New Addition

Here is the latest addition to the Blast Shelter's arsenal of toys. I recently acquired a Folbot Greenland II. The Folbot design allows for a fairly seaworthy 17' boat that is able to break down into a pair of waterproof bags for transport & storage in a matter of minutes. The obvious advantage of this is that I can stash it in the Blast Shelter while on the road and stash it darn near anywhere I want to back at the home. The other advantage this boat has over most other kayaks is that I can change it from a two person craft to a single person craft and back anytime I wish.

South Fork Clearwater & Lochsa, ID 05/10

This Memorial Day weekend road trip started early Thursday afternoon with a brief stop at Starbucks then I pointed Bart east towards Lowell, ID with a full load of cat boats on the trailer. Nate & I met up with Kevin & Evan at the Burger King in Otello, WA where some old fat lady ecstatically informed us that the new ribs at Burger King were "to die for"...so I had a Whopper. After grabbing dinner and some gas we made our way to Lewiston, ID for a late night grocery stop which included food, beer, sippy cups and a stuffed fish we lovingly named Stanley (the plan for Stanley was that he was to be presented to the person that spent the most time underwater this weekend and held until next year...congrats Evan!). In Lewiston we stopped to top off the gas tanks in the trucks and while we were there a guy pulled in driving a wicked-cool ambulance pulling a raft on a trailer. I asked him where he was heading and apparently he was coming from Walla Walla and going to the same place we were going to. I asked him who he was meeting out there and said he was invited by Mike, the same Mike we were meeting tomorrow morning...small world! We then made for the South Fork of the Clearwater and looked for a spot of dirt on the side of the road to park the trucks, have a drink and crash for the night in Kev's camper. And believe it or not all 4 of us fit in Kev's camper quite comfortably with out needing to get obscenely cozy.

In the morning we took a few minutes to scout some of the river and find a good place to put-in. Once we had a plan we ran our shuttle and set up our gear and met up with the others. The run down the S.F. Clearwater was a good one it's a narrow Class IV with some good drop style rapids and a long continuous whitewater section that runs about 1.5 to 2 miles long. Only once did I go flying out of my seat as I punched a large hole, but as I was going out of the front of the boat I was thinking "I should grab that foot bar I'm flying over" so I reached down, grabbed on and managed to stay mostly in the boat...nice save V!

With our Friday run under our belts we headed up the road to Three Rivers to meet up with the rest of the gang for the weekend. At Three Rivers we met up with the others from Seattle, grabbed the keys to our cabins, snagged a couple beers and proceeded straight to the hot tub where we lounged around until we decided to go up to the bar for dinner - now that's rafting!

8am Saturday morning we jumped in Bart and headed up the Lochsa to the White Pine put-in 42 miles up river. The "girls" ran the shuttle for us and dropped Bart and the other truck at the Knife Edge takeout which was pretty sweet since it saved us two hours at the end of the day (fyi, Bart logged over 200 shuttle miles this weekend and over 900 to get us there and back - I like that guy!). The river was significantly lower than what we ran it at last year but since only four of us had run it before it still made for a fairly exciting day. We had a few flips over the 31 mile "Dirty Thirty" stretch we ran but nothing that was too bad. Once we made it to the take out we loaded the trucks & trailers and promptly drove back to the resort for beers in the hot tub, showers, dinner at the bar followed by a campfire next to the river and more beer (I think Kev & I still have blindspots in our eyes from lighting the campfire with a roadflare - it's not really recommened!).

Sunday a after a quick look at the water level gauge at Thee Rivers we discussed a possible change of plans for the day. I ran over to the lodge where the resort recently installed wifi (woohoo!) and checked the current levels for the Lochsa and the S.F. Clearwater. Our suspicion was correct, the Lochsa dropped and the S.F. Clearwater grew a bit...time for a quick chat about today's plans. I laid out the info I pulled up and the call was unanimous. We're heading back to the S.F. Clearwater.

