INTERESTING TIMES

 Yesterday I brought my new inflatable on a run with my usual crew of hardshell kayakers.  We ran what we call the B2B (bridge to bridge) section of the North Fork Washougal, down to the Mercantile.  The level was about 5.5" on the stick at the put-in, and about 7' on the Hathaway gauge.  We had  10 solid boaters.

I travelled with the boat gently inflated to reduce the amount of pumping I'd need to do at the put-in.  I topped it before hitting the water, and again at the first portage (Crack in the Earth).  The water is cold, it definitely shrank the air in the boat.

I have a medium wolverine and it is BARELY big enough for me.  With the backband all the way back (no room for a seat bag behind it) my feet are firmly jammed in the front of the cockpit area.  The knee brace straps require some fiddling every time I get in the boat--it isn't like a kayak where you just drop in the seat, slide your legs into position, put the skirt on and go.  The knee brace straps take more fiddling than a sprayskirt: there is no fast start.  I also learned that when launching from a rock it's hard to get the straps over my knees--I have to let them out, then get my legs in, then tighten once I'm in the water.

The boat actually was able to bow surf small waves--it has enough hull speed.  That was a relief.  It pivots very well and boofs pretty good.  I have the self-bailer option, so there's no deck on there.  If I fail to boof a hole the boat fills up.  There are two dams on this run which both filled the boat to the top, and it takes about 5 second to fully empty.  I theorize that it empties faster if I put my body weight on the tube behind me, lifting my butt off the floor.  This emptying lag could be problematic in bigger and more challenging whitewater but at this class 3-4 level it was OK, I had plenty of time to do what I needed to do.

In one rapid I wasn't able to get around a large-ish breaking wavehole and had to punch it, and was surprised that the bow scooped up over the hole and the boat did not fill up on that one.  Waves that come in from the side definitely contribute to filling the boat so I had to mind my angle a little more carefully, instead of simply surfing laterals as I do in my 9R.

I was thinking I won't try to roll it but now I think I will.  It's not that hard to lean it up on edge, and if I can put it up on edge from upright, I can probably flip it back up from upside down.

I was a little amused and a little irritated that my friends, who I have been boating with for a decade or more, started treating me as if I were a beginner, just because I was in a fancy blue innertube.  Yeah, I already know how to straighten up to punch a hole, I don't need to be told.  Yeah, I already know to give wood in the river a wide berth.  The amount of protective information-giving was a surprise.  There is already a preponderance of mansplaining on the river based on my gender, but the inflatable-mansplaining was just as obnoxious.

My feet got cold.  I have no issues with circulation and was hoping this would not be the case, but the water splashing over my feet chilled them down.  I wore heavy nylon fleece pants to keep my legs warm (in a kayak I go with just tights under the drysuit) and by the end of the run my toes were froze.  There may be some $80 electric socks in my future, but first I need to get them for my husband who has circulation issues.  His new packraft should arrive in late January.

One of my kayak crew said he is going to get a packraft and we are going to do the Minam river which is a 7 mile hike in.  Springtime I guess.  The Chetco is my ultimate objective, it's the reason I bought this boat.  Today, however, I'm getting back in my kayak.  There's something about having edges and hull speed that I absolutely love.

I am just home. The man who died was in his early 60's. He has three children. We were on the Farmlands section of the White Salmon. I am not accustomed to feeling completely useless but there I was unable to save a life. Many of us there unable to save a life, only 6 feet from shore. We were still trying to get his body free from the log when the search and rescue guys showed up with a chain saw, got him free in moments, but it was already too late, he had been under water for 40 minutes. Lots of processing going on.

The rain began the night we got home from our Grand Canyon adventure, and I've been getting out every weekend day. We got on the Sandy Gorge at something just shy of 3000 cfs, and again at 1200 or so, the North Fork Washougal which usually doesn't run in October, Opal Creek at something like 900cfs, and the Tilton at a lovely 1300 cfs.

( notes by river )

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.

The autistic fellow was on the river with us again. He wasn't really paddling with us; he paddles alone. He looks to be in his 40-50's, with a salt and pepper beard and a long brown ducky. He scouts where he likes, talks to no one, and then runs the rapids, generally with good style. He runs his own shuttle. We look out for him when he's around, and so far he has never needed any help. He did splat pretty hard on the rock below the helicopter move at Toby's. We wonder if he'd participate in a rescue if someone else needed help. I theorize that he might come up with a completely independent and original approach. There's no conversing with him, so there's no way to know. I think river running might be an excellent activity for young autists because it engages the part of them that is well developed. The trick would be in inducing enough group behavior to provide a minimum of safety coverage.
( notes from the weekend )

(video removed)

The helicopter footage is gorgeous, especially the ways the trees glimmer when the camera zooms back out, and the views of Mount Hood. This is the legendary favorite local class V run. I haven't been there yet. The word is that there is quite a bit of new wood washed into the Green Truss, and in bad places, so perhaps this is where my boating crowd will shift to. I hope so. It looks like fun to me.

It has quite a reputation. Spirit falls breaks backs, and several caves eat boats from time to time. More than one person has died there. Whitewater boating is new enough in the PNW that wherever somebody has died, people get extra scared. Back east somebody has died just about everywhere already, so there's no point in it.

Lower Canyon Creek, which we ran twice last weekend, is a short creek run just outside Battleground Washington that I would call class IV, at least at the levels I've seen it (470-600cfs). I can imagine that at high water it would become class V. For years nobody (or almost nobody) ran it because there was a gigantic woodpile obstructing the run. But that woodpile washed out something like two years ago. Here it is:

( Notes on little white.... )

Haven't run it yet but I'm looking.
Tributary of the East Fork Lewis which is a nice waterfall run. 120fpm.
http://www.oregonkayaking.net/creeks/canyon_wash/canyon_wash.html
http://www.dreamflows.com/xlist-wa.php#Site583
http://www.dreamflows.com/graphs/day.583.php

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 )

This site gives the history and will be providing a blow by blow as this dam on the White Salmon River in Washington is removed. The boaters are excited because dams are always built where there is substantial gradient and sufficient constriction to make construction easy. Which means there's whitewater under there. Good whitewater.