The ‘Bend is Back!
Posted by Eric on March 6, 2007 at 10:34 pm | In Trip Reports, Safety |Well, sort of…
The balmy temps in the ‘ham today got me thinking about how long it has been since I’ve gone boating. It’s funny how that happens- a few busy days at school or work can turn into two months in a flash. Well, Owen must have read my mind, because as I was enjoying the sun on the way home from teaching this morning, I got a voicemail from him asking if I wanted to do a little paddling.
We decided to go do a run on the ‘Bend, even though it was flowing at a bony 350 cfs, because it was close, and also because we wanted to check out the wood situation. When we arrived at the takeout, it was loooww- I wasn’t sure if it even had 350 c’s in it. Even so, a low-water, sunny day paddle on the backyard run is still pretty damn nice.
After a very bony start, we found plenty of water for fun lines down all the major rapids, though we definitely took a few layers off the boats in the in-between stuff. We were pleasantly surprised by the wood on the river as well. There is still wood in there for sure, but all of the major rapids have clean lines through them- at least at low flows. Not sure if the river cleaned up some of the wood or if ‘beavers’ have been at work, but most of it looked pretty good. A lot of the wood that is still there looked as though it had just sagged lower into the river, creating less of a hazard. We were especially glad to see that SAT was relatively clean. There is still a river-wide log at the very top (there’s a boof line at the far right side), but the rest of the rapid is totally free of wood.
It isn’t super clear how the drops below Bench will go at higher flows- there is still quite a bit of wood in there. There are also a couple of other logs above Bench that will likely be there for quite some time. In particular, the rapid immediately above Bench has a huge cedar spanning the river just below the drop. Definitely a mandatory portage- know where it is before committing to running this rapid. There are also a couple of large logs towards the beginning of the run that are fairly easy to see. These shouldn’t be a problem to stop above, and we were able to easily sneak under them, but be alert.
Hopefully we’ll get some water soon so that we can see how it looks at higher flows.
-Eric
good to hear, i am glad that you gangsta’s got out. this school thing is really takin a chunck out of my boating time.
Comment by jond — March 7, 2007 #
NICE!!! It was only a matter of time with the wet weather before the banks do a little slumping and sliding. Some high water for the spring and voila! your creek is back. And hey, just in time for daylight savings.
Comment by Dirk — March 7, 2007 #