Three more trips down the Wenatchee!

Since the water level on the Wenatchee River began to drop pretty fast the rafts are becoming less challenging (and to me less exciting). The good news is the water level is great for those that want to learn to kayak and I had 5 people this weekend that were up to the challenge.
Saturday started out expensive right off the bat. I was getting ready for the river and as I was putting on my dry pants the ankle gasket blew out – this was surprising since I had bought them last month during my trip to Idaho. And for those of you who have experience with this you know that dry gear with no gaskets really doesn’t stay that dry. Luckily the weather was nice so Mike offered me his dry suit since he was going to be in an oar boat – though his wife Kim advised he may want to wear it since she was going to be the one oaring the boat for the first time.
Once we got on the river we got Allie comfortable in the kayak which didn’t take too long since she’s been rafting for several years. I think she was a bit surprised at how much work it can take to flip an IK back over and pull yourself out of the water – it’s not as easy as we make it look – but after a couple tries she was getting the hang of it. By the end of our 17 mile run she had pretty much perfected the “flip the boat then claw your way back in before the next set of rapids” motions. Allie is now a finely tuned kayak re-entering machine!
Once we got off the river some of the other guides wanted to take a shot at the IK’s. So myself and 3 others arranged a shuttle and set out to run the lower 10 miles again - the more exciting stretch. All was well with this plan until we reached our put-in and realized someone forgot a PFD (and no it wasn’t me!). So we decided to run our shuttle anyway and see if I could round one up. When I got to the take out I tracked down a guide I knew with one of the local outfitters, who was just wrapping up for the day, and talked him into loaning us his PFD for her to use. Once I got back to the put-in we set off about 5:30. It’s a good thing they were already used to the water because they only had 20-30 yards on the river before they hit the first Class III wave set. This was a nice encore to my first run that morning but after 27 miles of assisting others through their first time "learning curves" I was ready to call it a day.

Sunday morning the sun was up before I was and Nate and I again started off the day with a short run to Starbucks (see a pattern here?). The bad news was I was still pretty beat from the assisting swimmers the day before - paddling upstream to catch people and gear and flip their boats over and over again wears you down pretty fast. The good news is this was the first time in a while I would get to run my own lines without worrying about who would or wouldn’t make it through behind me – I was only really responsible for the safety of myself and the folks in the paddle rafts this time. This meant I was able to practice my surfing, spinning, wave jumping and of course flipping. Thanks again for the dry suit Mike – maybe next time I’ll remember to close the stupid crotch zipper all the way while I’m surfing - ooh that water is cold!

Stats:
Wenatchee River - Class III - Das River Haus to Cashmere (x2), Peshastin Weir - Cashmere
Miles Logged: 44 (17, 10, & 17)
Flow Data: 4240cfs & 4230cfs

Hiking Icicle Ridge Trail - both miles of it!

We decided since this was likely our last “Wenatchee River Weekend” this spring we would take an extra day off and go for a hike on Friday. We left Thursday afternoon and headed over to Leavenworth. The plan was to beat the weekend crowd and find a nice campsite at Eightmile Campground where we would meet up with our friend Bucky. Last weekend a similar plan was foiled and we we're forced to “camp” on the side of the road next to Icicle Creek. Well our plan worked better this time. We had no issues finding a nice spot that would fit our truck & the Blastshelter along with Bucky’s truck and tent. I called Bucky to let him know we had arrived and he said he was just making a quick stop at Starbucks, I assumed the Starbucks in Leavenworth, but apparently he meant the Starbucks in Bellevue! He was still in town! I guess Bucky just had a little too much retirement to take care before he could hit the road! After a couple hours hanging around camp Bucky pulled in around 10pm. The next morning we started the day off by breaking camp and promptly heading directly to Starbucks in Leavenworth. Once we were properly caffeinated we drove to our private campsite we use for or rafting trips to drop off the trailer and get situated for our hike.

