50 - 6/27/2010 - Middle Sauk

50 boating days before the end of June is a new record! Before I moved to Washington, 50 days in a year was that best I had ever done.

The campers from the day before got up and met up with the other folks running the river. We had a mid-sized group - 4 catarafts, 5 inflatable kayaks, and a hardshell kayak. The flow had dropped a little from the day before, but was still a fun flow. The first few rapids were a good warmup, and there was plenty of space in Alligator to miss the big hole at the bottom. I was the only one to run right at Six of One, but I didn't really understand why the others went left - oh well, six of one... One of the IKers swam, and decided to trade with a rafter through Jaws and Graveyard.

The IKers mostly ran left at Jaws. I bombed down the center, which I find is the easiest line even though it doesn't look like it. We had one swimmer at Graveyard, but once everyone was gathered up, we were ready for Whirlpool. This is my favorite rapid on the run. We run the right channel, which starts with a couple of big holes, followed by a fast wavetrain, and ending in the end of the whirlpool. We stopped here for lunch.

After lunch, we continued down through the easier rapids. We had a few more minor IK swims, but things went fine otherwise. At the takeout, we were met with an odd situation. Three young guys had swum to the island next to the bridge earlier in the day, but had gotten stuck. They planned to swim back to shore, which should have been easy, but the strong current had swept one of them downstream to an island. We helped get the other two to shore at the takeout, but they had to call for help to get their friend off the island.

49 - 6/26/2010 - Upper Sauk

Can we get a few more red boats out here?

One of my friends wanted to try out her new mini-cataraft, and the Upper Sauk seemed like a good place to do this. The flow was around 2100 cfs and it was a nice sunny day. I met a group of 6 other people and we headed up to the put-in.

After getting our boats rigged, we started down the river. Everyone had a great run at the first big rapid, and it looked like we were on our way. As we headed down into the first few rapids, someone signaled for me to pull over. This was in the middle of a set of rapids, and there was no good place to eddy out where we could get all six boats in, so I had to go through a couple more rapids to find a good stopping place.

It turned out that one of the people in the group was feeling sick and couldn't continue safely. After some discussion, we were able to reorganize people and boats, strapping an inflatable kayak to the back of my cataraft, and continue.

At 2100 cfs, the rapids are splashy and fun, but it's easy to find routes through the rapids. We made it to the last rapid and almost everyone had an easy time - the remaining IKer flipped and swam the last section of the final rapid.

After handling the shuttle, we went out for dinner and most of us found a place to camp for the night so we could do another run in the morning.

48 - 6/25/2010 - Upper Middle

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by someone in town who wanted to find a commercial outfitter to take him and his wife down the river near their house. I volunteered to take them on the Upper Middle, which is a really pretty run a few miles upstream.

On this day, the flow and weather were perfect for first-timers. Sadly, the wife didn't realize she would be running a boat alone, and she wasn't confident that she would be able to steer properly, so she didn't go with us.

As usual, I had a fun time helping a new boater and getting to run the river.

47 - 6/24/2010 - Middle Middle

With the low snowpack, we really didn't expect the Middle Middle to be in the high teens this late in June, but the flow was nearly 1700 cfs. Homer, Lyles, and I did an earlier than usual put-in, meeting at 4:30. The weather was nice and sunny, but not too hot.

No matter how many times I do this run, I have a good time.

46 - 6/20/2010 - Lower Entiat River

 After such a nice day, it was completely unexpected to have a rainstorm, so we hadn't packed away our gear before going to bed. At 4:30AM, I heard the tap-tap-tap of rain on the roof of my SUV, and I got up to deal with it. Luckily, I had a big tarp with me, so I just grabbed the clothes on the line, added them to the gear pile, and covered it all up.

In the morning, it was still raining, but it slowed to a drizzle as everyone got up. We hit the road at 9AM and headed for the Lower Entiat, about an hour away. We dropped off my SUV at the takeout and headed up to the put-in. On the way up, we checked for hazards. There was a fish trap at the hatchery, and we made sure we could recognize the area from the river.

It took us a while to find the put-in, though the owners have made it a lot easier to access the river. We still had to deal with the owners and neighbors, who have had problems with some people trashing the area next to the river. They graciously allowed us to use their access, and we got ready quickly.

