Bill Hatcher Photography

Mountain Biking across Alaska circa 1996

 

These are images are from a National Geographic magazine story I shot in 1996. My mission was to document three adventurers Roman Dial, Paul Adkins and Carl Tobin as they mountain biked the length of the Alaskan Range. They started at the Canadian border and rode 775 miles to Lake Clark in Western Alaska. The trip took them 7 weeks. I joined them on four segments of the trip. I photographed the start as well as the last week of the trip plus I joined them during the major mountain and glacier crossing sections of the trip. I utilized Alaska bush planes to rejoin the group.

The biggest challenge was actually riding and shooting. I would alternate riding in front, to the side or if I wanted to capture the landscape they were riding into I would hold back as they rode into the scene. Probably the most anxious moments on the shoot were the glacier crossings. Falling into a crevasses when riding across snow covered glaciers was a deadly hazard. In the photo below Paul has just stepped into small crevasse. He is tied to the other cyclist as well as to me. Notice how the rope is tight on Paul, If he plummets further a tight rope will keep us from being jerked off our feet. If he does fall into the abyss and our light 7 mm rope does not snap when shock loaded we will try to arrest his fall and then haul him back to the surface. On the trip I fell into two crevasses and I only needed to be pulled out of one crevasse. Romans advice was I should step more softly.

Another danger were the numerous river crossings. It's bad enough to fall during a river crossing and to be swept down river. This did happen to me once, but because the water is glacier melt and the air temp is in the 40's hyperthermia is going to set in fast. When I lost my footing on one river crossing. I heard Roman yell for me to hold onto my bike. If I lost a grip on on the bike it would be lost in the rapids. As soon as I made it to shore a bonfire was lighted and I was warmed up. During that particular swim I drown my Nikon f4 camera and the 24 mm f2.8 lens. I was left with one more camera body, my back-up body, and two lenses a 70-150 zoom and a 16-35 zoom. I didn't swim anymore rivers so the single body lasted until we reach our next supply 5 days later.

  What is amazing about this trip is it was my first trip to Alaska. The landscapes I passed through probably see a a handful of visitors a year if even that. The trip pressed all my buttons. The vast landscapes, the adventure and to roll through this country on a bike was truly extraordinary. 

 

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I have to hand it to these three adventurers they lead me with their extensive wilderness knowledge and strength safely through one of the most dangerous wilderness regions in North America. We had mishaps, Paul previously frost bitten feet were made worse by having constantly cold wet feet. The condition made it difficult for his to walk during the last few days of the trip. I lost nearly 15 pounds of body weight as I couldn't get enough calories with the freeze dried food and energy bars ration. Roman and Carl suggested I bring more snickers bars next trip.

It was also on this trip that I learned a lot about light weight packing, packrafts for crossing rivers and the importance of good organized logistics to keep everyone healthy and to insure a successful expedition. You go out into this country unprepared and inexperience you will suffer the consequences. Despite all of the hardship and the many long climbs with the bike on our back we did get in miles and miles of great mountain biking. What I didn't realize at the time was this thing we were doing, Roman called it "hell biking" was to become a popular world wide adventure activity. In 2018 it's got a catchier name, bikepacking and there are gear manufactures who sell to the growing number of people who chose to travel this way. I can say that this trip was maybe my second or third hell bike trip and 

 

today, 22 years after this trip I am still bike packing. Today my bike is a full suspension carbon fiber and I have a slew of specialty light weight gear to stash my goods for long over-night bike adventures,  but that's simple progress. What I really enjoy is with the passing years I have never lost the will to get out there and suffer to see beautiful new country.

 

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Colo River packraft

Melanie and I spent a lovely wet three days packrafting down the Colo River in NSW, Australia.

The trip was a bit of a gamble since we knew a cyclone was bearing down on NSW and bringing with it heavy rains. Melanie and I figured if we played our cards right we might get some initial higher water with the early rains that came before the main force of the storm hit the Colo basin. Yeah, right!

Well as it turns out we had a low water float for all three days and rain for two of those days. A few hours after we got off the Colo it spiked from .6 meters to 16 meters! It would have been some

Packrafting in Australia

I thought it was pretty cool that Australia Geographic Outdoor recently republished my packrafting story on their web site that I wrote for their print magazine. The story is about the packrafting guru Roman Dial. In my article Roman talks about packraftings past as well as the future of packrafting this is a link to the story on the Outdoor website.

Just in the past couple of years I've seen packrafting really catching on downunder. From what I have seen recently on rivers and in the Australia media Alpacka rafts, the company that's on the cutting edge of packraft design, must be selling a lot of their boats to adventurers in Australia. With so many rivers located in remote and roadless areas and accessable only by foot packrafting makes a lot of sense in Australia. I see a very bright future for packrafting in both Australia and New Zealand. Here's a link to the video from the packraft trip Roman, Cody and I did down the Franklin River a couple of years ago.

