Six Mile

I did one last run of the first canyon and the Boston Bar section of Six Mile. Had lots of fun, got very wet, and caught a cold. Thank you James, Matt, Dave, and Pat for pulling me out of the water and waiting while I emptied my boat, caught my breath, and climbed back in!

This was the last paddle of 2011. We might get a nice float down the Kenai before year's end but we seem to be pretty busy.

Pictures from Nenana Wildwater Festival

Ti Conkle, of Titanium Photography, took pictures at the Wildwater festival. She has them posted on her website here: http://www.titanium.phanfare.com/Whitewater/2011/
There are pictures of Pat and I in the downriver race slideshow and in the outtakes, wrecks, and misc. slideshow.

Pretty exciting

Nenana Wildwater Festival 8/20/2011

The Nenana Downriver Race is what prompted us to take the tandem out on Lower Eagle River on Wednesday. Last year we paddled the inflatable canoe (floating tank!), and we were beat at the finish line by an acquaintance and a six year old paddling a double IK! This was quite a blow to ego. We were determined to not get beat by anyone under ten years old this year.

We had a pretty good run down the Nenana during the race. Pat said he bailed water out of the boat for 80% of the race. Rooster Tail swamped us and we almost emptied the boat but then came Ice Worm and we spent most of the rest of the race full of water! We didn't get beat by any six year olds this year though and we at least beat the raft and the solo canoe. I'm not sure what our time was, it wasn't announced at the awards ceremony and I'm not sure if it will make the paper or not.

After we watched the rodeo competition we hit the water again, doing the same stretch we did in the race and continuing down through the canyon. When we aren't trying to go as fast as we can, we stay pretty dry. We had an awesome line through Rooster Tail and a couple of quick back ferries in Ice Worm kept most of the water out. I missed my brace at Twin Rocks and a diagonal, curling wave flipped us over. From the water, Pat flipped the boat back upright but we were already in the eddy so we just pushed the boat and swam to shore. As my feet touched bottom I turned to look back out into the river and saw James go swimming by and then Amanda went swimming by! The diagonal caught all of us. Those were the last swims of the day.

Brad in his raft, and John in his kayak were waiting just downstream of Twin Rocks and they joined our group as we headed into the canyon. Everyone had a great day on the water and the canyon was beautiful!

There were numerous people on the shore at Rooster Tail and at Twin Rocks both during the race and after when all the boats went down the canyon. At the 49th State Brewery after the awards ceremony the woman sitting next to me said she got some really good shots of us going through Rooster Tail and she gave me her email address. I'm hoping that she will send us the .JPGs and that she will give me permission to use one here on the blog.

Lower Eagle River 8/17/2011

Pat and I took the tandem canoe out today, it has been quite a while since we have been in this boat! Last year because of Pat's knee we paddle our inflatable canoe all summer so it has been at least a year! I had forgotten just how much bigger and heavier the tandem is compared to our solo boats. Eddy turns feel like my arms are going to come right out of their sockets!

We missed all the excitement on this trip. We were recovering a paddle while most everyone else headed downstream. A few bends downriver from us they were charged by a momma grizzly! Apparently, she came right out into the water and was a few boat lengths from Chad, who was in the lead, when she turned around and ran back up into the brush with her tiny cub following. A close call!

Six Mile Creek 8/13/11

The Six Mile Whitewater Festival was this weekend. Pat and I went with Chad to run in the morning and then watch the downriver race in the afternoon. In the evening, there was beer and a band, "Big Fat Buddha," at Boston Bar.

I ran the first canyon of Six Mile for the first time! It wasn't as hard as I was expecting and at the same time I didn't do as well as I should have. I kept my boat upright and I made it through the drops without any major knocks to the boat but I didn't hit my planned lines. I was hoping to do it again on Sunday but Pat (who ran all three canyons on Sat.!) wasn't feeling up to it. Bummer.

N. Umpqua 7/31/11

Advanced Canoe Cllinic Day 2

Pat and I are both pretty darn tired and I don't think that I am going to learn/remember as much from today as I did yesterday. After a little warming up doing eddy turns, peel outs, and S turns, Chad sets us up to do an exercise called One Stroke Acceleration. You get to take one forward stroke, keep your paddle in the water to make minute corrections and see how far in a straight line you can go. Luckily, I got better after a few tries because my first couple were NOT good at all!

Chad paddles an Esquif Zephyr and an Esquif Zoom. Both of Chad's boats have really hard chines, this means that where the side meets the bottom there is almost a corner. Pat and I both paddle Mad River Outrages (now they are made by Bell). The Outrage does not have chines, there is a nice smooth curve from the side of the boat to the bottom. Chines make a big difference in maneuverability. Yesterday, Chad talked about changing the lean of the boat until the chine engages and using that to help the boat turn. Today, Chad let me paddle his Zephyr and he took the Outrage downriver. The chine makes a huge difference! It isn't that the Outrage can't do the moves, Chad did just fine, but having that hard chine makes it soooooooooooooo much easier! It also makes the boat a little trippy, like when the chine catches the current and you aren't expecting it....plunk into the water I go. At lunch Chad says to Pat and I, "you must think I'm crazy talking about all of the chine stuff!" No Chad, we don't think you're crazy, but I finally get it now that I am in your boat. I didn't let Chad have his boat back for the rest of the day! I think Pat and I are both going to be getting new boats for next year!

N. Umpqua 7/30/11

Advanced Canoe Class Day 1

First day of class Chad, our instructor, is going over proper form for different paddle strokes: draw, pry, sweep, scull, cross-draw, cross-scull, cross-forward, and forward. Cross strokes are when you make a paddle stroke on the opposite side of the boat from where you normally paddle and you DON'T switch hands.

One thing, of many, that I have already realized is that I don't rotate at the waist enough when I do pry strokes to correct. I also don't rotate at the waist enough when I do cross-strokes. My lower back is going to be really sore tonight from all of this extra twisting. It does make a huge difference though, the proper form gives you so much more power in your strokes.

Another thing that I have realized is that when I am nervous I don't keep a vertical shaft! This turns my boat away from my paddle and I lose all of my momentum trying to correct. I need to make more of a C shape with my body to get my hands and the grip of the paddle to be outside of the boat, thus keeping the paddle shaft straight. This will be a really good thing to practice in the pool this winter to create some muscle memory!

Today's entire class was spent in approximately one mile of river. We started about 10am and ended a little after 4pm. Lots of paddling upstream!

Rogue River 7/25 -7/30/11 Day 5

Rogue River Day 5

Last day on the Rogue! Lots of little rapids today and a whole bunch of flat water. There is still quite a bit of current so the flat water is still moving pretty good. We decided to stop for lunch in a nice shady spot about 3/4 of a mile from the take-out in order to spend a little more time on the river. This was a very good thing because once we hit Foster Bar, the take-out, there is not a single spot of shade, just sand and concrete exactly like an oven! Another good reason to stop for lunch before reaching the take-out is that you actually eat lunch. Once at the take-out there are boats to unload, garbage to sort, loading gear into cars, strapping boats onto cars, washing the raft, changing clothes, ect. When we finally had everything loaded and got in the vehicles to drive away (we paid the Galice Lodge to drive two of our vehicles to the take-out for us) the thermometer read 96 degrees! It was hot!

The road back to Galice was very twisty and turny as it goes up over a mountain and back down. Pat and I were both a little green 2-1/2 hours later so we decided to sit still and have some ginger ale at the lodge before heading back to the North Umpqua. After ginger ale, we felt better so we stayed for dinner!

