Reports from Trips

Over 20 paddlers enjoyed paddling and improving their paddling skills practicing on the slalom gates on the Cedar River on Saturday. A great crew of volunteers fixed up our permanent course the weekend before including whacking a ton of blackberries out of the way. Temperatures were in the 70's! It was a delightful day. The flow was perfect, too - about 830 cfs. The rapid above the bridge at Landsburg was enhanced about 10 years ago when they took out the weir, and Mother nature has done a great job smoothing it out. Also on Saturday, five wildwater paddlers dashed madly downstream through the slalom course for some timed sprints and then all the way to Maple Valley for the classic race.

Steve Reutebuch (cat raft), Seth Jefferds (raft), Don Samdahl (IK), and Bob Schneider (IK) spent a few days paddling Minam to Troy. Launched at about 1100 cfs on the Troy gauge. It did rain on us quite a bit. One day it rained all day long. We couldn't believe it. We went to the eastern side of Oregon for sunny weather.

SEATTLE – March 29, 2016 – Paddlers in the Northwest could benefit from a bill signed Friday that requires the Washington Department of Transportation to consider access to the water when building or refurbishing bridges.
Senate Bill 6363 hopes to improve public access at bridge right-of-ways by requiring the state to include a formal evaluation of opportunities for water access within the public right-of-way on future bridge projects.
“When a bridge is constructed, it represents an important opportunity to evaluate how the public is using the site for river access and identify opportunities to both improve public safety and enhance the quality of the user experience,” said Thomas O’Keefe of American Whitewater.

Canoe Paddle Denied Access

So there I was.....at the PTCC Winter Bash. I hadn't made it there in many years and boy, was I glad I did! What a fun evening!! Not only did I have a great time connecting with paddlers, I picked up some good canoe tripping trips ideas, ate (too much) delicious food, AND I won the Raffle! So exciting. The Grand Prize: a Werner Canoe Paddle. Shiny. Yellow blade. And it was particularly exciting because all I own is a closet of kayak paddles and a few bent shafts. Now, I feel like a real whitewater Canoer!

Don C ran Boulder Drop.

The Sol Duc river was low so the Memorial Day weekend trip moved to the Methow valley. I think I counted about a dozen rain drops all weekend, quite a change from the usual Sol Duc trip.
We had so many boats show up for this trip that we split into two groups. Grace and I led Group 2 after Dave Mainer disappeared down the river with Group 1.

What a beautiful day to be on a river, the flow at 1700 is just perfect! Not too many rocks exposed, just enough to keep you looking and the current not too pushy. The weather was wonderful, started a little cool and ended up in the high 70’s.

Upper MF Snoqualmie trip report

SF Snoqualmie 410 cfs 4-16-16 Steve Reutebuch

On Saturday, February 20th we had a fun filled Winter Bash at the University Unitarian Church in Wedgwood. The festivities included a great potluck dinner during which we saw a slideshow of a trip Don Bottles, Joan Ostlund, Carol Beers, Gerry Eller, and Jim and Helen Lawton on the Wild & Scenic Upper Missouri River in Montana.

SF Stilly trip report

Amidst gray and wet skies, six club members (1 single canoe, 1 tandem, 2 kayaks, and 1 IK) braved the rising waters of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie (1300 cfs at the start) to run the Club Stretch as a warm up for the spring season.

4.9' on the Gauge.
Quick scouting trip for any new wood due to big windstorm but everything is fine

This year we only had 1 tandem team (Nate & Becki Johnson) sign up for the Moving Water class. We usually do a 2-day class, but since we only had 2 people in the class and almost no moving water anywhere, we decided to only do a 1-day class on the Skykomish.

After reading that so much fun was had on the Methow over Memorial Day weekend at a hefty 6700 cfs, we sought to round out the Methow season with a sub 1000 cfs trip.

Paddle Trails Canoe Club just concluded its annual 4 day "Whitewater 101" canoe course.

A day of paddling on a river.

5 Paddlers, 4 boats, one river, lots of fun

Memorial Day Weekend Trip on the Methow and Twisp Rivers

Trip report for the Middle Sauk on 4/19