It's raining again in Seattle after a long dry summer, and our rivers are coming back to life. Yesterday, I ran a river for the first time in many months, and I had a wonderful time. I met several of my good friends in Seattle, and then drove up to the Skykomish River to run the Sunset Falls stretch, which is class III. At the put-in we met several more friends to make a total of eight paddlers. A quick change and shuttle, and then we carried our boats down a steep hill to the river. The put-in is about as beautiful as put-ins get. The river thunders 120' down Sunset Falls, and huge Mt. Index looms directly above the river. All of the peaks visible had a significant dusting of snow, making them even more dramatic. We could see salmon leaping out of the water trying to jump the falls. They cannot, of course; instead they must find their way into a holding pen at which point they herded into a truck and carried several miles upstream above three sets of falls. One of the fisheries science grad students in our group was rather amused by this process -- she called it dumb. The put-in itself present two options. One is to perch on a low sloping granite slab and then slide five feet into the river. Sometimes this can get a little slippery, but it is really easy and most people use this. The other option is to set your kayak on top of a large boulder and "seal launch" into the river. At 1,500 cfs, this is about a 10' drop. The rock itself is the friendliest seal launch spot I have ever seen; it is very difficult to screw up and get hurt; thanks to a gently rounded lip and deep pool below. I think this option is actually easier, and of course much more fun. Most of us elected for the seal lauch, and the one person who took the sloping slab lost control of his boat and had to jump into the water to retrieve his escaping boat. Just below lies "First Wave", which is a very polular and friendly surfing wave. We spent a long time here re-learning how to surf and warming up stiff bodies.. For me, surfing is the ultimate expression of freedom and creativity in kayaking, but this time I felt like a goon and couldn't hardly stay on the wave. Eventually I started to get my old reflexes back, and I went for a cartwheel. Immediately I got a cramp in right leg and had to spend a little while on shore straightening it out. Back on the water for afew more surfs and felt much better than before, so I tried another cartwheel and got yet another cramp in my other leg. Almost certainly a sign of approaching old age... Below first wave there are several very enjoyable rapids in a very beautiful canyon setting. We saw several salmon and many different vies of Mt Index. And of course we played on every little wave, hole, or pourover that we could find. What fun it is to play and paddle on crystal clear cold mountain water. The Skykomish is one of the most pristine watersheds left in this state, and it shows. Eventually we got to Anderson Hole, which is a very good play hole at 1,500 cfs -- at higher levels it gets a little "munchy". Somehow I never play very much at this hole, because I know that Boulder Drop is just below. Boulder Drop is a long technical class IV rapid set in amongst some huge granite boulders. This is the hardest rapid on the river, and many paddlers who can make the rest of the run portage this drop. 1,500 cfs is an easy level relatively speaking, as the water moves somewhat slowly and does not "push" so much. The required moves still need precision, but I had no trouble making the ferries and catching the eddies even in my SLOW 7'9" playboat. Everybody else also had a clean run. I like the challenge of this drop, and the waves and holes are bigger here than elsewhere on the river, which does add a certain element of fun, especially at the bottom where the rapid is almost over. After boulder drop, everyone always feels some sense of relief and the rest of the run is just pure joy. We played and surfed our way to the take-out, as the sun came out and lighted up our souls. There is a lot of camraderie involved in running a river with a group of good friends. As a whole, the experience is tough to match. Later in the evening, we converged at my house for dutch-oven lasagna and a soak in the hot tub. Well, I can see out the window that it is still raining heavily today. Maybe next weekend I will get to run the middle section of the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River, also called the Middle Middle. This is my favortie river in the state. Cheers, Kevin ___________________ / Kevin Whilden \ |Dept. of Geosciences \___ |University of Washington \ |kwhilden_at_u.washington.edu| \________________________/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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