8 - 2/20/2010 - Lower Sky

IKs on the Skykomish

Plans come and go. Originally, we talked about running one of the class II rivers on the coast, and then we switched to the Green. Then, on Friday afternoon the flow on the Green dropped below a comfortable level, so we switched to the Skykomish. We decided to make it interesting by doing an extended Lower Sky run, starting just below Boulder Drop and ending at the Sultan River confluence. We had 2 catarafts, 4 IKs, and a hardshell kayak, and the flow was around 2200 cfs (low flow for rafts).

The put-in below Boulder Drop isn't easy for large boats. It also wasn't easy for me. I had hurt my foot (again) on a hike a couple of days earlier, and it was not easy for me to get down to the river. We had a first-time whitewater IKer with us, and he flipped right off the bat, but he dealt with it and didn't have any more flips.

The first couple of miles had several class III rapids, which were a lot of fun. We pulled over for lunch at a nice beach, and one of the guys on the trip had a drawing for some promotional prizes for his new business selling plastic dryboxes. I was lucky enough to win one.

After lunch, there were a couple more big rapids before we hit the takeout for the normal run, but we didn't stop. We continued onto the easier section of the river, where the hardest rapids are class II+. The weather was sunny, but we had to endure a little bit of cold and the sun directly in our eyes. After a while, I just got into my paddling rhythm and pushed to the end. The last boats in the group came in just before it got dark.

This was the first time I had run the section from Big Eddy to the Wallace River confluence. I have now run all of the Skykomish from Index to Monroe. I have run the Wallace River from below Wallace Falls to the Sky, the NF Sky below Galena, the SF Sky from Sunset Falls to the main Sky, the upper SF Sky from its beginning down to the takeout above Eagle Falls, and the Beckler River from the Rapid to the SF Sky. I still want to run some of the tributaries of the SF Sky someday.