Coming up next: Advanced Canoe Clinic on the North Umpqua!

Rogue River 7/25 - 7/29/11 Day 4

Rogue River Day 4

Another great day on the river! We had to make some miles today and we did, we went about 17 miles and we were on the water from 10:30 am to about 3:30 or 4:00 pm. This is more than twice as much distance as we did on either of the two previous water days. I am tired out! This section of river also takes us through the two of the hardest rapids on the river (besides Rainy Falls), Coffee Pot in the Mule Creek Canyon and Blossom Bar. The Mule Creek Canyon is beautiful, at least the small section that I remembered to look up at! I also saw a bit at the end of the canyon after the water calmed down a bit. During the rest of the canyon my concentration was totally focused on the water and the boats in front of me. It was intense!

At the head of Mule Creek Canyon the river is forced to narrow down to fit between the walls of the canyon that are 16 to 20 feet wide. The canyon also twists and turns with sharp 90 degree corners and the water is moving very, very, very, very, fast. The narrowness, increased speed and depth, cause some weird, messed up hydraulics. The water in some places looks like it is boiling, with sinking currents, water bubbling up, and whirlpools. The worst spot for this in the canyon is called Coffee Pot because it percolates. Before you even get to Coffee Pot though you have to make it around the corners. The water rushes forward, hits the canyon wall, slides around the corner while at the same time bouncing up back upstream and piling up the wall creating pillows of water (good things), and diagonal waves (make me nervous). As you are maneuvering through these you have to change angle and power with the current to make it around the corner and not get pushed into the next wall. I did great through these. A corner or two before Coffee Pot our lead kayaker, Mark, flipped over on a boil or something then he rolled right back up and kept going. Then Beth, in the kayak right in front of me, got spun around in a whirlpool and she is now facing upstream stopped almost dead in the water and I am paddling right towards her! The last thing that Michael and Pat both told me before we entered the canyon was to "Keep paddling forward. Don't let the boils and whirlpools slow you down, you HAVE to keep up your momentum!" So I kept paddling and went past Beth but I think the back of my boat bumped Beth and caused her to flip over. By this time we were in the meat of Coffee Pot! I pulled my boat the rest of the way through the rapid and headed for an eddy along the canyon wall so that I could bail the water out of my boat. As I passed Mark, who was also in an eddy, I yelled to him, "Is Beth through?" to which he replied "almost!" When I turned around in the eddy and looked back upstream Beth was in the water and Michael was towing her toward a small rocky outcropping. I felt bad about Beth swimming because I think the back of my boat bumped her as I went by. Beth thought she was already upside down when our boats bumped and not to worry about it. The outcropping of rock was just big enough for Beth to stand up with her boat also standing on end so the water would drain out. It was quite a balancing act! The rest of the canyon was calm enough to look around and enjoy. Long green trees standing atop rock walls that are 10 to 15 feet tall, the sun is shining down making the clear, green water shimmer. Amazing.

A few bends further down the river past the canyon and you reach Blossom Bar which is probably one of the more technical rapids on the river. There are a couple of moves that you pretty much have to make or you end up in the Picket Fence! The Picket Fence is a series of rocks that stretch across the left side of the river from the shore to just about middle. They isn't enough room to go between them. This rapid is the only one that has a numbered diagram in the guide book showing the "safe" run through the rapid. The river is running about 2,000 cfs more than what is shown in the diagram and what I am looking at doesn't look anything like the guide book. Also, the picture in the guide book was taken downstream looking back up and I am upstream looking down thinking "Crap! I have to go through all of that?!" We decided to boat scout the rapid from an eddy at the top and then watch Mark and Beth enter. Michael and I decided to run the main route, the one shown in the guide book, and I am going to follow him with Pat bringing up the rear. So the main strategy is to start on the left side of the river moving back towards the right, catch the eddy upstream of the giant car sized boulder, peel out going around the boulder (still moving to the right), then turn back to the left drop down a two foot drop by following the smooth green tongue of water, turn back to the right and catch a shore eddy, peel out and follow the waves back to the left. The first eddy had too much water going through it to actually stop so I paddled really hard to stay close to the boulder so as to not miss the green tongue that takes you down the drop! I made the green tongue, this was the best part! Nice smooth water dropping down two feet nice and easy. I must have enjoyed it a little too much because I didn't change my boat angle in time to catch the shore eddy on the right but I did sort of catch a small rock eddy on the left but it wasn't holding my boat very well so I peeled out into the waves and went to find an eddy to bail out all the water. I missed Pat's run completely when I missed the right side shore eddy. He started down just after I did but he took a totally different route. He started out on river right and worked his way through a bunch of boulders all the way to the bottom. Apparently, at this high water level that is a viable option.

The last rapid of the day is Devil's Staircase. The water drops over a series of ledges as it rounds a corner. Everyone ran it, no problem. At the bottom of the staircase we saw our first jet boat. Blossom Bar marks the end of the Wild and Scenic designated section of the Rogue and we are now in a recreational section of the river. The jet boats come upstream from the coast to the bottom of Blossom Bar, turn around and head back downstream. These are not your personal river jet boat. These jet boats are enormous, they hold 60 to 70 people! We saw two within minutes of each other. The second one had to wait at the bottom of Devil's Staircase while the first came back down from Blossom Bar. It was a very loud realization that we really weren't in the protected section of the river anymore.

While the jet boats were continuing downstream, for us the day was over and we were looking for a campsite. We were checking one out at the bottom of Devil's Staircase as the jet boats went by but it had a pretty steep climb from the river to the campsite and we didn't feel like hauling all our gear up so we kept going. The next site was already taken, but a guy on the shore was madly waving Pat in. He was very excited to see canoes on the river! His name was Tim and he was from Tasmania. Yes, the country. We spent a few minutes chatting with him and he paddles a whitewater canoe back home. It was very cool to find another canoe enthusiast, even if he was in a raft on the Rogue.

We hit it lucky and the next camp was empty. Lower Half Moon Bar.

Rogue River 7/25 - 7/29/11 Day 3

Beth and Mark surfing in front of camp.


Rogue River Day 3 Layover

Pat and I talked to one of the guys in the group staying at the lower campsite as we were carrying all the food stuff up to the bear fence last night. He and his family are from California and he is in the same situation that I'm in! This is the biggest and most difficult water that he has run in his IK but he says he is doing okay for now. He told us that their group is moving downriver the next morning. They are taking off the river on the same day we are so we will probably see them again.

Usually a layover day means that you don't have to pack up your tent or any of your stuff. Not so for us. The group using the Lower Horseshoe Bend campsite are heading downstream and we have decided to move into that campsite after they have left. It isn't far, about 100 yards and we can easily carry everything up over the hill. The lower site has better access to the river for swimming and bathing. Several spots close by with rocks sticking out from shore creating nice eddies and a privacy.

Michael, Pat, and I have decided to go for a little walk/hike. There is a trail that runs the whole length of the Wild and Scenic section of the river. In most spots it is a decent distance above the river and meanders through the trees. It took us a little while find a trail that actually went all the way up to the main trail but once we found it walking was easy. The trail follows the contour of the mountain but it doesn't have very much elevation loss or gain. As we headed upstream the trail crosses several small creeks and I couldn't help myself, I had to flip over some rocks and see if there was life! This is another thing that I miss, small creatures and amphibians. Sure enough there were all kinds of worms, larvae, and I found a salamander. It may have been a Siskiyou Mountains salamander but maybe a very young one. I remember the head being squarer, and the legs and tail were shorter than the ones in the pictures that I am finding on Google.

