After the beerfest on Saturday evening none of us was moving particularly fast on Sunday morning. A casual breakfast was cooked and camp packing was completed. It was time to get on the trail and find a few more fish before heading out to check on Eric's leaky gas tank. On a section of trail about 200 feet above the river, Adam's sleeping bag liberated itself from his pack and tumbled all the way to the river in an impressive display of the constancy of gravity. We never saw it hit the river as the brush and trees appeared to stop it at the bottom of the hill. Adam thought about trying to hike down to get it but we talked him out of it. There was no way to really access the location where he lost sight of the bag. Pressing on to fish, the river greeted us with a few morning trout and I managed a decent rainbow on a north fork special in a deep run. Working our way up stream, Adam spots a familiar sight. His sleeping bag! It had somehow made the river and drifted downstream to a nice bend where it sat waiting for him to happen upon it. Fortuitous coincidence indeed. After recovering the cliff diving bag, Eric somehow managed to have the current suck the wading sandal off his left foot. The sandal was long gone downstream and not recovered. In typical McGyver fashion, he devised a tee shirt shoe that at least allowed him to get to the trailhead and retrieve his hiking boots. After hiking out another group of fishers confirmed that search and rescue had finally located an unfortunate kayaker that had been lost in the river in June. It was sad but I am glad the family will finally have some closure. Rest in peace Tigger. Luckily, Eric's patch job on his gas tank seemed to be holding and we headed into Riverside for a nice lunch at the Bear Trap before saying our goodbyes and departing for home.
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