On our way to the put-in we decided to scout a rapid a little further up the road than we had ran on Friday and also find another put-in. By using the new put-in we were able to add a nice big technical Class IV rapid to our run. I'm glad we were able to run this stretch because it was the most entertaining part of the day to watch. We all picked our lines & made our plans but in the words of the great Mike Tyson "Every man has a plan until he gets punched in the mouth!" By the time we made it through this top section one boat had a beautiful flip and two others probably should have suffered a similar fate but managed to eek one out! The rest of the run was fun and for the most part everyone did a good job making their way down the river. By the time we hit the take out I was happily working on my drysuit tan. The clouds had cleared, the sun was blazing and it was nice and hot. You know it was a good day on the river when the last thing you hear from Mike before leaving the take out is "Damn, the inside of my drysuit's wet but I don't know if it leaked, if I was sweating or if I pee-d myself a little bit?" ....back to the hot tub!
Sunday night we had a few drinks in the bar to celebrate the weekend and toast to the shuttle drivers, the trailer pullers, the photographers, the reservation maker and most of all the "on river entertainment." And plans were made to do it all over again next Memorial Day weekend.

Here is the post from my 2009 Lochsa trip: http://blastshelter.blogspot.com/2009/05/memorial-day-0509-lochsa-river-idaho.html

Stats:
Friday: S.F. Clearwater, Class IV
Miles Logged: 13, "Mickey Mouse" section
Flow Data: 2100cfs

Saturday: Lochsa, Class IV
Miles Logged: 31, The "Dirty Thirty" section
Flow Data: 7950cfs

Sunday: S.F. Clearwater, Class IV
Miles Logged: 13, "Mickey Mouse" section
Flow Data: 2250cfs

Methow River 05/10

Well this adventure started off with a lovely pain in the trailer! Friday afternoon I dropped the Blast Shelter on to the back of Bart and with in a few minutes I made the right turn out of my driveway headed towards the river for our annual Methow trip.
That's a when I looked back in my mirrors and realized I had no lights on the trailer. We pulled over, checked the plugs, cursed the wiring, and sized up the situation. Apparently the Blast Shelter's harness was just a wee bit too short for big Bart and I manged to not only pull the harness out of the plug but some where along the line the wires have also been severed as well. What a swell start.

After some messing around with the wiring in the parking lot for about an hour or so (time flies when you're having fun!) I decided to admit defeat and take the Blast Shelter home and thanks to Stacy we were able to grab her seriously sweet tent trailer for the weekend and only 3 short hours after leaving the house the first time we were finally on the road.

The camping at Alta Lake State Park was great as usual and the Sweet River Bakery in Pateros once again didn't disappoint with their legendary granola recipes, big -A! fresh cinnamon buns and lattes each morning on the way to the put-in
Oh yeah, and the rafting was pretty good too. The water levels were better than normal for the Methow and at significantly higher flows that we ran it at last spring. The rain & snow stayed away from us until we hit the road and were heading home.
So aside from now needing to rewire the Blast Shelter before next weekend's run all was good for this whitewater roadtrip.

Stats:
Methow, Class III (III+)
Miles Logged: 17 / 17
Flow Data: 6850cfs / 5950cfs

Meet B.A.R.T. -- "Big A** Rafting Truck"

This weekend there was no rafting on the books for me. Instead I made a last minute 1800 mile solo road trip to Reno to pick up our new/used truck. After selling the Avalanche I realized my need for another truck to handle all my gear while pulling the Blast Shelter over the knarly Cascade Mountain passes. So I went on the search for a full size (big enough to tow anything anywhere), 5-passenger (gotta' have a sweet shuttle vehicle), 4-wheel drive (won't let a little snow stop us), black (because it's gotta' match the Blast Shelter of course!) truck.

So I managed to round up a 2000 F250 Super Duty with all the options including the big-boy tow package, automatic transmission and the rocking a big-block V-10 engine. It had everything I was looking for (even the hand painted pin striping matched the Blast Shelter!) and since I knew who was selling it I got one hell of a deal. Some arrangements were made to get the truck and a couple days later a spontaneous road trip to Reno followed. After getting things taken care of with the truck I took my mommy out for a Mother's Day lunch followed by dinner and a beer with my dad then followed by many more beers with Philly and some old friends followed by a very long nap I was back on the road to Washington!

