39 - 6/4/2011 - Peshastin Creek and Wenatchee

Oops! Photo courtesy Brian Vogt

Every June, WRRR holds the Bob Johnson Memorial Wenatchee Rendezvous, named for one of the club founders. Peshastin Creek is a small creek that feeds the Wenatchee river, and it's one of my favorite runs. This year, a few of us decided to try it in our little catarafts. We had a group of 3 IKs and 3 catarafts. The flow was about 600 cfs, which is an average flow for my runs here, but just barely enough for my 11' cat.

This was my first run of the class IV rapid, called Fresh Squeezed. As you can see from the photo, I didn't exactly have a clean run. However, I didn't fall off the boat. At the point the picture was taken, I was grabbing the boat with my left hand. My left foot was firmly in the frame stirrup, and my arm ended up caught between the spare oar and the boat, held by the pressure of an elastic strap. A few moments later, I was upright and in my boat.

The rest of the run on Peshastin Creek was easy, but a lot of work. This is a narrow creek with lots of rocks and lots of rapids, so I had to do a lot of maneuvering. There was one pair of logs that slowed us down a little, but we made it through with no problems.

When we reached the Wenatchee, things changed totally. My boat went from feeling huge to feeling tiny. I bobbed up and down over the waves, and the rapids seemed gigantic. We stopped for lunch and met up with other friends.

In Drunkard's Drop, I thought I was going to flip. I was in a line of 3 catarafts. The first one surfed the entry wave, so I started right. The next one looked like it was going to surf, so I stopped moving right, but then it went through and ended up right in front of me. It started surfing the main wave, and I came up right behind it. Luckily, I had enough momentum to just push us through and not get stuck and flip.

After the run, we went back to camp and had more fun activities and good food.