35 - 5/31/2010 - Sauk River (Day 3)

Camp on the Lower Sauk

The rain stopped just as I got up in the morning. We dried our gear as much as we could while we had breakfast, and loaded up. The takeout was only 4-5 miles downstream, but there was no way of knowing if we would have to portage.

After the minor logjams of the preceding day, I was surprised that the Lower Sauk was clean all the way to the takeout. Even channels that normally held large piles of wood had easy routes through them. It only took a couple of hours for us to reach the takeout, and we were quickly loaded and ready to go.

We stopped off and had lunch before heading up to the put-in. When Chris and I reached Bedal, the rain was pouring down, and the campground was deserted. I ended up driving home the back way, coating my boat and trailer with mud (it's still on the trailer almost 2 weeks later).

34 - 5/30/2010 - Sauk River (Day 2)

Jaws

We took our time breaking camp and packing. We packed a little more gear on my raft because the rapids below would be a bit more difficult. I was still concerned about logs in the river, which are a typical problem on the Upper Sauk, but the run was cleaner than I had seen it in years.

We made it to the midway point, grabbed the remaining dry firewood, and took advantage of the facilities. We talked to several people we knew who were running the Middle Sauk, and then we took off.

Lee and Chris decided to scout Jaws, which is the big rapid on the run. I waited until they were halfway down and I ran it while they watched. I then waited for them to finish scouting and run the rapid. Lee had a minor swim at the bottom, but got back into his boat easily. He had another flip on the next rapid from running it too far left.

Once we got through all of that, we continued down the river, with a short stop for lunch. We passed the two Middle Sauk takeouts and headed onto the Lower Sauk. Almost immediately we ran into a sketchy rapid with logs in it. This took a little work, but we made it through easily.

A bit later, I came to a place where I had to make a choice, and neither option was particularly appealing. On the left, the water channeled under a low log across most of the river. Taking this channel would mean frantically getting to shore and carrying the boats around. On the right, there was a channel with logs in it, but there seemed to be a way through. I chose this way, and immediately realized I would have to duck under a log. Going under the log, I lifted it up, and a moment later it came down onto my head - not hard, but I was glad to have my helmet on.

The campsite I had hoped to get to was now upstream, so we continued on. The water moved fast, and many possible options came and went before I could get to shore. Finally, we rounded a corner and came to a big beach next to a rapid. We had a view of mountains, plenty of space to spread out, and a big log next to the camp to dry gear on.

We settled into camp just before a light rain started. We set up a tarp as a wall on the canopy to keep the wind and rain out, and had dinner. Just before bedtime, the rain came up a bit, but we were prepared for it.

33 - 5/29/2010 - Sauk River (Day 1)

Lee and Chris on the Upper Sauk

Back in January, I reserved a campsite at Bedal Campground on the North Fork Sauk for Memorial Day weekend. My plan was to camp at the put-in one night and then do 2 nights on the river, and offer the campsite to friends who didn't want to boat or just wanted to do day trips. Several people were interested, but in the end only 2 people showed up.

The week before, we were looking at the flow dropping and considering plans for a low water run. Then a couple of days before the trip, the rain started and the flows came up quickly. I switched to my cataraft so that we could carry more rainy weather gear, like a popup canopy, extra tarps, and dry firewood. It also meant that I could help carry gear for the other people.

On Saturday morning, we ran our shuttle. We decided to leave one vehicle at the takeout and one at the mid-way point. The mid-way vehicle had more firewood in it, but more importantly it gave us an option to change our plans if the weather got worse.

We got on the river just after lunch. We ran into a log near the beginning, but the run was clean after that. We made it to where I had planned to camp very quickly, and decided to continue downstream and take our chances with a later campsite. As we passed through this area, we saw a helicopter doing some questionable logging operations. After more paddling, we found a nice spot. I had seen this spot before, but never considered it as a potential campsite.

The site had a nice beach for the kitchen with plenty of driftwood for firewood and several flat sandy areas for tents. It was situated between rapids, though apparently these would not be loud enough to drown out my snoring...

