1 - 1/1/2013 - Cedar River

Stephanie venting her drysuit (photo courtesy Erik Smith)

We had great weather and a big group of people for the first run of the year. There was a little trouble about a mile into the run, but we got through it fine. It was a great way to start the new year.

Taking a Mulligan

Blog fade: A term used to describe what happens when a blogger stops blogging.

You might think that I stopped boating last May - nothing could be further from the truth. 2012 was a fantastic boating year for me. I got in 100 boating days in total, which beat my previous record by 10 days, and that came in a year when I wasn't working. No, what happened was that I got behind when I was boating a lot and I never got back into the habit. So, for now I am going to move forward and get on with 2013. As I have time, I will go back and document the days in 2012. For now, here is the list of the remaining runs for 2012:

39 - 5/20/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
40 - 6/7/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
41 - 6/10/2012 - Middle Sauk
42 - 6/14/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
43 - 6/16/2012 - Methow
44 - 6/17/2012 - Middle Chewuch
44 - 6/19/2012 - Cedar
44 - 6/21/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
44 - 6/23/2012 - Clackamas
44 - 6/24/2012 - N Santiam
44 - 6/25/2012 - N Umpqua - BB to Horseshoe
50 - 6/26/2012 - N Umpqua - Horseshoe to Gravel
51 - 6/27/2012 - Row (Lower)
52 - 6/28/2012 - Bull Run/Sandy (to Oxbow)
53 - 6/29/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
54 - 6/30/2012 - SF Stillaguamish
55 - 7/1/2012 - Upper Sauk
56 - 7/4/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
57 - 7/5/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
58 - 7/7/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
59 - 7/8/2012 - Wenatchee
60 - 7/10/2012 - SF Snoqualmie
61 - 7/11/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
62 - 7/12/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
63 - 7/14/2012 - Upper Sauk
64 - 7/15/2012 - Middle Sauk
65 - 7/17/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
66 - 7/19/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
67 - 7/21/2012 - White Salmon
68 - 7/22/2012 - White Salmon
69 - 7/24/2012 - MF Snoqualomie Club Stretch
70 - 7/26/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
71 - 8/4/2012 - Middle Sauk
72 - 8/5/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
74 - 8/11/2012 - Skagit
74 - 8/12/2012 - Middle Sauk
75 - 9/1/2012 - Tieton (2 runs)
76 - 9/2/2012 - Tieton (3 runs)
77 - 9/3/2012 - Tieton
78 - 9/9/2012 - Tieton Upper + Lower
79 - 9/15/2012 - Tieton (2 runs)
80 - 9/16/2012 - Tieton
81 - 9/22/2012 - Rogue Hellgate
82 - 9/23/2012 - Rogue
83 - 9/24/2012 - Rogue
84 - 9/26/2012 - Rogue
85 - 9/27/2012 - Rogue
86 - 10/17/2012 - SF Snoqualmie
87 - 10/19/2012 - SF Snoqualmie
88 - 10/20/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
89 - 11/3/2012 - Green Gorge
90 - 11/4/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
91 - 11/17/2012 - Green Gorge
92 - 11/22/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
93 - 11/23/2012 - Green Gorge
94 - 11/25/2012 - Middle Middle Snoqualmie
95 - 11/27/2012 - MF Snoqualomie Club Stretch
96 - 12/8/2012 - Green Gorge
97 - 12/15/2012 - Green Gorge
98 - 12/23/2012 - Skykomish (Boulder Run)
99 - 12/29/2012 - Nisqually
100 - 12/31/2012 - Cedar

Trailing a Strap

On the front of my boat, I have a 4' orange strap. On the back, I have a 6' orange strap. These straps have several useful purposes. The main purpose is to have a strap you can grab onto if you flip and the boat starts to get away from you. It's also useful if someone else needs to haul your boat or attach a rescue rope. Finally, it means that you will always have a strap handy to attach your boat to a trailer for transport, or to secure the boat when it's rolled up.

Why not trail a rope? Ropes will compress between rocks and woody debris, and when the load is reduced will decompress, which can wedge the rope. Straps don't do this.

The length of these straps is important. If the strap is too short, of course, it's ineffective, but if the strap is too long, it can cause problems. A 6' strap in the back of the boat is short enough that it won't accidentally wrap around your paddle.

The color of the strap is not critical, but it does help if it's a light color to contrast with the water. It does need to be a floating strap, and in my opinion that is way more critical than color. A bright neon strap that sinks is useless compared to a darn green one that floats.

Sometimes, hardshell kayakers will come over to me and tell me I have a strap dragging. Many of them will toss it into the boat, and that's fine as long as they don't secure the trailing end to anything. After all, when I flip, the strap will come out of the boat and trail behind, which is where I need it.

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.