Heres the Tatlow section from my movie Cascadia.

And heres a couple grainy pics from this weekend.

See you up there for another lap.

C.

It’s just $6 to get in ($5 if you’re a student), and we’ll have beer ($3 with ID), snacks from Bandito’s Burritos (free!), and tons of outdoor and paddling gear to raffle off, including a shiny new Lendal paddle! All proceeds from the event will be donated to American Whitewater to help them promote river access and stewardship.

We’ll be opening the doors at 6, and the film will start at 7. Thanks to our sponsors: Yeagers, Backcountry Essentials, Small World Adventures, Johnson Outdoors, Western Washington University, and REI. Check out the poster below, and click here for more event details, maps to the venue, and a trailer. We hope to see you there!

First, a sweet double feature will be playing April 10 at WWU. The Doof and the Outdoor Center will be hosting LVM 25 along with Cascadia, a flick by BWW’s very own Chris Tretwold. This film is great- tons of footage of spectacular BC and Washington runs, including Tatlow and Big Silver, and featuring local boaters. Here’s the poster:

Second, the RPP will hosting its fourth annual film/AW fundraiser/raffle event on April 24th at Broadway Hall in Bellingham. We’re still getting the details ironed out, but we’ve already got some terrific prizes lined up, so we’re on track for another great event. This year, we’ll be showing the latest Hotel Charley film: The Lost World. 2007 National Geographic Adventurers of the Year and all around good guys Ben Stookesberry and Jesse Coombs will be on hand to present their film. These films have always been amazing, and this years’ edition promises to be no different, with footage from first descents in Newfoundland, Brazil, Colombia, and India. Check here for more info about the event.

Chris Korbulic going big in Newfoundland during the filming of
Hotel Charley 3: The Lost World. Photo by Darin McQuoid.

Third, Backcountry Essentials, Kavu, and us here at BWW will be teaming up to present Oil + Water on May 22 at BE’s shop on Holly Street. This film chronicles the journey of Seth Warren and Tyler Bradt as they travel the length of North and South America in Baby, an old fire truck that they converted to run on vegetable oil, kayaking along the way and promoting freedom from reliance on petroleum products. This film has won tons of awards, and promises to be both educational and entertaining. It’ll also be a fundraiser for American Whitewater, and just happens to feature some top-notch kayaking. Here’s the trailer:

Finally, don’t forget about the second annual Trifecta, coming up on April 19th. Hopefully we’ll have some snow on the mountain, some water in the river, and a dry course for some good disc (those three things sound mutually exclusive, but that’s exactly what happened last year. Here’s to a repeat!).

Stay tuned for more info as these events get closer. Spring is here!

Bryan Smith will be in town to show off his newest film, “Pacific Horizons.” Hosted by WAKE (the Whatcom Association of Kayak Enthusiasts), the film shows off some off the world’s most exciting kayaking destinations. Check out the trailer:

This looks to be a killer film, and I’m excited to check it out. It’ll be showing at Melody Hall in Bellingham, and will begin at 7PM. Cost is $5. For more information, visit WAKE or the Pacific Horizons site.

The information will be used to help AW prioritize river protection in our fine region. Just to remind y’all of what this area’s got to offer, here’s a quick video I threw together of one of our many North Cascades gems (Thanks to Chris and Erik for the clips):

Silver Creek, North Cascades, WA

From American Whitewater:

American Whitewater is completing an assessment of whitewater resources in the North Cascades.

The North Cascades is a section of the Cascade Range of Western North America that spans the border between British Columbia and Washington.

The information from this survey will be used in the development of a recreational resources layer in partnership with The Wilderness Society and other organizations.

It will help us prioritize our river protection efforts through the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, determine how to proceed in discussions regarding the future of the road network on public lands, and update the information provided in a 1986 River Recreation Inventory and Assessment for Washington State.

You can fill out the survey here.

Sunday also saw Trial Falls get run for what may have been a first descent, and some boys from Colorado made the 1st no portage descent.

