For this weekends adventures jP, nick, and Brian traveled down from seattle so we could get some trips on the Olympic Peninsula. The gang came down to my place in Oly on friday night so we could get an early-ish start on saturday morning. We roused around 7:00 am on saturday, made breakfast and were rolling East on 8 by 9:00 am.
That morning we had decided that we were going to try and paddle the lower or middle Metheny River which is located north east of Aberdeen. Earlier in the week the OP had received a hearty storm that had brought high winds and rain to the area, because of the winds there were a significant amount of deadfall and down trees that littered the road. For several miles there were large, healthy trees that had been removed from the road by the state, because of this we were concerned that there was a high probability that we would encounter wood in the river. We were not stoked about this, but also knew that it is to be expected in the OP.
While driving north on 101 we missed our turn and spent some time back tracking and looking for our turn. After some orienteering we found our way to the FS21 bridge, the middle Matheny take-out or the Lower Matheny put-in. After some debate we decided to give the lower a go instead of the middle because we received some good info from my friend Chris whom we ran into along the road while maneuvering around some wood that was in the road (which Chris later removed with a swiss army knife, no joke).
When we arrived at the put-in we decided to break into two groups so we would have an easier time picking our way down stream. Once on the water everything went really well. The rapids were extremely high quality, lots of big holes and large waves that had short recovery periods between big rapids. The rapids were fun and easy to boat scout and the lines became apparent once you entered all of the drops. The four of us picked our way down stream as we leapfrogged from eddy to eddy, switching our turns for the lead and making sure to stop at the bottom of rapids to maintain an eye on the person on the back of the trip. Some of the coolest rapids had big diagonal waves that would typewriter you across the river. After exiting the second of two canyons we stopped on an island in the river to take in the day.
Once back in our boats we continued towards the take-out and our home for the evening. Just before reaching the take-out bridge there was a sweeping right hand bend in the river with a sheer eroding cliff on the river left side. As we floated past we were all kept a keen eye on the cliff because of it's crumbling nature, it felt like sitting below a avalanche slope that was made of clay.
At the take out we socialized with the other group for a bit before they packed up and made their way back towards Oly. Once they left we made it a number one priority to eat, with the criteria that it be warm. After a hearty dinner and a few beers socializing and talking about the day and the tentative plans for tomorrow it was 5:30 pm. Sweet, "we've run out of things to do and it's nowhere near time for bed, maybe chris was right about needing whiskey". The rain was constant but luckily the wind was not. It would have really ruined our night if we had been crushed by a tree.
Throughout the night the cliff that lay upstream from us crumbled in to the river, sending large slabs to crash into the that would cause you to look up from what it was you were doing to investigate. Every twenty minutes or so a rumble and crash would happen, the night was a cacophony of gravity. If it wasn't the rain pattering on your head it was smattering the tarp, our "artificial blue sky". At one point in the night Nicks dog Avie started growling and barking facing towards the darkness of the woods. Immediately I thought "large cat", all I could imagine was a cougar tearing into camp, grabbing that dog by the skull and dragging it into the woods before we could even react. This all made us uneasy, we stood up from our camp chairs so we could be in the prone position if something were to go down. It's funny how the darkness would bring those childhood fears back.
Sunday morning the group woke up to light rain that would subside occasionally. Breakfast was made and consumed, camp was broken, cars were loaded, and a river was picked. The Wynoochee gorge. So we set out towards the river of choice after lots of orienteering, map work, and dead ends we found our way to the put-in which was on Big Creek. Now to find the put-in.
Three hours later, driving on unmarked roads, asking hunters, orienteering, standing on the roof of the car to get a better view into the valley, and getting frustrated we never found the river. The roads we were driving on were unmarked and the maps we had was clearly not up-to-date. So after much frustration and dealing with uncertainty at one o'clock we pulled the plug on the adventure. We figured that even if we had found the take-out right at one it wouldn't grant us enough time to safely navigate a stretch of river none of us were familiar with before darkfall. The prospect of being stuck on a Olympic Peninsula river after dark was too much to bear. So with our heads hung low were made way back to Olympia.
In 6 years of whitewater kayaking I have never left my house with intentions of kayaking and not been able to get on the water. It was my first "skunking". This sort of river trip helped to illustrate what to expect when taking a trip out to the OP; uncertainty and wood.
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