Schmafters

A few months ago, someone made a comment on Facebook that is was finally "rafting season". My response was "Rafting season, schmafting season!". In Washington, it's possible to do whitewater boating every month of the year. You don't need 90 degrees and sunny weather to enjoy yourself. I'm just as happy boating the Green in December with snow on the ground and icicles hanging from the walls at Paradise as I am running the White Salmon in July.

Thus we have:

schmaft - verb, to run whitewater only when the weather is nice
schmafter - noun, a person who only runs whitewater when the weather is nice

To call a boater a schmafter is an insult. It's almost as bad as calling an inflatable kayak a "duckie". :-)

68 - 9/27/2010 - Rogue (Day 5)

Leaving Camp for the Takeout

Normally, we try to get an early start for the takeout, but nobody was in a hurry, so we got a late start. I switched with one of the IKers, so I made good time to the takeout, but we still didn't reach it until nearly 1PM. We got the gear loaded and the groover cleaned and finally left for home after 3PM. I got other people to drive, so I was able to nap. We got home well after midnight, so I left my gear on the trailer and picked it up the following day.

Lesson learned: Discuss the takeout plans with everyone the night before.

67a - 9/26/2010 - Rogue (Day 4 - layover)

Using the Zing for Shade

The night before, the breakfast people announced that breakfast would start at 9AM the next day. In reality, most of us couldn't sleep in that late, and breakfast was mostly over by 9AM. We hung around camp for a while and set up the Zing tarp as a shade.

A few of us hiked up to Tate Creek with the intention of the new folks going down the slide. The hike up the creek trail has gotten tougher over the years because of erosion and lack of maintenance. After getting to the slide, we opted to take the creek bed route back down.

In the afternoon, we played games (pinochle and dominoes) and then had pho for dinner.

67 - 9/25/2010 - Rogue (Day 3)

Mule Creek Canyon

I got up early and packed up so I could help with breakfast (bagels with lox and other toppings) and get going. I pushed out ahead of everyone else and made it to Mule Creek Campground a bit earlier than the group. After a nice lunch of salmon salad sandwiches, I headed out with the couple who were handling dinner. As we headed into Mule Creek Canyon, we were a little bunched up, so I slowed down and still tried to get some photos of the people ahead of me. Mule Creek Canyon is a lot more interesting when you have to run it slowly.

People caught up with us in Mule Creek Canyon, and the people I was with decided to scout Blossom Bar. I waited and ran it with people watching. I had a lousy run, hitting every rock, but I still made it through OK. Below Blossom Bar, we pushed off towards camp. We were hoping for Middle Tacoma, or possibly Upper Tate Creek. Upper Tate Creek was already taken, but the beach there has gotten much smaller, so it's not as desirable. Middle Tacoma was also taken, so we took Lower Tacoma, which turned out to be a very nice camp. It has easier beach access, and it has more options for camping if you don't mind walking a little bit.

Dinner was fish tacos, which were really good after a long day of rowing.

After dinner, we were all sitting around the "fire" (which was actually a fake propane fire that looks really nice) when we heard a noise from the river side. We had seen bears on the other side of the river that afternoon, and someone said it was a bear. The person next to me jumped up and yelled "BEAR! Go away!". A moment later, the "bear" stood up - it was actually one of our group who had fallen returning from the river. I think she was more scared than we were.

66 - 9/24/2010 - Rogue (Day 2)

In the Upper Canyons

We had a pleasant night, and it would turn out to be another sunny day. We headed out reasonably early and pushed our way through the upper canyons. The rapids were fun, and not too difficult. We pulled over for lunch below Windy Creek, and then headed down river into the first "lake". At the end of the lake was Battle Bar, where we set up camp for the night.

I had never camped at Battle Bar before. It's a very different camp. The beach is small and rocky and not very conducive to a big group. Most of the camping is about 50 feet above the river, and you have to climb a steep trail to get there. One of the advantages to Battle Bar being a rarely-used camp is that it still had an outhouse, so we didn't have to carry the groover all the way up there. Speaking of the groover, we tried out a new "groover key" system on this trip. I put the toilet supplies (paper, etc.) in a red drybag. We leave the red bag near the kitchen, and when someone needs to go to the groover, they take the bag with them. When someone wants to go to the bathroom, they first have to get the "key", which avoids embarrassment.

This evening was my night for dinner. The meal was jasmine rice with panang salmon curry with spinach and green beans. I had pre-cooked the salmon, and brought bottled curry sauce. This made it much easier to cook the meal. I had brought more than enough rice, but my cooking partner wasn't sure, so we ended up cooking about twice as much as we needed to. We also had nan (Indian bread), which we heated on a griddle. At one point, I burned a couple of fingers, which was painful. Luckily, ice really did help. Only one finger blistered, and the blister eventually went away.

65 - 9/23/2010 - Rogue (Day 1)

Almost Ready to Go!

The Rogue has become a late summer tradition for me. In 2006 and 2007, a group of us ran it in early October. We found that it was easy to get a permit and there weren't a lot of other people on the river. After skipping 2008 because of scheduling conflicts, some people started putting in for late September permits. It's just as uncrowded, but the weather is usually nicer.

I had a tough time getting started on this trip. I couldn't find several items, which was frustrating, though nothing was critical. Also, with 15 people to feed, there was a lot more meal preparation for my dinner night. We got into camp just after dark the night before.

