Middle Fork of the Kings River
LVMTV gets on the phone with Tommy Hilleke and Robin Betz to recap their 6 days expedition on the Middle fork of the Kings River and to talk about Tommy and John’s one-day descent of the Middle Kings.
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The 6-day expedition started out with a group of 13 kayakers, consisting of, Jason Hale, Robin Betz, Katie Hilleke, Ryan Casey, Eric Boomer, Tristan McClaren, Ian McClaren, John Grace, Tommy Hilleke, Jules Campbell, Fred Coriell, Dave Simmonite, and Justin Beckwith.
The expedition began with a 13.8-mile hike over a 12,000-foot pass, with an 80-pound kayak strapped to each of their backs. Being that the river ran in June this year, instead of August, there was still a lot of snow left on mountains that they had to hike through. This hike is, on average, a grueling 9 hours. Props to the girls, who also had 80-pound kayaks on their backs and weigh half as much…
Once making it to the put in, they prepared for 5 epic days on some of the greatest class V whitewater in the world.
Day 1 of kayaking went smooth and was a day full of mad bombing down the river. We can’t not mention Tommy Hilleke’s swim with a serious beat down. (this footage can be seen on LVM 23-coming soon).
On day 2 of the river they were greeted with 2 miles of some of the steepest whitewater right off the bat. This was also the day where Dave Simmonite broke his arm coming off a drop and hitting a wall. This was more than a minor break-his arm was flopping! They were of course at the bottom of the box canyon and Dave would need to hike back out to where they began the hike. Ryan Casey volunteered to hike him out and returned back to camp the next day. Props to Ryan for being a bigger man than everyone in the rest of the group.
Day 3…kayaking started at noon when Ryan made it back to camp after evacuating Dave. The group is now down to 12. The day went smooth with Boomer and Tristan running the Big Bad Beaver, which only Tommy Hilleke has ran before. They managed to catch up on time and had a great day.
Day 4-The Bottom 9, which didn’t go as smoothly as the previous day. 6 miles into the day Katie Hilleke swam and lost her boat, loosing all her belongings-even her shoes. From here on out Tommy’s mission was to get her to the confluence of the middle and south fork of the Kings River to the trail that goes into Kings Canyon National Park. They didn’t quite make it there that night, and ended up sleeping on an animal trail.
Day 5…Once re-united with the group the next morning, Katie hiked out while the rest paddled down the The Kings River to the car. The group was down to 11.
After completing the river, Tommy John, Jules, Robin, and Jason (who were all in 1 car) were reunited with Katie in King Canyon National Park. The most epic expedition on the middle fork of the Kings River was over.
It was now time for Tommy and John to rest up before their 1-day mission.
One Day Descent of the Middle Kings-19 hours 53 minutes
On June 18th at 9:00 PM Tommy and John began their hike in with nothing but their paddle gear and a small amount of food…and a lighter Jules Campbell hiked in with them and ran their shuttle. His shuttle and motivational support was critical to the trip. At 3:13 AM they arrived at the put in the river. It was time for a couple hours of rest before daybreak.
At 6:30 AM Tommy and John began kayaking the 28 miles of river that drops 6,400 feet. Day 1 took a 1 hour and 45 minutes, day 2 took an hour, and day 3 took 3 ½ hours. Then then rested before completeing the bottom 9.
In total, the expedition, including the 13.8 mile hike, took 19 hours and 53 minutes. They arrived at the confluence at 4:53 PM. It was time to celebrate.
Yeah badass, yeah!
Posted by: Steve Krajewski | June 29, 2007 at 02:02 PM