After the hike I took a bath! Ohhhh it was lovely. The water is approximately 63 degrees Fahrenheit and the air temps were in the 90's. I splashed around in one of the eddies, swimming out into the current and floating down a little bit then popping back into the eddy to do it again. While I was swimming a group of Boy Scout hikers took up residence in the Upper Horseshoe Bend campsite. These weren't little kids though they were all teenagers with adult supervision. We were a little worried about screaming kids and a raucous night but our worries never came to pass.

Michael with Pat and I helping are on dinner duty tonight. After that it will be time to watch for satellites to zoom across the sky. It's a tough life.

Rogue River 7/25 - 7/29/11 Day 2

Today was a great, wonderful, fantastic day! We ran lots of juicy rapids, several class IIs, some class IIIs and one class IV. The class IV rapid was Tyee, it was just more than one mile downstream of our campsite, the first rapid of the day and I didn't swim! A few of the other rapids that we ran today: Wildcat (class III), Slim Pickins (class III), Black Bar (class III), Black Bar (class III), and oh yes, Black Bar (class III). With the water level being higher than is usual in the summer it was hard for those in our group who have been down the Rogue before to recognize the class II rapids between Slim Pickins and Black Bar. There are three listed in the guide book, Washboard, Plowshare, and Windy Creek Chute, that are all in one mile of river. The first time we "ran" Black Bar, Michael floated next to me and said "okay, this is Black Bar ahead," and gave me an outline of the rapid which has two sections: Upper Black Bar Falls and Lower Black Bar Falls, both are listed as class IIIs. This of course gets my adrenalin pumping, and my heart starts to race. We make it through and I breath a big sigh of relief, the hardest rapid of the day is run! A few minutes later, as we come to another rapid, Beth paddles back to tell me, "They think this is Black Bar!" So the heart starts racing, I'm trying to remember the outline of the run Michael gave me previously and I maneuver my way through. In the pool at the bottom I hear Mark say to Beth, "No, that wasn't Black Bar, too easy."

Easy? I think to myself, yikes! It wasn't too bad, but easy?

We go a little further and we can see another rapid up ahead. "Okay, this is Black Bar." Mark says. Once again, my heart speeds up, breathing increases, I'm pretty nervous now. However, the third time really is the charm because sure enough, this was Black Bar! This time, Michael, Pat, and I hopped out of our boats on river right to watch Mark and Beth run through. We could see them enter on river right, moving to the right and just then they disappeared behind a bunch of big boulders! I scramble around to try and see around the boulders and when I do catch sight of them they are now moving left at the bottom of the rapid! So somewhere in there is a move back to the left. Now, I'm pretty nervous. The first two Black Bars weren't exactly easy, and this Black Bar promises to be a bit more difficult. I followed Michael with Pat coming behind me, Larry and Edith are quite a ways back; their boat floats much more slowly than the rest of us. I drop down the right side looking for the feature that I want to turn left to avoid. I use a diagonal wave to keep my boat from going too far right as the river turns left, change my boat angle to point to the left and bounce through the waves until I see a hole at the bottom that I am not going to be able to avoid. I take a couple of big forward strokes and my momentum punches through the hole and out into the pool. It was awesome!

Camping at Upper Horseshoe Bend camp site. Larry and Edith are cooking dinner tonight with a little help from Michael. Tomorrow is going to be a layover day, no paddling.

Rogue River 7/25 - 7/29/11 Day 1

After our four days on the North Umpqua we went back to Michael's house for a day to take showers, do laundry, pick up some more gear, grab the group meal that Michael had already prepared, stop and buy some additional misc. groceries, and then drive to the Almeda campground in Galice where we will be putting on the Rogue River for a five day trip. The Rogue River is one of eight rivers that were included in the original Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. Different sections of the river have different designations. The top section is Recreational, then there is a section designated as Wild, next it goes back to Recreational, the next section is Scenic, and the last section is Recreational again. There are two sections of the river that I don't think have any designation under the Wild and Scenic act, the headwaters at Crater Lake (which is its own National Park), and the mouth at the Pacific Ocean. Paddling the Wild section of the Rogue between May and October requires a permit. Our friend Mark T. got a permit this year and invited us to come down and paddle with him! For more information on the Rogue River check out the BLM website: http://www.blm.gov/or/resources/recreation/rogue/index.php or for more information on Wild and Scenic rivers check out http://www.rivers.gov/. We started out as a big group like 15 people, but by the time the trip dates arrived we were down to seven: Mark, Beth, Larry, Edith, Michael, Pat and I. We were also joined by BB, who is Larry and Edith's dog. Pat had previously met Mark, we both met Beth on Wednesday on the North Umpqua but neither Michael nor Pat and I had ever met Larry and Edith. Luckily everyone was very nice, and a lot of fun! I have heard a few stories of bad group dynamics on river trips and I feel very fortunate to have never had that issue on a trip! Anyway, here is my river log.

On Monday morning at the Almeda Campground, we were awakened by the honking of Canada Geese and the screeching of a Stellar's Jay as the day started out sunny and hot and and stayed that way for our entire trip! Larry and Edith, who were supposed to have joined us the previous night called and said that they were on the way and they arrived about 9:30. Instead of cooking up our previously planned instant oatmeal breakfast and since Larry and Edith hadn't eaten breakfast yet we decided to head back to the Galice Lodge for breakfast. Michael, Pat and I had eaten dinner there the previous evening and the food was pretty good. The food for breakfast was also pretty good but the service was a little lacking. It took just over two hours for us to eat breakfast! After having been seated for several minutes, we asked for menus and were told that "someone would be right out." Well someone finally came took our drink order, came back with water and coffee, and then left. No menus. When she finally came back she couldn't believe that we didn't have menus yet and the rest of the morning proceeded in the same fashion. We finally hit the river at 2:3o pm after getting the raft loaded. Larry, Edith and BB all rode in the raft with Larry at the oars. Having raft support makes a multi-day trip a whole lot cushier. The raft carried a group kitchen, three tables, a groover, most of Mark and Beth's gear since river kayaks are kind of small for carrying very much gear and they carried a foldable chair for everyone. This was a pretty luxurious trip. Pat and I, between our two canoes, carried all of our camping gear and clothing, and most of our breakfasts and lunches. Tortillas and cheese went into the cooler on the raft.

The late start didn't really concern us all that much because this whole trip is only 40 miles long and we have five days to get downstream. The last section from Blossom Bar Rapid to where we were takeing-out is designated as recreational and as part of the historic use from the old postal service boats, commericial jet boat operators are allowed to bring clients up from the coast sightseeing. So we were already planning on doing that whole bottom section in day and spending the bulk of our time in the Wild and Scenic sections.

The diversity of the greenness in Oregon is stunning. Tall, dark Ponderosa Pines with their spiny needles, soft, muted Large Leaf Maples with their broad leaves, shorter, sage colored Willows lining the banks of the clear green water and dancing gracefully between them the bright green leaves and smooth reddish trunks of the Madrone trees. Michael says that as kids he and his friends called the Madrone trees, naked Indian ladies, because of the smooth red bark on the branches and the trunks. This may not be politically correct; but I think it is a compliment and a beautiful description of both the trees and Indian ladies.

