5 - 1/15/2012 - Green River Overnighter (Day 2)

I got up early and started packing. We left camp at around 10AM, just as it started to snow hard. I got stuck once more on the way down, but only for a minute or so. Near the end of the run, I got ready to go down one side of an island when I realized that what I thought was a bridge in the distance was actually a log. I was just barely able to get back upstream and get into the other channel.

When we got to the takeout, I had to walk about 1.5 miles to get my SUV. As I exited the park, the ranger pulled up and informed me that the park was closed due to the snow, but he was going to let me drive back in to get our gear. As I walked on, I saw him ticket someone who came into the park past the "Do not enter" barrier. I thought it was a little unfair to ticket people, even if they had passed the gate. Anyway, I walked up the hill and got the SUV and we went back to get the other car. I took one person home, and as I was leaving the area, I had some problems. As I was going down a hill, people in front of me suddenly stopped. I tried to slow down gently, but went into a skid because of the trailer and slid off the road. A friendly local helped me get the trailer unhitched and the wheels dug out (I was carrying a heavy-duty jack and a folding shovel), and it only took 5 minutes to get out.

Later that week, we would have a 2+-day power outage because of an ice storm.

4 - 1/14/2012 - Green River Overnighter (Day 1)

Earlier in the week it appeared that we'd have a good flow on the Green, but by Saturday the flow was around 750, which is quite low. I decided at the last minute to switch to my cataraft because despite the lower flow I'd be less likely to flip.

We met at the put-in and unloaded. The original plan had been for me to leave my vehicle at a friend's near the takeout and then leave the other vehicle at a friend's near the put-in, after which I would walk back to the river to meet the group. Luckily, the friend near the put-in was home and gave me a ride.

We got going at around 11AM. The weather was cold, and it looked like it might snow. We pushed our way through the shallow rapids. When we got to the Gorge, this was a bit tougher. I got stuck a couple of times and had to spend a few minutes extracting the boat. The real challenge came at The Nozzle. It was tiny! Also, there was a boat stuck on the right rock, so we had to wait. When I went in, I had a good line and dropped my oars to allow me to slide through, but that didn't happen. The current on the right rock grabbed my stern-heavy boat and pulled it to the right before I could get to the oars. Luckily, a pair of boaters were on the left rock and were able to toss me a rope. I was going to tie the rope when one of them yelled to me to clip it in. I thought for a moment and remembered that I carry a carabiner in my PFD pocket, so I pulled it out and clipped on. A few moments later I was out. One other person in the group got stuck sideways in the drop and had to be helped through.

After that, things got much easier. We had a quick lunch stop in the gorge and went on down to camp. About 10 minutes before we reached camp, it began to snow and sleet. When we got to camp, we set up the kitchen tarp and then set up our tents. We hung out for the rest of the evening and had a great dinner. I retired early because it was getting cold.

3 - 1/7/2012 - Green River Gorge

Flows came down during the week and we ended up with just under 1200 for Saturday. We had a group of 5 IKs, putting in at the fishing access near the Palmer hatchery. Things went smoothly until a few rapids below Let's Make a Deal. One person broached on a rock and flipped after getting unstuck. At the bottom of the next rapid, this person got in front of me and got stopped by a wave, which resulted in me getting sideways in that wave and I flipped. In the lower gorge, I flipped on another wave. I got back into my boat quickly each time, but I was glad I didn't have my helmet camera on.

The last hour or so was very cold, and we were happy to get to the takeout and get warmed up.

2 - 1/5/2011 - SF Snoqualmie

I work from home about half the time, and I can do an entire SF Snoqualmie trip and be back to work in under 2 hours. One of the people from the Cedar River trip the previous weekend wanted to get in a kayak run, so we met up and hit the SF. The weather was quite nice, especially considering that it was supposed to be raining hard all day. The run was clean and we had no problems.

1 - 1/1/2012 - Cedar

This is the traditional January 1 trip, where WRRR members and friends get together to start the year off with an easy boating trip. We had around 30 people, probably the biggest New Years trip so far, with all kinds of craft: several inflatable kayaks, a paddle raft, an oar raft, a cataraft, a hardshell kayak, and even a standup paddle board! The flow was excellent and the weather was sunny and fairly warm.

I took my GoPro helmet cam and got video of the entire run.