Upper Pindar, Multiday Fun In Uttarakhand, India

Damin Singh getting his lean on the Upper Pindar

 

 

Put In:          GPS (30°06'07.2"N 79°54'57.7"E) Note: small bridge
Take Out:     GPS (30°01'16.5"N 79°40'46.3”E) Note: new bridge not on map yet
Class:           Day One class 3-4, day Two class 5, day Three class 4 

Mount Nanda Devi

Description:

The Pindar River flows from the glacial expanse on the southern escarpment of the Nanda Devi Mountain (25,643 feet) the second-tallest peak in India. A full-day drive on fairly good roads (for India) brought us (Arjun Sagoi, Daman Sing, Georgia Farmer, and myself, Chris Baer) to a pass with a significantly worse road and spectacular Himalayan views. Up and over the pass we went into the Pindar Valley and to the tiny village of Khati. We stayed in the loft of a local merchant, who made us a nice breakfast the following morning. The hospitality of the mountain folks is genuine, giving. 

Arjun Sagoi sliding into the Upper Pindar

Day one

Arriving at the put-in bridge, we were joined by a portion of the town that was very inquisitive about our whitewater costumes and our ability to shove all of our multiday equipment into the stern of our kayaks. Once the population of Khati was satisfied with group photos and words of warning, we put on. 

locals of Khati looking on as we prepare our equipment

This first section is relatively mellow; most of the river meanders through a beautiful, dense forest, with massive trees that occasionally canopy the entire river. The whitewater is mainly class 3 with one or two class 4 moves. We traveled five miles to our riverside camp (30°05'48.2"N 79°51'15.2"E) under a bridge, and just outside of the village of Dhaula. I certainly wouldn’t say this was my favorite camp. The bridge looked to be in an ever-evolving state of disrepair and clattered loudly with every person, donkey, or vehicle that crossed. l awoke the following morning to the clatter of the bridge and chimes of bells. The bells were attached to donkeys (I assume the bells are used to track the donkeys when they invariably wander off into the jungle). The donkeys were being used as beasts of burden to haul sand from the beach for the construction of concrete structures in the neighboring village. 

Arjun Sagoi getting pitted on the Upper Pindar

Day Two 

The river passes through a large sedimentary deposit. We are paddling in the dry season, but during the monsoon season, the river erodes a new path through this soft sedimentary section every year. This means we are paddling between massive boulders; there are siphons and undercuts in every rapid. With the combination of a high noon start and very difficult scouting options, our downstream progress was exhaustingly slow. In four hours, we made it only one mile downstream, spending the majority of our time scrambling over massive boulders in the attempt to get a limited peek at the next horizon line. We managed to paddle all but one rapid in this difficult and dangerous sedimentary section. We set camp amongst the giant boulders with one last significant rapid to paddle in the morning. We quickly started to refer to this last rapid as Breakfast Rapid, as we would get to enjoy it the following morning.

Damin Singh putting together one of the longer and relatively sketchy rapids

 

Damin Singh finding his route amongst the sieves 

Day Three

Breakfast Rapid deserved a solid scout; thankfully, it paddled fairly well and was a great way to end this boulder-laden section. The river then mellows in difficulty, but not in scenery. Deep rocky gorges with sheer cliffs and fun class 4 rapids are in store. Some of these rapids are fairly hard to scout, and the rock structure continues to be fairly undercut. After five-ish miles of beautiful canyons, the river starts to open. We found ourselves in shallow glacial deposits, where the river would shoal out. These shoals are not fun. There is a new bridge that would make a good take out option GPS (30°01'42.4"N 79°44'50.3”E). Our shuttle logistics got a bit mixed up, and we made our way down a total of 13 miles on day three to yet another new bridge. The crew was all a bit cold and excited for dry clothes and a good meal.

Damin Singhwith a pretty wheelie on the last ledge of Breakfast Rapid 

adventure by Chris Baer

Going back to the Youghiogheny

Youghiogheny

 

Sixteen years ago I hopped into a convertible with a few other raft guides for a day trip to a river a few hours north of the Gauley. The location was the magical Upper Youghiogheny. The slots were plentiful and tight, and while playing follow the leader we rounded countless blind corners interspaced with a myriad of fun ledges. Years later, I now refer to this section as a staple class 4 kayak run… that has drawn me back year after year.

Why... Upper Youghiogheny from Chris Baer on Vimeo.

