After a year of collecting information; water levels, access, legality, ect everything lined up and MLK day 2010 looked like the day to fire up the diabetic duo's "top of the list" rafting run. Unfortunately Ben was stuck in Bend, but Dan was insistent on getting this done. After not being able to land an R2 partner, he set to work trying to get me into the raft with him, and eventually succeeded. I agreed that this was an intriguing enough goal and felt comfortable enough to give it a go. He recruited Sam Drevo to help out with safety and Shane was in as shuttle driver/ground support so we were on our way.
The first goal was to get there at a reasonable hour, so we woke early and were driving through the Columbia River Gorge as the sun was coming up. We went through BZ and made our way East towards our goal. We scouted Outlet on the way over (which was running), then with one short detour, made our way to the takeout. We got to the put-in road and it was blocked. I don't know if this was new, but it made for a quarter mile hike or so. Not too bad with the dolly and three people pushing. We headed into the woods as soon as we felt we were close enough to the creek to justify it. We took about 45 minutes blowing up the raft and outfitting it.
Sam took the lead in his kayak and we followed in the raft. He would eddy out and signal the wood situation to us and would make sure we got into the "eddies" we needed to catch. We had a couple portages and a lot of dealing but we got through. Eventually we reached some class four slides and we were quickly at the lead in to the Quarterpipe. We went for a long scout hoping to find Shane, no dice. After an hour or more of scrambling around, scouting, sitting, and looking for Shane, we decided to run the lead in. At this point I had opted out because of the close proximity of "The Well" to the Quarterpipe drop. They are back to back and there is one eddy to catch that is about the size of a raft. This meant we had to stick the line. So I didn't think I would be willing to risk it
We lined the raft to the lip of the lead in slide and made sure we ran this fun drop with right angle so we didn't get blown over the big one. This went smooth and soon we were at the lip scouting this monster. We spent some time here and I changed my mind and decided I was in. It looked like we would be fine over the drop and I thought it would go.
Looking itty-bitty at the top
(photo by Sam Drevo---sam@enrgkayaking.com)
We took our time practicing our grab while Sam set up media about a hundred feet above the water. I wanted to take a direct approach from the pool above, but Dan convinced me we should come out of the eddy on the right at the lip. We didn't get far enough out into the current and got stalled out by some shallow rock. We stroked a couple more times, then came to almost a complete stop for a fraction of a second. Dan (weighing 50-75 lbs more than me) was on the shallow side keeping us glued on his side. While I (weighing 50-75 lbs less than Dan) entered the deeper water. This lead my side to start its decent, while Dan's side did not. We each gave one more feeble attempt at a correction stroke and held on for the inevitable disaster. As we went over the lip, I took a look at Dan, then turned my attention to the rock slab waiting 40-50 feet below me. I stared at it the whole way down, tightening my grip as we neared impact.
Staring down at the transition. Dan on
the right, myself on the left side of the raft.
(photo by Sam Drevo of ENRG kayaking and www.northwestpaddling.com )
Miraculously the transition was buttery smooth, saving us from a trip to the hospital. I felt the second impact as
we hit water and turned to see Dan spread-eagle flying towards me. I ditched my paddle as not
to impale him as he collided with me and the boat rolled over on top of us in a downstream flip. I pushed myself from under the raft and B-lined it to the left shore. I gave Sam the all good signal and assessed the situation.
.................
-The raft was stuck between Skate Park and "The Well".
-We were on the river-left, but wanted to be on river-right
-My paddle was gone
-Sam's gear was still above the drop
..................
After hearing the transition was smooth, Sam decided he would run it in his kayak as well. He thought he might overrotate in the center, so decided to hit a flake on the left to get his nose up. He achieved this goal, but this meant he missed the transition. He bounced off a rock, then bounced off the bottom shelf. To protect his back he flipped himself going off the final transition to lighten the impact. This worked to a degree and he rolled up with a bit of damage to his gear, along with his back. Two big wipeouts in a row, not our finest showing.
Next up was "The Well", a drop often portaged because it appears almost too narrow for a kayak. I was not about to take what appeared to be another inevitable crash despite Dan insisting on running it, so I decided I would hop onto the upside down raft as it came by below the slot in the fast water above the next slide.
Dan drops "The Well"
(photo by Sam Drevo of www.northwestpaddling.com)
In a bout of luck and skill, Dan came through the slot without slowing down and didn't even come close to flipping... How does he do it? I was happy to be jumping into an upright raft and did so as we slid down the next drop whooping it up.
Myself jumping in.
(photo by Sam Drevo of www.northwestpaddling.com)
As we eddied out we got an unexpected suprise... Shane! He was on a small perch to the right and had been there for 3 hours! Also, my paddle was stuck on the left side of the river, perfect. I retrieved that as Sam came and cleaned this drop along with the next one, which we all ran through without scouting. In the next drop Sam's paddle broke, so it was time for him to hike out, luckily Shane was right there so he was able to show him the path of least resistance after making the decent 3 1/2 hours earlier. We stuck his boat on the back of our raft and started the battle with the trees down to the take-out. After some miscalculations and correct calculations, we arrived at an out of place peice of blue tape on the right. I saw an old road coming down to the river, so I ventured a guess this was our take out. A quick scramble up the road confirmed this and we had a sigh of relief that our adventure was coming to a close. We drug the raft up the road and headed downstream to locate Sam and Shane at the truck. Someone had been kind enough to place some refreshments under a sign. For this we were greatful after such a long day! We shared stories and began the long drive back to Portland. Despite some real rough lines, it was a special adventure for us, hopefully we all learned something or another.
Dan would like me to point out that in the video, it looks like he is taking a drag stroke right at the lip that turns us sideways. When in fact he was pushing off the rock, trying to turn us the right way.
Enjoy...
-Jacob
These pictures are utterly awesome, but very scary for such adventuresome young men,especially if you are a doting grandmim.
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