We traveled seven miles downstream on our first day and set up camp at the Lower Whiskey Creek campsite. Today's paddle included three significant rapids (class III and one class V) and several smaller class II's. I didn't swim in the very first rapid, a class II called Argo; but I did swim in the next rapid, Grave's Creek, a class III run of barely covered rocks and some holes. I made it to shore with the help of a tow from Michael and Beth and then Michael was able to push/pull my boat to shore right about Grave Creek Falls, another class III rapid. I bumped my shins and knees a couple of times during my long swim (about 200 yards) but the most bruised part of me was my confidence. Especially sitting 15 feet upstream of "a 3- to 5-foot vertical drop over a ledge." After a couple of minutes to catch my breath I watched Michael disappear over the drop and peeled out to do the same. I had a nice smooth drop over the ledge and I scooted into the eddy on the left so I could avoid the wave train. If my routine from the North Umpqua held, I should be swim free for the rest of the trip, or at least the rest of the day!

The next big rapid is the biggest one on the Rogue, Rainie Falls! We could hear it for several minutes before we even came upon the take-out used for scouting the falls, and taking pictures of it. Here are the options for running Rainie Falls as outlined in the Rogue River Guide Book from the BLM. "The Main Falls has a vertical drop of approximately 12 feet with massive turbulence at the bottom. There are two alternatives to running the Main Falls, the Middle Chute and the Fish Ladder. The Middle Chute is aptly named. Located in the middle of the river, this natural opening in the rocks offers a fast bouncy ride with some maneuvering at the top to enter the chute. Another alternative here is floating the Fish Ladder, a man-made channel along the right bank." A final alternative would be to portage boats and gear around the falls entirely but that is a lot of work! Pat was kind of interested in running either the Middle Chute or the Main Falls but no one was interested in stopping and walking down to take a look at it. This was a bit of a bummer since neither Pat nor I have ever run the Rogue before so we have never seen Rainie Falls! We still haven't really seen it, you can't get a very good view of it from the river downstream. The Fish Ladder has a little bit of excitement to it at the water level we did it. It still drops 12 feet but it does so on a 45 degree-ish slant and the channel isn't clear. There are rocks and bushes sticking out from shore and in addition to this it was kind of hard to even see where the entry to the Fish Ladder was! Michael and I were in the lead and we stopped and jumped out to see if anyone was stuck in the fish ladder. Apparently, if the water level is lower rafts can get stuck on the rocks and it can be a bit of an ordeal to push and pull and rock them free. We signaled to Mark and Beth that the coast was clear and they went past us and down the Fish Ladder. I missed seeing where they entered because they went behind a large boulder but I did see them bobbing and weaving their way to the bottom and out into the pool. Larry and Edith went next, I thought I had moved to a good spot to see their entry but I hadn't moved far enough and I lost the entry to another large boulder, this time I didn't see anything bobbing, weaving, or any other motion at the bottom. Where had Larry and Edith gone? Meahwhile, Pat is headed for the entry but we signaled him to stop and he clambered out onto some rocks out in the river. I think he was hoping for a view of the Falls from out there. Suddenly, sticking out from the left side of the ladder I can just see the blade of an oar frantically trying to catch current. I motioned for Pat to stay where he was and tried to get a better view of where Larry had gotten stuck. Just as I was leaping to the next boulder Larry's raft popped out into the channel and continued down to the bottom. I gave Pat the all clear sign and watched him disappear behind the boulders that I still couldn't see around to emerge see sawing up and down through the waves all the way to the bottom. I breathed a sigh of relief and headed back to my boat. A quick "Are you ready?" from Michael, and away we went. I knew the entry was on the other side of the two big boulders somewhere and sure enough, there was an opening the bushes with frothy whitewater cascading down. The Fish Ladder is steep enough that you really get up some speed on the way down; I had to make a series of corrective strokes to keep my boat pointing downstream after each wave tried to buffet me from side to side but it was quite a thrill!

Two miles later we stopped for the night at the Lower Whiskey Creek campsite. We don't have to use our groover because the upper site has a pit toilet that we can walk over and use. Yeah!

Mark and Beth made a great dinner for all of us and after clean up we just hung out and waited for the stars to come out. This is something that I really miss, dark nights, with warm temperatures to sit outside and look for satellites and constellations without getting frostbite! Out here on the Wild section of the Rogue there isn't very much light pollution, I'd think close to none, and the night sky is stunning! There was more light pollution near the North Umpqua and we were camped in a heavily treed area so we didn't get as awesome of a view as we got here in a clear space with less light pollution.

A pretty great day!

N. Umqua 7/23/11 OR Section 3

Bogus Creek to Susan Creek. Water flow somewhere between 1500 and 1600 cfs.

This section of the North Umpqua has four class III rapids and five class II rapids in it. So it sounds like it should be easier than yesterday's run that had twice as many class III's and the one class IV rapid but they seem to be a little meaner. Carl and Joanne and Michael all describe the class III's on this section as "bigger" and longer but also with bigger pools at the bottom of each. Island rapid was the one that Michael and I were most worried about. We had stopped on the road to take a look at it the day before after breakfast and the post office. It looked big an scary but it doesn't come up until about half-way down this section so there were several others to look forward to first.

Following what seems to be a bad habit that I am forming, I swam in the first rapid of the day, Burial (III). There is a series of four or five big (6 foot?) diagonal waves coming off of the right bank but the bigger danger are the gargantuan (at least to me) holes in the center and rocks on the left, leaving the best option to be punching through the diagonals. The key is to keep the boat pointed into the waves so you are paddling directly at the right side shore, otherwise the diagonal waves push you into the middle of the river and into the great big holes! I entered in the perfect spot, had great angle on the waves, but I hesitated in my assertive paddling toward the right because Pat, who was just in front of me got turned sideways at top of a wave and I didn't want to run into him. Without momentum the diagonal turned me sideways, I braced and kept myself from going over on the first wave but I couldn't bring the boat back under me and the second wave flipped me over completely! It was a nice, clean swim and I swam into the eddy at the bottom with my boat. Pat managed to get turned back around and he made it through just fine.

Everyone did a little lining and a short portage at Bathtub. A nasty pour over with a recirculating hole at the bottom that there just wasn't a good way to go through it or around it though Pat, and Carl and Joanne considered it for a lot longer than Michael and I did.

Island Rapid while filling me all day with trepidation was actually a lot of fun at this water level. What I remember is a big drop at the top, a whole lot of big waves, a pool, a corner, and another big drop through Rooster Tail rapid. Woo Hooo!

N. Umpqua 7/22/11 Section 2

Horseshoe Bend to Gravel Bin, also known as the Pinball section after the one class IV rapid that is just about in the middle of the run.

We started the day with breakfast at the Steamboat Lodge which had great food. The restaurant was very nice with beautiful wood interior and windows looking out over a gorgeous garden and the river. Apparently it is a pretty pricey place to stay but the breakfast menu was very reasonable. The North Umpqua is well known for fly fishing for trout, steelhead, and salmon as well as for the whitewater. There is a whole section of the river that recreational boaters are asked to stay off of from July 15 through October 31 so that we don't bother the fishermen and the fish.

Our next stop of the morning was the post office in Glide, Oregon which is about 15 miles down the road from the lodge. Pat had ordered another paddle and had it shipped general delivery to the post office in Glide. We were a little worried that it wouldn't come before we left on Saturday but the company Pat ordered it from assured us it should arrive in two days. Sure enough, the paddle was there waiting for us Friday morning.

