Gripped on class II

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

E. Frk. Humptulips Narrows 1400 CFS
Class II (IV)
5.0 Miles

On Saturday Kris and I had decided that we wanted to paddle our C-1's (The technical terminology used to refer to canoes in white water, C-1: one person decked canoe, OC-1: single person open deck canoe Etc.) , and Ben and his Girlfriend Shawna who had been in jP's group were going to join us. Kris and I are both novice canoers, but we're good whitewater folks so we weren't too nervous about the potential for swimming in a class II section of river. Ben would be in a kayak and so would Shawna, so they can look out for us if need be, at the very least they can pick up our paddles for us. So we thought.

We were slow going in the morning and didn't leave Kris' until noon, and by the time we had finished shuttle, and geared up it was already 2pm. "No worries" I thought, "still plenty of time to make it down this five mile section before dark". I took plenty of time to stretch my legs and warm up before I squeezed myself into the cramped C-1. We peeled out and I quickly grew accustomed to the single blade and high center of gravity, right up to the point when I flipped over in a slow moving pool. Luckily I was able to orient myself and roll the boat up with limited difficulty. At this point We could still see the put-in beach. My confidence was a little shaken.
The group began to make it's way down stream, and as we moved towards the gorge it became apparent that Shawna was not a competent class II paddler, in reality she was an introductory paddler, still not versed in the world of whitewater. She swam before we arrived at the first gorge. At this point I was feeling confident that I wasn't going to need saving, but was also aware that if I did swim I would need to clean up my own mess. Ben and Shawna were playing a game of "I'll yell where to go and you do your best to go there" and "I'm going to follow you so close that I hit the back of your boat". She was gripped, white-knuckle, tunnel vision, hyperventilating GRIPPED. So Kris and I would paddle ahead and point out the lines, and set safety for the nervous wreck that was barreling down the river behind us yelling "where do I go now" repeatedly, and "is that the last rapid" in the flat pools at the bottom of rapids. And the whole time Ben was so preoccupied with Shawna that it almost felt like we were on separate trips.

Everything went surprisingly well despite the two man circus behind us. We portaged around the unrunnable entrance rapid to the gorge, and then picked out way down to the landslide rapid that designates the end of the gorge and the last half mile of river. The landslide had fallen into the left side of the river at some point last year and had created a jumble of large boulders and aggregate in the river. There is a line down the right side of the rapid, a steep three foot ledge, initially I was going to walk this rapid, but when Kris (a less experienced C-1'er than myself) said he was going to give it a go, I had to run it as a matter of pride. Chris had some trouble in the swift water leading up to the drop, but came out upright. I paddled aggressively up to the lip, gave it my best boof stroke, landed in the confused water, broached and flipped. I flushed down stream into the pool, set up for my roll, and nailed it first time. WHOOOHOOO!
I had been telling Shawna that the landslide was the end of the big rapids, but my memory had deceived me had two of the most technical rapids of the day that guarded the take out. In the longest rapid, I took my first swim in a while. The entrance was a tricky reactionary wave with lots of confused water below it. I boofed the first ledge and then hit a strong eddy line, flipped and began to attempt my roll. After some monkeying around under the water I conceded to the fact that there was stuff down stream that I needed to be right side up as I passed by it, so I pulled my skirt, undid my thigh straps and swam out of my boat. I popped up and grabbed the stern loop and paddle and attempted to swim away from Woody Harrelson hanging out in the river. I was approaching the innocuous piece of wood and not making a distance with the paddle and boat in my hands. So at the last moment I ditched them both and swam around Woody. Once below I cleaned up my yard sale and swam into an eddy on river right. The $500.00 I spent on the dry suit were well worth it. I climbed out of the water with a bruised, but dry ego. Unfortunately my swim had prompted Shawna to walk to the drop, so this took a bit more time out of our already waining light.
Once we were all back in our boats we paddled the three hundred yards or so down to the bridge. By now Shawna was exhausted because her adrenaline gland had been pumping at 200 percent capacity for the past three hours. I've never seen someone so stoked to be done with a river trip. It was a gripped day on class II, Shawna was gripped for lack of knowledge and skill, Kris and I were gripped because of a lack of skill, and Ben was gripped because he knew that if this trip went badly he might not have a girlfriend on Monday morning. You can't buy that kind of fun.