After I made the 812 mile drive back I fixed up a few items on the truck, did some preventative maintenance and adding a few custom touches it looks like I'm just about ready to drag the Blast Shelter all over the NW (or anywhere else for that matter) just as soon as the river levels start rising in the next couple weeks.


*I'll work on some better pics for those who care - or you can get your butt outdoors with me and meet BART for yourself

The Upper Cispus River - 04/10

Friday afternoon I ducked out of work as early as possible and headed south to Kevin's house. Once at Kevin's I hitched up the trailer loaded with rafts, catboats and firewood while Kev through the last of his stuff in his camper. Within 30 minutes of arriving Kevin and I were on our way......to the bar.
Okay, actually we were on our way to the Cispus River but after a not-so-quick stop at Walt's Place in Yelm to "check the oil" with a few friends we were back on the road in raging downpour. The rain let up and by the time we turned on to FS23 we were on mostly dry ground. By the time we called it a night the rain returned and managed to stick around for the whole night.
The next morning we had damp cloudy skies but luckily the rain held out while we were getting ready for our run. It's not often that we get so lucky on these early season runs. We ran the shuttle early and hit the river with 4 catboats and two rafts (in R-3 and R-2 configurations). The water was low but still run able. We made our way through Picky Picky, Big Bend and stopped to scout White Lighting (class IV) since we had other several people that had never run the Cispus before.
After running through White Lightning we took a nice riverside break while the R-3 paddle raft and its passengers (you know who you are) flailed around helplessly in a hole just big enough to swamp the boat and hold it in place for 15 minutes. The pause in the action (for some of us) was a nice moment to relax, have a snack, and take a few pictures of the drama. After I was done with my Pepsi, Mike (oops, sorry I said no names!) managed to tie a rope to the front of the stranded raft and I was able work my way down the side of the rock face and to swim out grab the rope. Once I got the rope back to shore Kevin and I were able to pull the boat and its paddlers free from the hole with out too much trouble. Apparently self-bailing rafts can fill up faster than they can bail!
After making it back to camp we sat around the fire and ate like pigs. That night the clouds stuck around but the rain held off. I stayed nice and toasty in my sleeping bag but I could tell it was pretty damn cold outside because the sound of Kevin's heater turning on woke me up a couple times. Yes I'm still bitter about that. Especially after he told me the next morning that at one point he had to throw off the covers because it was too warm in his camper. Did I mention I'm still bitter?
Sunday Morning there was a fresh layer of snow on the mountains just above our camp but we managed to stay dry. We got an early start and were on the river by 9:30-ish. The run went nice and smooth even though the water level had dropped a bit lower. Half way through the run the sun came out and made for some nice views of the last night's fresh snow. We got off the river earlier than normal cleaned up our camp site, loaded the gear and were back on the road home a little after 1 o'clock.

Stats:
Upper Cispus, Class III (IV)
Miles Logged: 8 / 8
Flow Data: 1400cfs / 1280cfs

Clackamas River, OR - Three Lynx to Memaloose 4/10

Well decided to try a new one this time! Okay so the Clackamas River isn't really new (I think it's been around for a while) its just new to me. Friday I bailed out of work early topped off the tank, picked up Evan, grabbed some Starbucks and was on my way to Oregon trying to beat the Portland rush hour.
Heading out to a new spot is always a little interesting since I had no idea where the heck I was going and didn't really know all the details when I left. The directions from Darin basically said:

drive to Estacada, OR...now drive another 21 miles along the river...now park near the road, pitch a tent, crack a beer and I'll see you there sometime Friday night.

Not bad directions considering he knew just as much about this river as the rest of us. The campground was less than stellar and the bathrooms were how do I say this? Unusable! (we'll just leave it at that). The good news was we had the place pretty much to ourselves so we grabbed the nicest site in the place and called it home.