The Lower Entiat at 1170 cfs is a lot faster and more active than I expected. There are long nonstop sections of class II+ with some places bordering on class III. If there were logs in this run, they could be very troublesome, but luckily for us this wasn't a problem. The Mad River comes in a couple of miles from the start, adding to the flow and to the excitement.

When we got near the hatchery, there were signs warning us and advising us to exit the river. I recognized the area, and we were able to easily get around the fish trap. A few miles later, I didn't do as good of a job. There are several weirs on the river, built a long time ago by ranchers and farmers in the area. At one point, the river splits at a bridge. The left side is blind, but the right side had a log-choked weir. I chose the right side because I thought we needed to be on that side for the takeout.

We had plenty of time to go back if we needed to, so I continued down and found that there was a clear slot in the middle of the weir. That part was easy, but just below it there was a jumble of rocks that made the route more challenging. In the end, nobody had any problems, but I still think that the left side is the better route.

The takeout on this run is also a bit challenging. We had to stage at a big eddy, and then go across a fast-moving channel to a small takeout eddy next to a steep path on the bank. This proved to be easy for us, but it was still important for us to handle it this way.

After the shuttle, it was time to say goodbye and head home. I had 9 new runs under my belt, and great memories of the Whirlwind IK Tour 2010.

45 - 6/19/2010 - Methow River

 Cody on the Methow

Despite the fact that my friends do this run every year, this was my first run on the Methow. I didn't know what to expect. I had the impression that it was a big water river like the Wenatchee, and that it had one really hard rapid, known as the Black Canyon. On the way down to the takeout, we scouted this rapid and another big rapid below it. They both looked big, but not difficult to deal with. The flow was average for this run, about 6100 cfs.

The run started out easy enough. The rapids were mostly just big wave trains without many distinctive features. When we came to the Black Canyon, we were all a little nervous, but everyone made it through without any problems. There was a slightly tricky entrance, but below that there was plenty of room to maneuver.

The next big rapid was Staircase, which Lee described as being like Snowblind on the Wenatchee. For some reason, most of us went right, but there is a nice clean route right down the middle. Below this was our lunch stop.

After a couple more rapids, we came to the second one we had scouted. This was a giant minefield of holes leading into a hard left turn with several huge waves and holes on the outside. The preferred run was to start right and then move left in the turn. All but one of us made the move - one swimmer got bumped out of his boat and had to try a few times to get back in, but was fine. The rest of the run was just splashy wave trains.

After the shuttle, we headed up to a free campground nearby. There was nobody else around, so we had our pick of campsites. That should have meant spending time finding the best site, but we really just took the first partly shady one we came to. A few minutes after we started setting up camp, someone noticed a better camp across the road, next to a creek. I checked it out and decided it was worth moving. The camp was a little trashy from the previous tenants, but with a little work it was fine.

Up to this point, I haven't really talked much about the weather. Before this day, we had cloudy days and a couple of drizzly days, but this day was sunny and hot. When we got to camp, it was around 80 degrees. This would turn out to be important later on...

44 - 6/18/2010 - Lower Similkameen River

 Below the Ledge

We headed back to the US via Oroville and met a new boating friend (Brent) across the border. We all headed to the takeout, just a few minutes away, and then consolidated to go to the put-in.

Lee's description of this run was all over the map. There was supposedly a "portage from hell" followed by some class III rapids, but maybe a class IV rapid. Lee had done the run before at about 8000 cfs, and we had 8600 cfs, but that extra 7% could make a huge difference in the lower canyon.

The first half of the run was wide and slow, but a little pushy. The sides of the river still show signs of mining in the area. After a while, the river slowed into the lake above the dam. We pulled over and found the portage trail.

The portage wasn't really all that bad - mostly because it wasn't all that hot. It started with about 100 yards of carrying our boats on a road and a wide path. Then, Lee and I carried his boat down to the river, over some huge basalt boulders. While we did this, Brent found a slightly steeper, but easier, path that they could hand my boat down to me.

During the portage, we passed the dam - a 50-foot drop that lead into a smaller, but still nasty class V rapid. There is a possibility that the dam will be taken out, but the rapid will most likely still require a portage for most people.

