Cooper - The End of Spring

A lot of the class V runs in Washington State come down into the class IV range at low water. The Cooper River is one of them. I normally run this in late June/early July when the creeks on the west side of the mountains have dried out. 2007 has been a long, slow melt off year and it wasn't until July 1 that I made the pilgrimage out to the Cooper.

The flow was medium low, higher than I've ever run it before. This didn't make much of a difference. The ledges were pretty much the same - go right! They didn't form huge holes at this level, except for Norms Resort. The first lap went without incident. For some reason I was sloppy on lap 2. I wasn't alone - one guy in our group flipped above Norm's Resort. He rolled up just in time to drop into the hole ass backwards. After a good stay in the resort he swam, but only recirculated twice before flushing out.

This officially closes out the spring season for me. Next weekend I'm headed down to the White Salmon with some friends. This is a year-around run, and I only hit it in the summer. After a couple days getting beat to hell on the Top Tye and Cooper I'm looking forward to some class III!

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