So the question is, why? After paddling all over the globe and tons of extremely difficult sections, why do I, and why should you, continue to flock to the Upper Youghiogheny?

Let’s start with the location. Our take out is in Friendsville, Maryland, almost reason enough right there. Friendsville is home to pizza rolls, Maui sweet onion potato chips, and fancy Yuengling beer. It used to be home to one of my favorite restaurants anywhere, The Riverside Hotel. Agnes, the proprietor of the Riverside Hotel and Restaurant, concocted the best vegetarian food I could conceive. It was simple, they only served vegetarian soup and salad (Casey Tango had to twist my arm to try this place the first time (I was complaining,“But there’s no meat!”)). After the first bite I was a believer. Hardy soups, hot-from-the-oven blue corn muffins, edible flowers on the salad (that were picked out of the backyard garden while you were paddling on the river), Tandy Cake with home-churned ice cream for dessert. (Please Agnes come back and make us delicious food again! (the Riverside Hotel changed ownership in 2015, and again in 2017. No food now, almost a reason not to go…)).

Camping is free-ish and only ten minutes from the put-in. The dense forest of the campground reminds me of the woods from the Blair Witch movie. Over the years there have been some pretty epic parties that have occurred in these Blair Witch woods. Huge bonfires, tons of fireworks, friends from all over the world. Heck, there was the one year when some riggers showed up and constructed a 100 foot rope swing attached to the tippy tops of the surrounding trees.

During my first years to the Youghiogheny there always seemed to be a rumor in the air. The reservoir was too high, it was too low, the release was late, the flows were going to be HIGH, not enough water, were we in front of, or behind, the bubble? National Falls is on fire?! I don’t know why but the rumors always made me laugh and we almost always were perfectly on the bubble with an average flow.

On water the river seems to be very reciprocal. If you’re willing to put the effort in you can run some truly hard lines. It’s like the river almost wants you to play. There are hanging eddies everywhere, slots that shouldn’t go (Sid’s Squiggle, Time Warp, left left at Tommy’s), and a couple of communal stops to enjoy some bag wine with the river community (Wait Rock and National Falls). 

So, what brings you back to the Yough year after year after year… and if you haven’t checked this place out, why not??

adventure by Chris Baer

Feeling Small in Nepal, Upper Marsyangdi

Looking north into the tallest mountains in the world

The tallest mountains in the world surround us. Their brilliant, snow-encrusted peaks seem almost dull in comparison to the vibrant prayer flags and audaciously painted structures here in the quintessential Himalayan mountain town of Jagat. From this microscopic Nepali village, Garen Stephens and myself would start yet another trip of a lifetime. The plan was simple; kayak from just north of Jagat nineteen miles down to the slack water of the Mid-Marsyangdi hydro-dam, located just to the south of the town of Besisahar.

the $10 a night hotel in Jagat had a view

Finding Poise in International Logistics

Just under a week before arriving in Jagat, I was meeting up with Kate Stepan and Justin Kleberg in Pokhara, Nepal. We were hashing out plans for what seemed like a fairly straightforward mission… But international logistics always seem to have a dozen wrenches in them; it’s just a matter of trying to determine where they might pop up, and how to deal with them as smoothly as possible when they do. It might be that the vehicle breaks down, it might be that your language skills fail you and you end up in a town hours away from your destination, it might be that the boats don’t fit, or they get denied, or there is sharp metal that will wear through your boat on the roof rack. Or it might be that your attempt at local haggling doesn’t work in your favor, or you get food poisoning from what looked like delicious street food, or the fact that nothing is on schedule and arriving three hours late is standard. Trying to combine what seem to be simple logistics almost never works internationally, but when it does it feels almost magical.

loading kayaks for the trip to Besisahar

this bus isn't even close to full

arriving in Besisahar

local greeting committee

This first leg of the trip, we actually pulled it off: our tourist bus (has less chickens on it, and you usually get a seat) left Pokhara almost on time, it didn’t break down or get in an accident, and we arrived in Besisahar at about noon. Upon arrival, the team broke into different roles: watching the equipment, looking for a room, and searching for a jeep. With the tasks completed, we reconvened and walked to the “hotel”, tossed our bags into the room, dug out our paddling equipment, then walked back across the street to our awaiting jeep. We quickly piled boats and ourselves into the jeep and started to bounce our way up the dirt “road” to Simpani (the border of the Annapurna Conservation area). There we quickly geared up and got on the river. It was a blast! Nearly eight miles of splashy, continuous class 4 water.

