May 6th Pat 1:00pm
Our trip is go for launch, and we probably forgot something due to a rather interesting night. After a disgruntled morning trying to jam all of our shit, which bye the way we have way to much stuff and not a enough money. We’re heading to the lochsa for some sicko surf on the pipeline wave, and plan on staying around the lochsa until we get bored, and then move north.
May 6th Ben 11:00pm
We’re at camp now. We checked out pipeline this afternoon and it was washed out, but fortuneatly the wave behind it was in, kinda. It was pretty fun, there were a few decent bounces to be had, but primarly a catching of the wave would evoke a “whoop!” from the other boaters.
I’m going to sporadically change the subject (something that I’ll do a lot) and talk about how things are flowing. As I said, we’re sitting around the fire now talking shit up, you know the usual. Everyone’s telling there biggest horror stories about that “intensely huge hole” or that “undercut sieve” that almost took you down. As I listen to the incesent ego tripping that is used to create order in a newly formed paddling group (and I know I sound so wonderfully altruistic), which by the way I am one of the biggest partakers, I notice the fires across the river. Seeing the small fires glimmering across the Lochsa River makes me think of small tribes of Indians passing through the Idaho countryside. With the mellow rolling featurettes of the canyon and its lush fauna, it is easy to get lost in
the sentiment. I see other bands of paddlers with their allegences and tendencies, by which only their tribe obey, as the same goes with our team of boaters. Everyone has their team that they rely on when they’re creeking. Everyone trusts those people with their lives, just like the tribes would have done of their members. There is a deep interconnectedness that oozes from the walls of this canyon.
Bed time. Go
odnight.
May 8th Pat 8:00pm
Tonight we rest in a beautiful timber lined cannon overlooking an amazing sunset cast upon a snowy talus. Our location is about ten miles north of Sandpoint Idaho. Today was a relaxed day full of travel and logistics for our adventure into the panhandle. Yesterday was the first day that our newly formed crew had on a full on creek, in a high exposure situation. Our crew for the next few days was tagged together in the last few days of planning. Ben and I are planning on setting sail for a little over a month, and Jake and Andy will be running with us for about a week before they have to so sadly return back to reality. Speaking of reality, Holy shit! Yesterday was a day never to be forgotten in my paddling career. Our crew started the day slow and low, our moral was rather down trodden when we barricaded ourselves beneath our warm dry sleeping bags to shelter our selves from the freezing bone soaking rain. We finally got on Lolo creek at about 1:30 in the afternoon after some sketchy put in directions and hiking, but we were still amped about a new adventure and the beautiful gorge that awaited. We ran about two miles of boat scouting and a few quick exits to peer over horizon lines and give directions with hand signals. Everything was going smoothly, and our crew was operating like a well oiled machine. I eddy hoped down a few drops in front of the crew and was examining a drop while I noticed a rather peculiar looking log flow through the twisting drop, “Oh shit, that’s my paddle, I quickly yelled up stream and gave quick directions to the line in order for my teammates to quickly jolt down stream and recover my paddle. Andy and Ben shot past the drop and began pursuit while cautiously trying to keep themselves out of harms way. They scurried up the bank with bad news, and the situation suddenly became serious. Ben neglected to put his breakdown in the back of the boat in pursuit of a quick and light warm up on some fairly moderate class III-V. We began formulating plans and backup plans, and guesses about the best hiking route out and towards safety away from dense forested steep canyons that bear find so keen. After a swim to the other side of the stream, I was left with my boat, a small survival first aid and a very sketchy plan for escape. I decided to leave my boat in hopes of a quicker route out of this steep canyon. My plan was to get on the rim, and keep the river within view and head towards the takeout. After a very steep and nerve racking climb that’s when I realized I was the only person in a five mile radius as my teammates fade into the distance in hopes of reaching the takeout before dark. This was a very disheartening and scary feeling. After about an hour I stumbled upon what appeared to be the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. It was a faded logging road, and I was going to follow it to the end, no matter which direction it took me, because I realized humans had actually been here. Another hour or so was spent on winding faded trails until I decided to make rock piles in order to find my way back to my boat. I finally found a significant road that lead to a fish hatchery, after about three hours I found the salvation of human life. The next four hours was spent retrieving my boat and hiking up the steepest canyon with a forty pound kayak strapped to my back. That was by far the most strenuous task I had under took since my days as a varsity wrestler and football player. Every step was pure physical and psychological pain and anguish. As I returned back to the fishery just before dark a truck appeared in the previously vacant parking spot. The very friendly fisherman offered me a ride about fifteen miles to the takeout. I arrived with much relief, and waited with a grin and a warm change of clothes for the rest of the crew to arrive just as the sun faded behind the hills and into darkness. What a day!
