copper creek

Nate, Matt and I ran Copper the day of the EF Lewis race in the morning.  The run went very well, we put in at the upper put-in which is definitely the way to go if it isn't snowed in.  Matt and I both ran the weir slide.  Matt did a cool, slide, boof, rail slide, back to slide, to punch the hole combo, while I snuck to the right of the log.   The point is the drop is runnable and I have heard it wasn't because of the log, so don't be talked out of going up there.  The upper run has a lot better "in between" stuff than the lower section, nothing all that hard but it moves along and keeps you busy.  I remember only one problem log besides the one in the weir and it is an easy one to see, just bounce down as far left as you can get or portage on that side.  everyone cleaned Triple delight, always a fun one.  Final five was cool, Nate got his first run of this drop.  Matt had a rodeo session in the fifth drop while Nate and I waited unaware above, luckily Matt held on and rode his way out of that one.   

                 I normally wouldn't have done a report on this one but Nate pointed out later that we only had 900 cfs at Heisson, yet we had more water than the Oregon Kayaking crew, which had 1100 and felt that was too low.  I have heard elswhere that this one is hard to gauge, I am guessing there must be a lake or marsh at the top that buffers the flow and brings it up slow, but also drops slow, given that we ran it at 900 dropping to 800 and had a flow that was bearable.  To gauge how much water we had, the Oregon kayaking site has a picture of the punchbowl drop in final five, the day we were there Nate slid  down the creek left side of the drop that is completely dry in the photo.  We had considered it more of a sneak route given the amount of water in it than a seal launch if that makes sense.

          Anyway, a bit of info on flows couldn't hurt.  I don't know if this will help, but it is something to consider.  And even though people don't like to run copper for some reason, it is a good one and worth while.

    -Jacob