This summer was filled with Thrills, Spills, a little drama, and of course; lots of rafting. There is a lot to say so I will attempt to stick to the big events and be short and sweet.
I moved down to BZ Corners on June 12th and set up camp at Russ and Joetta's property, I had myself a nice camp that had some morning sun but shade the rest of the day which was key in the middle of June. The R&J camp had many residents this summer, at the hight of the season there was an influx of guides from the River Riders, but for the most part it was myself, Derek and Raquel, Steve, Woody, Matt and Monica, and Russ Jr and Angie.
The rafting season as a whole was pretty slow, the spring was cold and wet so that kept the people away, and during the summer even when it was hot and beautiful in BZ, Portland was cold and wet; continuing to keep the people away. We had a good snow year on Mt. Adams so we had plenty of water in the river throughout the summer which was great, but too bad the public doesn't know that.
During high water we at All Adventures did fine with no major incidents or carnage, and as soon as the water came down to 2.75 ft, then life got interesting. At 2.75 it was time to start running the mighty Husum falls, and we at AA were all excited/nervous to get our first runs over the falls behind us. On the same day Jonny and MJ ran the falls in the morning, and Armstrong and I ran it in the afternoon. We all had mixed results but all ran "clean", ie we didn't flip or swim all of the people in our boats. I have some great shots of the summer activities here, I love that rapid "because it's like NASCAR baby, those people didn't come to see you have a good line, they came to see you crash".
Jp and I managed to fit in a few extra-curricular kayaking trips to the Orletta section of the White Salmon, as well as some trips down the commercial stretch. On the last full moon of the summer about 25 of us managed to do a full moon float down the river. THAT was a night to remember, we put-on the river at about 10:30/11:00pm and August 24th, the moon was nice and high, the sky clear, and spirits high. By the time we reached Husum falls it was about 12:40 am on August 25th (my birthday). I had been hemming and hawing all night whether I intended to run the falls, and by the time I was running the rapid above it I had decided that there was no time like tonight to run it. So Jp and I ran it Blue Angel style with me out on point. The moon was shining right on the drop, but the water leading up to the falls was black with no aeration and I wasn't able to key off of all the typical points. As I came down the line I was very disoriented, until the very lip where the water became aerated and reflected the light. At this point I knew where I was took my last two strokes, planted a big boof stroke at the lip, landed nice and flat in the pool, but I had no forward momentum and was sucked back into the falls, and took a brutal beating in the falls, I swam and was flushed into the right eddy next to the falls just in time to watch JP come rocketing to the surface like Red October. After pushing my boat down stream, swimming after it, recovering it from JP, and getting all my pieces togeather, the whole gang paddled down to The Lahar to camp for the night. We spent the rest of the night sitting around the campfire, drinking beer and laughing about the night.
After the season ended for me I took off to the Tieton river to kayak and socialize for the next week and a half. The Tieton may not be world class whitewater, but I had the most fun while on this river. the biggest reason for fun was the fact that I had no responsibilities, and Jonny and I were able to just have fun and not have the specter of commercial rafting looming over our heads. All we did was paddle, party, and imbibe. I was able to meet a lot of new people, and spend quality time with old ones. The weather wasn't the best but it could have been much worse, the biggest bummer was the lack of quality water volume, the river peaked at 2,000 CFS which is about a 1,000 lower than usual.
So summer is coming to an end, I'm getting ready to purchase books for school and get geared up for the winter. I'll be heading home to MA in October for Nathan and KC's wedding which is going to be a hooooot! By the time I come back to the NW the rain will be here and I will be in boating mode again, I'm getting my wish list together, and soon enough me and my buddies will be back at it again, exploring rivers and having adventures (hopefully not too much adventure).
Here are some highlights from the summer, enjoy.