Since I’d be taking Lily on my back a relatively short hike would be best (she gets a little antsy after too many hours riding in the backpack) so we decided on the Icicle Ridge Trail. Our plan was to climb the 2 miles to the top of the ridge – I figure a 2 mile hike with a 1600’ elevation gain and a rating of "Difficult" was more than enough with a small child strapped to my back. We found the trail head and started up to the ridge about 1:00-ish. Just as it started to get hot out - figures! The trail was a bit over grown at the beginning but overall it was in good condition. It starts out heading uphill then continues uphill until you run out of hill to go up. It’s not the steepest trail I’ve been on but you are cut no slack as nearly every step you take for the 2 miles up is…..up! I don’t think the trail had more than 100’ of flat land on it the entire length. The climb was completely worth the effort though. The view from the top was spectacular. It was such a steep ridge line we were able to look down at Tumwater Canyon on one side, Icicle Valley on the other side and the town of Leavenworth right in front of you (well 1600 feet below right in front of you). The ridge here is pretty steep so it made for some good pictures of the valleys below. We took a few minutes to have some lunch and enjoy the cool breeze blowing through Tumwater canyon and up over the ridge. We made the two mile trek back down the mountain and back to camp with Lily holding onto a pine cone the entire way (I think that thing's still around here somewhere in the house). At camp we took a few minutes to allow our legs to stop shaking from the climb then grabbed a couple friends and jumped in the truck and headed into Leavenworth to Gustav's http://www.gustavsleavenworth.com/ where we sat out on the patio and enjoyed some beers and burgers. We spent just enough time on the patio that we were able to relax, recharge and recover a bit before our rafting/kayaking trip the next morning.

Wenatchee River IK "training"

I woke up Friday morning to the first rain we've seen in 29 days (that's a new record here!). Good thing to truck was already loaded for the weekend - I hate loading gear at 4am before work....especially in the rain! The plan was to offer to support on the Wenatchee River for some friends running paddle rafts down the river Saturday morning.

Friday after work we jumped on I-90 and headed east. After a quick stop on the side of the road near Cle Elum to meet up with Nate who was joining us, we made our way over Blewitt Pass to Leavenworth. In Leavenworth we grabbed some dinner then headed up Icicle Creek Rd. to find a place to camp for the night. Finding a spot for the night took more effort than we had expected. All the FS campgrounds here are first-come-first-served so it was pretty unexpected to find that all five of them were full this early in the evening. No big deal though we went back down to the "RV Parking" area. This area was basically an big over sized pull out next to the river that didn't allow campfires. No big deal, this worked just fine for the three of us. When we pulled in we were the 2nd and 3rd cars there when we left in the morning there were 9 cars there so I guess other people had the same luck we had.

Saturday we loaded up and headed into town a little after 6am. First stop was at Starbucks where we had the pleasure of chatting with some "charming" locals. After a passionate conversation with a local named Tim, about how the US Forest Service is wasting our money by using their unmarked helicopters to spot his friend's innocent "plant growing operations" in the local wilderness areas, we decided we ought to head to the put in to meet the others.

At the put in I gave Diane and Nate a lesson on setting up the Inflatable Kayaks while the paddle rafts were being set up. By 9am we were running the shuttle. The shuttle was easy because we had an extra driver we were able to take all the cars to the take out in Cashmere - Thanks Tracy!

Once on the river I worked closely with Diane and Nate to get them used to paddling and getting in and out of their kayaks in the water. This was a brief lesson since we only had about a half mile before we hit Boulder Bend. The trip down the river went well with no major incidents to think of. There were several swims for us kayakers but that was to be expected since this was both Nate and Diane's first time and I've never seen anybody successfully roll an inflatable kayak (though I hear you can do it - I've never seen it!). I myself swam twice, once on accident in Drunkard's Drop, while looking backwards at Diane, and once because the river wanted to show me who was boss after I had surfed a wave longer than I probably should have - Remember, the bigger the hole the easier it is to get into...but the harder it is to get out - and the river reminded me of this today! I think both Diane and Nate were a bit surprised at how much more work it takes to get a kayak down the river compared to a big raft so after 17 miles we decided to scratch the idea of a second run.

After drying out a bit at the park and breaking down the gear we got on the road. Since we were in no rush to get home Diane and I decided to make a few stops along the way. The first stop was almost immediately after leaving the take out when I opened a bottle of creme soda and it sprayed throughout the inside of my truck - true, it was pretty funny but it also kinda sucked. The next two stops were a bit more enjoyable. We pulled off at Deception Falls and walked up and snapped a few pictures. We also made a stop and hiked down to take a look at Boulder Drop, a pretty serious Class V on the Skykomish River - Diane had never seen it in person before - she thinks she's up for it - so maybe next weekend.

