock or tree but here I had to paddle towards the middle of the river a lot to avoid being swept into the bank (where the current went underwater) or into overhanging willow branches. Since the river was so twisty this was almost a full time job. It was definitely heads up paddling even though there weren't many waves or mid-river obstacles. In fact the river was so twisty and meandering sometimes it felt like going down someone's intestines and spending far more time going in a different direction than the one the river went on a larger scale map. I am guessing that the river distance was at least twice the straight line distance if not more.
I stopped the first night around 7:25 somewhere SE of Bishop. It was starting to get cold. Unfortunately there were a heap of mosquitos when I took out. It was cold enough to bundle up and they weren't a problem after that. I unpacked, ate, and went to bed. Unfortunately my sleeping pad leaked and it was a bit colder than my sleeping bag was able to handle. I didn't get the best sleep.
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Between the cold and hard ground and the bug potential I got a pretty quick start the next morning. Once again I was heading down a very convoluted stream with a headwind. The wind was pretty frustrating at times. One interesting thing I passed this day was a large radio telescope on the bank - part of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. I could also see other dishes farther away as I paddled down the river. For much of the day a cloud formed over the center of the Owens Valley. Some of the time it was a beautiful wispy veil that looked like floating silk with curled edges like a Hokusai wave print. I would have liked to get a time-lapse of it. The shade was welcome for some of the time.
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In the afternoon I approached a water control structure and ended up running it, not entirely on purpose. I almost made it but instead I got sucked back, turned sideways, and flipped. BRRRR. I lost my water bottle and a dry bag. Unfortunately the dry bag was getting maytagged in the recirculation. I watched it get worked for about 15 minutes until it got ejected (probably because a stick poked a hole in it and it was taking on water). I quickly put my raft in and chased it down (and I also found my water bottle). Then I took out on a grassy bank to dry myself and all the stuff from the dry bag out. Some thing were absolutely soaked like my wallet while others like my mp3 player and telephone were merely wet (a lucky thing). I mostly dried everything, patched the leak I found in my mattress, patched the drybag, and then put back in. Once again I continued to about 7:30. This time I was in a more arid location and the mosquitos were less of a problem. Unfortunately it was colder and a hard twig poked a new hole in my air mattress. Sigh, another night of not enough sleep.
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I got up before the sunrise to take photos of the mountains. They were very nice all lit up with the first light. Unfortunately there weren't a heap of clouds all lit up too. Once again I struggled against the headwinds all day, especially when I got to Tinemaha Reservoir. There I was barely moving against the wind. If I had known how long the traverse around the dam was I'd have taken out much earlier and just ridden my bike past the lake or at least walked it with all my stuff.
Once past the lake I put in below another water control structure although this one looked like it would be fun to run with a smooth big drop and wave but no recirculating current. Below the dam the river felt like it was incised into the sage desert more. The wind continued to pick up and when I got to the start of the LA aqueduct I was getting pelted with sand blown off of the bank. It took a fair amount of time to change from boating mode to biking mode but I was able to get everything strapped to my bicycle.
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After a washboarded road I got to 395 and enjoyed a strong push from the tailwind. I was cruising along at about 20 MPH, but after 5 enjoyable miles the wind direction began to change. Soon it was blowing from about 10 oclock which felt like a headwind while I was biking. Even with the headwind I made ok time and it was nice to use my legs for a change. I refilled my water bottles in Big Pine and then stopped at the Keough Hot Springs ditch for a soak that evening. Unfortunately with the wind the water wasn't as hot as I would have liked. Sleeping on the ground without enough insulation wasn't very pleasant. There was ice in my water bottle the next morning when I got up early to slip back into the warm water before packing up, wasting a lot of time looking for my sunglasses (cleverly put into my food bag for some reason), and biking back to the truck.
Back at the truck I spread out my stuff to dry it, patched my mattress, tried to clean the dry bag I found on the trip (unfortunately it was open and only had old sunscreen and bug spray in it), and cooked a big breakfast. It was a cool trip, although I think the first day or 2 were the more interesting. If there wasn't such a strong wind I would have been tempted to continue down the aqueduct, but I think that is strongly discouraged. The river continues past the aqueduct but there is so little water that I think it would be difficult to paddle in an inflatable boat with a bicycle on the front (too narrow and reed-choked of a passage). There were only a few strainers I had to get out of the river to avoid, and one dam and one water control structure I should have avoided. There were also a number of places where the river dropped a few feet that were exciting to run, but not particularly difficult.
I saw a lot of wildlife on this trip, especially birds. Lots and lots of birds. Maybe 30 or more different kinds from the tiny little warblers in the willows and reeds to waterfowl, gulls, raptors, and herons. Perhaps the most interesting was when diving birds surfaced next to me. Sometimes they would fly off and other times resubmerge. I also surprised a number of deer at the edge of the river. I briefly saw some sort of long skinny critter - maybe an otter, although it seemed a bit small. There were lots of signs of beavers, even up a bit in trees. I didn't get any good views of them but one evening it was sort of like someone was lobbing rocks into the river near me with their sounding splashes. I saw a lot of tiny fishes and a few trout and one large carp. Mostly it was too deep and murky to see fish though. I also experienced mosquitos, but the winds and cold mostly kept them from really being a problem.
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