Yellow Boat

I usually don't get excited about new gear unless it's the latest new camera, but I just ordered another new packraft from Alpacka, I have two now. I plan to pick it up at the Alpacka shop in Mancos, Colorado and I'll have it just as the temps start warming up for boating in Australia.
The new boat is yellow and has yet to be named. Any ideas for a name that doesn't include the word banana or lemon cream puff?

This is packrafting in yellow boats on the Picton River this past year.

Weather and Photography

Next Week I am loading up the sea kayaks for a trip down south. I'll be spending five days on the Murray River. I am excited to spend time on this river which is Australia's longest river. Plans while exploring the Murray include a chance to paddle through the recently declared Barmah National Park, located 40 kilometers upstream from the river town of Echuca. This park protects a remarkable forest of river red gum trees that are the iconic tree of the Murray River. These red gums require periodic floods as part of their life cycle. Currently the Barmah is in flood and a boat will be the best way to view the forest.

Of course before leaving on any trip I check the seven day weather forecast and I am pleased with the report. The chance of rain is 90% during my entire week on the river and in the Barmah forest! I am excited for this weather because it means there is a higher liklihood of good storm light and better saturated colors in the rain soaked forest.

Being on a river during a storm is a great photo opportunity since storms often follow river basins and can be the catalyst for dramatic and quick changing light conditions. My last experience with river storm light was just last month while packrafting down the Huon River in Tasmania. I've included two photos I took during that trip. 

As we paddled down the Huon River I would try to position myself  between my two packrafting mates, Roman and Cody Dial. This position allowed me to shoot a boater both downstream and back upstream. That was the perfect place to be when I saw this remarakable rainbow form above Cody downstream. I stopped paddling and was able to shoot a few frames of Cody as he continued downriver. 

Then I waited for Roman to appear. As I sat in my packraft the rain moved upstream, the rainbow faded and I was soon getting drenched as the cloud passed over me. The cloud continued upriver and just then the sun broke through as Roman came in sight. The sun illuminated the rain drops perfectly against the dark forest.

I was able to frame Roman in the corner and fill the rest of the photo with the falling rain drops. I guess that is what's called getting lucky with the weather. My fingers are crossed that I'll have the same opportunities on the Murray.

Running the Franklin River circa 1980

Here's a video of Bob Brown running the Franklin River in 1980 in an inflatable duckie. Bob pioneered the use of small inflatable boats on the Franklin and has boated the river many times. Today Senator Bob Brown is leader of the Australian Green party . In this video he's boating on the Franklin with no helmet, no pfd and no fear.  

The Franklin Wild River from Forrest McCarthy on Vimeo.

 

 

Packrafting the Franklin River Tasmania

I am just returning from packrafting the Franklin River in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park in South West Tasmania with Roman Dial and his son Rome. The Franklin River is Australia's equivalent of the Grand Canyon for its sense of remote wilderness and challenging boating. We took 5 days exploring the 100 kilometer long canyon from the confluence with the Collingwood to Sir John Falls on the Gordon River. Click here for Roman's video from the adventure.

The rivers fast moving waters offer kayakers, rafters and especially packrafters with day after day of challenging white water. Our first camp, perfect for three people, was the Huon Pine camp ten kilometers down stream from the Collingwood-Franklin confluence. The Huon Pine that is this camps name stake is over a meter wide and is estimated to be almost 1,500 yeas old. This Huon, seen in the picture above, has a perfect view of the Franklin and grows just above the high flood zone 18 meters above the river level .

Scouting river left on the lower rapids of Thunder Rush in the Franklin Rivers Great Ravine. Our portage around this rapid involve a high portage requiring some fixed line and a short rappel back to the river.

Pack Rafting part 2, Tasmania

Here the Dial's, Roman and Rome, set out from Lake Pedder, in the South West National Park inTasmania, for some pack rafting on the Anne River.  The Anne River is a steep creek that has only been boated three times in the past ten years so we knew to expect almost anything. The two days on the Anne turned out to be a classic low water level workout. Each day involved 12 hours of the hard labor of pushing, pulling and paddling our boats over countless rock bars, but we enjoyed some nice boating as well.The photo below is Rome Dial on the Upper Anne River where it drops at about 400 feet a mile. The Anne is beautiful creek boating at the right water levels. During our descent we tried to imagine how nice it would be if side creeks delivered us more water, but despite overnight rains this never happened. 

The first day we made only ten km as we were slowed by shallow water and the constant need to push or drag the boats over rock bars. 

Clyde River, NSW

The five kilometer section we paddled from the old wooden Clyde Bridge to Blue Gum Flats was an easy float. Although this was just a short section of river it was also some of the most beautiful river we have seen in NSW. The Clyde River has it's source in the Budawang National Park a Wilderness area about 30 kilometers inland from the ocean. The river meanders in a southerly direction on it's  110 km. journey to the Tasman Sea.  For much of this distance the river is bordered by National Park and State Forest. This protection helps keep the waters of the Clyde exceptionally unpolluted since it does not pass through any major settlements or industry sites. For this simple reason it is one of the cleanest rivers on the east coast of Australia. The Clyde is also one of the last major undammed rivers in Australia. The indigenous Australians named this river Bhundoo.