We took a short break and then continued. The first rapid was a huge wave train, with several 10-foot waves. The next couple of rapids were also big class III drops, and the canyon began to narrow. We pulled over to scout the big ledge rapid. We could see most of the rapid from above, but there didn't seem to be a completely clean way through. We were going to have to trust that the route we planned would work. In the end, there was a route to the far right that made this rapid easier, but it was still a monster.

Below the ledge rapid, the canyon narrowed more and boils came up. Lee flipped when a boil turned into a whirlpool and tossed him around. The boils made going difficult and interesting. One moment you could be in a simple current, and the next a whirlpool could develop right in front of you.

After a couple more miles, we got to the takeout and loaded up. We ran the shuttle and then headed south. We eventually made it to the town of Winthrop, and then went up to camp by the Chewuch River, which was our potential next run. We went to Twisp to get dinner and meet the rest of our party. At dinner, we decided that the Chewuch was going to be too high for some of the group, so we switched to the Methow.

43 - 6/17/2010 - Upper Similkameen River

In the morning, we once again got up and headed for Canada. We crossed the border at Midway, which is a very small stop. I don't know if the guard was worried about us or just bored, but he sure asked a lot of questions and seemed to try to be tricky with them. It took us a few hours to get to our destination. On the way, we stopped to look at Spotted Lake, which was something I had been wanting to see.

Spotted Lake

We got to the takeout at around noon and dropped off my rig. We checked out the usual put-in, and decided to see if we could put in higher up. We found an easy access that added a couple of miles of river and a few nice rapids.

Lee had run this section before at higher water, and we expected a couple of rapids to be very hard, but the lower water seemed to have made a big difference. The hardest rapid, which we expected to be a hard class III rapid, actually had a class I line through it. I didn't mean to miss all of the fun stuff, but I ended up just floating through the rapid.

After the run, we looked for a campsite next to the river. The highway made it a little noisy, but it didn't really detract from the experience. We scoured the woods for firewood (not easy - this place was pretty picked-over) and had a nice campfire for the evening.

42 - 6/16/2010 - Upper and Lower Granby River

I have rafted in the US and in Australia, and I had IKed in the US, but never in another country. On this day, I finally got to change that when we went to Canada to IK the Granby River. We loaded up and headed out in the morning for the 60-mile drive over the border and to the river. This was the first time I had crossed the border since having to use a passport, and it took a few minutes to get through.

We had been warned not to run the Upper Granby. The reason for this is that the takeout is right next to a class III rapid, and not far below a class III- rapid. If someone swam, they might have a problem making the takeout, which could mean a hike out of the Granby Canyon below. However, when we got to the takeout, we realized that this was not going to be a problem. There was plenty of opportunity to get out, even if someone missed the main takeout.

A local hardsheller had come along with us, and he acted as our wood probe. This turned out to be unnecessary, but it made it easier for us. The river is very fast, and there were several places where the rapids went noticeably downhill. The river is continuous class II+ with a couple of easy class III rapids that can be made more difficult by choosing challenging lines.

The run was over very quickly. It was actually about 2 hours, but if felt like much less. At the takeout, the hardsheller decided to run the extra rapid. He had to roll at the bottom, and he missed the initial takeout eddy, but he had plenty of time to get out.

While the other guys ran the shuttle, I reorganized my straps and started loading the kayaks onto the top of the SUV. It took longer because I had to spend a bit of time fighting the mosquitos. Once Lee returned, we headed down to do the shuttle for the Lower Granby. When we got to the takeout, we discussed the problem that the lower run might end near dark. We decided to cut off the last 4 miles, reducing the run to 7 miles. In the end, this wasn't necessary, but the cold and rain made it worthwhile.

The Lower Granby is class II, though we added a harder rapid by putting in on Burrell Creek, a major tributary of the river. The general character of the river is fairly flat, but quickly moving. There are a lot of trees in and around the river, but none blocking. There were places where the river looked almost exactly like the Upper Sauk in NW Washington.

After the shuttle, we decided not to stay and camp near the Granby. By the time we got food and returned to camp, it would be late, and we could get back to Lee's house in the same amount of time. We took a side trip to see Kettle Falls, which is a huge and nasty looking waterfall on the Kettle River. After that, we headed back to Republic.