We headed back up the road to Gravel Bin, our take-out of the day, where we were scheduled to meet Carl and Dan. Carl and Joanne would have dropped their boat at the put-in and Joanne would stay there and wait for everyone to come back. We got to Gravel Bin, a large, gravel parking lot and found two women with IK's who told us that Dan couldn't come but they came instead. We had no idea what their skill level was but it sounded like they had both run this section several times at lower water levels. Neither Tomoko or her daughter Aiya had helmets and we were pretty worried about them, rightly so since they both swam several times. They made it down okay and we made it down okay and it was a beautiful sunny, hot day!

The Pinball section is a great run! Lots of fun drops that require more technical moves and there are nice big pools of water at the end of each rapid. There are eight class III rapids and one class IV rapid. This would be the hardest water that I had seen yet and the most hard rapids to run in a single day. Carl, Joann, and Michael assured me that we would stop at the top of each big drop and either walk down and scout or discuss the route before we ran it. I only remember stopping at four of the rapids, Toilet Bowl, Eiffel Tower, Headknocker, and Pinball the class IV.

Toilet Bowl is the first major rapid of the day and I came pretty close to bashing a big giant boulder sideways. I managed to get up on the pillow and ride it around the boulder and downstream into an eddy.

Three rapids later we came to Eiffel Tower. "Eiffel Tower," I was told, "is pretty washed out with this higher than normal water flow." This usually means that the drops and holes are filled in with water and the run should be easier than normal and it wasn't too bad, in fact it was a ton of fun! The river narrows down a bit so there are lots of big waves and frothy water. The key is to avoid the big rock at the top, keep the boat pointed downstream through the waves and blast through the hole at the bottom. I had a great run, totally swamped my boat in the hole and limped into an eddy to bail with my heart still racing.

Pinball is next with Headknocker coming right on its heels. We actually scouted this drop from the top. The others we just discussed the route before going through. Planning a couple of maneuvers during the scout made Pinball a whole lot of fun! This was my route: slide between the big rock and the big hole at the entry, moving left go for the eddy behind the second giant boulder (bail), peel out and moving right, power through the diagonal wave off of the boulder on the other side of the channel, change angle and power back to the left avoiding several exposed rocks, ride the waves to the bottom and start bailing again. This worked perfectly for me! Michael who entered the drop just before me, caught the eddy behind the first big boulder near the top. While I was bailing in the eddy below him, he swam by holding on to his boat! At this point all nervousness about the class IV water fled and I peeled out to follow Michael downstream. After the diagonal wave there are three channels through the boulders that you can choose from. My original plan in the scout was to continue moving to the right after going through the diagonal since I wouldn't have to make a move back to the left; however, Michael swam into the right channel and since I didn't want to run into him I made the move to go to the left. Michael swam all the way to the bottom where Carl, Joanne and Beth pulled him and his boat to shore. Still at the top of the rapid were Pat and Tomoko (Aiya had run right after I did but she didn't catch any eddies on the way down). It took a pretty long time for Tomoko to decide what she was going to do and then the diagonal wave that I powered through caught her and flipped her upside down. Her boat went right and she went down the middle channel. Michael, Carl and Joanne got her boat to shore and Beth tried to tow Tomoko in but she let go of the kayak. This is where I came to the rescue! I threw my rope bag out to Tomoko and pulled her in.

The last three big rapids of the day had a little bit of a pucker factor but we all made it through. After these there is a fairly long stretch of class I and II rapids before the take-out. After all of the excitement at Pinball a nice easy ending to the day was made to order!

The river is running just under 1600 cfs. Paddlers today: Beth in a kayak, Carl and Joanne in a tandem canoe (Blast), Tomoko in an IK, Aiya in an IK, and as always, Michael, Pat, and I.

North Umpqua 7/21/11 Oregon

Boulder Flat to Horseshoe Bend: second run.

Beth arrived last night and she is going to boat with us today. We were originally thinking that we would do the next section down on the North Umpqua, but Michael said he would be more comfortable waiting until Friday to do that section because we will have more support then when Carl and Joanne come. I was okay with that, I wanted another chance at Boulder Hole and The Wall! Since we now have two vehicles, we won't have to wait two hours for hitchhiking.

I swam the Boulder Hole rapid again AND I swam The Wall today! Even though I swam twice today I still feel like a did a better job overall. I felt like I was more in control, I missed my line in Boulder Hole but I could see it today. In The Wall I didn't have enough forward momentum and I bounced on the eddy fence and drifted down the eddy before getting some forward momentum going and trying the ferry again. The second time I tried to hold the ferry angle with my paddle on the off-side of my boat and it flipped me pretty quick! Luckily I had ferried most of the way across before flipping and even upside down if the boat is at the correct angle to the current it will ferry so it was just a kick or two to get into the eddy. I almost made it!

The rest of the day was beautiful! I did go over the weir at Weird Weir, a nice smooth three to four foot drop and my boat is long enough to easily span the small reversal at the bottom. Fun, fun, fun!

North Umpqua 7/20/11 Oregon

The first section we ran was from Boulder Flats to Horseshoe Bend. We are camped at a site just upstream from the Horseshoe Bend campground on the other side of the river so essentially, take-out is camp. The river is flowing at about 1600 cfs.

Since we only have one vehicle Pat is going to hitchhike the shuttle. After unloading all of our stuff and the put-in Pat drove back down to the take-out and then tried to hitch his way back upstream to Boulder Flats which is about 6 miles by road. It took TWO hours! No one would stop to pick him up. Finally, a guy who is unemployed and camping in various spots in the park and on BLM land offered him a ride and we are very appreciative! Thank you!

This section of the North Umpqua is milder than the sections below it that we will run later this weekend. Mostly class II with a couple of class III. The first class III rapid is maybe a mile from the put-in. We had stopped and looked at it from the road on the way up and it didn't look too bad. Enter the rapid just to the left of the big rock then follow the green tongue of water through the middle and to the right, avoid the hole, then the boulders at the bottom. Well, I never found the green tongue! The hole flipped me over and I swam to the bottom. This rapid is called Boulder Hole and the hole got me! This swim didn't affect my confidence like the one I had on the Clackamas. I felt okay at the bottom, one reason would be that this was a clean swim, meaning I didn't hit, scrape, bump or bash any part of me. One rapid in and already I can sense that the character of the Umpqua is much different than that of the Clackamas. I felt that the Clackamas was out to get me, intimidating, but I feel comfortable on the Umpqua. I'm not sure yet why.

I had trouble at another rapid on this stretch of the N. Umpqua as well. I'm not sure if it was at Snag Rock or The Wall; both are rapids and they are fairly close together. The run I had decided on was to go down the right channel around a small gravel bar, catch the eddy on the left at the bottom of the gravel bar then ferry across some pretty fast moving, pushy current to another eddy on river left. The reason to catch the first eddy is to avoid smashing into a rock wall that comes out into the river from the right. This part I did just fine on, it was the next part that I messed up. I didn't ferry across the current. I had to much angle to the current when I put the bow out into the water and it just spun me around and sent me downstream towards the wall! I didn't hit the wall but I came really close! I did really well on the last three class III rapids: Dog Wave, Cardiac Arrest, and Weird Weir.

Weird Weir was fun, I took the right side run, next to the bank. It has lots of splashy water, some diagonal waves coming from shore, and Kiss Off Rock at the bottom. A quick angle change and some forward power and I just floated on by it. Tomorrow I am going to do the left run and go over the weir!

Rest days 7/18 and 7/19

So, on the 18th we were originally going to go back to the Santiam River and do the Bruneau Mtn. run again. However, the 4th boater and other vehicle, called in the morning and cancelled. This left us with no shuttle. Michael, Pat, and I could still have gone and hitchhiked the shuttle but when Michael said the decision was up to me, I decided to take the day of rest. I guess my confidence is still a little shaken.

