Location: Skykomish River: Cable Drop to Split Rock and then Split Rock to Big Eddy
CFS: About 3100.
Who was there? Me, Craig, Garrett (our old kayaking instructor), Brad, Jason [Garza] (main photographer), Todd (videographer)
The story:

What an intense day. Lemme tell ya. I had been sweating this day all week, because man was I worried about running Boulder Drop. Sure, a couple weeks ago when Craig, Brad and I ran Split Rock down, I had considered running just boulder drop afterwards, but ended up not doing it because I was already out of all my gear and didn't want to go through the hassle of gearing up all over again (I call it being lazy -- others might call it fear -- believe who you will).

So, this was going to be an interesting day. Garrett, our old instructor from our Pacific Water Sports kayaking class was going to guide us down from Cable Drop and show us the right lines to take. He got Craig and I both a wee bit worried, because he was heavily inquiring how good our eddying skills were, along with how solid our rolls were. The whole Garrett thing was kind of funny, because we randomly ran into him a couple weeks ago when we were driving back to the put in to get Craig's car after a run, and we saw a kayaker walking along the road looking for a ride. We picked him up, and it turned out to be Garrett (we hadn't seen him since class was over about 4-5 months ago). Two weeks later, here he was, guiding us down our first Class IV rapid.

Anyway, Garrett, Craig and I were putting in at Cable Drop. The plan was to meet up with Brad (who was going to be spotting us at Boulder Drop with a throw rope) at Split Rock, and we'd go down to Big Eddy with him. Garza was going to do the action photographs while Todd videotaped the whole thing. As a side note, by this time next month I think I'll have my full helmet cam setup, so I should be able to take some great 1st person videos of the runs we do.

We got there a little earlier than Garrett, so we wondered around trying to find the path down to Cable Drop. Well, we hiked through some thick woods until coming to an outlook of the rapid. Obviously, this wasn't the right way to go, but Holy Shit, lemme tell ya, that was a pretty intense looking rapid. It was definitely a quite the ego-cutting experience, because just looking at it, a large part of my confidence was shot to complete hell, and this was just a measley class III rapid...it's not like it was Boulder Drop or anything. Definitely not a good condifence booster looking at that rapid from up top.

It was a gorgeous clear day out today.... Here we are, the eddy right before cable drop...(the calm before the storm).

Anyway, Garrett showed up a couple minutes after noon and we all got geared up and ready to go. We walked down to the put-in (taking the right path this time) and seal lauched off of some rocks about 2 feet up from the river. There was a guy there asking us about the rapids downstream since he'd never looked at them. Not much to talk about with that guy.

So, the plan was that Garza and Todd would take our pictures at the following rapids: Cable Drop, Boulder Drop, Aquagasm, Railroad Bridge, Highway 22.

Cable Drop I was debating a bit about wearing the nose plugs. I hate seeing them in the picture, but at the same time, they kind of give me my safety blanket kind of feeling, and help give me the confidence to do my quick solid rolls that I've grown accustomed to (mainly because I don't have to think about the sudden discomfort of water rushing into my nose). Well, I decided that for the betterment of the pictures, I would do the rapid sans-noseplugs. I felt confident that I could do Cable Drop safely and cleanly.

So, Garrett ran the rapid first. Within 5 seconds, he was flipped. Within 2 seconds of him flipping, I had re-attached my nose-plugs.

Playboating Garrett. Upside-down Garrett.

Craig and I ran through the rapid cleanly, so I'm not sure exactly what got Garrett... He was doing some playboating in the rapid, so that may have been what got him. Not completely sure. Anyway, the lesson learned for Cable Drop was that it looks hella-worse up above then it actually is. It was really a rather fun rapid that wasn't really that hard at all. Completely safe too, so even if I had flipped, there weren't too many rocks that I would have had to worry about.

I don't actually remember that rock being there. But it makes for a great picture, doesn't it? Oh yeah!. Now that's some pure kayaking skill if I ever saw it...

Maze / Garbage Not really much to talk about here. Wasn't that bad at all. I think this was Craig's first flip and he got pinned against a rock, but an offside C-to-C roll managed to solve that awkward situation within about 10 seconds.