We set up camp and built a fire for dinner. We enjoyed a nice evening, with just a little sprinkle of rain.

32 - 5/22/2010 - Middle Middle

Me at the end of Second Island Drop

(courtesy Bill Yager)

We had originally planned to run the Green, but the flow came down too low for rafts, and people started to back out. So, we switched over to the Middle Middle. We had half IKs and half rafts, and it was informally named a "flip practice" run. I just had fun with it.

31 - 5/16/2010 - White River

Joe entering one of the bigger rapids on the White

When we planned this run, we thought we would have 4-5 people, but in the end it was just Joe and me. We didn't like the look of the usual takeout, and we found a much nicer one upstream. This would make a big difference later in the day.

We started out easily enough. The White has a lot of wood in it, but most of it is along the sides and is easily avoidable. The rapids are easy, but fairly continuous, so the run is pretty fun... except when disaster strikes.

OK, so maybe "disaster" is a little strong, but I did get myself into trouble. There was a place where we had 3 choices, 2 of which had obvious logs. As we started down the remaining channel, we saw a channel-wide logjam. Joe made the eddy, and I didn't. I went downstream and stopped next to the shore. I handed Joe my paddle and went to get out by holding onto a branch and standing on a rock. I slipped, the branch broke, and I went downstream. I grabbed for the shore, but had no success there. I saw the logjam coming up, and I remembered my training. I got into the aggressive swimming position (head downstream, on my stomach) and pulled myself up onto the first log. A few moments later, my boat was next to me, wrapped on the log. My foam footbrace came out, and I ended up having to send it downstream.

After a few minutes, Joe showed up with my paddle. I was fine, but I needed to get to shore and that wasn't going to be easy. Joe went back up and got his boat and a rope. While I waited for him, I shifted position and ended up losing a shoe. This made things a little tougher, especially for climbing out. First, we got my boat tied off to shore. Next, Joe tried to help me climb up the rootball, but it was steep, high, and crumbly. Everywhere I tried to stand fell apart. We finally decided that the best way for me to get out would be to get onto my boat and then climb onto shore. It was shakey going, but I made it.

Finally off the logjam, we still had to portage, and the shore was steep. We dragged the boats up the hill about 40 feet, walked downstream 100 feet, and then slid back down to the river. Back in the river, I waited for Joe. As we headed downstream, we found my footbrace stuck on a log, and Joe was able to rescue it.

Short one shoe but otherwise unharmed, I continued downstream. The takeout we chose was easy and I was able to drive the car right down to the river.

30 - 5/15/2010 - Green River Gorge

Lyles goes big at Paradise Ledge

The Army Corps did an experiment where they allowed the level of the reservoir above the Green River Gorge to go up to a higher level than normal to test the integrity of recent repairs. The plan had been to start releasing this extra water on Friday and continue through the weekend, with levels dropping in steps. They started a day early, which meant that we only got 1300 cfs on Saturday. Still, 1300 cfs is a great IK level, and it was a sunny day, so a group of us took advantage.

The trip was fun as it always is. There were long surfing sessions at Ledge Drop 1 and at Paradise. The one incident involved me at Secret Class IV. I was being silly above the rapid, and I predicted that I would flip. I did. At the bottom of the right side of the rapid, there was a tree branch in the water. I got too close to another boater, and I ended up having to hit the tree branch. I flipped on it, went under it, and came up under my boat. I recovered quickly, but it was a harbinger of things to come...

29 - 5/14/2010 - SF Snoqualmie

Yana dealing with the tree

A few weeks earlier, a woman named Yana contacted WRRR about boating. I offered to take her on an IK trip, but she had to agree to a class III run at a later date (in a previous posting, I noted that I think IKers need to start out on class III in order to really get moving).

We had planned this Friday trip, and the weather and flow cooperated nicely. We only had one minor hazard to deal with: the tree across the river in the picture above. This tree is a lot worse than the photo indicates. Swimming under this tree would be very dangerous, and there's not much room to get around it. It's not clear from the photo, but Yana is actually stuck on a rock just above the tree.