May 9th Pat 7:30pm
So our “kayaking” trip has been a little different than expected. Today we practiced dragging our boats through the woods and sliding down snow banks on our butts in search of what we thought was going to be a gnarly run deep in the panhandle. We’re just training for the actual kayak
ing with our strength and conditioning regiment. In all actuality we found a few fun low volume drops and slides after hours of what seemed like a labor intensive day hiking through the snow. Tomorrow should prove to be a better day, because we think there will actually be water.
May 12th Pat 6:30pm
I just wanted to add a few thoughts about the smith creek expedition that turned into a rather epic learning experience once again. I felt like yesterday was one of the best days I’ve had in a kayak. It was long, tiring, low, dark, and Ben’s pin situation placed a serious tone on the magnitude of this run. That vibe was exactly what I loved about this run. We had to work hard, and exercise our judgment in order to get out of this full on intense run that required every ounce of our attention for all eleven hours. The few drops that were in the thick of things were some of the better fun and technical drops that I’ve done in a kayak. Our team had a serious issue that was handled very well in terms of execution and outcome, besides a rather pricy replacement cost for Ben’s boat. We were well prepared with z drag kits and loaded with the knowledge to free a pinned boat in a very real life situation. The day grew long, and I was on a mission to get our team out all in one piece. Everyone had their ups and downs in terms wanting to be done with this run, and off the river. I knew the only way we were going to get out of their was to keep trucking full speed down this rather crazy maze of portages and judgment calls in order to get it done. Just like anything else, especially school work I do my best work under pressure, and really like to cut it close. We did just that and emerged from the forested canyon just as darkness was cast upon this corner of the earth at about nine o’clock at night.
May 15th Ben 7:30 pm
Once again adding some stuff to the blog here as an after thought. Two days ago on Saturday we had an amazing day. We started out on Icicle creek outside of Levenworth WA, which by the way is a crazy town! Levenworth must have some crazy building code that requires all buildings to be built in a Dutch/German/Swedish style. We even went to a farmer’s market with music (we danced). Back to Icicle: We put in at around 10:30 on the lower section with a few random guys who knew the area and had a blast. I scraped up my knuckles a lil bit (I’m going to blame it on my first day in a new boat) which wasn’t too big of a deal, and we came back around for a second go at it. After the second lap we ate lunch and put on the upper section. The mountainside was craggy and sun drenched the entire day. It was not very technical, but it was a blast to boof around all those winding drops. After a good solid day on Icicle we went down to the Wenatche with the guys we met on Icicle. There was a sick hole/wave called “granny’s” that was stompin. There were herds of boaters that would stop on the shore and wait their turn to give it a go. Some small blunts were possible and high speed flat spins. All in all it was a sick day. We paddled from 10 in the morning till 6 at night we sun on our faces the whole time. It was one of the best days we’ve had on the water yet!
