Packraft - Skagit Eagle Float

Trip Report

Braving the winter omnicloud and inevitable drizzle (and knowing Fionnuala’s famous chili awaited us at the takeout!), our goal was to spot a few of the many bald eagles who choose to overwinter in the Skagit drainage. The Skagit is one of very few rivers left in our state still hosting all five species of pacific salmon, and the winter chum and coho runs provide steady food for the hundreds of birds that gather along its banks and cobble bars.

We met at the take out, Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport, and the usual pre-paddle gear wrangle and car shuffle ensued. Howard Miller Park, also home to the Skagit Bald Eagle Interpretive Center, has ample parking ($5 fee), running water, a boat ramp, and flush toilets.  Most folks took 530 through Darrington and had seen an abundance of eagles on the drive. Did that imply that we'd see fewer birds on the Skagit, if the population had moved to the Sauk? This was the third year for this December Skagit eagle paddle and reports of previous years bird counts were mixed, only two dozen last year, but sometimes more than a hundred. The Bald Eagle Interpretive Center recommends looking for eagles in the mornings and on overcast days, since the birds will be soaring on thermals if it's clear.

 

With drysuits donned and many blue Ikea bags of gear loaded into the shuttle cars we drove the 15 minutes Northeast to Marblemount, parking just under the Cascade River Road bridge at the Marblemount boat launch. This launch is a giant gravel lot, with space for trucks and trailers, with a pit toilet and boat ramp.

 

Robert, our trip leader, led us through the pre-paddle checklist. What conditions should we expect? Who has the most recent first aid training? Who should be lead? sweep? rover?  Designated eagle counter? Paddle signals? Has everyone burped their suits and tempered their boats? Everything in order, we launched. But not before Danielle, spotting an American dipper, started mimicking the bird’s distinctive bob-and-squat routine. Soon enough several of us were bobbing away, but I don't think the bird was impressed!

 

Flowing around 4600 cfs the river carried us swiftly downstream. Class I, with a mellow class II rapid occasionally. Within a few minutes (about a half mile) we came upon the confluence with the Cascade River and shortly thereafter the Skagit bounces off a series of bedrock exposures on river left, generating eddies and one sizable whirlpool.

We paddled along, averaging about 5 mph. The scene was gray above, gray below, and dripping wet throughout. I had hoped for peekaboo views of the glaciated peaks I knew were above but heavy mist  and fog obscured all but the nearest hills. The river itself, though, was crystal clear. The cobble bed whizzing past. With water so clear it was difficult to discern its depth. Three feet? Ten feet? I plunged my paddle in as deep as I could and didn't touch bottom.

 

Rotting fish and woodsmoke on the breeze brought my attention back to the banks. The eagle tally climbed, and we counted several herons, gulls, and heard a kingfisher just out of sight. The smell of rotting salmon is an acquired taste. I wouldn't say it smells "good" necessarily but knowing what it means, what it represents, I can't help but swell with a certain joy whenever I get a pungent whiff. But the salmon weren't the only thing rotting. We observed a few moldering buildings teetering on river's edge, on undercut bank, and wondered aloud how many more winters they might last. At about the halfway mark we came upon an enormous old growth stump, far from the bank, complete with springboard notch, appearing to grow right out of the river. I turned to caltopo and the 1915 "historic topo" layer confirmed it. We were paddling through an area that was forest floor just a few decades ago, the neck of an oxbow, before the river had cut its current path and left the old channel to fill with silt and salmonberry and sword ferns.

 

In total we counted around sixty eagles, with increasing concentration the closer we got to Rockport. Along the section we paddled counts in excess of one hundred are not unheard of, and biologists estimate a population of many hundreds of eagles overwinter in the drainage each year. The week before our paddle the river had spiked to around 15,000 cfs, flushing downstream many of the spawned out carcasses that attract the birds. (Repeating this route a few days ago with my brother Jack, when the water level had been steadily falling for almost two weeks, my group counted nearly one hundred eagles, including several birds actively fishing on the banks)

 

After only a few hours of paddling we spotted the 530 bridge across the Skagit, our sign that the takeout was just ahead. We hauled out, spreading boats and gear on the grass in front of the parking lot. Fionnuala began prepping her famous chili for the potluck and car shuttle folks drove back to Marblemount to retrieve their vehicles. We reconvened around the picnic tables and treated ourselves to a wonderful meal, made even more memorable by David's addition of delicious homemade flan!

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