40 - 6/5/2011 - Chiwawa

I first ran the Chiwawa last year on the second day of the Wenatchee Rendezvous. That time, the flow was around 1700. This time, the flow was around 2200, which is supposedly considered high, but it really didn't feel that big, despite being in a smaller boat. We had a group of 5 IKs and 4 catarafts.

It was a fun run, but it's not really a run that I would go out of my way to do. There are some good potential camping spots, so it may be worthwhile to look at it for that purpose someday.

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.

38 - 5/29/2011 - Upper and Middle Sauk

The IKers weren't interested in running the upper part of the run, but they did want to run the Middle Sauk, so the plan was that the two of us running the Upper Sauk would push down and meet them in a couple of hours. We ran the shuttle down to the takeout and we put in about about 10:45. Surprisingly, we made it to Whitechuck by 12:15 and beat the IKers. We had lunch and continued on with them.

The Middle Sauk was a blast in my little cataraft. I hope to get another chance to do this soon.

37 - 5/28/2011 - Upper Sauk

Bedal Campground is on the NF Sauk, and it's the put-in for the Upper Sauk run. This year I reserved a couple of prime sites on the river for Memorial Day weekend. The weather is typically drizzly and cloudy on Memorial Day weekend, and this year was no different.

We had a group of 6 boats: 3 cats, a raft, and 2 IKs. The run was the cleanest I've seen in years. All of the large logjam corners had open channels. The one place that we used to have to portage just about every year was completely clean.

In the afternoon after the run, some of us hiked up to see the NF Sauk Falls, which is a 50' waterfall in a narrow gorge. It was spectacular!

36 - 5/26/2011 - Middle Middle

This was the 3rd week of increasing flows, and 2300 was a fantastic level. There was just two of us at the beginning, but some friends in rafts caught up with us halfway down. I tried to do my practice flip on the first rapid, but I couldn't get the boat to flip there, so I had to do it on the second rapid. My self-rescue wasn't perfect, but it took less than a half minute and it was on my weak side, so I was happy enough with it.

As a side note, this was my 130th IK run on the Middle Middle, and my 777th river day.

35 - 5/21/2011 - Green River Gorge

35 river days before the end of May ties my record - this despite having to cut the spring trip short. If I can boat next week, I'll have a new record.

When we got to the put-in, I was a little worried. The water was brown and muddy, which usually happens when the river is running high. I was concerned that they had raised the flow, but I made a phone call and confirmed that it was steady. A combination of rain and snowmelt had brought a lot of silt into the lake, and the dam operators were working to get the silt out.

We had a group of 2 rafts, 3 catarafts, and a couple of IKs. I was in my 11' cataraft for the first half of the trip. I had a very good run and I practiced a lot of technical maneuvers. A short distance into the gorge, we came upon a group of kayakers, one of whom was having a tough day. He caught a ride in one of the rafts, and I carried his boat on the back of mine. This made a couple of places more interesting, but I did fine. I had a great run at The Nozzle.

After we ran the big rapids, I swapped boats with another catarafter. Her boat is tiny - 9.5'x18" as compared to my 11'x20" boat, which is still a very small cataraft. The tiny boat is a lot of fun and easy to control except when I bang the oars on my knees. The toughest thing to get used to is the Oar Rights. These are devices that keep the oars in a specific orientation, which is great when you want them to always be in the "power" position. The problem is that I've gotten used to being able to freely rotate my oars, so I couldn't take advantage of some of my techniques. I almost came out of the boat once, but I was able to stick to the boat.

34 - 5/20/2011 - SF Snoqualmie

My next door neighbor will be 83 soon, and he likes to go on at least 2 IK trips with me every year. It was a nice day and the river was flowing nicely, so we decided it was a good day to boat. I did my practice flip about halfway through the first rapid and got back in quickly. I hope I can continue this and get to be comfortable with this.

The run was clean and I spent a lot of time weaving through the rapids. It was a great run, and I'm glad I got to take advantage of a nice day. We haven't had very many of those yet this year.