Opal creek and South santiam

A video of us running the south santiam and Opal creek.  Nate had a scary moment on the log below Big Fluffy, I never thought it was a serious hazard, but I know differently now, luckily he was able to swim free of his boat.  Even after he swam his boat stayed lodged for about 30 seconds until he pulled it free.  It was creepy because the water is so clear I could see him grasping for the log just feet away from me, luckily he was able to rescue himself and we are all thankful for it.   So just reiterating that logs are always a hazard.   Bobby and I ran Opal gorge afterwords which was really cool. 

     A few point,

                  I don't know how long this has been the case but the log in Henline is gone. We went left and it was one of my favorite lines I have taken in a long time.   All the boulder gardens looked pretty intimidating, but they all went right where the main current goes, usually center.  If you go in below a thousand run Mystery almost on the left wall.  Or take the right channel.  The undertaker portage is an involved one on the right with its own things to worry about.  We were gazing longingly at the left side route as we groveled on the right.  The sneak at Fishladder falls goes but beware that you must angle left to avoid the wall below that has the majority of water flowing under it.  We snuck, then portaged the slot immediately below.   A really fun run.  We ran at about 800 cfs but it felt higher than when I was there last at 850, maybe we got a bit of snowmelt? 

         South Santiam was better than I thought.  Crawdad is interesting and Tomco is a really cool high speed drop.  I seal launched in between the first and second drop cause it looked fun, but the full rapid looks like the way to go next time.

          Here is the video.

        Here is the video.

Opal creek and South Santiam from Jacob Cruser on Vimeo.

           -Jacob