For flows on Thunder creek I would say high end maybe 1500cfs with optimal flows being between 700-1100cfs while 900cfs and above would feel a bit pushy, also, you could run it as low as 400cfs but I can’t say that the hike would be worth it… well, maybe if you were really jonesing to paddle.

Here’s a bit more video:

More Thunder creek… from CHRIST on Vimeo.

And some pics:

Boats with legs: the hike in.

Chris T, post 1st(?) D of Trial Falls.

Fred straightening ‘er out.

The cave behind the falls

Big Silver Creek from CHRIST on Vimeo.

After the last successful mission exploring the upper canyons with Hale Hanaway, Ryan Bradley, Erik Schertzl, and Todd Gilman, I have had a hard time containing my excitement while waiting for the flows to receed back to boatable levels. Needless to say when there was talk of a 4 day B.C. road trip, Big Silv was at the top of the list.

The crew was Matt Thomas, Erik Schertzl, Hilary Neevel and I. Matt, just starting a 2 month vacation from his new life in Cali., was all fired up to check out the run we’ve been spraying about the last few months. As eager as I was to experience paddling the upper section in 2 hours instead of 2 days, flows in the area were not looking too good. We decided to take the gamble and head up anyway, we figured at least we could huck Morning Wood falls then race over to the Squampton zone for a quick ride down Callaghan creek.

Upon arrival at the gauge bridge, Our suspicions were confirmed: The water level was definately low. I had seen this flow before and knew that the falls would go and if people were motivated the upper canyon would be low but could be run. At this point we ran into James (the prof.) and Brad, a couple of Seattle area kayakers that had been in the Nahatlach zone and made the rough drive over the Kookipi/Shovel pass that morning with hopes to meet up with us for a run.

I cannot say enough just how rad this zone is, when you get to the bridge over the middle gorge you are just getting a small glimpse into the beauty of this area. When you put on the upper run the scenery will blow yer mind.

Swimming hole above the falls. Photo by Erik Schertzl.

Morning Wood Falls. Photo by Matt Thomas.

We got to the falls and a quick scout revealed a small change from earlier this season. It was hard to say what happened for sure but some logs at the lip of the falls had definitely washed out and allowed the toilet-bowl-wood-choked-30ft-deep-sieve part of the drop to become more exposed, requiring an extremely precise line to clean the falls. A few of us contemplated this line for a little while but we all ended up seal-launching into the pool below.

Hilary about to drop the first ledge in the 1st gorge. Photo by Matt Thomas.

The first rapids before the gorge were holding water surprisingly well and after a partial portage of the manky entrance rapid we were all dropping off the sweet 6ft entrance ledge and enjoying the scenery.

The next couple rapids were definately low but each one had runnable lines and we were making good time and having fun. We even managed to run one rapid that we portaged the 1st time down.

Hilary running the last rapid of the 1st gorge. Photo by Erik Schertzl.

Shorly after the 1st gorge we arrived at gorge #2, one of the most scenic river gorges I have had the opportunity to experience. This place is beyond words and has some great rapids to boot. After the 1st few drops we entered the “Crevice.” At normal flows the “Crevice” has a pretty solid flow moving through it, this day with the low flows we were able to paddle up and down between the narrow walls and take in the magnificent sight.

The Crevice. Photo by Erik Schertzl.

Another shot of the Crevice. Photo by Matt Thomas.

After paddling past Gold creek we were right on top of the triple drop. Triple drop starts with “Wayrad McGnarly” named after Ryan Bradley who probed this sick drop. Next is “Voodooed,” 2 people ran this drop backwards after trying, and failing, to catch a innocuous looking eddy on river right just above the main flow, in which one boater got momentarily pinned fully underwater. Take a close look at this drop before running it.

“Wayrad McGnarly”. Photo by Matt Thomas.

