Here is the last drop on the run:

Ok. This one has some issues. I note a large wooden pallet parked in the drop. It looks like it goes pretty well at high water, assuming you don’t run into a piece of urban debris. On the other hand, low flows make this slower, but probably more body-armor intensive. There are several pieces of wood and odd potholes in the rock. Unfortunate. Farther down, things remain interesting as the cascading drop ends with some man-made strainers along the sides.

Overall, this is a manky, pot-hole filled piece of sandstone, concrete, and pipes that should not be run… but probably goes down left of center pretty well.

On the other hand, just below this drop is an ever-changing play feature that is formed where Whatcom creek lands forcefully in Bellingham Bay.

Skook it is not

The tidal height of the Bay and the river flow both affect the quality and shape of this feature. I am here to tell you that I have seen a really nice play feature there. No really! I’ll try not to sound like I am describing sasquatch, but there were two of ‘em, kinda of short but well-formed and foamy… Nice eddy service too. I’ll grant you that all I need for playboating to be challenging is a wave big enough to front surf & maybe spin, so if you are looking to perfect that Pan Am, don’t come here.

Whether this play feature is in or not, this is place really shines is as a very accessible place to give newer paddlers an introduction to moving water. There is a jet of strong current, a nice friendly eddy, and stairs on which to climb in and out of the water. Washington rivers can very intense places for beginners, and a friendlier venue (and close to the Old Town Cafe) could be a really nice spot.
Downsides: I see the waves, but what’s this?

As my Wisconsin paddling friends would say, this is spit-three-times water.
Of course, the second question a beginner might ask about that section of the waterway is - what’s under there? Is there exposed rebar, random blocks of sharp concrete? How deep is it? I have no answers to these questions, but I am going to do some looking. Someone at the port or the hatchery probably knows.
This sign is both ominous and inviting at the same time.

Does this mean anything for paddlers? It sounds to me like we can put in above the first bridge and run the drop.

For what it’s worth, here’s the stick gage for the pictures — 2′.2 from my read.

I think you want another 2 feet of water but I have no idea what tides are good. If you know anything about what good flows & tides are, fill me in.

Why?

The potential for lunch-time playboating in the spring & early summer is too great to ignore! A place to get wet for an hour or two and practice on some real moving water, right next to a big drop. I bet it wouldn’t take much doing to build a nice play feature here either, or at least cleanup whatver nastiness lurks below the slabs of the drop.

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

At this point, there are at least three riverwide trees in the two rapids below Bench Drop. The first log is across the big rocks that create the lower part of the first rapid. In the photo below, you can see a rope attached to the tree where someone has been trying to dislodge the strainer.

The next logs are not far downstream, in the rapid immediately before SAT. Here’s a look back up at the mess from the river right scout rock.

Strainer number four is right at the top drop of SAT, and number five extends out from river right at the base of the last drop. There is a final riverwide strainer just downstream of the rapid.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, a tree fell on the old set of wires that cross the river immediately below Bench Drop, so there are now two submerged wires/cables in the river just upstream of the first log mentioned above. All of this was seen at low water (~375 cfs), so some of the trees will probably be under water at more normal flows. Whether this makes them more or less of a hazard remains to be seen, but it is very likely that at least some of them will still be in play for paddlers. I’d imagine that some of these will move as the water levels come up, but several looked to be pretty firmly wedged in or still anchored to the shore by their root mass.

As things stand right now, it is a mandatory portage from the base of Bench Drop to the top of SAT, and it is possible that the first drop of that one may need to be portaged as well. It might be also be prudent to portage Bench, just to be on the safe side, although this isn’t absolutely necessary. The wood at the bottom of SAT is also a bit sketch, so use good judgement there.