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