Bellingham Whitewater

Middle fork of the Nooksack, Canyon section.

Posted by Chris on March 1, 2009 at 11:54 am | In Trip Reports, Rivers |

Erik Schertzl in a dark place. Below him lies either glory or a trashing in “Superboof.”

I feel its time to pay a bit of a homage to a often overlooked, underrated, and yes, feared, river here in ole’ Whatcom County, the Middle Fork of the Nooksack (or MF as I will call it from hereafter).

The short -but gripping- Canyon section of the MF has long been enjoyed by local boaters as a staple class V run encased in a polished, overhanging, gorge. For some its an all day class V stepping stone while for others it acts as an after work adrenaline rush. Either way the MF boasts one of the most impressive canyons in the Nooksack drainage and a run through will leave most boaters catching their breaths, and not just because of the scenery.

View from the bridge. Just downstream and out of view is “Leap of Faith.”

What the MF lacks in length it absolutely makes up for in exhilarating whitewater. Often you arrive at the bridge and peer down into the foaming, turning canyon, only to realize that -unless you are going to make the steep hike back out- you better start calming yourself down and scout a line through “Icebox paradise,” the first rapid of the canyon. From the moment you snap on your skirt and feel the first tugs of current pulling you into the folds of the must-run gorge, the MF demands attention. Directly below “Icebox paradise” boaters are pulled into “leap of faith,” a 15′-20′ tall rapid that leads into a 8′ wide pinch. The “Leap” can -and I believe always should- be scouted from the top of the gorge on river left. If ever there was a tree stuck in this drop, or a major change, you would have no chance of finding out until it was to late, unless you scouted.

Erik Shertzl running the peel-out boof.

Now that you’ve -hopefully- survived the “leap” its time to enjoy the scenery and cruise your way downstream and through “Hawaii Five-O,” and “Bullshit,” two notable rapids before “S-turn.”

Jon Dufay below “Hawaii Five-O.”

Schertzl same.

Schertzl having a look at “Bullshit.”

“S-turn” is a big rapid formed by a landslide on river right. A couple tall ledges to choose from at the top lead into a few big holes below. This is probably the most difficult rapid of the run and has been consistently getting better over the years.

Schertzl dropping into “S-Turn.”

Ahhh, next comes “Superboof.” The boof, and the rapid above it are every bit as sweet as they look…

Dufay above “Superboof.” This drop just changed and is now taller than “superboof.”

Dufay. Super, yes. Boof, uh-huh.

Schertzl likes it!

This is the point where you can let your guard down a little and do some easy class 3-4 boat-scouting until “Cheesegrater.” “Cheesegrater” has been changing yearly but most of the time is a fast slide up against the right wall. Why “Cheesegrater?” if you get rolled you will probably find out.

Erik avoiding being “Grated.”

As the walls begin to peel back and the whitewater mellows you can find some good playspots to tire yourself out on before heading to the Beer Shrine.

A story. And a reason to scout “Leap of faith”:

A handful of us headed up to the MF one fall evening for a quickie. Spirits were high as we had been running the MF more often than usual and were feeling good about the lines we had been finding through some of the less-clean drops. I think our last run had been less than two weeks before.

We got to the bridge and decided the flow was 800ish and since there hadn’t been any major rain events we felt we were were good to go without a scout of the “Leap.”

All 6 of us peeled out of the eddy, made it through the “Icebox” and dropped into the “Leap.” Now, I believe Jamie was in the lead with me behind and from what I could see he got rolled at the bottom and was having a hard time paddling away from the pinch, something that I had never seen happen since usually it is just a “V” wave at the bottom that might flip you but could never keep you. But here was Jamie struggling to paddle up a boil to exit the pinch! I immediately realized that there must have been a change and chose to stick with my usual technique to blast the hole, unfortunately this turned out to be a bad idea and I found myself running into a pillow coming off the left wall and was promptly rejected into a micro eddy against the left wall, and between the hole and the giant boil blocking the exit of the pinch.

This isn’t good I told myself. Realizing then that my only option was to try to paddle over the boil, but to do so I needed to drop into the edge of the hole and use it to get me into the main flow closer to the right wall, without getting beat down. Not a pretty sight, and not easy. I gave it two good tries with mediocre results. Then before the third try I see a boat coming through the hole, its Hale, and he gets flipped by the hole, I watch as he rolls up and barely manages to claw his way out against the river right wall. Realizing that everybody’s coming through I cling to the wall and wait as John comes through the hole upside down, rolls up and has the same battle that Hale just did. Ryan repeats Hales struggle. Next is Erik and he gets flipped in the hole, flushes, then gets pulled back into the hole upside down, gets trundled, flushes, rolls up and barely claws his way out.

S@#T! Im thinking to myself, my chances are grim! Jamie, who’s sitting in the slack water behind the pinch, some 2 ft above me, is yelling for me to paddle hard. I had already tried, unsuccessfully, and with barely being able to stay upright, now I was tired and stuck, only just holding on to a tiny flake in a cliffed out eddy with the nose of my boat being sucked under the huge boil coming off the left wall. I was stable enough but was not going to be for very long.

The walls of the canyon in this area are overhung and difficult to perform any kind of rescue. While waiting for my rescuers I checked out a small ledge about 15 ft above water line that I thought I may be able to climb to, a safe haven of sorts. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it out of my boat without falling in so I figured I would wait for a rope, just in case.

Hale and Jamie got to the top of the canyon on river right and after some tough throw attempts through the underbrush, finally nailed me. I immediately clipped the rope on to me and jumped out of my boat and made the harrowing climb up to the tiny ledge.

So now I’m feeling like I can take a moment and think about how I’m getting out of the pinch. Where Hale and Jamie are located is not even close to ideal for pulling me downstream and there is no way they will be able to pull me straight up and out with the lousy footing they have so we make a plan for me to wait while they run upstream to the bridge and back down the river left side of the gorge to drop me a rope so I can ascend my way out. This is a good time to mention that even if you are planning on a quick after work run, if it goes through a gorge you should probably wear the appropriate clothing for kayaking in a committing gorge, not shorts.
All the boys got to the other side of the gorge quickly and got a rope down to me, Yes! I promptly set up my tibloc and prusiks system to ascend my way up the rope (always carry these in your PFD). Slow but surely I was making my way up when the rope lurched upward! The bad-asses were pulling me up! WOO-HOO. Having boating partners like these guys is priceless! Thanks!

I haven’t been back in since that day last fall, but, word is if the levels are low enough you can paddle out of the eddy. As it gets higher…who knows. I know I will opt for putting in below the “Leap” when I go back.