It was looking like another dry weekend when some people decided to try out the Cle Elum and Yakima. Several people backed out because of the bad weather that was in the forecast, which turned out to be their loss. It was a clear, warm summer day with a nice breeze to keep us cool. We took 3 IKs down from just below the Cle Elum dam to the fishing access about a mile above the Teanaway River confluence.
The Cle Elum below the dam is fast, but it only has a few rapids, all of which are easy. The biggest problem on this stretch of river is logjams, but these come and go. This year, the run was clean. We had lunch about 2 miles above the confluence with the Yakima. When the Yakima comes in, the gradient drops and the river slows down a bit. This time of year, the Yakima is a lot lower than the Cle Elum, so it only added a little water to the flow.
Just after we got onto the Yakima, a couple of guys paddled past us in a canoe. A couple more miles down the river, we ran into them again. As we turned a corner, we saw one of them standing in the water, then the other, and then their overturned boat. We pulled over above them and walked down to see how we could help. Their boat was on its side pinned on some tree branches. One of our group used his line to help lever the boat off the trees while the other two of us went downstream to catch the boat when it was pulled off. I was able to right the boat, and the other person was able to get the line and pull the boat - still full of water - to an island. We then emptied the boat and waited for the paddlers to walk down. We used throwbags to help get them to the island and we lent them a paddle since they had lost all but one of theirs.
Afterwards, we camped near the put-in at a nice little clearing in the woods. We had a delicious dinner and watched the stars.
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