41 - 6/15/2010 - Sanpoil River

The Sanpoil (or San Poil) is a river nobody has heard of except for the locals. Some parts of the river go through private land, and the landowners do not want people kayaking through it (and some will threaten you with violence if you try). The section we kayaked is on tribal land and the local kayakers have informal permission from the natives to do the run. So, we got a group together and headed out.

The Sanpoil starts out swift and splashy with lots of easy class II rapids. The road is nearby, but with hardly anyone on it, it's hard to notice. On river left is a basalt mountain range, with small cliffs sometimes coming up to the river.

One of the weird things about this river is the color. I've run lots of muddy rivers, but they tend to be a light, silty tan color. The Sanpoil is a dark brown, almost like root beer, but it doesn't seem to be very dirty. The river comes out of the mountains and spends a lot of time meandering through a swamp. Our theory is that the color comes from the plants in the swamp - kind of a river "tea".

About 2 miles above the takeout, the river becomes significantly more active. There is a fish fence to prevent an invasive species of bass from coming up the river. When this fence was originally installed, it made a river-wide hazard that required special attention. Luckily for us, the fence was not made all that sturdy, and part of it had fallen down.

As we worked our way down the final, fast portion of the run, our group spread out a bit. This made things a bit confusing for me. I needed to follow the leaders so I wouldn't miss the takeout, but the people behind me were trying to slow down to make sure the last person was OK. As I came around one corner, I saw some sort of mechanical monster in the river - I would soon find out that this was a fish trap. I also soon found out that the takeout was above the fish trap, but I just barely made it to the proper channel.

A few moments later, I saw that the last person in the group had flipped. He made it out OK, but his kayak headed downstream and was caught on the fish trap. We took out and went to try to retrieve his boat. After a bit of examination, we realized we weren't going to be able to extract the boat, so we ended up leaving it there.

On a happy note, the boat was extracted a few days later. It wasn't in perfect condition, but it did survive.

40 - 6/14/2010 - Upper and Lower Spokane

In the Bowl & Pitcher

When we arrived the previous night, we took a look at the major rapids on the Lower Spokane - The Bowl & Pitcher and The Devil's Toenail. These are class III rapids, but the river was running over 12,000 cfs, which looked very big. The B&P has a wave at the top that could flip and IK, sending the boat and swimmer towards a logjam on the left. I was admittedly nervous, and I asked Lee why we were doing this run.

In the morning, we drove by Spokane Falls, which separates the Upper and Lower runs. This is a monster set of waterfalls that would be nasty to try to run. If the upper falls doesn't kill you, the lower falls certainly will.

We headed up to run the Upper Spokane. This is a class II run through farmlands and neighborhoods. The river is wide, and the rapids are easy, but a little pushy at the higher flow. Incidentally, the flow had dropped about 800 cfs overnight.

After finishing the run, we loaded the inflated boats on top of my SUV and headed to the Lower Spokane. This involves driving through the city - this section of the river goes right through downtown Spokane, even though it feels relatively remote. In fact, the put-in is under a highway bridge in a small neighborhood.

Before we got on the river, I checked the flow online and found that it had dropped to around 10,500. While this helped me with my nervousness, it was still a high flow.

The first 8 miles of the run were pretty easy. We had to work to get to the biggest waves and holes we wanted to run. When we got to the Bowl & Pitcher, it sounded huge. Lee pulled into the final eddy and took pictures before taking off. I followed him and tried to remember what the rapid looked like from the scout. In the end, it was easy - avoid the entrance hole, move right, and run the easy line. No problem. The Devil's Toenail was similarly straightforward.

Overall, I'd say that these runs were worth doing. I wouldn't make the effort to drive to Spokane and back home just to do them, but the lower run especially makes a good practice run for the locals.

After the run, we had dinner and then headed to the town of Republic. It was a late drive, and at one point I had to take a short nap to avoid falling asleep at the wheel.

39 - 6/13/2010 - Upper Middle (MF Snoqualmie)

The original plan had been to start our tour with a run on the Middle Middle and then drive to Spokane. The Middle Fork Snoqualmie was running 2400 cfs, which would be a little high for Lee's first run on it, so we switched to the Upper Middle. At this flow, the Upper Middle would be fast and fun.

I hadn't run the Upper Middle for a couple of years. In early 2009, the road was badly damaged and this run was inaccessible until May 2010. The run itself hasn't changed much, though there are a couple of places where the river has moved significantly.

