Bellingham Whitewater

Trifecta for Bert day and more…

Posted by Chris on April 30, 2008 at 3:42 pm | In Trip Reports |

First things first:

Tri.fect.a (tri-fekt-a)

-(in sing.) A run of three wins or grand events.

Origin 1970’s: From Tri- (three) + Perfecta.

9:00 AM - Mt. Baker W.A., 3 friends drop into “Gordys” on a 25 degree morning with over a foot of new pow, slashing the backside wall and running through thier own “tube” of white fluff before stomping one of the many “diving board” style hits on the frontside wall. The backcountry crew is already breaking track up Mt. Herman; a train of nearly a dozen people with an untouched canvas of white laid out before them, an adventure in the making…

Earning turns with Mt. Shuksan in the background.

Todd Gillman laying one down.

On the way to making turns on the untouched sweetness in the background.

1:30 PM - Snow and sunshine are prevalent at the put-in for the Bend, as is the sound of laughter and people re-living thier accounts of the mornings most epic turns, and epic carnage. The flows are low, but it doesn’t matter, while on the river everyone is busy chatting or enjoying the view of 17 people blue-angeling the “Bender” rapid, “Bench drop”, or “S.A.T.” Bottles get tipped at the take-out, its already been an amazing day, and now we are off to the next leg…

Great showing despite the low flows.

Amy Brown @ the Bench drop.

Don Dickinson in S.A.T.

What is this guy thinking??!!

Jenni Pelc showing the crowd how its done in S.A.T.

There were some “Un-desireables” hanging around the river that day.

Let the beer flow…

3:30 PM - The competition is stiff at the glacier disc golf course. A course well know for punishing a person with a wild throw; bushing whacking, mud traps, and lost discs being the normal penalties. The beer is now flowing pretty well, Donnie and Eric are neck in neck but Donnie finishes out the game in style with a 6 under. Everybody is muddy, tired, and hungry and looking forward to the spread that awaits us at Ryan and Jenni’s house.

Amy showing how its done

Dufay with the proper disc golf implements.

7:00 PM - Ryan’s parents Dick and Bonnie win as cooks of the year in my book. While we were “playing” they were slaving away in the kitchen so that we could come home to a smorgasbord of salmon, chicken, steak, along with deluxe salads and cooked veggies. Many other participants contributed an amazing array of creative desserts to share. The party raged hard and ended fast as the days events caught up with everyone and gave them the proverbial kick in the ass.

Bad photo but you get the idea.

Ryan helping out with the cooking.

I think that everyone involved had a awesome day, and, once again spent the day living life to its fullest. This is exactly what our brother Brent did with his life, and I feel its an honor to experience a day in those footsteps. Thank you everybody for coming out! And thank you Ethan Smith, Eric Mickelson, Hilary Neevel for all the photo’s.
NEXT:

Thursday the 24th, BWW held our annual video premiere in Bellingham. The main attraction for the evening was Hotel Charley 3, an adventure film by Ben Stookesbury and Jesse Coombs. The turnout for the evening was awesome as usual, the stoke was high, the movie entertaining, and a good time was had by all. We raised over $700.00 for AW and signed up 10 new members!

I want to put out a big Thank You to all our sponsors: Yeagers, Johnson Outdoors, REI, New Belgium Brewing, Bandito Burrito’s, Backcountry Essentials, and the Outdoor Center. Also a Thanks to the volunteers who helped make the evening happen. Thanks!

THEN:

Saturday afternoon the first (of many, hopefully) Robe canyon race was held. Racers started just above the Tunnel rapids and finished the race 30+ minutes downstream after Conversation. This section on the S.F. Stilliguamish, being one of the best sections of river in the state, is a perfect host for this type of event, with good, clean class 4-5 in a pushy river canyon, its not surprising the level of athletes that showed up for saturdays race.

Hats off to Ben Hawthorne and Rob McKibbin for taking first place in what may turn out to be one of the most grueling races around. For more about the race and to see some more sweet photos check out The Range Life.

Hilary Neevel stomping out Last Sunshine.

The starting line.

Garbage.

Next years womens team?

Hilary Neevel. Support crew.

Robe Canyon.

AND FINALLY:

With hopes that this will be the first of many fine spring time runs down our favorite local creek, a few of us braved the snow ladden banks of Clearwater Creek on Monday for a “Second D” of the season. The flows were low but good enough, with .5 on the new guage being similar to the old 3.2. Along with sliding and boofing our way downstream, we were hooting and hollering with joy to have the chance to dip our paddles in this excellent stream after along winter hiatus.

Heres some pics from the day:

Rocky Road.