Below here are a few more class IV drops in what may be the longest, straightest, box canyon in B.C., at least that I know of. Its a good thing the rapids are not too hard because your attention may be focused less on the whitewater and more on the scenery at hand.

The straight, 2nd canyon. Photo by Matt Thomas.

Boaters in the straight canyon. Photo by Matt Thomas.

Another beautiful place in the straight canyon. Photo by Matt Thomas.

Be sure and take-out at the entrance to the 3rd gorge.

It only takes driving on the bridge over the middle gorge and looking up, and downstream one time for you to ask yourself “What the f— is down there?”

View into the middle gorge. Photo by Matt Thomas.

Hanging out on the bridge. Photo by Matt Thomas.

Ryan and I had done some scouting on the middle gorge during high water earlier in the year and discovered a amazing triple falls which we couldn’t stop talking about for the past few months. After seeing the waterfalls and the rest of the rapids we knew there was another great run on Big Silv to get sorted out. The big question was what flows were needed to paddle this section.

After a wet night camping near the take-out for the middle, Matt, Erik, Hilary, and I ate a big breakfast and made some tactical decisions for the weekend. Since the flows on the upper were low we decided to take a look at the flows on the middle and see if it was something we would tackle on this trip. Just moments before we were about to hop in the trucks and do some scouting 3 subarus pulled up with creekers on the top, it turns out Ben, Evan, Lane, and Lizzy had seen the footage of Big silver on The Range Life and had come up to check out the area.

As things would have it we joined forces and did some scouting, ultimately deciding to run the middle.

After putting on at a impressive pool, we paddled through some amazing low-walled class III-IV slot canyons and into the steep section of the middle gorge. We made good time through the rapids just above and below the bridge, but, just out of sight of the bridge things picked up significantly.

Put-in pool. Photo by Matt Thomas.

We ran a pretty stout series of fast, sloping ledges and holes just above a 15ft slide, which was the last runnable rapid above a mandatory portage around a 25ft decapitation falls. During our pre-scout we thought we might run this falls but, once on top of the falls at river level, a quick glance revealed a horrible sieve/decapition cave in the middle of the drop.

Ben deep in the middle canyon. Photo by Matt Thomas.

We did a crazy portage under the rock I am standing on. Photo By Matt Thomas.

After a sketchy 20 ft seal-launch around the 25 footer there were a few nice rapids and more great scenery before the triple falls.

Lane scouting the triple falls. Photo by Matt Thomas.

We spent a good bit of time scouting the triple falls and decided to portage the 1st two falls, they appear to be runnable, but the line is tight, real tight. The easy portage around the first 2 falls will reward paddlers with one of the sweetest 20 footers around “La Termina falls,” if you go here, bring your camera. The next 1/4 mile is fun class IV-V all the way to the take-out.

The Lower run is 6KM of mostly class III and IV whitewater with some class II and a sweet split falls called “Divided we fall,” which can be scouted from the road on the way up. There are numerous put-ins but one should plan on running the split falls and taking out just a short distance below. Beware of the marginally runnable falls just below the split falls and portage on river right.

Lower gorge. Photo by Hale Hanaway.

Chris Boofing “Divided we fall.” Photo by Hale Hanaway.

I encourage boaters to head up to Big silver during the spring run-off or winter rains when flows on the Stave river are around 20-50 cms. And remember to bring Lester your recyclables at the end of your trip…you can’t miss his place at the mouth of the river.

Finally, over the last 2 weeks I managed to paddle it 3 times, and just as I thought, I had been missing out on some great B.C. style class 4-5 with warm, clear water and sunny skies.

Chris Young entering number 3. Photo by Todd Gillman.

While getting dressed in the scorching heat on the side of the road next to silver lake, one quickly learns that this is the main road used for outdoor recreation for most of the lower Fraser river residents. Every 2 minutes or less a large truck rips by towing a 25 ft travel trailer and a truck bed spilling over, full with boats, motorcycles, 4-wheelers, mechanical bulls, who knows what else.