Stats:
Wenatchee River Class III - Leavenworth Fish Access to Cashmere
Miles Logged: 12
Flow Data: 6530cfs

Wenatchee River, Leavenworth, Wa

Well I don't have any real good pictures of the last couple of weekends while we were rafting. I need to get better at taking pictures while I'm paddling. Of course I could buy pictures from one of the photographers along the river but I've paid for enough of those over the years - one of these years I might even frame a couple of them...it could happen!

The first weekend was a good time the water was pretty high at over 12,600cfs and the weather was pushing 90 degrees in the afternoons. We made a run on Saturday and another on Sunday. Since the group was quite large I guided paddle rafts both days. Though the second day was a bit trying as I had 6 passengers - two that are high level water polo studs and wanted to "run everything big" on the river, their wives that did not speak English, and two other guys that were scared to death of the river and could not swim...or paddle for that matter. The good news was the two guys up front were big, strong and paddled like raging maniacs so we were able to negotiate everything while the other 4 rolled around in the floor screaming like little girls (no offense Lily!). All-in-all it was a great weekend though I was exhausted after the Sunday's run.

The next weekend we had a great time as well. Since this weekend the group was quite a bit smaller than before Jason and I were able to introduce a couple guys to using inflatable kayaks. This is something Jason and I have spent quite a bit of time doing but it was completely new them. We got them out on the meandering Icicle Creek and they did fine. Nobody flipped almost a whole minute - yes, one of our kayaking "pupils" was swimming next to his boat after wedging himself against a paddle raft as he was getting in his kayak. Now this is what rafting is all about....you against the river.... and only 17 more miles to go.

Teaching the new kayakers was a fun challenge. The guys we were teaching had never been in a kayak before so it was fun to help them figure things out. After several swims and several rescues they had both retired to the comfort of paddle rafts as Jason and I finished the river with a guide trainee now following with us and an unmanned kayak in tow. Let this be a lesson to all you aspiring first time kayakers out there here is some advice....When your guide (whom you paid for his expertise) says "stay right behind me" through rapids like Boulder Bend or Snow Blind or any other rapid for that matter he actually means "stay right behind me" not "sort-of stay right behind me and 15 feet to the left." But as they say "pain is the greatest of all teachers"

Stats:
Wenatchee River - Class III - Das River Haus to Cashmere
Miles Logged: 51 (3 days)
Flow Data: 12600cfs, 13200cfs & 8940cfs

Lake Dorothy - Alpine Lakes Wilderness

Since we had a wedding Saturday night, instead of going rafting this weekend, we decided to go
for a hike. Sunday morning We headed out to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area near Stevens Pass. The Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area has over 700 alpine lakes in it and Lake Dorothy is said to be the largest at over 2 miles long.
To get to the trail head we had a 9.5 mile drive on FS Road 6410 along the Miller River. The first several miles up the road were pretty easy going but one we got about 5 miles in last year's storm damage slowed us down. There were several places where the road had been either washed out from the river below of taken our by slides from above. I was actually surprised at how much of the road had been cleared and graded since the only thing on this road after 4-5 miles is the Alpine Lakes Trail head. Even though the road was mostly cleared it was still a pretty rough go in places. There were several stretches with good sized rocks and ruts to negotiate. I didn't need 4wheel drive but clearance could be an issue for cars making this trip. Of course I felt sort of like a wimp when I arrived at the trail head and parked my truck next to a mud covered Honda Civic with cute little flower stickers on the back window (I wonder what the bottom of the car looks like!)
The hike to the lake is only two miles then it continues two more miles along the lake. The trail to the lake was also in similar condition to the road. It was in great shape except for some areas that took some work to get through. We were slowed down by several fallen logs and debris covered trails. Once we reached the lake and the mouth of the river the trail disappeared in to the river. We spent the next few minutes whacking bushes and hopping rocks in the river to get back onto trail.
Once we reached the lake Maggie and I climbed out on the massive log jam at the mouth of the river and took some pictures of the ice covered lake. There was quite a bit more ice left on the lake than I had expected to find in June. Though we could only see about half the lake from where we were but from what we could see it's beautiful. We found some rocks near the shore to sit on and had some lunch and let Lily explore the snow and everything else she could get at. After lunch we worked our way back down the trail and eventually made our way down the mountain and back home.