Blunts at the Verm

Finally some rain in good ol' Minnesota - could of used those floods on the north shore though! The Verm came up and was dishin' out nice blunts today. Hopefully I'll have some pics of some waterfalls that are up with the flood waters here in the next couple days. Railroad, S-Turn, and Donut were occasionally givin' out some low-angle wheels, while S-Turn and Donut were handing out some blunts. The climax of this post is definitely the big clean blunt sequence from Donut - thanks Nora! As always all images are clickable. Enjoy!

Big clean blunt.


Gettin' the stern out.


Mackin' the back surf.


Trying not to ingest the toxic Verm water.

Upper Upper Cispus - Washington.

The upper upper or the upper upper upper? This is a pretty awesome river even by the standards of the northwest. I think it's akin to the Cascade (upper) of Minnesota on steroids. The level was a pushy estimated 600+. The highlite of the run is a steep boulder garden that leads into a 30 footer followed by a meaty hole and some more steep class V boulder gardens. The first rapid is a class III ledge lead-in to 15-20 footer, after which you must make a move to duck a log - a good way to wake up! We had a great group of guys that made making downriver progress a snap. Thanks for letting me tag along.
Thanks and credit go to Luke for most of these photos - thanks man. Check out his blog, PDX River Explorers

The first falls.


Dave G. mackin' the log duck.


Drops like these were dispersed throughout the boulder gardens.


Ken coming through one of the numerous boulder gardens.


Watch out for wood!


Johnny watchin' Ken take a wall ride.


Me taking the sweet rockslide line at Island.


Coming through a hole before Behemouth - don't mess up here!


Me, Dave, Johnny, and Ken throwing up gang signs and trying to look hard above Behemouth - the 30 footer.


Ken styling Behemouth.


So this is where things got a little interesting for me... The boys all had ran Behemouth and I was last to go. I landed to far left and got sucked behind the falls. After several failed attempts at paddling out of this thing and sitting behind the veil for a bit I came out of my boat. I clinged to the wall for a little while, then decided it was time to get out of there and pushed myself out under the veil. Luckily Dave was sitting on shore in the right eddy to pull me and my boat and paddle out - what a relief to be out of there! The boys were getting kinda nervous seeing as I was behind the falls for around 4 or 5 minutes. It turned out all good, but I need to go back and get a better line on this sucker.

Behemouth.


Reflecting on the walled in Behemouth.


Boulder gardens below Behemouth.

Random eye candy from the Truss.

Watch out for my post on the Upper Upper Cispus - coming soon!

Double Drop.


South African dude hitting Double Drop.


Corey's paddle sticking out from Double Drop.


Devin, the 12 yr. old "Wonder Midget" getting in his second "youngest descent" of the Truss.


Nate filming Devin.


Bob's Falls.


BZ Falls.


Nate in BZ Falls.

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.