looking back on the Annapurna Range

After two days of quintessential class 4, Justin Kleberg and I walked down the street from our hotel to the Annapurna Conservation Area permit office and doled out twenty dollars each to attain our special access permit. This would allow us to travel further up into the drainage. Four more miles up the road, we went to Lamjung and put on at the brink of yet another dam. Subsequently, the section had a portion of its water pulled out and through the hydro scheme. Although the section was partially dewatered, it had a slightly steeper gradient profile then the lower section. It was again spectacular class 4/4+ whitewater. The lines were significantly tighter with more river-wide, dynamic features then the lower section, but thankfully it was entirely boat-scoutable.

Annapurna special access permit

the lady standing in the aisle just out of frame pawned this chicken-in-a-bag off on these guys, they didn't seem so stoked

The following day Kate and Justin had to leave, so I messaged Garen Stephens. He said he was on his way, and wanted to know if I would stick around for a couple more days. I couldn’t say yes fast enough. The sections that we had paddled so far were classic, and a couple more laps on these gems seemed obligatory. Garen made it to Besisahar the next day around midday, and we rallied up for a quick get-to-know-you lap to make sure we would make good paddling partners. We instantly bonded and agreed it would be an exciting mission to head yet further up into the drainage.

local festivities in Besisahar

Yet Further Up the Watershed

The jeep ride got sketchier and bouncier as we continued into the upper part of the drainage. A kilometer past Jagat, the road got relatively close to the river and we signaled to the driver to pull over. The Marsyangdi had changed character; it was now walled in and the rapids were stacked on top of each other. This section is relatively steep at 122 feet per mile, and had not been dewatered by a dam making it rather pushy. We could no longer boat scout as safely as we had in the middle section, and found ourselves out of our boats at almost every horizon line. 

one of the dozen or so cable bridges spanning the river

Vertical Walls and Portaging Are a Trying Combination

We were only a kilometer downstream from the put in when Garen hopped out of his kayak to take a peek at yet another horizon line. This time, he had a different look on his face. There was contemplation, and maybe a bit of concern, as he shouted to me, “you’re going to want to take a peek at this!” The rapid was rather heinous. There was definitely a line, but it looked like one of those rapids that you fired up the day after you broke up with your significant other. Portaging looked almost equally heinous. We were heading into an uncertain black hole with overhanging boulders looming above and a 45 degree slope of slippery rocks coated in dark slime that all angled down towards the massive siphon that was the cause of our hike in the first place. Then there was a cave-like rock structure that we had to shoved our boats through. Then we precariously maneuvered a thin rock ridge thirty feet above yet more siphons. Next up was a small jump across a death crevasse, followed by a steep, overgrown hillside full of thorns. That led quickly into a dry creek bed with plenty of ankle-rolling sized cobble stones, and even more overgrown vegetation. I leaned into the melee of foliage with all my weight but the flora proved unresponsive to gravity.

Garen Stephens, enjoying another classic class 4 rapid

feeling small tucked into the Himalayas

An hour and a half later we made it back onto the water. We were making slow progress. Continuous scouting proved necessary with yet more difficult, stacked rapids that had plenty of no-go locations. Time wasn’t on our side as the sun soon dipped behind the Himalayas. Graciously, the canyon walls momentarily subsided and allowed us an escape from the river. We had made such little downstream progress that we decided to walk the kilometer or so back up to the picturesque village of Jagat, where we enjoyed a relatively soft bed, hot food, and a cold beer.

Garen Stephens heading into the unknown

Day Two, Marsyangdi

The early morning light illuminated the ridiculously steep valley as we hiked back down to the river. Our first rapid was rowdy and got us back in the spirit. The river was once again producing amazing whitewater, one great rapid after the next. Thankfully, we were able to boat scout significantly more rapids on the second day. The only portage that we encountered had a marginal line, but we just weren’t feeling it. Late on day two we stumbled upon a hot spring on river left (next time I might plan on camping at this location and enjoying the hot springs into the evening), but we continued down to the village of Lamjung where we spent the night.

put in, day two

Day three, we routed down the familiar lower section connecting nineteen miles of spectacular class 4, with a couple of bonus big rapids to contend with. If this river were stateside, it would be a true classic, with hordes of paddlers on it every day.

our daily commute

adventure by Chris Baer