To make up the for the lost day of paddling we have decided to head down to the North Umpqua a day earlier than planned. We hung out with Carl and Nancy for a bit and then we hit the road to go back to Michael's. We made a stop in Corvallis, Oregon to look in Peak Sports for a new paddle to replace the one that I lost. Unfortunately, Peak Sports doesn't carry any whitewater gear. We decided to have lunch and took a short walk down the street to the New Morning Bakery which had delicious food! The rest of the day was spent hanging gear to dry, doing laundry, and hanging out at Michael's with he and Susan. Tomorrow will be prep for the weekend on the NUmp (North Umpqua) and starting to prep for our five day trip down the Rogue River after that!

Clackamas River 7/17/11 Oregon

I'm not sure which section of the Clackamas River we did but most of it was fun. Water level: about 1000 cfs.

As I write this I am lying in bed, my pants are pulled down, and there is a bag of ice on my waist/back/butt area. I have a bruise the size of a cantaloupe and the color of an eggplant on the back of my waist, another that is just getting started going down my spine for about five inches. (These two bruises will, in a few days, become one big giant bruise.) All of this was from a swim through Carter rapid, my first swim of the day. This swim rattled me pretty good and shook my confidence for the rest of the day. Here is the whole story...

The day started out really good as I ran several minor rapids and a couple of bigger rapids without too much problem. The first of the bigger rapids that I remember is Instant Replay, a long boulder garden then a small pool that took us around a bend to be met with another long boulder garden! A little zigging, zagging, and dodging and I came out the bottom just fine. The next rapid, Hole-in-the-Wall, we had scouted from the road as we were driving to the put-in. The river curves in a C shape to the right with a cliff wall jutting out to make the end of the curve. A good portion of the water hits that wall, most of it bounces left into the "hole-in-the-wall" making a nasty recirculating eddy. This eddy is so bad that there is a ladder bolted to the cliff wall so swimmers who get stuck in there can climb out! A portion of the water bounces right around the cliff wall and puts you in a nice big pool. To add to the danger the cliff wall is undercut which could mean you get sucked under the water and pinned under the cliff. I missed my line by a little bit and was too far left heading for the cliff. I was determined that I was not going to get stuck in that eddy! I pulled the boat forward as hard as I could to get the bow into the water going to the right, away from Hole-in-the-Wall and I almost made it. I was pushed up against the cliff with the water pulling me back towards Hole-in-the-Wall and also pulling me to the right and the pool, back and forth. At the same time I am leaning against the cliff face to keep the water from flipping my boat over and using my paddle to push against the wall to move me to the right. It was quite the balancing act but I did get to the right and paddled my boat swamped with water to an eddy to bail. As I was bailing one of the kayakers wasn't as lucky as I was but he was still pretty lucky. He ran up against the wall and flipped over, the water held him upside down trapped against the wall for several seconds before he was able to exit his boat and swim around the corner, a few seconds later his boat also came around the corner. He was okay but definitely rattled and he had swallowed a bunch of water. After a few minutes of rest he got back in his boat and everyone continued downstream.

I did okay on Fish Ladder rapid or maybe it was Fish Creek, Armstrong, and several other smaller rapids. The one that really got me was Carter rapid. I didn't make it across the channel going left to right above a hole so I ended up going through the hole sideways and it flipped me right over. I swam over another hole a little farther down that had a little more height to it and there was a rock at the bottom that I landed on. Luckily, this was the bottom of the rapid and Russ, a kayaker, gave me the stern of his boat to hang onto while he paddled and I kicked our way to shore. I caught my breath for a few minutes and then got back in the boat and continued downriver. The next few rapids weren't too bad, and Sling Shot a bigger one went no problem! The next BIG one was Three Rock, we had scouted this from the road on the drive and I remembered it as being pretty hairy! Carl and I pulled out above the rapid and walked down to watch the others run it. Carl had been giving me the low down on the rapids since Michael was leading the way down the river. My confidence is a bit shaken from my swim in Carter and I decided that I wasn't going to run the main rapid, there is a left side channel that was a little shallow and rocky but it pretty easy so I ferried across the river and started down the left channel. At the very bottom, the very bottom, literally the last two rocks before the pool, I hit a rock, turned sideways and got jammed on the last two rocks! As I went over my paddle shaft got caught on something and was pulled out of my hands never to be seen again! No one saw it float downstream and we couldn't see it stuck underwater in the rocks. This wasn't even my paddle! The couple who lent me the boat, Mark and Audrey, also lent me the paddle! I had a spare paddle strapped in my boat so I wasn't stuck upstream without paddle but this was it for my confidence. The the last rapid of the day, Toilet Bowl was coming up and no way did I feel up to running it. I ferried back across the river and Pat helped me carry my boat across a bunch of great big, slippery boulders then he held the bottom of the boat while I pulled it up the steepest part of the hill. Pat then went back to his boat to catch up with the others and I finished dragging my boat the rest of the way up to the road. Once there I sat watching the river and waiting for Michael and Pat to pick me up during the shuttle. Even though they picked me up pretty quickly, more quickly than I expected, I still had plenty of time to contemplate my mistakes of the day and to become pretty disappointed in myself for giving up on the rest of the river. Ugh, not too much feels worse than disappointment in yourself for quitting.

I was cheered up by a quick stop at the Fearless Brew Pub in Escalada, Oregon for a beer. We are having dinner tonight at Carl and Nancy's house. We stayed with them last night and we will stay with them again tonight. They have been great hosts and it has been a lot of fun hanging out with them watching the birds in their backyard.

Paddlers: Carl Poston (blue Caption), Ted (kayak), Doug (Prelude), Greg D. (L'Edge), Russ (kayak), Ken K. (IK), and as always, Michael, Pat and I.

Santiam River 7/16/11 Oregon

Today we did a section of the Santiam River That the LCCC (Lower Columbia Canoe Club) calls the Bruneau Mtn. run.

Today was an awesome day of paddling! I did really well, I held most of my lines and I didn't swim. I did one bad bash on a rock that I didn't see and one close swim when I bounced off of a root wad sticking out of the bank because I didn't get my boat moving fast enough, soon enough. (Pic to the left is me paddling up a wave after going over the drop.)

Michael gave me a run down of the harder drops just before we got to them. We didn't stop to scout anything. Michael would tell me things like, "enter in the center moving left, watch for the giant hole in center about half-way down, after the hole start moving right to avoid the rocks on the left and eddy out at the bottom on the right." Then he would go down and I would follow. I can't remember all the names of the drops but here two that I do remember: False Ricochet, and Ricochet. There were a lot more though!

False Ricochet and Ricochet are pretty steep, fairly long, rapids with lots of boulders and rocks to avoid along with some holes and pretty big waves. With Ricochet being steeper, and longer than False Ricochet. They were very splashy and very fun! A couple of other rapids were actual drops. Line your boat up for the best spot and drop two or three feet to the water below and then avoid things. These weren't waterfalls with water dropping a ninety degree angle to the bottom, more like forty-five or even thirty degrees. It gets you moving very fast and typically there is a wave train at the bottom. One very cool drop that I can't remember the name of, was a slide. The rock was smooth and the water looked like glass as it started down the slide. It was a little disconcerting because it didn't look very deep as it went down the slide and I was afraid that I might scrape the bottom off of the boat! It was actually several inches deep, plenty for our canoes and Michael's IK. It was just like going down a water slide.

