River trip 08: Chasing Thunder storms.

[4Rescue]

So it has come and gone again this year. The time that my best friends and I load up the old trailer, hitch it to some poor over worked truck and head off into the sunset in search of rivers to run and good camping spots to sample whiskey around the campfire.

Note: not all of the pics are present because there were 3 cameras there, and frankly I never took mine out for the rapids. and certainly not for the Portage we did. I also had my GPS on for the whole trip, but it's new and I can't get the correct software (it's a magellan explorist210 and it came with software for some other device and my comp won't even recognize it... :violent-smiley-031: if anyone has any skill with this thig let me know cause I'm DYING to see my route laid out on the map)

This yearwe had sort of a dilema, we had gotten permits for the Selway river in Idaho, something we'd been waiting 6 years for btw. However with snow-pac at 260% of normal in certain areas of Idaho, getting into the put in let alone dealing with the possibility of flood stage water made it a no go. It's really too bad because that is flat out my favorite part of the country to paddle in. The Payette and Lochsa might just be the most intense things I've ever run, and the Selway promised to be more of the same but in a multi-day run. Fun, but with alot of consequences for mistakes .

So we had to come up with a new game plan. We all decided that the Owyhee was a good option and it looked as though we had enough water to get down (anyopne familiar with the area knows that this is one of the most remote places in Oregon and that water can be scarce). So off we headed friday (May 23rd) for Rome station and the put in for the middle section of the Owyhee.

First issue to occur was our bumbling companion Boogey forgetting to strap one of his dry bags on... Hey it only had his dry gear and helmet in it! Well, somewhere out in the middle of nowhere it come off and the trailer ran over it.

Socre: Trailer 1 dry bag 0... the bag was shot, but luckily his dry gear was fine.

His helmet on the other hand had a huge crack in it, but oddly enough was still fully use able. For anyone looking for a good white water helmet, I gotta say "grateful HEads" makes and amazingly durable product.

So anyway. Into the night we drove.

 

[4Rescue]

just as we see Rome station, Boogey claps his hands and proclaims "WERE HERE!" and it started raining... That would soon be the theme of our trip as every single technical portion of this river would be acomplished in the RAIN! So we put up in the day use area of Rome put in. Illegal hyes, but I seriously doubt anyone would have blamed us for doing it: Morning woke to find it sunny, but with alot of serious clouds on the horizion:

So we headed out to three forks road. Now the thig is, with all the rain they'd been getting the road LOOKED fine, but it had a nice 2in layer of of gelatinous mud on it that made it like driving on a sheet of ice if you slowed down. Even tualy I took over driving duties since I have the most 4wd experience. The road also made a MESS out of our trailer and gear HAAHAHAHAHA

And this was suposed to be the EASY part of the put in.

Here are the aformentioned clouds we were eying...

Next came the road into the canyon. Luckily due to the grade and recent repairs, it was drier and alot easier to drive. PLus my dad's trailer has brakes and follows like very few trailers I've ever seen with out EVER jack-knifing.

So we got down and put in. ofter having a few rain storms blow over, we got a sucker hole and were lookin at some decent weather. (again I apologize for the lack of Pics in some areas, I'll add more as I get them from other cameras)

 

[4Rescue]

within the first 1.5 river miles we came to Ledge rapid... Everyone went through smooth and we were pullinb over to pat our selves on the back when the last gear boat popped an oar and got swept up onto a wrap rock... OH $%^& it then proceeded to flip and hang on the dry box ejecting Brian and Woody and leaving one boat in the middle right chanel of the river stuck. I really with I'd have gotten pics of all this because it was a good bit of work we accomplisehed. Chris and I being swiftwater trained and having the requisite rescue vests got on lines and swam out to the boat to get some flip/tag/haul lines on it. success after two tries and we had ropes to the boat. we then got back to shore and although we were pretty tired, we hauled the boat tyo shore. All the while Mathew (my girlfriends brother who was on the trip) and the remaining 3 people on the paddle boat scooped up all the gear they could. We had lost a bunch of food and a barbecue... But
noone was hurt and the boats were fine. What a way to start a trip. So the guy oaring the pinned boat, Brian was NOT wearing any dry gear and it was getting to be about 1800 (6p) and the evening winds were picking up. we'd all been in the water and were getting cold. I made the decision as acting medical in over his head guy to get off the river at the first sign of a flat spot with some cover. So we found a pretty OK spot and I got a rippin fire goin. Then thankfuly the wind dropped and the sky cleared.

It was a pretty good night and we got everyone warm and dry and had ourselves a few cocktails and off to bed we went. I'm fairly sure though that Brians stuff never comletely dried out. he had an issue with his dry bag... river Karma we said...

So the next day was a pretty good one. it wasn't warm, but it wasn't raining... YEEHAW!!! We ran a few named rapids: Raft flip, 1/2 mile and bombshelter!!!

a funny story about 1/2 mile: I had taken what I thought was an Acid reducer for my stomach the morning of this run, and it turned out that it was a muscle relaxer my buddy had put in that bottle for emergency's/injurys... I couldn't figure out why I was wanting to fall assleep at the scout... Luckily I stayed awake and didn't have any issues, but getting advil now involved a quick check with the suplier to make sure of it's true contents HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

THat night we stayed at the best river camp I've ever been to. BOMBSHELTER CAVE:

We awoke and tried our damndest to get our buddy Joel to just forget his new sweet job he was starting and stay out on the river, we wanted a layover day at this camp it was so great... no such luck, 50$/hr has a was of getting to a man...

