INTERESTING TIMES

Water's creeping down toward low here in Oregon. I'd only ever run the Breitenbush at 1,100 and 1,200cfs, so this run was at approximately 1/3 the flow I'd seen. It was fine. It got a little scrapy in the second half, but overall channelized well. The trip was a LCCC trip so Mark shot some video, it's out there somewhere (link stopped working and was removed).

Last night we ran the Lower Wind at a gauge reading of 3.2, or 162cfs (internet gauge). I was worried that the flow might be a little much for the falls, but it was fine. Willie made it look like a perfect flow for hand paddling, and I noticed how powerfully he could boof with simultaneous hand-paddling forward strokes.

The cross-river log at the top of High Bridge rapid was easily hopped on the right. I think we ran it about that high last year. The bony big one was easier just fluffy looking, and the falls went fine by the standard lines. Nobody wanted to catch the eddy at the top of the fish ladder on the left (boily in front of the sucking wall hazard) or the eddy on the left above the final man-made weir. We got in the hotsprings on our way out, then saw several bald eagles downstream. It was a lovely evening and the perfect reward for studying all day.

Of course my favorite river is always whichever one I'm on. Or was just on. Or am about to go on. Today was my third time down the Lower Wind in Washington, and it is quickly working its way into the list of all time favorites. It's not especially hard. Mostly class III with some IVish low volume rocky stuff, one hard class IV (V-?) called the Flume, and then the series of four drops at the end that most call class IV. The four large drops are 1) vertical 10 footer with an autoboof on the left 2) vertical 20 footer that I like to boof right 3) long bony slide, stupid, dangerous, but kinda fun, 4) the final 10 footer that is a clean (boof right) part of the otherwise rock-infested weir.


This is the autoboof at the first of the final series of falls.

( The level was )