Andersen Hole Well, soon we came up to a pretty large rock in the middle of the rapid. Garrett mentioned that the left side was easier and the right side had a harder drop. Craig decided to go left and I decided since I was feeling mighty confident, I'd follow Garrett and do the drop. Well, the right side was a whole lot of fun, and to me definitely looked harder than the left. But Craig swears that he ended up skirting Andersen Hole on river left, so, just beware if you go that way.

Boulder Drop Part 1/3

I'll note real quick that Garrett mentioned he first ran this rapid at 500cfs and thought that was a perfect level to run it for a first time. We were running it at 3000...a mere 6x beefier (and 12x faster). Oh my.

Oh my....this is the big meat of the story now, isn't it. There were a bunch of rafters here too, but we ended up running the rapid before them, so we just got a bigger audience. Brad was patiently waiting with a throw rope a bit past Airplane Turn rock, and Todd and Garza were a little further down the river set up with their respective equipment. But, at this point, we weren't actually to them yet.

Garrett had us eddy out to the side real quick while he discussed the plan with us. At this point, all of the rafters were doing the same. Garrett split Boulder Drop into three distinct sections for us. The first was to get through some drops and boulder skirting until we got to an eddy on the far river right side. He expressed with increasing importance and clarity how utterly important it was for us to hit this eddy and paddle with all of our might to get into this eddy. He mentioned this, oh, what? a good 12 times before letting us get back to our boat.

The plan was for us to run just to the left a big rock on the right side, then we'd do a field goal between two other rocks, then run to the immediate left of a pourover, and then finally immediately get into the eddy on the right IMMEDIATELY after the pourover.

I'll note real quick that the eddy was split into 3 eddys. There was one immediately after the pourover, then there was a small rock garden splitting it (like a mini wall) into the second eddy. Finally, there was a last chance eddy right before a bunch of a very rocky needle drop that you definitely wouldn't want to run upside down. Garrett ran it first with absolutely no problems. Craig was next. He ended up hitting the rocks dividing the first two eddies up and it flipped him.

Worry. That needle drop was coming up fast, and Craig was about to run it upside down.

Luckily, he managed a quick roll and was with it enough to eddy out to the last-chance eddy right before the drop. <Phew>

Well, now it was my turn. Checking to make sure my nose-plugs were safely and securely attached, I proceeded to do part 1. I ran pretty much the whole thing clean except that I ended up boofing the pourover instead of running to the left of it, which gave me a little more forward momentum than I had wanted. I ended up getting into the second eddy instead of the first due to that extra momentum, but a couple paddle strokes later I was next to Garrett in his first eddy.

At this point, we walked over to Craig to see how he was doing. Garrett got to him first and was discussing with him on how to run the needle drop safely. When I got there, I asked why Craig doesn't just portige his boat back to where we were and run it the way we were intending to. Seeing that as a good idea, that's precisely what Craig did.

Part 2/3

So, the second part of this was to do the airplane turn. This involved us having to ferry out and cross the river in front of a whole int he middle of the rapid, and finally get to the Airplan Turn rock. We needed to keep our Bow as close to the rock as possible and keep paddling. Garrett stressed that our bow should pretty much be touching the rock, and that we should try to keep it about 1" away optimally. The current would then end up sweeping us almost fully around the rock right into an eddy that we could then launch from to run the remainder of Boulder Drop (this would be the section where Brad was set up for rescue, and Todd and Garza were set up to document the run)....Garrett did it first, absolutely beautifully. It was a thing of perfection watching him do it.

Next it was my turn. It took me a while to get my ferry to start because I had paddled up way too far against the previous rapid and I was afraid it was going to flip me. I finally started my ferry and two strokes into it, my mind went blank and I forgot how to do anything at all. I ended up going backwards through that hole in the middle of the rapid and almost ran through the needle backwards. Finally I came back to my senses (<phew>) and quickly paddled to eddy #2 so that I could try a second attempt.