This is also the start of some seriously sweet-ass whitewater. Look for a place to put-in below the huge logjams at the mouth of the lake.

The first kilometer is the steepest of the whole run, and I suggest taking a look at the first rapid before you put-on. A person will quickly find out if they are feeling “On it” in this rapid. It starts out with a manky lead-in to a 6ft ledge that drops into a boxed in hole, the run-out is a pushy 4 ft sloping ledge into a sweet 4 ft boof that puts you just above a fun 6ft tall flumey drop into a 5ft tall pour-through thingy that ends with a tricky lead-in to a S-turn move into a sticky hole backed up by a nice recovery pool. Sounds busy? it is.

Kyle McCutchen droppin’ number 4. Photo by Todd Gillman

Immediately downstream, amidst a myriad of house sized granite boulders, you will be rewarded with a couple fun ledges in the 10-15ft tall range, but beware all drops come stocked with big holes and undercuts. Below these ledges the river splits around an island and forms a great complex boulder garden all the way to the lower put-in.

If these rapids seem a bit over-your-head then find your way downhill to the unregulated camp spot on river right just a few hundred feet downstream of the 7km sign. This put-in is the start of 3-4 km of great class 4-4+ whitewater with at least one class 5 rapid. Lets call this the middle section. This section of whitewater is reminiscent of icicle creek in the Leavenworth zone: fast, continuous, with some great boofs and some menacing holes. Many of the rapids in this middle section can be scouted from the road with great ease, in fact one of the most exciting drops on the run is totally roadside, look for it near the 6 km marker. One possible take-out for this section is at a small tributary coming in on the river left, just upstream of the 3km marker.

This tributary also marks the start of a large rapid consisting of 3 drops. This rapid and the drops below are all a step up from the middle section and I recommend scouting the eddy above this rapid so you don’t find yourself unintentionally blasting into it blindly.

Kayaking is exciting

Number 2

The rapid below the tributary, and the drop below it, probably lose 60-70 feet in about 100 yards and each powerful drop could easily flip or thrash an out of control kayaker in a very unforgiving way. That said, a good brace and a well timed boof stroke can make this one of your favorite drops of the day as well!

There is about 3 more fun 6-8 foot tall drops below here before the river splits around another island forming a nasty, sieved out, steep, woody drop on river right, view this one from the road…you cant miss it.

Below this drop the creek slowly eases into class 3, which continues all the way to the flood-hope rd bridge.

Some general beta:

The river is located a few km west of Hope B.C. and is roadside next to Silver-Skagit rd.

On your way up the river there are km markers that start at zero when you turn off of flood-hope rd onto Silver-Skagit rd and they go up as you head upstream. Heres a short rundown of the river using these markers:

0-3km= class 3 wavy rapids
3-3.5km= class 5 rapids including the triple drop
3.5-7km= class 4-4+ with a class 5
7-8km= class 5

Silverhope creek runs during spring run-off (and I’m sure rain events too), usually late June to early July. Here’s what I use to figure out if it’s running or not:

Bacon Creek gage between 6-900 cfs
Chilliwack @ Slesse gage between 1.6 and 1.9
Nf Nooksack @ Glacier Creek between 1500-2000
Skagit River near boundary between 6.25 and 6.4

And here is a picture of the footing on river left under the bridge on Hope-Flood road at good flows. I look for about 12-15 inches of footing showing. Otherwise if the rapids upstream of this bridge don’t look to painfully low it’s probably in.

Have fun.

It wasn’t quite what I was hoping for during our 6+ mile hike into Thunder Creek, but, last time I found myself hiking in this area of the North Cascades on Lightning Creek, what happened…lighting!

Why should this mission stray from what seems to be the norm?

At some point before mile 2, between the bouts of rain, distant rumblings, and the wrenching 70 lbs of kayak hanging from my shoulders, I look over at the class 2 whitewater and wonder if I shouldn’t have asked our T.L. (the “Professor” himself) James a few more questions. I thought there was only a mile of flat water. A few minutes (maybe more) later and we stop for a quick break.

