Benjamin Spillman

bspillman@rgj.com

Charles Williams’ hike went from sunny to scary in an instant.

He had been hiking all day on the Pacific Crest Trail when he reached the south fork of the Kings River near Mather Pass, south of Bishop, Calif.

Williams, 46, of Quincy, Calif., is an avid hiker with high-altitude experience and while the stream looked daunting he thought finding the right location would allow him to cross without incident.

So he hiked along the river until he found a spot where two islands divided the stream into smaller channels and started to cross.

“I got to the most raging part of the stream and I started to have difficulty,” Williams said. “I turned from facing the other bank to facing upstream. Right about then is when the water swept my feet beneath me.”

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The water carried Williams downstream for an unknown distance. Face down and bashing through rocks and debris the situation seemed inescapable.

He thought about his mother and tried to recall the last time he said he loved her. He imagined searchers finding his remains.

“It was definitely a panic situation,” he said of the incident, which happened in early June. “I was pretty confident that was going to be it for me, I thought I was going to die.”

Then, almost as quickly as he got swept away, the river spit him out of the current and close to some overhanging brush.

“I got my head above water and I could get a breath,” he said of the moment just before he got close to the tree. “I reached up and grabbed it.”

With summer-like temperatures poised to descend again on the region, melt from the deepest snowpack in several years will flow strongly through Sierra Nevada streams.

That means streams that provided little challenge to hikers one year ago could be deadly this season. Characteristics can even change in the course of a day as the temperature warms in the high country causing snowmelt to swell streams in the afternoon.

Crossings can be risky even in areas without large amounts of snow. Last month two hikers died in a stream-related accident in Red Rock National Conservation Area near Las Vegas.

Melanie Kushnir fell while crossing a narrow stream and the water carried her downstream. Fellow hiker Sean Randles tried to save her but was pulled into the water by her momentum. The two were swept over a cliff and died from the impact of the fall.

Ned Tibbits, who operates Mountain Education, a Reno-based non-profit, said hikers and other backcountry users should take simple but critical precautions to make safe stream crossings, especially at locations downstream from high altitude areas still holding significant amounts of snow.

Safe stream crossing starts with hikers selecting a good location to cross, Tibbits said.

“They do not need to cross the creek where the summer trail does,” he said.

Tibbits recommended looking for dry locations to cross, such as rocks poking above water or logs over the stream.

If there are no dry crossings he recommended getting away from whitewater and looking for a meadow where terrain is flat and streams tend to meander and spread out.

“Wider is shallower and less push,” he said. Don’t forget to look across the stream for safe exit points and downstream to make sure that if a fall does occur the hiker won’t get swept through boulders or some other obstacle.

When it comes time to cross Tibbits recommended using two trekking poles. Extend the poles to the longest, safe length then put them out ahead at shoulder width or wider.

“Your poles have to be placed well ahead of you and way out to your side,” he said.

With their bodies facing the opposite bank he recommended hikers use a shuffle step to slowly cross, slightly lifting one foot at a time and using the poles to retain three points of contact with the ground.

Tibbits also recommended bringing sturdy, snug water shoes to wear for crossings. That will protect hikers feet from rocks and potentially sharp objects. Crocs, he said, tend to be too loose fitting.

When it comes to pack management people have varying opinions, Tibbits said.

Some recommend unclipping the waist belt so in the event of a fall it’s easier to shed the pack.

Tibbits, however, said he keeps his fastened because he would rather have the weight of the pack snug to his body.

“You want to control that beast and not have it wiggle excessively,” he said.

While most streams aren’t deep, falls can still be dangerous. Not only can they lead to injury, but even if a hiker emerges unscathed from the water he or she will be wet and at greater risk for hypothermia.

Williams learned the hard way that even after he got out of the river he wasn’t safe. He was wet, bruised and bleeding from his hand and legs.

“As soon as I got out onto the bank it was still pretty serious,” Williams said.

Fortunately for Williams, his food, extra clothes and sleeping bag remained dry in his pack.

He was able to hike a few miles more along the trail and camped just before another stream crossing. Because it was late afternoon the stream was swollen with the day’s snowmelt.

He decided to wait and cross in the morning when the flow was lower.