Barney Riley Hot Springs - June 2011

The East Fork of the Carson River near Barney Riley

A couple of weekends ago I did a short weekend trip in the Land Cruiser to Barney Riley Hot Springs. Barney Riley is on the east fork of the Carson River near Markleville. There is a camp site there and a really nice hot spring. It was the site of my trip earlier in the year, back in January. This time the conditions were much different - not so much snow, but a lot of water from snow melt in the river. This time we entered from Monitor Pass rather than from Highway 395 south of Gardnerville which we used last time.

I haven’t figured out who Barney Riley is or was and how this area was named – perhaps he was an old miner…. who knows?

There was quite a group of us this time – Alvaro, Andy, his son Jeff and myself from Sacramento, Tom from Marin, and three Frenchmen (Guillame, Jean-Phillipe, and Thierry).

We headed in on the trail mid-afternoon on Saturday, just about the right time to set up camp before nightfall. The trail from Monitor Pass is a nice one – not too challenging, but interesting enough and simply wonderful country.

We arrived at the Carson River late afternoon, and found it to be running quite fast. It has been quite warm recently and the snow melt from a heavy and late snow season meant the river was very high. Crossing the river to get to the other side, where the best hot springs are, was just not an option. So we settled in for the night on the east bank of the river alongside several groups of rafters who were rafting the river from Markleville to Gardnerville (a nice rafting run, and perhaps a more exciting one at these water levels – at least a relatively quick run).

Later that evening we were joined in camp by Bill from Sacramento in another of his beat up Toyota’s.

Next morning, Sunday, we decided to go to a crossing further downstream and see what the conditions were like there (the river is wider there and it might be crossable). Though only a short distance downstream it necessitated a circuitous route of several miles around the impassable river bank.
When we reached the river again the flows still looked way too high even in this wider section of river.

We had pretty much decided not to cross the river when Bill took off and surprised us all by driving over to the other side. A bit of a risky proposition, but well executed and he reached the other side to the amazement and cheers of everyone around. This then spurred on a young couple, not a part of our group, to drive across in their big Ford F-350. They too made it safely across.

The rest of us remained on our side of the river, thinking that things were just too risky to venture across. Certainly myself, being relatively inexperienced, I was not about to follow any of these folks into the water.

Then it seems to have dawned on everyone, including Bill, that coming back might be more of a problem that the initial crossing. That crossing had been on a diagonal moving downstream with the flow of the river. The return would be a similar diagonal crossing but this time moving upstream against the flow of the river. That’s a whole different kettle of fish as we soon found out.

Bill S. and his submerged vehicle

So how do we get Bill and his truck back to this side of the river? We made an attempt to get a length of tow strap across to the other side with the aid of a passing kayaker. We tried, the kayaker tried even harder, but that attempt failed. Bill, rather cavalierly, then set off to return unaided by the same route as he crossed earlier. This went well until he was midstream and the force of water pushed him around, into deeper water where he floated, and then sailed downstream. That was not a good situation but fortunately the vehicle stayed upright. Had it flipped over with him inside then the consequences could have been quite serious.

The door pulled off in the rescue attempt

Now the recovery started in earnest – Bill was on top of the truck in the middle of the river. What to do? We managed to throw a thin line to him which we then attached to tow straps which he pulled across to the marooned truck. Alas, the flow was so high that all he could attach the end of the strap to was the roof of the cab of the truck – nothing substantial like the bumper or the frame. A kayaker then helped out by giving Bill a life vest, and towing him behind his kayak to shore (to the wrong side of the river but at least he was on dry land). That left us with the job of pulling the strap attached to the truck with the hope of pulling everything out of the water. This went well for a few seconds and there was some movement of the truck but eventually the force on the top of the cab was too much and we just pulled the top off the truck, leaving the truck cartwheel downstream a ways. Not a great outcome, but at least the truck landed right side up – but this time it was definitely out of reach and the end of our rescue efforts.

We were getting ready to leave when the Ford F-350 decided to return across. We anxiously gathered to watch the results. Again all went well for a while and I thought he had made it, until the engine cut out, and the river took over and pushed him downstream. So now there are two vehicles in the river. There is also a guy and his now quite upset girlfriend on one of them and they need to be rescued. Not a good situation, the water is flowing very fast, the water is very cold, and they don’t have life vests or anything.

And now there were two

A kayaker again comes to the rescue – he reaches the truck, gives the girl his lifevest, gets a line to shore, kayaks to shore and then takes charge of getting both people off the truck (using a pendulum action with a rope to swing each person into shore downstream of the truck).

Quite the eventful day! Not a good outcome though – there were two vehicles in a relatively pristine river that really should not have been there. Everyone was safe, but things could have gone horribly wrong in so many ways. Those kinds of risks should not be taken.

Postscript: The next day the guy returned to recover his F-350 with a backhoe of all things. Somehow he managed to pull it out of the river. Bill returned too and after failing on Monday, managed to get his truck out on Tuesday. The truck was surprisingly intact, though I am sure all it is good for is parts.

The recovered vehicle

Here is a link to some more photos of the weekend on my SmugMug site.