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

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

Christmas Tree Killing '09

Jason takes down a big one then has the pleasure of dragging it up the mountain

Mt Ranier in the background

Mission Acomplished

Sunday we decided we would try to sneak in one last hike before the snow begins to hit the mountains hard. "Try" was the key work here. After checking the snow reports we decided we should have no trouble getting up the trail head for Bear Lake. According to the current snow reports the snow level would be about 1000 above the Bear Lake trail head. But as you can tell by the pictures the reports were a little off.

We attempted to make it to the first trail head but realized that wasn't a going to happen due to the road being a washed out. After realizing the hike wasn't going today we decided to find a spot t eat some lunch and throw snowballs at the dog.

Oh well...I guess summer is officially over. Time to wax the skis

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.

Memorial Day Weekend 2009 - Lochsa River, Lowell, Idaho

Yes, that's my hand sticking out of the water at Lochsa Falls...again!
We hit the road for Lowell, ID Friday morning. Since we were heading into Idaho already, and making good time, we took a short detour to stop at NRS http://www.nrsweb.com/ to check out their deals and swap out my boots for a fresh pair. I managed to get my NRS Boots replaced with no hassle and couldn't pass up a great deal on a new dry top and pants. Combine those new items with the new PFD I recently picked up and I looked like freshly dressed rookie at the put in - at least my helmet has some good scratches on it. On our way over Eric called the resort" to make sure we got the big cabin with three beds. Eric, Matthew and I are friendly....but not that friendly enough to share beds! We arrived at the "resort" http://www.threeriversresort.com/ before dark so we slowed down the check the bridge gauge as we passed over - it read 6.5 feet and rising - Perfect! We grabbed the key to our cabin, parked the truck and went right to the restaurant/bar to meet up with everybody. After almost 8 hours on the road it was nice to grab some dinner and listen to the stories of past runs.
Saturday morning we drove up to the White Pine put in. The plan was to run from White Pine to Knife Edge 32 miles down river. The river
quickly earned our respect after 3 people ended up in the water near
the bottom of Triple Hole (names withheld...you know who you are!).
After gathering swimmers and re-flipping a couple boats we got back on the river. Throughout the day a few of our group flipped and a few of us swam - Gary's 3 swims earned him the "Hat Trick" and a dollar from Rick - though this is to be expected on a river of this magnitude and at this water level - that's why we drove 8 hours! Though many of us got wet I myself managed to stay in my boat until Lochsa Falls. The Falls were a completely different story for me. Here is a link to a video of me and some of the other guys at Lochsa Falls last Saturday & Sunday. Look for the tan catboat (at approx
3:30-4:00 in) on the first day I'm wearing a red jacket and yellow
vest & coming in right behind Randy, who in his tan cat made the noble act of giving himself to the river in front of me. Sunday (7:34-8:00) I'm wearing a blue & yellow dry suit. Do remember these waves are between 10-14 feet tall and almost half the boats didn't make it through here clean - I on the other hand stand at 0 for 2 at the falls! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBvTVjBwA4I After coming through the falls I was picked up by Rick in next the rapid
appropriately named "Picking Up The Pieces" Once we made it the remainder of the way to the Knife Edge take-out we decided to run the all the way back to the "resort". So anybody who
did not have to retrieve a vehicle stayed on the river for another 10 miles. This lower stretch is rated as a Class III so after the upper sections this was a relatively lazy float - well that is until we came around a bend and found ourselves quickly coming into a rapid known as "Ian's Hole". We hurried to get situated but didn't really have a chance so for the most part we looked like a bunch of clowns bobbling our way through with beverages in our laps and no helmets on our heads - especially Kevin who ran out of time and stuffed his sweaty baseball cap in his mouth at the last second. Bill didn't fair so well the biggest wave in there sent him into a quick barrel roll into the river. Good news was the water flattened out so the recovery was pretty painless. The funny part of being surprised by Ian's Hole is the next time we heard the sound of whitewater we all jumped to attention threw on our helmets and successfully navigated the next set of waves which were smaller than the waves in the pool at the "resort" - at least we were prepared this time! After 42 miles on the river we made it to camp, grabbed some drinks and reported directly to the hot tub.
Sunday morning the sky had clouded up a bit and the river had risen.
Yesterday at 6.5 the river was huge...at 8+ feet the river was
noticeably more huge - looks like I'm wearing a dry suit today! After
some discussion with our group and the guys from OWA
http://www.oregonwhitewater.org/ about the conditions boaters started dropping like flies. By the time we had a plan in place the two groups were running together today with only 9 boats (7 of us and Steve and Dean from OWA). Once we were on the river the water was noticeably bigger it was also quite a bit pushier than yesterday so there everything took a bit more effort and concentration. Once again we all did great until we got to Lochsa Falls...then things got a bit interesting. Lochsa Falls with the higher level became a bigger pile of waves and since I was the lead boat it got the best of me right off
the bat (as you could see in the second part of the video). I got
dumped out and launched my boat into the sky (I could still hear the crowd cheering while I was under water so I knew it was good!). I fought me way back into the seat of my boat and was immediately fired back into the river by another wave I never saw coming - nothing like swimming the same rapid twice! I pulled myself back into my seat...again! - and quickly got to the side of the river. That's when I realized Dean & Bill had both flipped - Kevin hit Bill's unmanned boat, did a Spiderman like move and somehow managed to come out upright. Dean was still with his boat and was able to right it himself. Bill on the other hand was struck in the face by his left oar
and drew a little blood for the roadside spectators to see. After
assessing that he would likely need a few stitches above his eye we pulled his boat up to the road, loaded it on a trailer and Matthew
drove him back to camp to get fixed up. The rest of run was a good fun finish. We took out at Knife Edge and once back at camp we again grabbed some drinks and reported directly to the hot tub. That was followed by viewing session of the days raw video in the bar/restaurant. After dinner we sat around the campfire (Bill with ice on his face) until going to bed to rest for the long drive back to Seattle in the morning.

Another cool video about the Lochsa:
http://www.weather.com/multimedia/videoplayer.html?collection=epic - Click "Full Episode: Rafting in Idaho" to view video

Stats:
Lochsa - Class IV
Miles Logged: 42 & 23
Flow Data: 13400cfs & 17400cfs