We were on a roll this weekend. Yesterday, we paddled an upper portion of the Mukawa, about 15km upstream from Shimukappu. It had been a very leisurely paddle. One small rock garden, but beyond that, just some swifts and a fun rock-bed chute. Haidee and I were in the double packraft, so it was a super relaxing, stress-free paddle.
Ben, Haidee and I stayed at Timbah’s place in Shimukappu that night, and so we had a good early morning start.
As predicted, the shuttle was a circuitous mission from Shimukappu to Fukuyama and back. About 1.5hrs return. We were all keen to get on the water once all that was taken care of.
As we were getting ready to push off at the put-in, a Nepalese guide from one of the rafting outfits arrived. He was waiting for the rafters to arrive from upstream. “Do you think we’d be OK padding the Akaiwa Gorge in the packraft and duckies?” I asked.
He looked a bit sceptical.
“Maybe in this water level it would be challenging, but OK,” he replied.
Today we were paddling the less gnarly section below the gorge. The gorge will have to wait for another day…
As soon as we set off, we were dodging boulders. Easy work in the packraft, but at this water level, we would have been scraping quite a lot in our open-deck canoe.
It didn’t take too long to leave the concrete behind, and start to feel what everyone loves so much about the Mukawa. Wild rocky shorelines. Untamed forest.
The swifts so far at this water level were more than manageable.
On one bend, as we were having a snack as we floated in an eddy, a curious fox came trotting along the edge of the river. It seemed to be completely nonplussed at our presence.
This section of the Mukawa just feels different from any other river we’ve paddled in Hokkaido. It really has those nice remote vibes.
The river continued its gentle meander around the large bend between the two towering expressway bridges.
A few hundred meters upstream of the start of the crux section, we pulled up on the shore and got stuck into the watermelon Haidee and I had been carrying. It was a nice relaxing prelude to the busily fun paddling to come.
About 300m before the crux, as marked on our map, the river became busier – more rocks to dodge and lines to pick. At this water level, however, we were more concerned with hitting the right gap in order to maximize water underneath us. For late May, the river was surprisingly low.
And then the real fun began. The river narrowed. The boulders got bigger. The lines more committing.
Ben flipped his ducky on a small drop. He got flushed downstream, the ducky was caught in an eddy. Good wholesome fun.
Overall, it would have been nice to have an extra 20cm or so of water in the river. As it was, however, we made our own fun.
And then as if the sky had heard my grumbles about the water level, it started raining. Hard. Thunder and lightning. Haidee and I had been resenting our drysuits for most of the day, but were now happy to be be dry in the downpour.
Overall, this run was more straightforward – especially in the packraft – than Haidee and I had been psyching ourselves up for. For a long time we’d viewed this section of river from the perspective of running it in the open deck canoe. After experiencing it in the packraft, I’d say the crux would be a tricky paddle in the canoe, dodging rocks. But other than that, it would be a fairly straightforward paddle.
And that sense of remoteness. Really a special feature of this section of river.