James is pumped. Kinda like a kid who’s finally getting his allowance after mowing the lawn and pulling weeds, he’s ready to hit the candy store! He mentions that this is the lower canyon and he hadn’t scouted this particular zone, he asks if we want to scout it now. The rest of the group: Erik, Jon, and I, all shrug our shoulders, we just wanna keep moving, and after seeing most of the pictures James had taken the weekend before it seemed like we were only going to see some class 4, maybe easy 5, and a couple likely portages around some big sliding falls. On we hike.

The trail isn’t too bad, well kept and moderately steep right up to the put-in. It could be worse. But for now there is some serious rumbling coming not from the sky but from the gorge we have been following for the last few hours. A quick scout reveals a pinch and gradient drop in the gorge just upstream of Mcallister creek confluence, with a few less buckets of water in the creek it seems the whole series of falls could be run, but the undercuts, death pockets and terminal holes caused by the high water send us downstream.

We head to the put-in we scouted just below the falls where the river is more open. I look downstream and see another tight gorge just below us, “Guess this is how its going be today” I tell myself. After ferrying across the river and spending 10 minutes bushwacking through young pines and downed old growth I find that the gorge ends with a big ol’ log jam…start portaging! And we haven’t even begun KAYAKING! Heck, Erik’s not even in the water yet.

We hike back up the trail and head downriver about 10 minutes to another spot that seemed reasonably close to the creek. This time we find ourselves on some swift moving class 2-3 that quickly builds into fun class 4 wavy read and run water. Just below this near a bit of a slide path where the trail is just above the river, James mentions that we have a few drops before we get to the “big stuff.” A few more class 3 and 4 rapids, including one pinch that sends us all skyrocketing into tailstands, and the canyon opens up and and a horizon line appears, “big stuff?”

Sure enough the scout on river left gives us a great view of one riverwide ledge with a big backed-up hole that circulates to the right and falls over another powerfull ledge before tearing downstream through more crashing waves and holes then falls over a 15+ ft tall slide with a log and its rootwad right where a boater would want to find himself paddling…sure enough a portage.

This is where the cursing got real bad. I’ve managed to block most of this experience out of my memory. All I know is over 1 hour later we had portaged yet another drop just downstream and there was James, with a look on his face of “where were you?” as he had managed to make it through much quicker than us and had proceeded to check out the last drop. “Whoa, the river got diverted and made that new channel, I got pictures of the old gorge the creek used to pass through, it looks ancient.” I made a mental note for next time to hike less and put-in below these drops if there was anything at all worthwhile downstream.

Right below the portage the gorge walls begin to rear-up and after 2 fun class 3-4 flume type drops we encouter another horizon line. This time the river drops over a high-angle 20 footer with a chaotic 5 ft lead in slide. The falls looks pretty runnable, one could count on not getting a great boof off of the aerated water and since its sloping you are most likely going to plug it, albeit with speed, it was just the cave behind the falls that led me back to my boat, scurrying to catch up with the others to see what was below the next riverwide ledge we could see just downstream. I’ll be back for the falls later!

Almost before I could get out to scout/film James was back in his boat and pacing around the eddy in anticipation for what turned out to be a sweet cross-current boof off of the “L” shaped 7ft ledge. Erik followed with a perfect line and gave a small fist-pump, finally some pay-off! Jon and I hop back in our boats to get some for ourselves. Afterwards, Erik and I decided that ledge makes-up for the 1st portage. Things are looking up.

The river continues to drop through some more class 4 rapids until another horizon line appears. This time its the wood across the drop that send us packing. No problem, a quick portage on river right. Before we start putting-in we decide to take a look downstream around the corner to see… “Holy Crap” someone yells, or maybe it was me.

