Wind River 4.65 feet
Class IV-V
6 Miles
The first weekend of my spring break falls on the Wind River Race and Festival, a sweet way to start off the break from school. I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 am and started driving south toward the Columbia River Gorge and fun. I met some of my buddies down there and ran into some others that I haven't seen in a while. The drive in the early morning darkness was really nice, no people on the road, just me the radio, and the rising sun.
At the "festival ground" (a rental property that makes Iron Mountain look like a brand new house) John, Chip, and Franz Horner and I met in the parking lot and spent about an hour just hanging out and talking about whitewater, telling jokes, and lies. After a bit we geared up and started motivating towards the water. By the time we got on the water the group had grown to a large posse. The first 1/4 mile is all flat water, and then the first rapid comes and we drop off the face of the earth. After cramming down through the first rapid with the huge group I signaled John and chip so that we could separate and avoid the traffic jam from occurring again.
The river was super fun, continuous class IV boulder-gardens and ledges, fun moves and satisfying rapids. We boat scouted the whole run except for a rapid named rams horn, a large series of holes in the middle of the river that you sneak by on the left. It went well for everyone, and we continued our way downstream.
The weather was very spring like, which makes sense because it was the first day of spring. Sunny, warm and generally nice out. We took our time the rest of the trip, stopping for a bit to sit in the sun, drink water and eat a snack. This day was one of the best days I'd had on the water in a while, my confidence was up, I felt good and I was with good friends.
Once off the water we got into dry clothes and got the party started, the best part about festivals is that there is no driving necessary, just get there, kayak, party, and fall asleep, all of which happens within a two acre area. The night was fun, talking to new people, hanging out with some good friends, and having a beverage or two. By 11 I was wiped out, so I made my way to my sleeping bag. I had forgotten my sleeping pad so I had planned to sleep on the grass and avoid my truck, this worked well until about 1 am. It started raining, and hard. So I gather up my yard sale of stuff on the ground and crawled into the truck bed. The hard plastic ridges that create the bed liner were very uninviting, luckily I had plenty of extra layers so I made myself a polypropylene nest and laid down very carefully. The night went pretty well all things considered.
The following morning John, Franz, and Chip decided not to race and have a more leisurely day on the water. So we put on before the race and went down to "Rams Horn" to watch the kayaks, cats, and raft teams come through. We got some really nice seats up on the river right side that made it possible to see rams horn and the rapid above it that I call "fist". After all the boats came through we pulled out behind the group and slowly made our way down to the car.
At the take-out I realized that I had left my keys in my pants that are at the top. Major rookie mistake, luckily there was a vehicle that was willing to drive the gang to the top to pick up their cars and my keys. After getting into dry clothes and loading up the car I began the three hour drive north back to the house. Another quality weekend in the Columbia River Gorge.
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