26 - 4/30/2011 - Green River Cleanup

In the past, I would wait and go over to the Green River Cleanup on Saturday morning, but the nice accommodations and promise of good food lured me to Shangri La for the weekend. I took my little cataraft and added my new cargo frame to it to help pull out some pieces of the truck we had prepared a couple of weeks earlier. When we got to the beach where the truck was, the loading crew put a big load of metal on my little boat.

That is the area of a pickup truck behind the doors and the seats, and it even included the seatbelts. There are also two fenders and some random pices of metal. You can see part of an old motorboat being loaded onto another cataraft behind me. What you can't see is the pickup truck bed, which went down in a much larger cataraft.

I was boating with someone who needed to get going, so we pushed ourselves fast down the river. It was interesting to boat with my boat so back-heavy. I had some trouble in one of the big rapids, but made it through fine.

One thing that happened that was annoying was that a group of people were blocking the takeout. Now, I'm an older person, so I understand that sometimes it isn't easy for us older folks to move heavy loads, but with age should come wisdom. These people had 3 rafts blocking the entire takeout, and it would have been smart for them to work together to get the rafts unloaded and out of the way one at a time. Instead, these people unloaded all 3 of their boats first, taking out all of the frames and everything, before taking the boats. This meant that the two of us who came in had to pull in above them and we ended up having to unload our heavy loads onto a high, muddy shoreline. I hope these people noticed that they weren't working smart and will try to fix this in the future.

25 - 4/28/2011 - Middle Middle

This was an interesting logistical shuffle. It started out as a possible early run with IKs, and ended with me running it with a couple of catarafters. The flow was easy, but at one point I wasn't paying attention and I flipped on a rock. I ended up with a few bruises and a nasty scrape on my shin. Luckily, it didn't tear my drysuit open.

24 - 4/24/2011 - Green Headworks

April has been a big month this year. I've never had 24 river days at the end of April before, and I should have 25 or 26 if things go as planned.

This was a small group of mostly catboaters (I had my IK), including one person who had never rowed rapids before. The low flow meant they got stuck a few times.

23 - 4/23/2011 - Green Gorge

In order to receive free camping for WRRR members at the Green River Cleanup, we needed to help clean up the camping area. Three of us decided to run the river beforehand. As an interesting coincidence, the three people were the current, previous, and previous to that presidents of WRRR.

The flow was low, so the run was pretty easy and fun. It was a sunny day, and even though it started cold, it ended with a nice, warm afternoon.

The gardening and cleanup work was harder than the boating. I wish we had more help from WRRR members. Maybe next year...

22 - 4/17/2011 - Green Gorge (Day 2)

We took our time getting ready and got on the river at around 10AM. The flow was reasonable, and we had fun running the rest of the Gorge.

21 - 4/16/2011 - Green Gorge (Day 1)

I had never done an overnight run on the Green before, and this was a good opportunity. We arranged shuttle with some friends who live nearby. I took my 14-foot cataraft, since it can carry lots of camping gear easily. I was surprised at how easily it ran, despite the moderately low flow. A large group of boaters went down to the place where the truck bed and other junk was up high on the river bank. Some people cut the truck parts up while others dragged the trash down to the riverside, where it can be picked up at the end of the month.

After most of the group left, three of us ended the day by running Pipeline and a couple more rapids, and then pulled over to camp. The campsite was way up on a ledge above the river. It was not easy dragging camping gear up there, but it was a nice place to camp.

20 - 4/15/2011 - Middle Middle

Another evening run on the Middle Middle with 2 other IKers.

19 - 4/14/2011 - Middle Middle

This was the usual Thursday night run. There was just two of us, so it was quick.

18 - 4/10/2011 - Middle Middle

I wasn't going to boat this day, but some friends twisted my arm ;-).

17 - 4/9/2011 - Green Gorge

The dam release was only 1200, so I decided to run my IK, but because of the rain the flow was a bit higher in the Gorge. I kind of wished I had brought Cubby, but an IK run is always fun. We stopped off in the Gorge at a place where there is an old wrecked truck and boat that we're planning to take out during the Green River Cleanup at the end of the month.

16 - 4/8/2011 - Middle Middle

We didn't do the Thursday run because it was cold and the flow was very low, but Friday after work things were better. There were 4 of us on the run. Two people flipped at the takeout rapid, which was... interesting?

15 - 4/3/2011 - Upper Middle

It had been a while since I had run the Upper Middle. We had a group of new IKers, and a friend and I took out both of my catarafts. I took Cubby, which is always fun. The flow on the gauge was moderately high, but a lot of the flow came from creeks and the Pratt River, so it was shallow for the first few miles.

14 - 4/2/2011 - SF Snoqualmie

A couple of us did a long run on the SF Snoqualmie, from Twin Falls park down into town. We took out at the railroad bridge just west of North Bend.