In the morning, we tried to get an early start, but a flat tire on the trailer slowed us down. I was glad that we had pre-rigged and deflated our catarafts, since that made them much easier to set up. I did learn one lesson - make sure people don't tighten the boat straps on the trailer.

We got going quickly enough, and headed down the river. I got ahead to take photos at Graves Creek Falls. We had one swimmer, but otherwise everyone made it fine. As we approached Rainey Falls, I changed my mind several times about running the Dory Chute, which is one of the options. In the end, I ran the Dory Chute and I did fine. It was the right option for me. As I was waiting for people below the rapid, an overturned canoe came towards me and I grabbed the rope and wrestled the boat to shore. The owners were thankful.

We got to Whiskey Creek campground, which was the campground we used the year before, but the trip leader decided that we should push on for another hour or so. We finally stopped at Tyee Bar, just below Tyee rapid. This campsite has a long beach, which was ideal for our large group. One of the people in the group told me that something very interesting was coming down the river. I saw it as it came around the corner - a raft was carrying a smaller, orange version of my Wing inflatable kayak. These boats are very rare, and I am still looking for another one like mine.

64 - 9/19/2010 - Tieton

Rafting in the Rain

We got going pretty early because of the weather. I needed to get home to pack for the upcoming Rogue trip. A friend dropped my SUV off at the takeout and I got in a quick run before heading home.

The Tieton season ended up being a little short this year. By the time I returned from the Rogue, the river levels were dropping quickly.  The reservoir will likely refill very quickly in 2011, so the Tieton might be available at other times next year.

63 - 9/18/2010 - Tieton

The weekend after the WRRR Tieton Rally is the Tieton Oregon Weekend, when we get together with the Oregon rafting clubs. One of the big parts of this event is a pot luck dinner. At the end of the day of boating, we all get together and have a huge meal together.

I brought my IK and brought a spare IK for a friend. We had a fun day of boating, though it was rainy and cool all weekend.

It was great to see the Oregon folks I knew and meet a few more. It started raining a bit at the potluck, so I brought out my wing tarp to  give people a place to sit out of the rain. That worked out very well. The one really funny aspect to the potluck was the tables. We were supposed to have tables, but the person in charge couldn't get them, so people had to bring whatever they had. It was a very interesting step-up, step-down pattern through the line. The food was excellent - in particular, my friend Lyles made a killer chile verde that everyone enjoyed.

62 - 9/12/2010 - Tieton

On this day, a group of us (including David Delfiner and Lisa Parsons) decided to head up and run the extended run. This is a bit of extra work, but it's fun. There are an additional 5 or 6 really fun rapids up there.

61 - 9/11/2010 - Tieton

Earlier in the week, my SUV broke down. I had originally planned to take my frame and try out some small cat tubes, but this wasn't going to work out. I almost didn't go at all, but then some friends volunteered to take my boating gear in their truck so I could drive my little car.

I took the opportunity to try out my 4-person umbrella tent. I have been using a 2-person umbrella tent for a couple of years, and I really like it. The 4-person tent was roomier, but it's harder to put up and take down. In particular, it takes a lot more work to put up the rain fly, which is one of the key advantages to my other tent. I estimate that I can put up my 2-person tent, including the rain fly, in about 3 minutes without hurrying. The 4-person tent takes about 3 minutes just to set up the main tent tightly enough to put on the rain fly, and the rain fly is big enough that it can take 5 minutes to get properly set up. Of course, the big advantage of the larger tent is that if it is raining, I can get in the middle of it and not need to worry that the rain fly is tight. I will probably only bring out the larger tent on trips where I know I'll have lots of room and time to set it up.

We had nice weather, and we did 2 runs.

60 - 9/5/2010 - Tieton

The Sestak Family

The second day of Labor Day weekend, I took a 12'6" Sotar Legend cataraft with my new frame. It was a lot of fun running this boat.

For some reason - maybe it was my back still being a little sore, or maybe just not wanting to put up with traffic - I ended up leaving on Sunday and going back home.

59 - 9/4/2010 - Tieton

Below the Put-in

Every summer, I look forward to running the Tieton. It's not a particularly exciting run, but it is a lot of fun and I get to experiment with different boats. One of the side benefits is that I get to listen to a couple of audio books in the car, because each week there's at least 5 hours of driving to and from the river.

The weather at the Tieton is predictably unpredictable, or maybe it's unpredictably predictable. It will probably be really hot one weekend, and it will probably rain really hard one weekend, and it will probably be really cold one weekend, but there's no way to know when this will happen. I've been there Labor Day weekend and half froze to death, and another year sweated the whole weekend.

This year, I brought a couple of boats to try out. On this first day, I brought the Aire Outfitter, which had recently been modified some more. I had a friend add D-rings to allow me to raise up the backrest a bit. This made a big difference.

58 - 9/1/2010 - Middle Middle

Lyles in House Rocks

I had to take a few weeks off from boating. Before the Poker Run, my back had already been hurting badly, and I needed to rest it. The weekend after the Poker Run, an old friend visited from New York. The weekend after that, I went to the beach with another friend. After that, my dad came to visit me for a couple of weeks. On 9/1, my dad was still around, but he graciously let me take a long lunch to go and run the Middle Middle with Lyles.

A sudden rainstorm had brought the flow up to 2500 cfs. I called Lyles in the morning and we figured that if we hit the river by 11:30, the flow would still be over 2000. We jumped on it and had a great time. My back felt good and I paddled hard.