Green Truss - White Salmon

Saturday and Sunday I got to hit another sweet river in the Columbia River drainage. The Green Truss section of the White Salmon is one of the few runnable creeks in the area this time of year and it's a blast. I got 2 runs in Saturday and one Sunday - everything went except Lower Zigzag which is unrunnable right now due to a log in the rapid, bummer! It was cool to meet back up with Nate and Heather, a couple Minnesota natives who live out here, thanks for hookin' a brother up! We had a solid crew of around 10 people for all 3 runs. This run is nonstop action with lots of really fun drops - including Big Brother, BZ Falls, and many other classics.

Me At the Lip of Big Brother.


Dave Hittin' the Boof on Big Brother.


Little Brother.


Little Brother Pt. 2.


BZ Falls.


Nate @ BZ.

The Lower Wind, Washington

Yesterday was my first taste of the Columbia River drainage. Less than an hour from Portland, the Lower Wind consists of class III boulder gardens with some IVs mixed in. It finishes off with a sweet waterfall sequence.

The first major rapid.


The northwest's glacial meltwater is a little more clear than the brownish snowmelt in the midwest.


The second waterfall.


The finale.


The typical end of the day when paddling in the Portland area.

Another run on the Cascade River. Get some more.

Ran the Cascade again at a much lower level. Everything was runnable, but the river had a lot less push. This would have been the day to do the (first?) top to bottom descent of this river in one day because it's close to the lowest runnable level for the upper, but the cascades were still manageable. The cascades are a series of about 6 or so waterfalls and drops in a canyon with a few 10-15 foot waterfalls and a couple pourovers, some with meaty holes, and very little opportunity to set safety without climbing ropes and harnesses. Once you're in you pretty much have to run everything culminating in a sweet 25+ foot waterfall with a very precise line to hit. I can't wait to make it back up there and run these amazing falls! I wish there was more than just 2 of us for setting safety and whatnot - I'm now so regretting not running the falls! Hopefully we'll get some more rain up there.

I just got a few stills of 8 foot falls again and put together a short video.

Click here to check out the video

Better light today.


Concentration.


Commando Style.

June run on the Poplar and the Cascade. Get some.

We were blessed with some rain in Cook County, bringing up the levels of some prime whitewater. AndyMac and I headed up on Sunday morning and started with a quick run on the Poplar. It was pretty low, but everything was runnable. This is a 2 mile run with a lot of boogie water and two major drops. The first one is a big slide, and the second one is a technical ledge sequence that could get hairy at high water. Below these drops lies the Lower Poplar - I can't wait to go back and hit this solid V. It looked pretty high for the lower section with a hole at the bottom recircing into a cauldron.

Andy polishes off the slide.


The author bumps his way down.


Fore!


The Cascade is a northshore classic with nonstop IV-V action. From the standard get-in this run starts with a bang! Hidden Falls, the first rapid, is a massive slide with water just cookin' down it. The Cascade was at a manageable -7" this day.

It can be hard to capture the size of drops on film, but I think this pic does Hidden Falls justice.


Click here to see video of Hidden Falls.

Hidden Falls is followed by 3 miles of continuous IV-V and it is awesome. Drop after drop after drop, this river has some serious gradient and just keeps going and going - never slowing down. There are tons of drops, most of which I don't know the names. If not my favorite, this river is definitely in the top 2 or 3.

With only 2 guys and the continuous nature of the river we didn't get too many pics, but I'll post what I've got.

8 foot falls.


Andy rides the pillow at the bottom of Long John Silver.


Get some.


Taking out at the top of the cascades.