38 - 5/19/2012 - Green River Gorge

On the previous Sunday, a friend of mine died at the Nozzle on the Green. It wasn't a high flow or anything like that. We don't really know what happened, other than his raft got stuck on the right rock and something happened as he tried to remove it. He was a great guy and I'll miss boating with him.

A small group of us decided to run the Green - 3 IKs and a hardshell. The weather was sunny and the flow was a relatively low 1200 cfs. We started out at the fish hatchery across from Kanasket-Palmer. Everything went pretty smoothly until Mercury. Yes, once again I flipped my IK at Mercury, though this time was somewhat unique. I was trying to take a left line and got pushed right again, but this time I ended up in a huge hole and was paddling hard to get out but not making much progress. The last boater dropped into the hole and I thought his wake would allow me to get out, but that didn't happen. I turned the boat around and tried to surf and pull to the side, but I flipped. Knowing that the final boulder ledge was not far away, I quickly got the boat back over and got back in. I ran the final set of drops without thigh straps, but made it fine. We then ran the Nozzle and spent some time studying it before continuing on.

Another great day on the Green. There were no other boats on the water, though.

37 - 5/18/2012 - SF Snoqulamie

The river was flowing 900 cfs and I went with my next door neighbor.

36 - 5/17/2012 - Middle Middle

The snowmelt really brought the river up, and we considered running the SF Snoqualmie, but we decided that the 2500 cfs flow was within our range. There were 3 IKs, a raft, and a couple of catarafts on the trip. Most of the trip was just the usual fun class III, and we played around quite a bit. At Right Angle Drop, it was time to concentrate. I ran the center line there, and ran the far right at Entry. Once in House Rocks, the Goal Posts was a very small drop, but the main drop was much bigger than normal, with a breaking wave in it. The second half of House Rocks was easier for me, but one person went over the little rock on the right and had to really dig out of the hole. The next rapid ("3 Holes") was pretty big, but that just allowed us to practice bigger water moves.

I'm looking forward to a run at a slightly higher level in the near future.

35 - 5/13/2012 - Lower Cispus

The second day on the Lower Cispus was pretty similar to the first, though we got an earlier start. The weather was sunny and warm, and the flow was around 2000 cfs. We had one new boat in the group, and one person switch from a cataraft to an IK.

At Lion's Jaw, I took the far right slot, which is the biggest drop on the river. I would always take this line, except that it is the are that has the highest likelihood of a hidden log, so I only do this if I run the Cispus two days in a row or if I can get someone else to lead and give me a signal.

At the end of the trip, we heard about a problem on the Green River. The original report was that someone in an 18' raft got stuck at the Nozzle and drowned. I found out later that it was a friend of mine in a 13' raft. It's very sad when a fellow rafter dies on the river.

34 - 5/12/2012 - Lower Cispus

A few days each year, the Lewis County PUD opens the gate at the Lower Cispus takeout for people who don't have a key. I like to help the cause by attending these events. We had a couple of rafts, 3 catarafts, and 4 IKs, and a flow of around 2000 cfs. The weather was sunny and fairly warm.

I had the first flip of the day, just after lunch. I decided to push the limits at a big hole and got munched. I got back in the boat pretty quickly, but when I got my paddle up, I knocked my knife out of the scabbard and saw it go into the river.

At Lion's Jaw, I took the center line, which led into a big ledge wave that required a hard brace. The IKer following me didn't brace hard enough, and he ended up flipping. All in a day's play...

33 - 5/10/2012 - Middle Middle

We had 3 new people on this trip, but I really don't remember anything about it.

32 - 5/7/2012 - Middle Middle

One of my friends and I took advantage of the nice weather and good flow to run the Middle Middle. The flow was around 1400. We took our time and enjoyed the rapids.

31 - 5/6/2012 - Lower Green Gorge

My friends and I got up, had breakfast, and helped clean up the camp before running shuttle. I helped a friend shuttle so he and his girlfriend could spend the night on the river. We got back and a small group of us kayaked and rafter from Shangri La down to Flaming Geyser. It was another sunny day with a good flow, and it was a nice relaxing run.

30 - 5/5/2012 - Green River Cleanup

After a great run at The Nozzle
(photo courtesy Brian Vogt)

We had camped over night at Shangri La. I ended up in a group of people who planned to run from the uppermost put-in down to Flaming Geyser. This included a couple of people who had not solo rowed the Green Gorge before, which made for an interesting day. When we got through Ledge Drop 1 section, one of the people considered pulling out, but decided to go for it. This turned out great. We had a fun trip. The weather was sunny and we had a flow of around 2000 cfs, which is one of the higher flows for the Green River Cleanup.

After the run, I went back to camp and had a great dinner and enjoyed the evening with friends.

29 - 5/4/2012 - Green Headworks

We thought about running the SF Stillaguamish, but the flow on that was too high from the rain, so we decided instead to run the Green Headworks and head over to the WRRR camp on the Green early.

We put in at the upper put-in above the gate. The flow was around 2000 cfs, which is a little high for the Headworks run, but it makes most of the run a little easier because the rocks are covered. Everything went well until we got to Ledge Drop 1. One person flipped at the bottom, and then took a while to get their boat turned back over and get back into the boat, and ended up flipping again in the next rapid. It took quite a bit of time to get everyone back together to run the final rapid.

28 - 5/3/2012 - SF Snoqualmie

The original plan had been to do 10 days of kayaking in Washington and Oregon, but the river flows all went way up, which made it too dangerous for us to do this. So, my friends came out for a 4 day weekend to attend the Green River Cleanup and do some local boating. They arrived on Thursday evening, and we did an extended run on the SF Snoqualmie.

The flow was around 1000 cfs at the put-in (the gauge read lower, but there are a lot of creeks between the gauge and the put-in) and it was raining, hard at times. We ran all the way into North Bend and took out at the train trestle.