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