Then we come to today, Monday. We heard some sick beta about the “Top Tye” which was somewhat close to where we were (Icicle Creek/Levenworth), so we decided to check it out. We did the bottom section in the morning, and that was exactly what we were looking for, good clean fun! So, after poring over beta and maps and bush wacking through the woods for hours we feel pretty good about the run. But something doesn’t quite feel right. Some of the features and rocks mention in the description of the run aren’t there… We decided to take one last look at Monkey Cage and The Spout, two of the biggest drops on the run, wherein we came across some local boaters. The first thing one of them said to us was, “Hey! You them Illinois boaters?”, of course with a big mocking grin on his face. The plates on the suburban have Illinois plates, which is not an extremely good plate to have if you want to give off the vibe that you’re legit class V boaters. Anyways, as we discussed the run they mentioned that it was SUPER HIGH! They said it is optimal at 200 cfs and we were looking at it at 1200 cfs. This jaw dropping revelation screwed our plans for tomorrow, but we are looking at a possible first decent on Deception creek (if things go smoothly). Tomorrow we plan to head down to the Little White Salmon and my Uncle Bob’s house. Should be an interesting next few days. From here on out we are ethier going to nail the right flows or we’re going to bust big time. Cross your fingers for us!
May 16th Ben 6:00 pm
Today was sweet! It started out with a bad taste. We thought we weren’t going to get anything done seeing as we got shot down for the Tye. We thought it would be spent driving and searching for some sort of mediocre play run to mildly amuse us. But instead of a mild run we found two “park and huck” spots that were just sick. In the morning we found Rapid River. Rapid River apparently only goes off when the water is very high, which at this time, it is. So, instead of going to a smaller creek where everything would be deadly, we found one rapid with two drops that was juicin’. The water was pushy, but the two tiered drop containing a 6 footer into an 8 footer was quite impressive. With the run in being so hectic there wasn’t much time to make your moves, Pat nailed his first line making it look easy. I, on the other hand was not as graceful. My line wasn’t terrible, but I didn’t lace it quite like Pat did. We both ran it twice making for a good morning class V warm up.
The next piece of water we hit was a big mistake. We were on our way down to Seattle when Pat eyed a HUGE piece of water. The Skykomish was going off! With the huge heat wave that hit the Northwest we had a lot of water on our hands, and the Sky was not different. It was at 12,000 cfs and the drop we were about to run was Eagle Falls. Usually Eagle falls is two actually waterfalls with a small hole at the bottom (all this in a 150 yard stretch), but today it was a monster. There were no more waterfalls, but massive Zambezi style holes. Holes that a Volkswagen could easily get lost in. So, needless to say we were stoked. We had to run it. I was up first, and I was a little nervous when I was putting in. I was pretty sure the holes flushed, but I couldn’t be quite sure. Not knowing if I was going to get caught in one of the biggest holes I’d ever seen and held there terminally was a intimidating thought. With this in mind I decided to hit the whole rapid down the gut, right through the meat of the holes. Needless to say what ensued was one of the most incredible beatings of my life. I went through the meat of the first hole and immediately got smashed with what felt like a building falling ontop of me. I don’t recall much except being swirled around everywhich way barely holding onto my paddle. After about 20 seconds of this the water went relatively calm and I rolled up half way to find that the second hole loomed no more than 10 feet away. I caught half a breath of air before getting hammered by the second, which surprisingly was far more intense than the first one. I was under water for longer with a more severe beating. I rolled up with plenty of time to try and catch the wave/hole that was massive at the bottom on the run. I caught the feature in the steep crease and got immeaditely air blunted to the meat of the hole where I took another few rodeo lessons and washed out. All in all I’d say I was underwater for a good minute. It was by far the longest submersion I had ever gone through, but at the end of it I had a big smile on my face… and I ran it again 15 minutes later. Pat had a much smoother line down the drop, not even flipping on the second hole, although he had a sweet unintentional air screw on the first hold, and the third hole gave him the fastest window shadding I have ever seen. Later that day at the Seattle gear shop the owner told us that Eagle Falls was a V+ and that noone runs it at that level, especially in their play boats (play boats make big water way more fun, by the way). It was an epic day to say the least.