So we put on for what would be our biggest challenge yet. WIDOWMAKER: So this class V might be completely runable at higher water and with alot of downriver safety in a paddle boat with our best crew. but it wasn't happening on this trip. There's a huge house rock right at the top and a Class III+ run in that if you miss a stroke or paddle comand can really screw you up and possibly lead to a drowning. This is a serios river with no emergency contact to be had, so you play it safe. We lined the boats and portaged all the gear... for 3.5 hours... in a massive hail and thunder storm!!
It went well though, and we found a great camp right down the way where we again settled infor some serious cocktails and stories around the fire.

The rest of the river would be a cake walk. At least untill we hit the flat water and the upriver wind picked up. It tooks us 1.5 hours to go the last mile to the take out the next day. It was blowing so bad and the water has so little current that even with the whole paddle crew going full steam, at times we were not moving, just holding our place along the bank!!!!!!!

 

[4Rescue]

So we got off the Owyhee unscathed and with only one flip to show... pretty good run, beautiful canyon, and yet another river on my list of acomplishments. We got gas and got to cell service where I called my Girlfriend to tell her I was Ok and that we needed weather info and river levels to decide where we were gonna go next. Unfortuantely Idaho was getting pounded by storms and it didn't look like it was gonna let up. So N. Cal it was!!!!!

We didn't want to have to get out all our gear again, and it was about 1930(730p) when we all got headed the same direction so we stoped at summer lakes Hot springs and the remaining 7 of us rented a big house and got a shower and dried all our gear.

Good thing too bewcause again, the whole of SE oregon was getting hammered with thunder storms and the "lake" behind the house looked like the ocean...

We paid more than we wanted and honestly I would have been fine with a motel6, but it was a cool place and we all sat up drinking and telling stories till about the wee hours of 2300 (11p) HAHAHAHAHA we were wiped out and had another day of driving ahead of us before...

THE CAL SALMON!!!!.

 

[4Rescue]

So onto the Cal Salmon it was... And what a great place this turened out to be. We went south to on the long and tiny road leading into Sawyer Bar and Forks of the Salmon over Marble mountain pass

I really wish I'd have gotten some pics of Sawyers Bar and Forks... these TINY little mining towns are just so far back in these river canyons you can't beliove the infrastructure that actualy exists there. It really is gorgeous and I'd love to live there. This trip was seriously startign to make me hate the city I had left, I've been getting more and more sure of this since I came home from Australia, I love Portland, as far as city's go it's about a great a city as there is, b ut I'm really not made for city or even sub-urban life...

anywho...

We camped the first night seperate from our 3 buddy's since they'd gone to the bar in Eureka to watch the Penguins game... We found them at a great site about 15 miles down towards the main fork (we had camped up on the smaller N.Fork that night).

It was ON... This river is clear, cold, and drops like no other (well except for the Trinity and the Scott all in the same general area, N. Cal is awsome)
Looking at the class V section where we were camped gave us all the willies.

 

[4Rescue]

Bloomer Falls (V)

This one was just a doudle drop, get in the boat and hang on run... all in all the Cal Salmon's great and pretty safe over all since there is almost ALWAYS a pool after a huge rapid to re coup swimmers in (we luckily didn't have any!!!!!!!!)

Freight train (V)

this one was insane. and this pics shows nothing but how much whitewater there is. on river right after the main drop are three rocks including this fluming rooster tail rock that all have alot of water going over them and or into them... scarry to say the least. the left chanel wasn't much better, it had good sized drop and a huge hile. not to mention that the other drop on the right formed a huge lateral mave that was folding into said hole... this was the mother of all rapids I've ever run. We didn't do it untill the day after, but man o man did it scare me good.

So...what??? Wed. ??? We put on at Butler Creek to run down and into the lower Kalamath. Again, no pics of the actual rafting, cause this run has very little flat water. You've got Butler Cr. a bunch of other great IV's and then Gaping Maw... This was a great run.

We slamed the wall on the Maw after running everything else successfully, and managed to bang up one of the Lee-Field valves on the side of the paddle boat. Boogey made it down in the cat and only got surfed onece but it was for about30 seconds. there are alot of good holes in this river, and it's tighter than the Lochsa so it means you go THROUGH alkot of them like it or not. Getting down to the lower Kalamath was a trip. The river get's about 4 times wider adn there are these amazing eddy lines that we effectionately named tractor beams because paddle as you might they were so damn strong they just whip you around... then after getting down a ways we came to what might be the biggest hole/reversal into another reversal I've ever seen. It's called Big Ike on the Lower K and frankly it was scarry as HELL. The wind was blowing directly up stream at I'd guess 20mph, so you'd get slowed way down, then cam a river wide wave that was about7+ ft. high and rolled into another huge hole. BUT, there was a simple drop/pool skirt line and we took it and pulled out at the truck right there. I was glad, to be honest, I had just swam Carter bridge on the Clackamas at 11000cfs a few weeks before,a dn even with all my experience, I was a bit gun shy of a big nasty swim like this would have made for. And I'm pretty sure we would have swam...

