78 - 10/30/2011 - Middle Middle

There was still enough flow for a fun trip on the Middle Middle. It rained on us for most of the run, but as usual that didn't matter. This was a relatively dry October, yet I got in more runs than any year except 2007, and that year included 4 days on the Rogue.

77 - 10/29/2011 - SF Stillaguamish

The first time I ran the SF Stillaguamish, I did the upper and middle runs starting at the ice caves and going to Verlot. The flow was high (above 7 feet), I was injured, and it was a long day. I ended up losing my paddle near the end, and my boating partner bicycled the shuttle in the rain and snow.

The next two runs I did were at much lower water (just over 5 feet) and were shorter runs, starting at Wiley Creek and at Boardman Creek.

This time, the flow was at around 6.4 feet and dropping when we put on at Wiley Creek. There had been a short, intense storm the night before that brought the flow up to 6.8 feet overnight. The water was muddy, but the rapids were clean and we had no problems. This was a pretty easy level. At lower levels you have to deal with lots of rocks, and at higher levels you have to deal with big holes, so this was just right. We ended up taking out at Turlo, which is just below Verlot campground.

76 - 10/23/2011 - SF Snoqualmie

A big rainstorm brought the rivers up high very quickly. We had hoped for moderate flows on Saturday on the Middle Middle, but the flow rocketed to over 5000, so we decided to wait until Sunday. The original plan was to run the SF Stilly, but it was higher than we wanted to do, so Lyles and I did a long run on the SF Snoquamie. The long run is from Twin Falls park down to the railroad trestle in North Bend.

The flow was around 500 on the gauge, but the actual flow was a bit higher because the rain was recent and there are a lot of creeks between the gauge and the put-in. The whole run was clean, and even a place where things had gotten really bad with logs was clean enough to run (though we didn't). We spent a bit of time surfing, so it was a long and fun run for a Sunday afternoon.

75 - 10/15/2011 - Middle Middle

Lyles below Second Island Drop

The rain brought the rivers up on Monday and Tuesday, but by Friday flows were getting pretty skimpy. Lyles and I decided it would be worth it to run the Middle Middle in the mid-700s. The river was foggy and the leaves had just started to change. We had plenty of water, and it made some of the rapids very challenging - not big water, but very technical.

The photo shows the rapid named Second Island Drop, which used to be a good name for the rapid, but it doesn't really fit now. Like First Island Drop, the "island" is gone. Unlike First Island Drop, Second Island Drop has actually gotten more challenging since it lost its island.

Ready For The Rain

I got behind in posting my trips from the summer, but now I'm caught up. It was a very busy summer, and I am on a record pace going into fall. If I can just keep up with last year's October-December pace, I will end up with around 85 river days this year, which would be my second best year ever. I'm now at 815 total river days since 1989, and I still need to average around 6 days a month to make the 1000-day goal in mid 2014.

The rains have started in earnest. Right now, the Middle Middle is running over 4500 cfs, and it will probably peak at over 5000. Hopefully, it will not come down too fast (the prediction is for runnable flows this weekend, and that's based on a lower peak).

74 - 10/2/2011 - N Santiam

Gloomy day on the N Santiam

We expected the rain to subside overnight, but instead it rained harder. I had put my tent under the tarp shelter, but at around midnight I heard a big splash a couple of feet from my head. I looked out the tent door and saw that the tarp had drained, and there was a small puddle there. Luckily, the campsite was mostly gravel, so it drained quickly. Several times that night, the tarp drained next to my tent, but I didn't get wet from it.

For breakfast, we heated up our pizza from the night before, and then we packed up and headed for the put-in. We were meeting someone else from Portland who wasn't able to boat the day before, but was free on Sunday. We ran a quick shuttle and did the run again.

The flow was slightly higher than the day before, but it didn't really change the rapids. I took tougher routes, knowing what was below the rapids, and had a great time.

We left the takeout a bit before noon and I got home at around 5PM.

73 - 10/1/2011 - N Santiam

N Santiam (photo courtesy Ron Belnap)

As well as WRRR, I'm a member of OWA - the Oregon Whitewater Association. I don't get to do a lot of their trips, but I had never run the N Santiam and it was on my list of runs to check out for future trips. I tried to put together a group of local kayakers to go down and do the run, but in the end only two of us were available. We were able to drive down to the Portland area on Friday night and the trip leader graciously let us stay at his house. On Saturday morning, we all headed out and had breakfast with more of the group, and then went down to the N Santiam. All totaled, we had around 34 people on the trip. Most were in rafts and catarafts, but there were a number of inflatable kayaks, as well.

The flow was considered medium-high at around 3000 cfs. Several people said that they preferred it lower because it was more challenging with more rocks. There are around 6 good class III rapids, with a few class III- and lots of class II+ rapids. There's a good gradient, so the river moves fast between the rapids. The most exciting rapid was at Mill City, where a man-made rock dam makes a 5' waterfall drop. We had lunch just below this, at the Mill City access.

After lunch, we headed downstream. Right away there was some trouble. A small raft was wrapped on a rock and one of the people was swimming. My friend and I pulled over to help with the raft. My friend got the raft unwrapped and to shore. I was going upstream with my throwbag to help get the guide to shore, but for some reason he decided to swim downstream rather than getting to his boat. Besides that, there were no incidents, and the rest of the run was pretty easy.

We said our goodbyes to everyone and headed to our campground. After we got set up, we went out for pizza with some other people from the trip. When we got back to camp, it rained on us a bit, so we set up a shelter and built a fire.