This is Pat surfing backwards.

The water level on the Bruneau Mtn. run was somewhere between 800 cfs and 850 cfs. We also had a few more people join us on this trip: Murray, Carl Poston, and Alex. As always: Michael, Pat and I.

An absolutely splendid day!

Niff Miff 7/15/11 Oregon

This is the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River. We did what is considered by the locals to be a low water run, about 650 cfs (cubic feet per second) it is most often run at about 1,000 cfs. Pat was a little disappointed in the run, it didn't give him the euphoria feeling he remembered getting when he ran it last year at a higher level. I think it was a pretty good icebreaker for me though. I'm a little nervous about boating some more difficult water then I am used to; I also don't want to bash up the boat that I am borrowing. (I am in the purple canoe, backround of picture one.) To that end, I did portage two rapids Gun Shot and Bullseye. Gun Shot (picture at right) is a four or five foot waterfall that had a bit of a rocky entrance and we couldn't quite tell if there were rocks hidden at the bottom in the white frothy water. Turns out that there weren't any since both Michael and Pat ran it cleanly but by that time I had already carried my boat around. Bullseye was another waterfall-ish drop and originally Michael and Pat were going to run it down the center but after a little exploratory where Michael grounded out on the shallow rocks trying to get to the middle, it didn't look so good anymore. They found a diagonal slot on river right that dropped them moving at high speed toward the shore; both turned into the shore eddy just before bashing into the rock wall! At least that is how it looked to me sitting downstream.

A couple of the named rapids that I did run are: Green Wall, and Typewriter. They weren't especially difficult and they were a lot of fun! The whole river was a lot of fun and beautiful. The water is a clear green color the multi-colored rocks on the bottom in some spots remind me of a bowl of M&M's. In other spots, it felt like I was on a water slide with large, long, smooth, bands of light blue-green rock stretching out downriver between darker reddish rougher rocks. It gave me an odd vertigo feeling and made it seem like I was moving super fast when really it was a pool section of the river.

Oh, as a warm up I rode a bicycle 5.5 miles uphill in my bathing suit and wetsuit after I drove the vehicle to where we were taking off the river to get back to where we were starting the river. Luckily it was still kinda of cool at 10:30am and the road was mostly in the shade of the trees.

A splendid day!

I am in these next two pictures. Click on them to enlarge and see me go through this small drop!

Willow Weekend 6/25-6/26/2011

Two runs down the Guardrail and Red Gate sections of Willow Creek! Today my back and shoulders are really sore. The water level was higher than I have done it before which gave the water a little more push. The CFS (cubic feet per second) was in the high 700's on Saturday and the low 700's on Sunday; it is hard to tell exactly on the graph after the fact. My previous highest water level was 675 so I was pretty nervous.

I did well on Saturday, made it through Guardrail with only one or two close calls but then I swamped the boat in Red Gate and had a little swim. Sunday I did better and worse! The drops that I did well, I really nailed. The drop I did really really badly, I swam. Again, the boat was swamped and I tried to do a cross stroke to avoid a rock and over I went. (I did miss the rock.) The feeling of water sloshing around in my boat is starting to make me panic! I also fell out of two eddies which in different circumstances could have been a disaster. Luckily, I had already bailed the water out of my boat when I dropped out of the eddies.

No pictures of these runs. I should take the camera and at least get pictures in Red Gate or in an eddy in Guardrail, if I can manage to stay in the eddies!

Eagle River 6/21/11

Solstice paddle. The longest day of the year deserves a trip down a river! This year, since we just got back from a three day trip we opted for a short paddle down a river we know really well, Eagle River.

A friend who moved to Idaho is in town with his kayak and he came with us, a friend from Palmer also joined us. We met a kayaker at the put-in who is fairly new to kayaking and who had never paddled Eagle before and he joined us as well.

I didn't chicken out this time and I ran Campground rapid. I didn't have my most graceful run as I went through the middle section sideways when I couldn't get my boat to point downstream. I thought I was going to bash a rock and swim the bottom drop but at the last moment I got the boat to turn as I went down the face of a wave and I scooted around the rock. I did however go right over the pour-over at the bottom. I did my boof stroke at the edge of the rock and made it across the hole. Upright and dry!

As my hubby says, "you have to make the boat do what you want it to do!" I have to work on that in pushy water.

Delta River 6/17 - 6/20/2011

The Delta River is another river that I just love! It has great scenery with snowy mountains, stunted tiaga, soft green tundra and dark green spruce forests. It has great water that is clear in the upper stretch and then glacial on the lower stretch and it is also splashy and fun after you get through the Tangle Lakes. We usually see a bunch of wildlife and this time was no different; we saw three or four immature bald eagles, two mature bald eagles, three moose and one of them had two little baby moose running along behind it, baby moose are the cutest things ever. We saw several arctic terns hovering over the water with their forked tails, harlequin ducks with their beautiful markings, mergansers still with red heads and bad hair, mallards, swans stark white except for their beaks, and a lot of songbirds of every color! Oh, and there are a lot of grayling in the lakes and in the river. Miniature sailfish is what they look like to me with the long, tall dorsal fin across their backs with red, purple, and blue spots and the colored stripes on the bottom fins. Pat and I had a few for dinner the first night. They were very tasty but a pain in the butt to cook! Especially since we took our teeny, tiny, frying pan. It has a diameter of about 5 inches so you can only fit two tiny sections in it at a time and over a camp stove the butter and skin scorched to the bottom in no time. They were still very tasty.

The drive, even if it is 6 hours to the put-in, is beautiful; drunken spruce tree forest for miles edging the highway to Glennallen, with the Matanuska, Nelchina, and Tazlina glaciers in the background. Right in front of the vehicle for at least an hour before we reached Glennallen there were tremendous views of Mt. Sanford, Mt. Drum, Mt. Wrangell and Mt. Blackburn in the Wrangell Mountain Range. Mt. Wrangell is a shield volcano so it doesn't have craggy peaks just a huge dome.

The Tangle Lakes Lodge did our shuttle for us so we were able to all drive up together in one vehicle. Four adults and one teenager in an extended cab pickup truck! It was a little crowded but it's fun to be able to talk to everyone. Pat got to listen to the Black Eyed Peas which will never be his favorite band and the song Imma be became the joke of the trip. Imma be paddleing, Imma be cooking, Imma be sunburned, ect. ect. ect. Also it was nice to reach the end of the trip and have the vehicle sitting there waiting for us; no driving back to the beginning to pick up the other vehicle!

We saw lots of people on the lakes boating and mostly fishing but once we reached the river, we had it to ourselves. We had our pick of great campsites, and fishing holes. One thing that kind of keeps most people from doing the Delta is the portage in the middle. It is sort of two portages, you carry all of your stuff and your boat for about 1/8 of a mile up and down small hills. Then you load all of your gear back into the boat to float across a pond, then you carry everything again for about another 1/8 of a mile. The second stretch is all downhill, some sections are pretty steep with loose rocks and big rocks so you have to be careful to keep your footing. It can be pretty hard on your knees so I was really worried about Pat and his knee carrying our 90 lb canoe all by himself down this steep section. He wouldn't let me help, the trail is too narrow and uneven with twists and turns to have one person on each end, someone would be in the brush most of the time and the person in the back can't see their feet to know what they are stepping down on. There may have been an expletive or two but he did great!

