With cold dry weather for the last couple weeks, I was really happy when we finally got a bit of rain and it looked like there were a couple possible boating options. All the low elevation snow we’ve had this year has really limited the options as a lot of runs are inaccessible right now. Megi wanted to demo a boat in Hood River so it seemed like the Farmlands would be a good run to do. As I drove into Troutdale I was surprised to see that I84 seemed to be shut down. I made a call to my sister to find out what the deal was. She confirmed from the ODOT website that I84 was indeed shut down but SR14 in Washington might be good option. I called Megi and we decided the Farmlands was probably out as it was going to take us too long to get there and the roads where probably pretty bad up there anyway. We decided the Wind might be a good 2nd option so we called everyone and changed to the Wind. As we were getting changed at the take-out it started dumping snow and didn’t let up for the rest of the day. I’m used to kayaking with snow at the put-in and along the banks but this was a bit different.
The roads weren’t too bad getting back to the put-in but we had to chain up Megi’s car after it couldn’t make it up the hill from the take-out. I just about fell down the hill at the put-in because of the slick conditions; dropping my kayak on the way down. The Wind was just beautiful with huge icicles along the walls and snow on the banks. The river was at a fun, technical flow so I tried to catch as many eddies as possible; keeping warm in the process. Everything went smooth and we eventually made it back to Portland where it was just raining.
Wind River put-in
Sunday I woke up to 6 inches of snow in my front yard which is the most snow I’ve ever seen at my house. We were planning to run the Sandy Gorge and after chaining up my car just to get out of my driveway, I was a little concerned about road conditions near the river. Our original group of 3 ballooned to 10 by the time we got to the take-out. Thankfully we had a couple 4-wheel drive rigs to get us down the untracked road to the put-in.
Heading to the river
Gearing up near the put-in several folks were wondering whether this was actually a good idea; particularly Kourtni who was concerned about getting her car back up to the highway at the end of the day. While a couple of the drivers did a short shuttle, the rest of us lowered boats down to the river.
Gearing up
The trail down to the river
Heading out into the winter wonderland
I don’t have any pictures after I got on the river because I was a little busy getting myself to the take-out in one piece. I got stuck in a playful hole half-way down the run and just couldn’t surf my way out of it. I tried for what seemed like a long time, flipped twice and finally washed out but was too tired to do a good roll and ended up swimming. This was my first swim in 10 years of running the Gorge; probably close to 50 runs down the Gorge. Of course when it rains, it pours.
Above Rasp Rock rapid I was telling a couple folks the possible lines while Chris was setting safety downstream and signally folks to go left. I’d just run the right line a week ago and it when pretty smooth so I over-rode Chris’ advice and ran the right line. Unfortunately, I didn’t angle hard enough to the right when I hit the hole and got stopped. I thought “This is bad” as I got sucked backwards back into the hole and pretty much flipped immediately. This hole isn’t something that I thought I could surf my way out of so I pulled immediately before I got tired and hoped for the best.
As I sat in the backwash momentarily I could see Chris going back up to his boat for a throwbag and that made me feel better about my situation. And then there was a surge and I got close enough to the rock backing up the hole to grab on and pull myself out. All the gear was collected in the pool below and we all moved on downstream. At this point I was just trying to get to the take-out in one piece. All went smoothly and we got everyone back together with cars at the take-out.
For me, quiet an interesting day on a run I’m very comfortable with. Goes to show that you shouldn’t take anything lightly and one of the things I like most about boating; the river’s ability to keep you humble even when you think you’ve got everything figured out.
Sandy Gorge: 2, Pete: 0
Written by peteg - Visit Website