Lowe River – Keystone Canyon

6/6/24

5mi, Class III

6.15 ft – 6.17 ft, 3030 – 3060 cfs
(Lowe @ Horsetail Falls)

Light rain throughout the night and into the morning held the river at a consistent level to what we observed the night before. Found myself rather scared before knowing this would be the most challenging that I had yet paddled. The fact that the team consisted of four rafts and another packrafter helped ease my fears.

• Snowslide Gulch surprised me with bigger waves than anticipated. Had to brace to stay upright; this provided me a taste of what the rest of the run would look like.
• Caught small eddies to space properly around the rafts. Cold water made for tough times tempering the big rafts and us in the small boats were moving much faster.
• 14 Mile Rapid/Bridalveil Rapid (scariest looking) C to R taking small tongue R of raft tongue, fought laterals until going R to L past big hole. Waves felt very big and turbulent.

We exited at the bridge just beyond the canyon. That day, a total of four of us packrafters split from the rafters and ran the braided portion of the Tsaina. Initially, we had our eyes set on the Lower Canyon of the Tsaina, but after scouting it we came to the conclusion it would be wiser to not enter the committing canyon. After our trip, we headed to Squirrel Creek to float the Tonsina River the next day.