The Good Life: White Salmon 8/16

[4Rescue]

So as uyou may knw, I'm a rafting nut, and I gotta say, one ofmy favorite day floats of all is right here in my back yard.

Partys/rigs responsible:

Me 89 4Runner with Whitney (my GF)
Andy - 99(?) Taco and GF Julian
Chris - 70's (?) RHD BJ40 imported from OZ SOOOO SWEET and GF Emma

So we loaded up on Friday (8-15) and headed across the Colombia at Cascade Lochs and headed up HWY14 tothe Wind river hwy hoping to find a nice spot for a fairly large group to camp... We were sadly mistaken as even the slightly hard to get tio sites (for me in my Runner!) were filled up... Bummer, BUT, it was actualy a blessing in disguise. Witha moderate idea of where we were going we just kept on teh WR Hwy and headed up the Back side of Mt. St. Helens and fairly quickly the pavement ended Glad we were all driving toyotas...YEHAW
Here's us trying to decide which way to go: (the guy in the Ford stoped to ask for directions...kinda ironic eh)

And here is the BJ40 riping along with me in hot persuit at about 45 in the gravel.

This truck is in imaculate shape and he had just gotten a new paint job a week before. Sadly in our looking for a spot we ended up going down some really tight two tracks and he got a few nice pin stripes in the process. That and it was HOT and DUSTY and his girlfriend was not a fan of the lack of A/C in the truck. Plus it has the foot vent's and I guess htey were like a blast furnace the outside air was so hot. Needless to say Chris kissedf alot of rear-end to keep the GF happy that weekend HAHAHAHAHA.

So we fianly found what WOULD have been a perfect spot.

A Creek, way up atop the pass, but then that smell hit us. Andy noticed it first and then I kinda tracked it down. Two black Garbage bags... I seriously thought from the smell of things we might have found a human body. For some crazy reason Andy climbs down and cuts open one of the bags... Deer hoofs, PHEW, but actualy not cause some ************ poached these Deer and did a terrible job of disposing of them, not to mention it looked like he'd left ALOT of meat on them... What a waste.

 

[4Rescue]

O well, so we kept on untill we went over the pass and atarted to head down... Ironicly we ended up on the Highway that runs down the White Salmon which is where we were rafting that weekend any way, so at 1930 (07:30pm), some 4+ hours after we had left Portland, we found a nice campground with minimal improvements and not alot of people. I would have liked to find a completely primitave site up in Helens, and there were ALOT of them, but the GF's usualy win these arguments when the topic of a shovel and a bush come up, if you get my drift .

So we made the Runners tail gate into a bar and set up camp for the weekend.

 

[4Rescue]

Luckily for us we were maybe 20min from BZ corners and the put in for the float we were doing. About 1945 (745pm) 4 more of our friends showed up having left Portland a mere 1.5 hours before... But then they didn't get to take the senic route we did either though eh. IMO the time spent was way worth it because it was a BEAUTIFUL drive and frankly what else did I have to do on my days off?

The next day awoke a little rough from the previous nights precedings. It was Chris's birthday, and we celebrated apropriately. But we managed to get up, get the boats and gear loaded, and get on the road at about 1030. Upon getting down to BZ we were greeted to the biggest crowd of people we've ever seen a tthe put in. but then it was about 110F out and the White Salmon is a nice chilly run. So we aired up, ran a shuttle truck down to Husum and were ready to go. After decicing that most of the guided gaper boats were gonna be something we wanted to avoid we hit the road and put on right away. The river was running perfect at 2ft on teh Husum falls guage, and you could tell the snow on Mt. adams was melting because it was not as crystal clear as it usualy is. None trhe less it was a perfect float. we got pinned a bit once, but we got off no problems and every rapid was just great.

Then came Husum Falls: This is about a 15 footer with a good reversal/hydraulic/keeper at the botom. It's also suposedly the biggest comercialy runn falls in the country (?) and it's a GREAT rapid.

AS usual even though we've probably run this thing about 100 times we still scout it just to see someone else run it and see how it's running that particular day. Above and below the 2ft mark (On that smae guage) it completely changes, and IMO it's always a good thing to scout big hits like this. Seriously, who are you showing off for, this is Rafting :costumed-smiley-007

Here's us scouting from the bridge.

I'm the Ginger in all the Red gear. Yeah even at 110F you still need a splash jacket unless you're a polar bear eh we had one of those with us too his name is Eddie HAHAHAHAHA

AS usual, we nailed it, and rolled on through. Here's a vid of us hitting it and a pic of Matew my pseudo brother in law hitting it CLEAN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTVW2ueDg_A

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So we ran it and then ran the Falls another few times followed by a run over "rattlesnake" and down to the lake take out. Got up Sunday and did it again and came home exhausted and sore but loving life and wishing I didn't have to come back to the trerrible terrible thing that is the City YUCK!!!

Cheers

Dave King