Seeing my miserable first failed attempt, Craig got a little worried. With a single powerstroke, he crossed half the rapid with ease, and then proceeded to ferry the rest over the rapid over to airplane turn rock. This is where things went awry. He was so worried about keeping his bow close to the rock, that he hit it and showed to much edge. He got flipped as he was getting turned into the eddy. An amazingly quick roll got him upright before the next drop leading to the remainder of the run. Watching this on video is rather funny actually, because once Brad sees Craig flip he starts to stand up and briefly turns around to get the rope. By the time he's standing up with the rope and turns back around to throw it to Craig, Criag was back upright again, but now was running the rapid backwards. "Turn around! Turn around!" was being screamed at him....finally he did. But, much to his dismay, he did it in time to see that he had no choice but to run straight into House Rock!

Craig -- deciding he really wanted to get up close and personal with House Rock. The next few pictures are rather funny looking, but alas, I don't want to make Craig feel bad, so I won't post them.

Smack! A moment later he was upside down and getting flushed around the rock. Five seconds later he was swimming through the rest of Boulder Drop. Mind you now, I wasn't seeing any of this. I was still trying to get my senses together to try out my second ferry attempt over to Airplane Turn rock. As soon as Garrett saw Craig bail, he went chasing after him (ending up flipping a couple times himself I'm told). Craig's position trying to get his boat, and then trying to avoid smashing into his boat ended up making for some pretty funny looking video bloopers and pictures, but obviously everyone was quite serious and concerned while all of this was happening. Eventually Craig got himself and paddle over to an eddy while Garrett went after the rafters who had retrieved Craig's yak.

Well, oblivious to all of this, I finally did my ferry over (very elegantly this time mind you) to Airplane Turn rock and did a perfect Airplane Turn. Lemme tell ya, that's a really fun thing to experience...You seriously end up doing a full 360 around this big rock in the middle of a rapid, and it just nicely plants you into a comfortable eddy...How nice of it.

Anyway, I got into the eddy and no-one was there. I was mighty confused. I thought that the plan was to all meet at the eddy and then Garrett would explain the last line for us to run. Well, finally I looked downriver a little and saw Craig swimming in an Eddy and saw Garrett further downstream.

I made sure my nose-plugs were on very, very, very tight.

I started my way down through the first drop of Part 3.

Part 3

Holy shit. This section of rapid is the most intense of any rapid that I've ever run. Big Big water is surrounding you. Lot of hydraulics all over the place, and you're doing all of this really fast. Well, by the time I got near Todd and Garza, I had run the majority of the rapid clean and was pretty psyched. I started yelling "Fuck yeah! Fuck yeah!" right into the cameras (the result of which can clearly be seen in the video, and you can see a mighty powerful yelling expression by me in one of the pics).

Leaving the comfort and security of the eddy behind Airplane Turn rock for the first drop. Coming up onto a rather large wave... ...SPLOOSH! Where'd my boat go? Oh yeah...it's covered in water. Hmmm....I think I see something coming up ahead... Here you see the pour-over turned hole that I narrowly avoided.....<phew> Fuck yeah! Fuck yeah!

I made it through a maelstrom of rapids, nearly avoiding a massive pourover turned hole (you can see that clearly in one of the pics). When I got to the end of the major stuff, I paddled over to Craig to offer him a ride via my stern to his boat.

Here's that eddy that I temporarily stopped in after my last drop... Popping up from that sudden change in direction...

After getting his boat and gear together and getting himself rested up, we proceeded down the rest of Boulder Run

Marbleshoot Not much to say about this one at all.

Lunch Hole Well, I made sure not to make the same mistake I made last week (where I went into the center of Lunch Hole, got chewed up and spit out, separated from my boat) by riding the rapid much more river right.

Aquagasm By this time, I gave up with my nose plugs. Part of it was a little over-confidence for having run everything clean up to this point. Part of it was wanting nose-plugless pictures. The main reason though was because I was sneezing like crazy (allergies? cold?) and I was worried about blowing out my eardrums or something if I kept my nose plugged when I sneezed.

