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