Shuttle Service for Skagit/Sauk

[Skunk Ape]

Okay, regular guy Mike is down with medical issues. Does anyone have someone in mind as a back up? Pretty new to drifting these rivers and have been a bankie for some years up until recently. Would rather be in the boat than the bank and since my back up was my wife, she’s out because of foot surgery. In desperate need of someone reliable. If not, hell, I can run the shuttle for the weekends as long as I have someone to do likewise for the week. I really prefer to avoid the crowds come Saturday and Sunday so those days are usually freed up for me.

 

[Paige]

When all else fails

 

[the_chemist]

When all else fails

Yup. Picked up a couple pontoon guys on sauk concrete valley road a few weeks back. One day I'll let them out of my basement.

In all seriousness, it wa nice to trade info and they wouldn't let me say no to $40 for my "troubles".

 

[Skunk Ape]

Thought about that but……what if I get molested like my mom always used to say about hitching rides; I return to launch and I find my boat is gone or gone over by the local tweeker crowd; no one picks me up because I look too suspicious to pick up. Nah, like my boat and myself too much to risk all that drama but thanks for the input.

 

[SculpinSwinger]

Many years ago my BIL and I would kayak together regularly, he would drop me, the boats and gear at the put in, drive to the take out, and thumb a ride back. He returned to the put in in the back of a truck that had no windshield and a couple guys that looked like they had been up for a couple days!

 

[Paige]

About 15 yrs ago I planned to floated Native to Fabers, dopped the boat in and left the truck at Fabers to thumb it back.

I walked about half of it before being picked up

 

[SKYKO]

Just after Y2K we were on the GR in mid December for several days camping and doing day floats. Many of you will recall the CR tribs were chock full of summer runs in those years. Anyway this day it was my turn to hitch back to the truck, our float was state line to Boggans, the fishing had been absolutely Nuts, by far the most catching I have ever experienced, not even close. We fished till almost dark. Cold as hell with solid foggy cloud deck well down below canyon rims, no street lights obviously, no lights of any kind really other than briefly at the hatchery complex about midway. Anyway I hauled ass walking while I could see, by full dark I couldn't see shit at all, chip seal road kept me on course vs gravel shoulders and I had a Kodak disposable with flash, flash would still work allowing me to periodically orient and not overshoot. I found the truck, buddies had started a campfire under the bridge, drank all the beer and had a good old time laughing. Nobody came up or down the canyon road, fun memories!

 

[SKYKO]

One more shuttle story, after a particularly crappy couple of days i launched at Beavertail one midweek september evening for a quick solo overnighter to Macks. Right before the launch i could tell i had broken the trailer on the washboards from hell. There was no way i wasnt going to float so i said screw it and launched around 6pm or so,shuttle had already been set up with Henry's and I could figure something out at take out the next day. Came up with the MacGyver plan over beers that night and the pics show what i did with what i had on hand in truck tool box along with cut green streamside branches at Macks. Even managed a fish and made it all the way back to Bend going super slow.

 

[Eastside]

One more shuttle story, after a particularly crappy couple of days i launched at Beavertail one midweek september evening for a quick solo overnighter to Macks. Right before the launch i could tell i had broken the trailer on the washboards from hell. There was no way i wasnt going to float so i said screw it and launched around 6pm or so,shuttle had already been set up with Henry's and I could figure something out at take out the next day. Came up with the MacGyver plan over beers that night and the pics show what i did with what i had on hand in truck tool box along with cut green streamside branches at Macks. Even managed a fish and made it all the way back to Bend going super slow.View attachment 107803View attachment 107804View attachment 107805View attachment 107806

The lower access road is famous for that. Hasn’t happened to me yet, but the guides that do that run frequently during the season all have stories about broken trailers.

 

[Gyrfalcon22]

One more shuttle story, after a particularly crappy couple of days i launched at Beavertail one midweek september evening for a quick solo overnighter to Macks. Right before the launch i could tell i had broken the trailer on the washboards from hell. There was no way i wasnt going to float so i said screw it and launched around 6pm or so,shuttle had already been set up with Henry's and I could figure something out at take out the next day. Came up with the MacGyver plan over beers that night and the pics show what i did with what i had on hand in truck tool box along with cut green streamside branches at Macks. Even managed a fish and made it all the way back to Bend going super slow.View attachment 107803View attachment 107804View attachment 107805View attachment 107806

Zip ties are modern man's Clovis point. Nice work !

 

[skyriver]

The lower access road is famous for that. Hasn’t happened to me yet, but the guides that do that run frequently during the season all have stories about broken trailers.

I love it when they slow down for me and the empty trailer starts bouncing around into my side of the road.