Farmlands and the Green Truss

So saturday rolled around and we had big plans for some expedition to new creeks. The roaring river was mentioned in the list but as weekend approached the water seemed to disappear and the options were quickly becoming limited. On Friday night the choice was made to head back to the classic, the Green Truss. Saturday morning after looking at the flows and the time we decided we would go for a Farmlands Truss combo (10 miles of the PNW's best IV-IV+ paddling). Not only was this my first time down the farmlands it would be the highest any of us had run the Truss. (just around or over 2.75 winter flow) The farmlands was fun, scenic and I now see why so many people love it; the truss was pretty juicy. The rapids above Big Brother were much pushier than I had seen them before and everything below double drop cleaned up and become more fun with the extra water. Upper Zig Zag was great, lower Zig Zag was still do-able and BZ just looked ugly as we all walked around. All in all a great day on the river; great weather, good crew, great flow and run. My paddling seemed to be a little off, but you can't let a few rolls ruin your day.
Here is a short video with a little bit of footage from the day. Did not shoot much in consideration of time.

Hagen Gorge and the Washougal

Hagen Gorge: This run has been on my list of must do runs since I first read the post on OregonKayaking. Finally the water lined up with a weekend that I was going to be in town and had a crew to run it with. We met up early, which ended up being good because we did the whole NF Washougal run after Hagen and it took a good chunk of the day.
Low water on Hagen and good water on the Washougal made for a fun day and first time down. 1 small swim, a sore shoulder, an almost scary ride in the hole half way down Hagen Daaz Falls, 1 backwards and 1 sideways ride down teakettle, a couple long hole rides on the Washougal and we had done the whole run. After doing it, I would strongly recommend that anyone doing Hagen also does the whole NF run as well. Having never done either before, I felt that if we would have taken out at the upper take out the run would have been really short and missed a lot of fun stuff.

Sorry I could not get youtube to like a higher res version of this, but here is the video anyway. Enjoy!

The Green Truss of the White Salmon

This run kicks ass! It was my second run down the truss ever last Sunday. My first time a little over a month ago I ran everything except Lower Zig Zag (portaged due to wood) and BZ falls which I had heard was could be super brutal. This time however I was with a group of people who make the run often and they ran Lower Zig Zag around the wood and BZ. Being the follower that I tend to be I ran both and had my first no portage run down the Truss. Did not even get my ass kicked. Some pics to follow but here is the video of a couple drops. I don't have everyone's name as our group had something stupid like 13 people and I had only met about 6 of them before Sunday. I do have to say that for 13 people the trip went really smooth with only 1 swim.

So here are some photos that Eric took on his camera.

Me:
Eric, on his first time running Big Bro
More to come when I get some time

Lower Wind River

Got out on the Lower wind this last weekend. Sorry no pictures on this trip. We had planned to run the Upper Wind, but after arriving at the takeout for the upper we realized there was not enough water. This worked out ok, I got the chance to try out my new Mystic on something a little easier, and boy did I LOVE it! Good lines through everything and we were able to run the last three drops at Sheppard Falls. All in all good day on the river.

Orange Torpedo's First Known Waterfall attempts

So this last weekend we went back to the East Fork of the Lewis River in WA. This time the goal was to really find out what a Torp is capable of. As far as my run down in my kayak (someone needed to be able to set safety) I was totally off my game. I came through everything fine, but realized again, that the second decent for me is almost always worse. I am not sure if it is less adrenaline because I have seen the run already or what. Something about my second time down a run always leads me to be horrible in my boat.
So anyway, if people have tried waterfalls of this height in a torp I am sorry for claiming that we are going first. Please let me know and we can correct our statement. I know people have done this kind of stuff, and larger, in other IK's but I think for our particular craft this is pushing the limits. So yeah, here is the video.



See More
Rafting on the Rogue River
Rafting on the Salmon River
Rafting on the Umpqua River
Rafting on the Klamath River

Oh the weekend

So, the weekend is at my doorstep. Freedom from my windowless office, the escape from the humdrum of downtown P-town. It is not that I have a bad job, I don't, its just I like to be outside not sitting on my ass.
So have a fun weekend, make the most of it; even if that is sitting around with someone you love and doing nothing, however if it is running waterfalls than that is good too.

Brothers K

So I am reading this book, The Brothers K by David James Duncan. I finished The River Why while I was on the Grand Canyon. Amazing book, highly recommended! Anyway so I am reading this one now and there was a passage that I really liked.
This is a passage from a boy in a family of 6 kids. He lives in a house with a mother is devoutly conservative Christian, and as a teenager he is questioning what he sees in the church. In this part he is questioning the way he see people pray. Here he is explaining to his brothers how he thinks people should pray,
"Hello there, God. I know Thy Will is being done today, as usual, and I think that's terrific as usual. Of course to me Your will looks like a crazy mess that's getting the rich richer and the poor poorer and the innocent killed and babies stomped and starved and the whole world is danger of being blown up any minute by atom bombs and all. But You know all about me thinking that, since You made me. So, uh, sorry. And please, go right ahead and do Your Will no matter what I think, even if it kills us. Talk to You tomorrow, Lord! Love, Everett."
Take it as you will, I just thought it was something to think about