This is Super Ike below it (oddly enough Super Ike is smaller than Big Ike... don't ask me???) and it's about 1/3 the size of big ike and alot les choked down.

So we got off for the day went back to camp and had a party!!!!

YEEHAWWWWW!!!
Got up the next day, ran the V section and got out to head to the Smith river out on the coast... Turned out to be a beautiful drive through the redwoods, but a REALLY BAD IDEA.

 

[4Rescue]

We headed out through Arcata to hwy199 and the Smith River... When we got to camp, 3 more of our buddy's took off for home and we were down to 4.

The smith was too low to run... STUPID STUPID STUPID, but it was beautiful and we camped in a crappy spot right next to this beautiful river.

This had been my bed for the better part of a week and would be for about another 5 days by the end of all this fun.

Well, we got skunked on the smith, and the weather wasn't too great, but we had a trick up our sleve. Our buddy Kyle had recently moved down to help his mom on her farm outside of Cave Junction a mere 30-40 miles NE into good ol Oregon and we knew he was gonna be out on the HWY at their newly opening Ice-cream shop on 199...

BINGO, free ice cream and a place to crash and party for a few days R&R. We though about doing the Ilinois, but it was low as well, so no rafting for 3 more days, But Kyles mom put us to work on the farm and she's such a sweet lady we couldn't say no.

Plus her place is right by Caves National monument so we did a bit of hiking too.

I love the Madrona Trees, my folks hardwood floors are Madrona, but I've never seen any big and straight enough to mill in NW Oregon.

BIG TREE!!!! THis Spruce is over 40ft in diameter:

Beautiful Valley:

So we satyed there for 3 days, then we convinced Kyle to take a few days off and we went up to hit the N. Umpqua because we heard it was running almost double the advisable level...

 

[4Rescue]

Oh, Kyle's mom had this little old Gem just sitting around on the property, thought this crowd might like it...

 

[4Rescue]

So our final soggy days were spent the 5 of us camping at horseshoe bend on the N. Umpqua and going up to the hot springs there. I'll have more pics once Kyle sends me his, and since one of us just ran the shuttle, we actualy go some good river run pics. somehting of a rarity since we don't travel with a dedicated photographer. I'll say this, the N.Umpqua is completely transformed at higherwater, I'd wager to say it pushes every named rapid up 1 class at this flow (we ran it at some thing like 7.9ft on the upper guage (about 3750cfs???) and all of the drops anre made into full on massive holes. Better yet, I saw a real life "frowning hole". If you've never seen one, they're really earie, looking up river the reversal looks like a big frown, and since all the water is coming back into the hole it's known as a keeper, meaning go in and you may not come out to easily unless you can go real deep and get to the releasing water. then to top it off, the releasing water was going into the strainer section around the island. There was alot of wood in the river since I didn't mention it.

One thing of note, we took a huge tub of ice cream camping for those last 3 days... we got through about 3/4's of it and were all a bit sick of it, but we did it, and that's all that counts.

More pics to follow when I get them from friends who were on the trip.

Cheers

Dave

 

[teotwaki]

WOW! Saweeeeeeeet! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Saline]

Nice writeup! We just did the Bruneau River on the 31st,1,and 2nd ( SW Idaho), kinda close to your first trip. Incredible country, I can't wait to go back next year!

 

[4Rescue]

Nice man, I've heard of the Bruneau. glad to hear that others are into boating. this is officialy my 23rd river I've done. My Dad before me did 20 rivers in 15 years doing pretty much what I do every year now, he just wasn't as avid a paddler year round, but boy does he love to tell raft trip stories! HAHAHA. So Saline how was your trip?

Cheers

Dave

 

[grahamfitter]

Great trip! I'm jealous.

Cheers,
Graham

 

[Saline]

4Rescue,
The trip was awesome! The float was 41 miles 3 days/2nights. Absolutley stunning scenery. I highly recommend it. It is only runnable in rafts a few weeks during runoff, around 1100cfs. I don't want to hijack your post so if I can get pics up i'll do a post on it. You in public safety?

Josh

 

[4Rescue]

NICE!!!! Alot of the rivers we run are like that, The Smith was down to a trickle when we got there. Idaho should be really good for a few months seeing as they still have so damn much snow.

Thanks Grahmfiter.

Yeah, Firefighter looking for a department, Was a volly, but I can't keep up with my hours and work fuill time. I quit Wildland Firefiughting after a particularly nast burn over and some really shoddy IC protection, READ: they saw it coming and neglected to tell us that the fire had lept the line... Currently I'm an EMT-I who works as an ER-Tech in a local ER. I'm Also a Swiftwater Rescue Tech and I help out with local SAR when I can.

You?

Post a thread with your pics, I never get sick of seeing river trip pics.

Cheers

Dave