Two sweet back-to-back 10 ft riverwide ledges lay before us. The first of the two is a big sloping tongue into a large boil/reactionary caused by the bedrock wall downstream of it, no problem it all flushes. At the second ledge the river gets pinched between 2 rocks so tight that the tongue is forced up in the middle creating the ultimate water-boof! James is chomping at the bit to run this sweet little series, and wants us to stand by and watch. Hell no! besides it wouldn’t be responsible to let him run it alone without safety on the last ledge. I jump in my boat and before I can even catch the eddy across the river James ferries out into the current to lead the way. I see him working for the boof to the left side of the tongue on the first ledge. As he throws his right side boof stroke and falls out of view my level of anticipation rises.

There is something about following another boater over some type of vertical drop, as the boater plants their boof stroke and throws in the correct body english and then poof, their gone, what happened to them? Are they stuck in the hole? Am I going to land on them? Or, did they clean it? Either way its a point of view that I can’t help but enjoy.

I get my stroke in and get spit out of the bottom of the first ledge with a small tailstand, a quick look and I see James paddling hard for the next ledge and disappearing over that one too. I get lined up and I can feel a smile forming on my face already, as the water speeds up to the lip of the drop I lean forward and plant my stroke way ahead of time, wait, wait, wait, NOW. I come through the bottom of the drop laughing as I look over to see James with a huge smile on his face as well. I can’t seem to recall the portages we had eariler, like they had happend on another day, another river maybe? A quick pat on the head “All good,” and Erik and Jon blue angel thier way down to us, everybody has good lines, now were having some real fun.

Below this is yet another constriction in the bedrock only this time there’s a boulder splitting the channel as well. An easy scout reveals a large sloping tongue into a huge hole on the right and a tricky lead-in to a couple sticky ledges on river left. At first we are planning to punch the hole, then after gaining a new perspective we decide the hole is way, way too big and you want to run the left side, then slide past the hole. We get in our boats and head out one after the other. All of us catch an eddy on the left then make the tricky move to get around the boulder and punch the holes. Jon is the last one to go and makes the move around the boulder and runs through the two holes but he comes out of the bottom hole getting pushed right, right into the huge hole in the other channel! As Jon is getting pushed right towards the hole he looks into it, his eyes get huge and he starts paddling HARD. We are all yelling “Paddle, paddle!” For a moment we think Jon is screwed but he keeps that blade wizzing around and makes it over the backwash and out to safety, as he passes by, Jon has that look on his face of someone who has just seen their OWN ghost. “Whoa dude, that was a close one,” he humbly exclaims.

The gorge walls peel away for a very short distance, then we enter the lower gorge. James recognizes the first drop right away, apparantly its an easy sneak from left to right around a large house size boulder then eddy out above a sticky looking riverwide ledge. As I get around the house rock I find myself blasting through hole after hole barely able to focus my energy on getting right to catch the last eddy. I tear into the eddy at full throttle just barely making it. I look up to see Jon and Erik paddling through the holes furiously, they catch the eddy with a look of surprise on thier faces.

Here we find another riverwide ledge, only this one is “V” shaped and the left side is uh-guh-lee and the right has a possible sweet boof that lands you on a seam before rushing you downstream. Jon sets safety and I probe this one. Turns out the right boof is pretty manageable and James and Erik step-up and have one good line, and one so-so line that turns out fine. Jon, our safety, decided to keep it safe and puts in just below the ledge.

While boogeying downriver, Erik and I are in agreement that this run is pretty darn good, and if you just put-in below the big slides it would be worth coming back. Our conversation is interrupted by the resurrection of sheer gorge walls, a horizon line in the distance and the noticeable lack of eddies between us and said horizon line. We stop on river right to come up with a game plan.

We decide to scout the next rapids from the gorge walls and find the next available egress. Alas we find the rapids to be fairly large and continuous and the egress to be even more difficult than the area we are already stopped at…hmmm… its 6:30, as far as we know there’s another 1/2-1 mile of river and it is all contained in this box canyon…looks like we are walking out and up 400 ft to the trail.