May 17th Pat 10:45pm
Man, am I sore! Today was another day that started out with a disappointment due to the level of water in our chosen creek that was once again mapped out. We drove last night till midnight in order to be ready to rock on canyon creek Washington. We awoke this morning to find that this time we had too little water in the creek. It turns out that the further south you go the water source changes from snow melt to rain, it was not raining. We flipped though our handy guidebooks and maps
to try and find something to fill our day before it got too late. We got some info from a random guy at the gas station about the East fork of the Lewis, which according to our calculations should have been dry as a bone. He assured us that his friend was hucking waterfalls just two days ago. We took the short journey over the hill about 15 miles away, and discovered only a semi dry creek. The run was clearly lacking, but the few “tourist” waterfalls had enough water due to the bedrock/lava trail formed river bed. We drove until we found a waterfall that was sufficient enough to cure our whitewater itch. This 12 foot falls was not only set in a beautiful background, but it was a perfect plop and drop falls. We started to get progressive, and our waterfall huck became a freestyle session. Before no time we were throwing no paddled pistolflips and wavewheels. We definitely got our fair share of backwards and upside down landing that is currently making my body ache, to say the least we had another sick day!
May 19th Ben 6:19 pm
Yesterday we arrived in Hood River Oregon, a small quaint town just over the boarder of WA. Despite its size Hood River is anything but sleepy. There is a thriving outdoor/”extreme” culture here! Kite-boarders, Wind surfers, kayakers, not to mention friendly people… this place is awesome! Along with the amazing scene Hood River is the epicenter for Northwest creek boating. Located smack dab in the middle of two massive glaciers, there are a multitude of creek runs in a very small radius. So, after getting some good beta about the ragin’ flows from the local paddle shop, we decided to hit up the local play feature. It was “RattleSnake” and it was juicin’. RattleSnake is a steep fast and narrow wave. With a big pile and fast corners it was pretty crazy to hop on. Every once in a while we’d get a blunt in there or a backstab, but for the most part it was more work than it was worth. To turn it up a notch Pat and I worked on the “loop” wave entry move. After a solid session we set up camp and called it a night.
The next day (today) we paddled “the farmlands” stretch of the White Salmon. We put on and didn’t know what were in for. The water ran through a v- shaped canyon carved out of basalt by the receding glaciers at the end of the last ice age. With large flows this usally creek-style river was a full on ragin torrent with big waves, big holes and powerful drops. We stomped through the first section cleanin up pretty good until we hit some turbulence. We scouted a rapid and determined it was good to go, despite the fact that we spotted a horizon line that appeared to go into a big ass hole. And of course, there was indeed a big ass hole waiting for us around the corner. Because we thought there was a difficult limbo strainer we went right into the meat. It was a powerful 4-6ft drop with a monster hole. Both Pat and I got a good ol’ workin’ in there. Both of us came out a little shook up, but no worse for wear. The highlight of the run was Pat’s huck of the meaty 14ft “Lava Falls”. There must have been at least 950 cfs surging over this 30ft wide channel exploding at the bottom into giant holes with a whole bunch of recirculating water. Pat nailed his line and just made it out of the meat in time. I took the sneak route for fear that if I ran the huge center line and I didn’t clear the big hole I’d get pulled behind the curtain and be in big trouble, and with Pat getting flushed far out of view amidst the towering shear canyon walls, there would be no way for him to know if I had been trapped. The rest of the run
was filled big fast hole punching that was a blast! The last big drop was a fast lead into a 12ft drop. Pat and I both nailed our lines and romped through the rest of the run with big grins across our faces. Needless to say its been a fun day here in Hood Oregon.
