27 - 4/28/2012 - Green River Gorge

The Green was running around 1900, which is a great flow for my little cataraft. The weather was sunny for the 4th weekend in a row! The road where we normally put in was blocked just past where we start, making it hard to turn around, so we decided to use the uppermost put-in. The usual way people handle the Green is to drop boats at the put-in, and then meet at the takeout. However, it seems that many people have gotten lazy with this, so I was the only one of 4 boaters to do this. Eventually, we got on the water and moved fast.

I was a little nervous when we got to Mercury. I wanted to see where I had flipped the previous time, and I wasn't disappointed. It was obvious why I had flipped.

Otherwise, the run was just plain fun. The father of one of the boaters in the group ended up making burgers and hot dogs for us at the takeout. Great guy!

26 - 4/27/2012 - SF Snoqualmie

When I got home from boating the previous evening, I had a message from someone who wanted to IK the SF Snoqualmie the next day. My shoulders were a little sore, and at first I didn't want to go, but I decided I could still boat if I took it easy. The flow was just a little lower than the previous two days, and the weather was still great.

25 - 4/26/2012 - SF Snoqualmie

I had originally expected this to be the first day of a 10-day IK trip that would mostly be in Oregon. However, between the recent warm weather and the run that followed, all of the rivers we wanted to run looked like they were going to be too high (and this turned out to be true as the days progressed), so we decided to put off the trip until July.

The Middle Middle, which would have been our usual choice, was running 3700 and rising, and the only person who wanted to boat was an IKer friend. So, we did another day on the SF Snoqualmie. The flow was slightly higher than the day before, and the weather was quite different. When we got there, we had sunshine. By the time we were in the rapids, it was cloudy and dark. 10 minutes later, we were pelted by rain and hail, followed by thunder and lightning. This was another very quick run.

24 - 4/24/2012 - SF Snoqualmie

Some friends wanted to get in an after work run while the SF Snoquamie was running high. The gauge said 900 cfs, but with the low-elevation creeks running high, it was probably closer to 1300 at the takeout. We stopped and surfed, but the 3 mile run still only took us 30 minutes.

23 - 4/22/2012 - SF Stilly

With other rivers running high, I decided to go and run the SF Stillaguamish. It was running around 6.3', which is a good medium flow. We had another sunny day, and the snow that had been at the put-in the previous time was gone. The initial class III section was a lot of fun. The rapid above the old log jam was very fun - I think this is my favorite level for that rapid, as it makes it hard and forces me into some tough places but it isn't so hard I can't handle it.

22 - 4/21/2012 - Middle Middle extended

There were all kinds of possibilities for a nice Saturday. The Middle Middle was flowing around 2500, which was a great cataraft flow, so a friend and I decided to take our catarafts and do an extended run of the Middle Middle and Club Stretch, which has an easier takeout.

The weather was beautiful, but we were the only people on the river as we started out. We passed a small group of kayakers at one point. Then, at A-Frame, we saw a group of boats and people. At first, I thought that there was a group of Sheriff's rescue people doing an exercise. This would have made sense given the helicopters flying around the area. But, it turned out to be a group from BEWET (Boeing's whitewater club) dealing with a wrapped raft - in a place where there's no reason for a raft to go. They didn't seem to need our help, so continued on.

The rest of the Middle Middle run was lots of fun. At Second Island Drop, I found a lost paddle from BEWET. When we reached the takeout for the Middle Middle, I left the paddle. We continued down the Club Stretch, where there were many more boaters. We talked to a canoeist (with his kids) who had apparently flipped earlier. He asked if the rapid above was the worst of it - he was going to have a long day if that was a hard rapid. As we floated down, we met 3 other groups of beginning kayakers and their instructors.

The final views of Mt. Si were spectacular.

21 - 4/19/2012 - Middle Middle

There were just a couple of people available, and the flow was down to 1100, but it was still a nice run. I decided to try out my new drysuit to make sure it would be OK for my upcoming 10-day trip. During the float, it started raining on us pretty hard.

20 - 4/18/2012 - Club Stretch

A friend wanted to try out her new cataraft frame on something easy, so we ran the lower Middle Fork Snoqualmie - known as the Club Stretch (because the kayak clubs use it for instruction). This is an easy class II+ section below the Middle Middle that has great views of Mt. Si, especially at the end.

The run was uneventful. There are usually logs blocking some rapids, but the run was clean. The one thing that was not so great was that my drysuit started leaking. I may have a zipper problem.

19 - 4/15/2012 - Green River Gorge

The flow on the Green was just 1100, but it was a beautiful day and well worth the trip. There were 4 of us in IKs and we were the only people in the upper gorge.

Everything went great, but I had an interesting run at Mercury. I had decided to try to run the left-of-center line at the bottom, but it turns out that you can't get there from the center of the rapid. I moved right, but couldn't get back to the left. In the end, I found myself on the far right, where there was just one small slot to get down. This was a 4' drop right into a hole, where I found myself upright. The problem was that the exit was to go into another hole sideways, where I found myself upside down. I knew that The Nozzle was coming up quickly, so I got the boat reflipped in one move and was back in before The Nozzle. My paddle was under me, but I went through and was able to get the paddle out before the next little rapid. It was a great feeling to get this self-rescue right.

18 - 4/14/2012 - Middle Middle

A friend wanted to do this run for his birthday, so there was quite a large group. The plan had been to meet at the takeout at 11, which normally would get us on the water before noon, but one group of people were over an hour late, making a dozen of us wait. A few of us had commitments later in the day, so we had to push it a little. Otherwise, it was a beautiful and fun day, with a flow of around 1100 cfs.

17 - 4/12/2012 - Middle Middle

We had a small group for this run - 3 IKs and a cataraft. The flow was in the 1500 range, and it was a nice enough evening for a quick run.

16 - 4/1/2012 - Middle Sauk

The Middle Sauk finally has a gauge, but it hasn't been completely calibrated yet. It seems to read a little on the high side. The great thing about this gauge is that not only will it give us a more accurate reading on the Middle Sauk run, it will give us very good estimates on the Whitechuck (Middle Sauk minus Upper Sauk) and Suiattle (Lower Sauk minus Middle Sauk).

With the temperatures and flows dropping, but still 1100 on the Upper Sauk gauge, we had a group of 4 boats on the run. I took my 11' cataraft, which was perfect for the flow. I had a pretty straightforward run. I ran left of where I wanted in Jaws, but I still had a good run. We had nice weather through lunch, and it didn't start to get cold until the end of the run.

Over the past 5 years, I've averaged 8 days in April. It will be interesting to see how this April goes. We have a good snowpack, but it's colder than usual.