If I wanted to introduce someone to river running this would be an ideal training ground. After a day on the lake practicing paddle strokes, rescue procedures, etc. there would be a lovely day of easy but fun water, followed by a nice camp. And then the next day…. same thing! However, the river is best suited to IKs. Canoes would be hard to maneuver through the boney rapids, rafts would be too wide to slip through the gaps in the rock gardens. The area is miles from anywhere and the season is short, but when you count in the history of the region, the phenomenal wildlife, and the hiking opportunities in the upper Wind Rivers, it has a lot going for it.

We set our next shuttle at the very first of the Warren Bridge sites. The map does not make it obvious what is going on here. Not far below Whisky Grove, the river leaves Forest Service domain and goes into private property. So far, so good. It is also obvious from the map, and Google Earth, that the river here is very slow and very braided. It meanders back and forth through extensive hay meadows for several miles, and then cuts through a low range of hills where the gradient picks up again. The question was, where does the current pick up? We had no idea how fast we would make it through the flats, whether or not we would have to portage, or what other obstacles awaited us, so we set our next shuttle and camp at the first legal spot above the flats, Warren Bridge # 12. The 12 signifies is that it is the 12th designated campsite on BLM land that runs north from Warren Bridge.

What we did have going for us was the river was rising fast: the Warren Bridge gauge went from 835 on May 31 to 1680 on June 2. (We took the 1st off in Pinedale.)

As soon as the river leaves the FS land it gets very, very slow and flat. We paddled along on a modest current of about 2 mph for hours. Civilization is present, but not obtrusive, just a few barns and houses. Finally we reached the next row of hills and the gradient increased, giving us more fun Class II until we got to our next camp. Had we known more about the character of the river we would have placed the camp and shuttle much closer to Warren Bridge, closer to 1 or 2 as opposed to 12.

From Warren Bridge Camp #12 to the actual bridge itself is more fun, nearly continuous Class II+ water. Again, the flow is to be considered. When we drove up to the lakes on the 31st the stretch here looked really bony, perhaps un-runable. Two days later the flow had doubled. An IK could easily run it at 1000 on the Warren Bridge gauge, but a raft would probably need at least 1,500. Maybe 2,000. The rapids had a steady gradient and kept us busy.