We did a shorter version of the run, which cuts off the last 3 miles. This allowed us to get on the road early enough that we could get to Spokane before dinner.

The Whirlwind IK Tour

Back in the early spring, I started thinking about a summer trip. I had originally planned to go to North Carolina and boat, but the logistical problems were big enough that I decided against it. The biggest problem was that there was no way of knowing whether there would be reasonable water levels at a specific time of year.  I didn't relish the thought of shipping gear and paying for an airline ticket only to not be able to boat because of high or low water levels.

So, I talked to my friend Lee, who lives in NE Washington, about the possibility of an IK trip with him. The idea would be to travel around eastern WA and BC and run various rivers. If the water levels didn't cooperate, we could go somewhere else or reschedule for better levels.

The plan we decided on was to start on June 13 and end on June 20. Lee set up the itinerary and we got started...

38 - 6/11/2010 - SF Snoqualmie

Many of us expected the Western Washington rivers to all be too low to run by now. The snowpack is pretty much gone, but we've had a lot of rain over the past 3 weeks and it has kept all of the rivers going.

My next door neighbor contacted me a couple of days ago and wanted to do a quick run today, so we did the run on my lunch hour (it actually took 90 minutes including the shuttle). The water was running high, but not too high, so it was a great flow. It's been years since I've run it this high with the water still being clear.

When I logged this run, I realized that this was river day 699, starting with my first day in June, 1989. My goal is to hit 1000 runs when I get to 25 years. That means I need to do 301 days in just over 4 years, which is an average of 75 days per year. My average over the past 5 years has been slightly higher than that, so I should be able to get pretty close.

A Web Tool I Would Love To See

People often ask the question: What's a good river to run near ?

There are several web sites that will show you river flows, and some will even tell you if the river is at a runnable flow, but these sites tend to be organized alphabetically or by broad geographical area. There are also web sites that will help you find the location of a business near you, and many will give you a list of several addresses in order of driving distance.

What I would like to see is a tool that would allow me to plug in a location and a river difficulty range (e.g., class II+-IV) and would spit out a list of runs in order of driving time to either the put-in or takeout (whichever is closest). It would also be useful to be able to put in a maximum driving time in case I just want to find stuff within a certain range.

37 - 6/6/2010 - Chiwawa

People used to run the Chiwawa all the time, but it seems to have fallen into disuse for some reason. I was prepared to do an easy run on the Upper Wenatchee (class II section) when someone suggested that we run the Chiwawa. I had been wanting to run the Chiwawa for years. The rain almost stopped us, but a group of boaters stepped up and we were off.

The logistical information we had was old, and it made things interesting. We took a wrong turn going to the put-in (onto a section of road that probably didn't exist when the guides were written). Then, we found that the lower takeout was no longer available and we had to go to the upper takeout.

When we got onto the river, I was expecting a much more difficult run. The Chiwawa is continuous class II with occasional class III boulder gardens. There were a few minor log hazards, but we never had to portage. We had a perfect level for a first run. The only negative for me was that we weren't sure about the logs, so we had to be careful. This would be an ideal section of river to do twice in a weekend, or after someone else scouted it for wood.

The takeout was fine - easy for kayaks and not terribly hard for rafts. I will definitely be back for another round on this river.

36 - 6/5/2010 - Wenatchee Rendezvous 25th Anniversary

 Shelly Becker and me at Rodeo Hole

(Photo courtesy Lee)

Technically, it wasn't the 25th Wenatchee Rendezvous (it wasn't always on the Wenatchee), but it was the 25th anniversary of the Washington Recreational River Runners club. The flow was down from the previous year, but it was still pretty high (9500 cfs) and I took my cataraft.

I was the first person at the put-in at 10AM, but I was quickly joined by others. After the shuttle, we took off. I ended up bringing up the rear. I don't know how many boats we had, but it was at least 20, and maybe even 30, in 3 waves. I started off in the rear group, but after lunch I found myself in the front group.

At 9500, the rapids on the Wenatchee are pretty easy in a cataraft. The rapids are mostly big wavetrains - at higher flows the waves start to turn into breaking waves that can flip rafts easily.

After the run, we had a nice potluck dinner and a raffle. I won a couple of nice prizes (a water filter and a sand stake) and a bunch of us played our guitars until bedtime.