Lower Wind River.

Well, summer time flows are oficially here in SW Washington, and most of our rivers are pretty much dried up. There is, however, some good news: Shipherd's Falls is coming in!

The drive into the Gorge.

Overlooking the Gorge from Cape Horn.
As you can see, the gauge rock is completely exposed.
Brian Rudd demonstrates his riverside pre-run warm up routine.
Tyree Wilde somewhere near the beginning of High Bridge rapid.

Brian Rudd, same drop.
Near the middle of High Bridge rapid is a nearly riverwide ledge. At this flow, there isn't really a hole. At higher water, however, this ledge apparently gets pretty sticky.
Brian Rudd, same drop.

Below High Bridge rapid is a cool little gorge that I call the Pirate Cove. The confluence of Panther Creek is just at the end of this picture where the river bends right.

After the confluence of Panther creek, there are some fun class II-III drops. Then there is the ledge in this photo which occurs about 200 yards above the Flume.

Tyree Wilde on the ledge above the Flume.

The top half of the Flume. The ledge from the previous picture is barely visible in this photo.

The bottom half of the Flume.
Myself, halfway through the Flume.
The flume from downstream.
After the Flume, there is a class III drop that starts off with a sloping tounge that drives straight into a hole that tends to give a lot of paddlers tailstands. Immediate following this drop is Beyond Limits, which is marked by a fish ladder on the left. According to the guidebook, this class VI waterfall slams onto a rocky keeper. We've run it many times at low water, when the hole becomes more managable. At high water, it is an uphill paddle over the boil line even if you do clear the bottom hole. Approach this drop with caution.


Beyond Limits.

After Beyond Limits, there is a fun class III-III+ boogie section. A footbridge above the river marks the approach of Shipherd's Falls. Shipherd's consists of two vertical drops, one slide, and a weir drop. There is a class III drop above the fish ladder at the falls that should be approached with caution. If there were a swim here, it would be very easy for someone to get sucked into the fish ladder.

Drop 1.
Drop 2.
Drop 3.
Looking upstream at Shipherd's Falls.
Brian Rudd and Tyree Wilde look at the dam at the bottom and discuss their options.

At this flow, it looks like it needs to come down just a little bit more before the falls are easily managable.
When you can't run the falls, the only option is to jump off.
Brian Rudd tosses his boat over.

Brian Rudd swims to shore.

After the falls, there is a hot springs that is pretty nice. It has been know to contain nude folks from time to time!

A little ways beyond the hotsprings is some new wood. At this level, it was easily paddled over, but come next winter it may be more of a hazard.

So, How was your run Brian?

Upper Wind.

Brian Rudd, Ryan Rodgers, and myself ended up running the Upper Wind today. The gauge rock just barely had water running through the horns, and looked good to go. It was a bit boney in places, but all in all, it was a good day. We boat scouted everything but Ram's Horn and Climax, so the pics are a bit limited.

The put-in

Ram's Horn

Scouting the horn

The author fires it up

Rudd gets it done in his Magnum demo. (Rudd sold his WaveSport, and is now just a Cock without the Diesel!)

Rodgers styles the Horn on his first trip down the river, and goes deep in the first hole.

SWEET!
Climax

The author takes the auto-boof

Rodgers, still styling the run

Rudd

Another awesome day on the Wind!

NorCal Spring Break updates.

So I finally got around to updating the NorCal posts, and I posted the Salmon trip; but for some reason the blog decided to archive in March rather than April. If you'd like to check it out, look under the previous posts link to the right of the page. In the meantime, keep watching out for the NF Cal Salmon post!

Upper Trout Creek

So while I'm waiting for the rest of the Cali pictures from Brian and Erik, (so I can finish the NorCal posts), I figured I'd post a link to Ryan Morgan's "Testing the Waters" blog. Ryan is a talented Molalla boater who runs an awesomely thorough blog. We ran Upper Trout Creek this weekend. The one word that sums up the creek: STEEP. Check it out:

http://molallakayaker.blogspot.com/2007/04/upper-trout-creek.html

Thanks for the epic trip Ryan!

NorCal SPring Break '07. Part 2: The Cal-Salmon

After our first hellacious day in Cali, we decided to scale down our hunger for tight creeking and head for some big water. I was extremely dehydrated from the day before from the hike and the boozing that we did that night, so I had a screaming headache. Erik was running the show, and suggested that we run the Cal-Salmon. Now before this trip, I'd never really been in any big water. I'd always done mostly creeking. I've seen some Zambize footage, and also the PDX Kayaker films, and let me just say that big water scared the shit out of me. I know that some of you who read this will say that the Cal-Salmon is not big water, and you may be right; but this was the biggest water I'd ever been on, and I was nervous.

(The signs all over the river didn't help my anxiety).

The Cal-Salmon is an amazing river. It's scenery is as unmatched as is it's whitewater. I had looked into the trip before we went, and spent a lot of time parusing www.oregonkayaking.net. Jason Rackley's description of the run was dead on. It's easy to see why this place is so special.

(There are numerous class IV rapids and two class V's on this section of the river).

(We checked the gauge at the take-out, and it seemed to be at a good medium flow around 5').
We put on right at the confluence of the Cal-Salmon and Nordheimer creek. When we got to Nordheimer campground, we were the only ones there, and there were no camping fees because it was so early in the season.

(The put-in).

Unfortunately, we ran so much of the river by boat scouting, that I didn't get the chance to thoroughly document the trip.

(I took this shot of Bloomer Falls from up high on the bank).

After everyone had a successful run through Bloomers, the next major rapid we came to was airplane. Erik had only done this stretch a couple of times, so we got out and took a look. We all thought it was good to go, and we fired it up.

(The author digs for the boof @ airplane).

(The author after a successful run down airplane).

(Brian digs for the boof).

(UH-OH! You'll be happy to know that he rolled up)The next major rapid that we scouted was Cascade Falls. Cascade Falls is a very impressive riverwide set of drops that has quite a lot of variety to it. We chose to run the far left route. (Brian punching right into the lead diagonal wave on cascade).
(The author taking a different approach).

(Halfway through Cascade, and still upright).(Cascade Falls from the bottom)After successful runs through Cascade, we came upon class V Freight Train. Locals consistently run this behemoth in playboats!
(Last Chance is in the background, which leads right into Freight Train).
(Freight Train. Pretty burly).
(It didn't take much time for me to decide how I was going to get through this rapid.... )
(...and there it is).
One of the last rapids on the run is Gaping Maw. This beast is only class IV, but is unportagable due to the nature of the canyon. The Maw is a fairly straightforward rapid except for the fact that there is a gigantic hole midway through the rapid that attracts boaters like bees to honey. (We got some good pics of Brian narrowly missing the Maw.)


(Another great day in NorCal completed!)
After this trip, I've made a promise to myself to come back to this area at least once a year. Jason Rackley said it best, "...if you are a class IV-V boater living in Oregon, Idaho, or Northern California and you haven't run this river, you need to go there... now."

Also, here are a few videos taken during the trip:

Brian @ Cascade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdAVflak10Y

Me @ Cascade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLljhtbWVx4

Erik @ Gaping Maw:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2aAj_RzMdY