The hike out can be called many different things, this time I will call it “character building.”

Off we go down the path, boats trailing behind, when 5 minutes later James exclaims, “This is where I hiked in, its all class 3 or so below here, but its still a canyon.” After checking out the option of hiking back down 400 ft, it only took us a moment to decide that we weren’t going back down right then, instead, we headed down the trail another 10 minutes to the easy access at Neve camp, where we put on the river for some easy class 2 to the take-out.

If you find yourself looking for some adventure this July/August, check out Thunder creek. It reminds me of a more stout, high water Cooper creek with a fairly similar type of east side scenery. I would say look for flows on the guage of 400-800 with 600 likely being optimal. It would be a great weekend trip to mix with a run down the Cascade. Have fun.

from CHRIST

-Chris-

Call from Chris: “Wanna go run Robe? It’s at a perfect first-time level. Devin’s in.”

Well, if Devin’s in… Despite my full calendar, and despite anxious visions of pushy, boiling, milky gray water coursing down sunless black-rock canyons, I found myself hesitantly saying yes. Amy and Jon were game as well.

“Sweet. I’ll be by in an hour.”

So much for a relaxing day. Three hours later, I found myself putting on to Robe, a run that I had never paddled before but had heard plenty of stories about, in a borrowed boat. My own boat had several more holes than it was supposed to have, likely a result of my last excursion into the South Fork Stilly drainage, so Chris lent me his Jefe for the trip. Nothing like running what was pretty much my first class V river in an unfamiliar boat…

After a short bit of flatwater, we rounded a bend and were suddenly there. Robe Canyon lay before us, the river dropping sharply, then rounding a bend far downstream. Doom and gloom abounded. We hopped out onto the trail at river right, the remnants of a long-abandoned railroad bed, to scout. The trail continued along the bank, entering a tunnel at the bend. These first rapids are rather creatively named Tunnel 1 & 2, or T1 and T2.

Looking downstream at T1 and T2

These initial rapids changed dramatically in the massive floods experienced by western Washington earlier this year, pushing huge boulders downstream to form a brand-new 20-foot sliding falls at the bend just downstream of T2. After a quick peek at the new falls, we quickly (very quickly) decided to portage through the tunnel and put in downstream of the as-yet-unrun drop. Hiking down the bank to get back to the river, Chris was asked by a young girl out hiking with her family if we were “going to die.” We spent much of the rest of the trip coming up with creative responses to this question.

Despite this vote of confidence, we continued on downstream, and found all sorts of top-notch whitewater. After a few drops, we fell into a groove, leaving behind our pre-trip nervousness. Robe Canyon actually turned out to be spectacularly beautiful, not the Mordor-like pit of doom that I had envisioned, except for Landslide, which was heinous. There was even sunlight, in a few spots. The river, at 4.9 on the gage, was a bit lower than ideal, but we found plenty of water in the main drops, and us first-timers appreciated the fact that the run was a little less pushy than normal.

Jon at Faceplant

Everyone had good lines, for the most part, though Devin at one point may have perhaps been thinking a bit too much about the difference between what time he said he was going to get home and what time he actually was going to be getting home. I’ll leave it to him to fill in those details. Amy also had a near run-in with a sticky hole at Catcher’s Mitt. I would love to have a picture of the look on her face as she battled to get clear…

As might be guessed, we were not a fast group on the river, so it was nearly dark by the time we reached the takeout rapid. This was an easy class IV drop, but it was dark and we were tired, and with a class VI penalty for screwing up not far downstream, we definitely didn’t want to mess it up. Despite our apprehension, things went well, and we quickly scrambled up the bank and back to the car, where cold beer awaited. All in all, an awesome day on the river.

I’ll leave you with a bit of video and few more pictures from the day…

All photos and video by Amy Brown:

Boofing at Hole in the Wall

Devin about to get up close and personal with a rock

Jon and Chris somewhere mid-canyon

Me looking calm and collected as always