The rapid was fun, but really didn't compare to any of the shit we had done at this point, so while I definitely enjoyed the ride this time (especially since I swam through the whole thing last week right after Lunch Hole), I didn't think it was all that special. This also marked the only time during the entire 6.5 mi run where I lost a bit of control. Right towards the end of the rapid, my paddle was torn out of my right hand and I started flipping to the left. I did what I think was a very impressive mighty one-armed brace which kept me from flipping (I was determined that if I didn't flip during Boulder Drop, I sure as hell wasn't going to flip in AquaGasm).\

A nice fun wave at the beginning of Aquagasm. This big wave ended up ripping the paddle out of my right hand. Pure will power made this one-armed brace work. Pure will-power baby.

Split Rock Nothing really that exciting happened here. Garrett did play in the final rapid for a little while though while we paddled up to hook up with Brad.

Split Rock -> Railroad Bridge Well, paddling up to Railroad Bridge from Split Rock I ended up going a little far to the right. I ended up getting forced to boof a pretty highly elevated rock. I was a little worried, but I didn't think it would be a big deal. Well, I ended up boofing it and then penciling right into another rock below it. OUCH! That was a very surprising, abrupt stop there. My boat though so too, because it dented in the bow a little bit. So, there's a nice little battle scar on my boat now from that little measly Class III rapid.

Railroad Bridge proper Fun rapid. Got some great pics / video. Nothing too eventful though. I'll note though that Brad noted he wasn't feeling all that great (hot and not completely comfortable in his newly outfitted (new seat) boat).

Fisherman's Very fun this time around. Brad ended up flipping on the last little wave before the eddy. I was following him and got planted in an eddy behind some rocks. Once I got out of the eddy, I went and retrieved his boat with my trusty tow kit. It was a bit of a bitch to bring in because he only had one float bag in there (I borrowed one of his for the Cable Drop run because one of mine is bad and I was afraid I might have to bail). After we got everyone to the same eddy, I emptied out his boat and moved the float bag back to his boat.

Reach for the Sky I don't care about what Craig says: "It's a Class II rapid...you can't name a class II rapid." I love this little wave train at lower water (say 1500-2500 cfs) because it gets me more air than most other rapids. So, its name stays. It wasn't that great today because the water was a little too high for it.

Proctor's Creek I finally remembered to run this one more river right than usual so that I could boof some of the wide pourovers that I've seen in the past. Those were kind of fun.

Mr. Reversal (name?) There's a class II between Proctor's and Highway II that we have no name for.....It's kind of fun, but the great thing is that there's this nice hole/reversal at the end at the right levels. Well, we didn't have those levels today, but something about it still got Brad and he flipped again. Little towing later and we were all to shore. The good thing was that it was easier to tow with 2 float bags in this time, but I still think I through out my back a little this time because I was towing both Brad and the boat, and my lower back (where the tow kit is attached) hurt until Wednesday. Luckily, Brad swam in the rapids where we didn't have photo ops, so besides the people reading this entry, no-one will be the wiser ;).

Highway II This one was kind of fun. I paddled really hard on the waves right near the end (where Todd and Garza were) because I wanted to try to get some air pics. I think it worked looking at the photographic evidence.

Ramping up my speed so that I can catch some... ...AIR. Oh my. very nice. Let's see that from a slighty different angle....niiiiiice. Finishing up the day.

Big Eddy Well, that was the whole run. Definitely intense. I've done skydiving, as well as some other stupid heart-pounding stuff in my life, but man, I don't think I've ever been as scared about doing something as I was about this run, especially after seeing Cable Drop from up-above.

I was on a complete high the rest of the day after this run. It was just so friggin' intense. I definitely want to do it again.

I will note though that by this time it was almost 4pm and none of us had eaten anything the ENTIRE day. It felt like my stomach was ripping out some stomach lining and trying to eat some of that it was so hungry. I will definitely try to bring something with me the next time we're going to do a long energy intensive run like that.

Net result: My first class IV rapid run, completely clean! Craig had a total of 5 flips (2 stupid flips during railroad->big eddy) and 1 swim, Brad had 2 swims, and Garrett had a bunch of flips. Overall, definitely the best day kayaking yet.

Until next time, Howard --- out.

Videos:

Waiting to get the video from Todd....maybe in 2 weeks.