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.

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.

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.