By the time the 30-something degree morning arrived everybody had successfully made it to camp. We headed up the road to find a usable put-in somewhere all the while scouting the river as best we could from the road trying to determine what we were getting ourselves into. We followed the best directions we could find until we came to a pull out near the bridge we had read about. After a minute of looking around we realized the put-in was located just across the road and was a nice beach with steps leading down to it. It looked like a much better option than the steep 20' rock bank we were currently facing. We lucked out and had a spare driver who volunteered to meet us at the take-out (wherever the heck that is?) to bring us back so the shuttle was taken care of and we were ready to jump onto the river. At the put-in we talked with Jessie from Blue Sky Rafting and he was a cool enough to answer a few questions we had about the river before setting off himself.

Once on the river I jumped put front in my oar boat trying to see as far as the river would let me. Since none of us had run the river before every bend and every wave seemed a little more exciting. Heading quickly towards our first unknown rapid we quickly fell into a rhythm of swinging wide on the bends, standing on the seat to read the river as far as possible, then dropping back down to punch through the rapids. Rapids like Powerhouse, The Narrows, Hole-in-the-Wall, Carter Falls, Slingshot, Rock & Roll, all went by without a hitch. That is until I came face to face with Toilet Bowl.

Toilet Bowl is one of the last significant rapids before things settle down until the take-out. The line up and drop in to the Toilet Bowl went well until I hit the wave train at the bottom. Now I'm not exactly sure how big of a wave it takes to stop and flip a 13' oar boat...but I know the last wave in Toilet Bowl is apparently big enough.

The rest of the run went by fairly quickly and we were soon at the take out then on our way to town. In town we were able to check our voicemail to make sure the people running with us on Sunday were still on their way. Once we returned to camp it was time to dry-out, pig-out, sit-down and drink-up (like most non-travel days on the river).

Sunday we were back at it once again. Only this time it was with "second day" efficiency. By the second day we usually know where we we're going. The second day on the river was a bit more relaxing since the stress of "where the hell am I going and what's coming up next" was mostly gone. This allowed us to be a little conservative picking our lines on the river since we'd seen it all before. When we came to Carter Falls instead of taking the safer left side we powered right over the drop and punched the biggest waves we could find. When I got back to the Toilet Bowl I pointed the cat boat right at my nemeses, the big wave at the bottom and pulled back on the oars in an attempt to surf the wave that the day before had flushed me down the bowl. During my display of confidence that I was stronger than any Toilet Bowl I smashed my right oar into a rock ejecting it from the oar lock and once again spinning me 90 degrees the same way it had done the day before.

Looks like I need another road trip to Oregon to once-and-for-all conquer the Toilet Bowl!

Stats:
Clackamas River, Class III (IV) - Three Lynx to Memaloose Station
Miles Logged: 13.5 / 13.5
Flow Data: 2210cfs / 2090cfs

A New Toy!

Thanks to Craigslist-Seattle I picked up a pretty sweet play/surf boat for one heck of a deal! I'm not going to tell you how much I paid for it but I will say it was the 5th of the month and the guy was late on his rent...I was able to pay for it with money out of my change jar and still had enough left over to pick up a nice new spray skirt.

Rafting with Lily, Skagit River 0110

Though this trip took place in January I was lazy getting the pictures up for everyone.

During the winter months, migrating Eagles from Alaska, Canada, and the San Juan Islands come south to the Skagit River to feed on the spawning salmon. The salmon are the primary source of food for the migrating Eagles. From mid-December to early February the Skagit has the largest concentration of Bald Eagles. From your raft you're able to watch the birds in their natural surroundings.
This stretch of the Skagit covers 10 miles of Class I (flat) water and is only 90 minutes from my house. I figured this would be a safe and relatively short trip to get Lily intorduced to being on the water. I also thought she'd like seeing the Eagles - we we're right on both accounts. It was whole lot of excitement for her considering she still hadn't yet celebrated her 2nd birthday.

Thanks again for taking pictures Evan!

Stats:
Skagit River, Class - Marblemount to Rockport
Miles Logged: 10
Flow Data: 7380 cfs

Lake Serene 01/10

Length: 7.2 miles roundtrip
Start Elevation 2321'
Elevation Gain: 2000'
Number of switchbacks: 26
Creek/water crossings: 22 (each way)

Lake Dorothy Hike 01/10