21 - 4/29/2010 - Middle Middle

This was definitely an oddball trip. A new friend came out from Eastern Washington, and another friend wanted to borrow one of my IKs. With my Wing already packed away for the upcoming Yampa River trip, I ended up in my big Stiletto, which I hadn't used in over a year.

The run was a typical run taking down someone on their first descent of the Middle Middle. As we went down the river, I described upcoming rapids. The new friend flipped in the main drop of House Rocks and ended up swimming the bottom half, but he was fine. The other friend, who has hardshelled the run many times, said she was surprised at some of the lines I took. I had to realize that after over 100 runs, I probably do take the more "interesting" lines through the rapids.

I remember that early on we used to take the more conservative lines. In House Rocks, for example, we used to always start far left and move towards the center. Now, we run a 4' ledge called "The Goal Posts", which puts us into a hole and slows us down in preparation for the main drop. This is actually an easier set of moves to make, but the first couple of times over the ledge can be scary.

20 - 4/25/2010 - Middle Middle

Homer wanted to do a quick Sunday run on the Middle Middle, and Lyles was busy, so it was just the two of us. The flow was low, but still fun. I had a minor flip in the boulder garden below A-Frame - it was almost not a flip, as I just got stuck on a rock and had to get out of the boat. I didn't even get my head wet.

After the run, I had to take my IK and cataraft and other boating gear to pack it up for the upcoming Yampa River trip.

19 - 4/23/2010 - SF Snoqualmie

My next door neighbor and I decided to do a quick run on the SF Snoqualmie after work. We had a reasonable flow and it was a nice day.

Some of the ill-placed logs that were creating a deadly hazard near the put-in have been removed, but there are still hazards downstream. The first half of this run has changed a lot over the past 11 years, but the second half is pretty stable.

There was one tree in particular that is troublesome. It is at the beginning of the canyon, and it is just above 80% of the river, right where the main current is. It's critical that boats go left of this. A swim here would be a big problem, as the tree has lots of dagger-like branches sticking out.

18 - 4/22/2010 - Middle Middle

Running A-Frame Drop near sunset

I rarely get truly annoyed by other boaters, but this was an exception. We normally do a Thursday run on the Middle Middle by meeting at 5:20PM and then going to the put-in at 5:30. Even with groups of rafts, we usually get on the river by 6:30PM.

On this particular occasion, a couple of people were late, and some of the rafters were very slow. I got on the river at close to 7PM, and I ended up having to poke along and wait for people to catch up. After I reached A-Frame Drop, I realized that the sun would set before I got to House Rocks rapid, and I felt that I would be safer running the rest of the river alone than running it in the dark. So, I pushed downstream.

It was exhilarating running class III-IV alone, knowing that I couldn't afford a long swim, but still needing to get out before dark. I finished the run 20 minutes before anyone else. One boat made it to the takeout only to lose a passenger and go downstream. Another person didn't realize that he was at the takeout, and nearly kept going.

To make matters even more annoying, there was some confusion about the shuttle, and I ended up having to wait in the dark for people to get dressed and take me to my car. Oh well, I learned that I need to have a better plan for this type of situation.

17 - 4/18/2010 - Upper Klickitat (Day 2)

Dan meets the tree

The second day on the Klickitat started out slow and easy in camp. We got on the water and swung into action. The level was great, and there were lots of fun rapids. After a couple of miles, we came to a tree that required a portage, but that only took a few minutes - up and over the tree.

About halfway through the run, there is a small dam at a fish hatchery. Dan chose to run the far left chute around the dam. This is slow, but safe. I chose the right side, over the dam and down the rapid. I didn't get quite where I wanted, and found myself heading downstream towards a stump in the river, but once over the dam, I was able to easily surf to the right and down the rapid.

Below the fish hatchery, the Klickitat calms down significantly. There are still a few class III rapids, but there's a lot more relatively calm water between. It seems to take forever to get to the takeout, but on a nice sunny day, it's still an enjoyable time.

16 - 4/17/2010 - Upper Klickitat (Day 1)

The Chandlers on the Klickitat

The Klickitat is down in southern Washington, near the Oregon border, and it's a good 4 hour drive for me. I had been looking forward to a trip on the Klickitat, and a friend wanted to do an overnighter with his kids, so I decided to go along.

After we got the boats loaded, we only boated about 30 minutes before we pulled over and set up camp. My friend saw a bear about a half mile above where we camped, but it never came into our camp.

15 - 4/8/2010 - Middle Middle

Homer in the bottom of House Rocks

The weather looked promising. The river forecast on the day before said we could have as much as 2000 cfs in the Middle Fork Snoqualmie on Thursday, but the weather got cold and the rain turned to snow. Still, we had close to 1100 cfs, which is a nice enough flow for the IKs. We started out in a blizzard of something between snow and hail - it was like soft, slushy hail that didn't hurt when it hit. By the time we got into the first rapid, we were covered with the stuff.

I tried to take as many pictures as possible, but I was wearing my mittens which are great for cold weather but make it difficult to operate the camera. Also, it was dark enough that the pictures tended to be blurred, so I only got a few good shots.

By the end of the run, we got a bit of sunshine and got to watch the sunset over Rattlesnake Mountain just as we pulled into the takeout. We're looking forward to a bit more snow over the next few weeks to make up for the slow winter.

14 - 4/3/2010 - Main Skykomish

Me with Karie Burns at the put-in

Every so often, I like to ride in the front of a raft as a bow paddler. I generally get to do this a couple of times a year, and often it's in the bow of Mark & Karie Burns' raft on the Sky. The weather was a bit cold, and we had a little bit of hail on us, but it was still a fun trip.

We had an exciting run at Boulder Drop. Mark chose to run The Needle because we had enough water to fit the boat. One of the IKers flipped running Ned's, but he's used to swimming and was quickly back to his boat.

13 - 4/1/2010 - Middle Middle

It's April, and time to start Thursdays on the Middle Middle. Some years we get to start earlier and some years we don't get to start until mid-April, so starting at the beginning of April is about average. We had 4 IKers and a flow of around 940 cfs. The weather was cool and we had a few sprinkles of rain, but it was a good way to start out.