May 21st Pat 12:00pm
The Little White Salmon! Some consider it to be the best creek boating run in the Northwest, or ever the lower forty eight. We awoke to a drizzling rain, and a slow start due to the not so pleasant weather. After waiting for the weather we put on at 11am with a rather skeptical level according to the gage at the bridge. Many people recommended a medium flow for the first trip down this intense run chalked full of consequences. It was at the high side of good. The first half mile was a nonstop boulder maze that ended with boulder sluice, an eight foot slanting ledge that lead right into a very large boulder. A missed line would not be pretty, and Ben scared the shit out of me when he flew pa
st the eddy right above the drop. Luckily we had scouted it earlier from upstream, and he nailed the preferred line away from the boulder. The next few miles were spent trying to recognize the two caves that have frequent visitors; these caves were set at the base of various ledges with dangerously close lines that definitely tested our nerve. S turn falls marked the beginning of the waterfall section, it was a perfect 10ft boof into a snaking boulder maze. Next was wishbone falls a two channeled 20fter that was hucked on the left after a very difficult scout and a scary cliff slide that landed me right on my ass at the lip of the falls, ouch that hurt my rump. I ran it first, and set up video at the base of this very beautiful waterfall scene that landed us in a basalt chamber. We exited in
to “the gorge” that contained several difficult rapids. Ben and I both got ringers in horseshoe. The guide book warned us that if this drop was taken anywhere but far right a swim would result. We were forced to make a difficult fairy directly above the drop on shallow bedrock. Our paddles both hit the rock and peeled us sideways into the hole. I was almost positive that one of was going for a swim. Ben took the beating for the longest and stuck out this crazy keeper ledge and by some stroke of luck or creative skill he was able to battle his way right out of the meat after a solid minute of washing machine cycles. I slid over the ledge sideways just as Ben did and proceeded to do some rodeo creekin’ luckily I didn’t find the direct center of this nasty ledge hole and after a few rocks to the head was let go by the torrent current. After gaining our composure we had a few more rapids and ledges that lead us into spirit falls. Words can’t describe this 33ft waterfall. This was the most amazing drop I’ve ever seen. In terms of height Both Ben and I had been on falls that plummeted similar distance, but not in this fashion. The drop was more of a spigot with the perfect waterfall arch int
o crystal clear basalt chamber with carved out walls and mist spraying in every direction. The boil was my biggest concern, because it was huge, but obviously didn’t recirculate. Ben stepped up and stomped it with confidence, and followed right behind him with the biggest grin and loudest hootin’ and hollern’ yet. It was awesome, a perfect launch into a vertical plug, what a feeling. We finished the run with a few more drops and before we knew it the ducks were above us and the fish below us in Drano lake. Both Ben and I agree that no creek paddled as of yet rivals the Little White Salmon.
May 22nd Ben 9:22 pm
The past two days have been interesting to say the least. After our awesome time in Hood River we decided to head to the coast. We arrived in Pacific City and took a delightful little tour of the Tillamook Cheese Company where we got free cheese and some delectable ice cream. After our short detour we sought out the sea. The beach allowed vehicles on it, but with our big weighted down Suburban we had quite a bit of trouble. We got quite stuck and had to dig ourselves out. We tried in vain to get out at the legal spot but ended up having to do the sneaky sneaky illegal move to the boat ramp a mile down the coast. It was pretty funny flying by beach goers in our loaded down Suburban waving the shaka at em.
Once we got over our vehicle issues we plopped in the ocean and surfed it up! The breaks were fun but not too large. Some decent blunts were had and a whole lot of salt water in every orifice. That night we searched desperately to find a place that wasn’t outrageously priced camping. Finding nothing we decided to sneak onto the beach with our bags and pads and nothing else. The wind was relentless, eventually bringing rain our way, causing us to flee to the car and sleep all cramped up on the loft. After a lazy disgruntled morning we found some more bigger surf farther south on the coast in Lincoln City. The breaks were bigger and rowdier. We both got trashed a few times in the relentless surf. Just to catch one good wave we had to paddle our butts off for a good ten minutes fighting through crashing waves and high winds, but once we caught ‘em they were amazing! Some of the waves were at least 9 footers with steep breaking faces. When we timed it right huge aerial moves were had. The hard part was landing the moves, because right when we would land the wave would still be there breaking on top of us. Obviously there were some tossings that ensued. All in all it was a fun and exhausting day. It was a rare treat to surf the ocean and see the beautiful Oregon coast for two days.