After the portage we hiked back up to the falls which is about 1/2 mile downriver of the portage take-out. The falls is why you have to portage. There are several signs as you come downriver, at least two on river left telling you that the portage take-out is coming up on the right. There is another sign on the right at the beginning of the portage trail. It is pretty well marked, but people have missed the signs and ended up in trouble. The river basically opens down the center with a ten foot wide jagged crack that the water pours into from three sides. It isn't very deep, 8 to 12 feet maybe? But it has jagged edges and no good landing at the bottom. There are also two more drops around the next bend that are backup reasons to portage if the first falls isn't enough. Actually, the second two drops didn't look as bad as the falls but I wouldn't want to run them especially in loaded canoes.

The trip is 29 miles from the Lower Tangle Lakes to mile 212.5 on the Richardson Highway and could be done in two days but why hurry? This is a really nice, relaxing three day paddle in beautiful country.

Willow Creek 6/11/2011

I did the Guardrail section of Willow Creek! This is the second time that I have done this section of river. It is a harder section of river than what I usually do which is the Red Gate section. The first time I ran it was last fall with four other canoes and the water flow was in the low 600s cfs. This time it was 675 cfs and I could notice a difference! This time the water was pushier, there were lots of channels so more decisions to make. I didn't fall out of my boat the whole trip down, which is better than I did last fall. I did have a couple of close calls though.

I ran a section of one drop backwards. I got the boat spun around the correct direction as I went down the face of wave. I also had two awesome low braces that kept me in my boat and kept me from "countin fishes"!

This was another run where I left everything but what was absolutely necessary in the car, so no pictures!

I am working on running harder water to try and prepare me for a trip later this summer down to Oregon and Idaho. It will be my first time running rivers in the Pacific Northwest and I want to be able to at least come close to keeping up! We will see.

Lyon Creek 6/9/2011

Another trip down beautiful Lyon's Creek! This time we both went in solo boats with four pack rafters. Just a really nice trip.

On funny thing, I dragged my boat up onto a small gravel bar to help retrieve a small Rubbermaid tub from a log jam, and when I wasn't paying attention the boat slid into the water and started to float away! Luckily someone downstream saw it and yelled. I ran through the water, jumped a couple of logs, and caught the painter with the t-grip of my paddle just as the boat hit a strong downstream current. Also luckily for me, I was the only person who had a camera or I'm sure it would be on YouTube or something by now. Whewww.

Lion's Head 6/5/2011

This is one of the tougher sections of river that I run and this was the second time that I have done it in a solo canoe ever. I always get dry mouth when I just think about it!

Both times that I have made this run have been in conjunction with Mat Madness weekend party (Matanuska) that a couple of our friends who have a cabin in that area put on. It is usually around Memorial Day weekend, sometimes the weekend before, sometimes the weekend after, it is always a ton of fun.

The approach to this river is to read and run it, which means we don't stop and scout what is ahead. Lucky for me everyone who was on the river with us has gone down it a gazillion times and I can pick up clues from them on where to enter each drop. Even at the lower water levels that I have done it at there are some big pushy waves and some steep very large holes!

I made it through this year almost unscathed, I swam once when my boat filled with water in a big wave train and the very last wave just knocked me over! I kept a hold of my boat which I am really glad of for two reasons: one, no one had to chase it downstream, and two it helped to keep me up at the surface when the hole I swam through sucked me under. I did manage to bash to front of my calf on a rock which earned me a big ugly bruise and now even a week later it is really painful and still bruised.

We had a great time at the cabin! The pic for this post is from the gathering the night before we ran the river. I didn't even take my camera on the river with me, I knew I would be too nervous to even think about taking pictures and I jettisoned all the weight from the boat that I could to make it as maneuverable as possible.

Willow Creek 6/4/2011

Willow Creek is an excellent clear white water run. That may sound contradictory but if you are familiar with river running and especially river running up here you know how special that is. There are two sections of the creek that canoes run. An upper section that is referred to as the Guard Rail section and the next section downriver that is referred to as Red Gate. These two sections also line up in the level of expertise needed to run them. Guard Rail is a more advanced boaters run and Red Gate is an intermediate boaters run.

This weekend was also Willow Fest. A local mushing and kayaking shop in Willow organized and sponsored it along with another business that teaches white water skills. We had a little too much going on at home to make it out of town early so we missed the two races on Saturday, one through Guard Rail and one through Red Gate. We also missed the slalom races on Sunday because we were expected at a gathering on the Matanuska River so we headed over there after running Willow and hanging out the festival for a little while. We both felt really bad about missing the festival events because the organizer made a special effort to include canoes in the events. We promised him we would be there next year for sure!

Our runs down Willow were good. My better half found a group of kayakers to run Guard Rail with since I wasn't feeling up to it. Good thing too because we had already dragged the boat down the trail to the put in! Just as we got back to the road after leaving the boat at the put-in, a shuttle from the festival dropped off four kayakers who said they didn't mind adding a canoe to the their group. So they all headed back down the trail to the Guard Rail put in and I took the van down to Red Gate.

The festival had made arrangements with the owner of the Red Gate property to shuttle people too and from the put-in thereby not creating a giant parking lot on his property. We always try to be very unobtrusive when we use the Red Gate put-in. Parking on the very edge, trying to keep out of view of the cabin, keeping the noise down, picking up trash, etc. I love the Red Gate run and would hate to have the property owners refuse us the use of their driveway because boaters were a pain and they were tired of us! Which would totally be within their rights.

Anyway, I parked along the road, got my stuff together and carried my boat down to the put-in. I have to admit that I didn't carry it ALL the way to the put-in which has to be close to a quarter of a mile. The driveway is unpaved and every time the middle section flattened out and was grassy I put the canoe down and dragged it through the grass until it became rocky again. I finally made it to the put-in and the last 7 or 8 boats in the downriver race were getting ready to start. They started the boats in one minute intervals so I got to watch the beginning of the race for a little bit. I saw and got to talk to several people that I know before they headed downriver, it was nice. After everyone had left I was still waiting for the group that I had left at Guard Rail so I got busy clipping all of my gear into place in the boat. As I looked for my spare paddle to slip under the airbag cage I suddenly realized that I had left both of my paddles in the van! I quick took off my helmet and tossed it in the boat, took off my life vest and tossed it in the boat so I wouldn't overheat running up to the road. I climbed up out of the river corridor and just as I got the the main driveway I heard a four wheeler start up! I ran to the main area and saw a couple who had been watching the races were just getting ready to head up to the road. They very kindly allowed me to sit on the back and catch a ride. Awesome luck for me! That luck didn't last long though because my car keys were in the pocket of my life vest. The life vest that I tossed in the boat with my helmet so that I wouldn't get too hot. Ahhhhhhhhhhh! There is supposed to be an extra key hidden on my van but it must have bounced or gotten knocked off because after digging through the accumulated dirt I didn't find it. So I ran back down to the put-in and prayed that the other canoe still had a spare paddle.

Just a few minutes after I made it back to the put-in the Guard Rail group came around the corner and I got the spare paddle from the other canoe. Whew, saved me another trip to the road and back!

The very first drop on the Red Gate section is one of, if not the hardest part of this whole section of river. There are a few rocks that are just under the surface to avoid then there is a big rock that the water piles up on and just flows over. I went right over the top of the big rock. The move is to go around the rock and I just didn't make it, I'm blaming it on being flustered about the paddle stuff and using a unfamiliar paddle. I did however do a nice brace and I stayed upright. The rest of the run was just fun, fun, fun! Lots of splashy water, some nice wave trains, some rock dodging, and some really nice eddies.

A nice day on the water.