I love Washington. Don't care so much for Class V.

Washington is a wonderful state. This time of year it stays light long enough to get in a full day's worth of fun after work, and there's plenty of fun to be had. Today I headed up Highway 2 for another crack at the Top Tye. This is a classic steep creek WAY up in the Skykomish drainage. It's full-on class V at springtime flows, but late in the year it eases off to IV+/V-. Call it IV+ if you hit your line, V- if you don't. I did a little of both today.

The Skykomish Valley is a beautiful place, especially on a rainy Washington day like today. It was 70 degrees and rainy - a perfect stereotype of the Pacific Northwest. Mist was coming off the river, and clouds hung low between the ridge lines. A lot of people don't care for the wet, but I can't get enough of it. I guess that comes from growing up in Oregon.

There were 6 of us on the river today, me, Damon Matlan, Dave Evans, Liam Keese, Charles the Scotsman and The McCibbon. Unfortunately Charles tweaked his back at the put in - and then there were 5.

I hadn't run the Top Tye since 2003, and I swore I'd never go back. But, 4 years of experience and a proper creek boat increased my confidence. Things went well overall. There was one swim, and multiple combat rolls in the group. I had 3 rolls myself. There are enough trip reports of the Top Tye, so I won't give a blow by blow. I'm pleased I wasn't as terrified as the first time I ran Box Drop. The first time down those falls I could barely put one foot in front of the other. Just to make up for things I ran Paranoia today, one of the only times I've intentionally committed to a class V rapid. I nailed the line, but learned an important lesson - only crow with victory after clearing the hole. I nailing the boof but then stopped paddling in order to gloat - and immediately flipped. I knocked off a quick roll and paddled for my life. Lesson learned.

I ended up really getting the shit beaten out of me. I petoned on Initiation, a 6 foot ledge. That took care of my knees. Then towards the end I flipped at Godzilla, a steep boulder garden, and went bouncy-bounce on my head and shoulders. I walked off at that point, about a quarter mile from the takeout. Ouch.

The Tye is a magical place. The wet weather, the smell of pine needles when you portage, IT'S ALL ABOUT CREEKIN', BABY! Still, the river has a way of telling you when you're out of your league. I'm a solid class IV boater, but have no desire to run much class V. I was sloppy today! I had some good lines, but there is something about boating even a half step over your head that that messes with your boat control.

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Mountain to Sound Race

The race went well, all things considered. We ranked 126th of 152. Unfortunately Colin and I were the weak link. Noble vessel that it is, a canoe is not terribly fast compared to a sea kayak. It was funny to see people skim by us in their flat water kayaks while using terrible paddling technique. All I can say is that if this had been a canoe race we would have kicked ass.

It was a fun day. I've never participated in an event like this before. Organized sports are generally not my thing. Fortunately I was able to just follow Colin around to get where I needed to be. Once we started our leg of the race it was just a matter of paddling forward for three hours. I didn't even meet the other members of the team until after the race was over. Does that make us a "team" or just a confederation of like-minded individuals? It would be fun to do another race with proper equipment and a bit more training.

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Seattle Solstice

Today was the solstice here in Seattle – the longest day of the year. This is a symbolic end to my paddling season, although of course I’ll be going all summer. This weekend will be the first time I haven’t paddled in several months. Instead I’ll be on a team running the Mountain to Sound race. I’ll still be on the water – my leg of the race involves paddling a canoe 12 miles down the Sammamish River with my buddy Colin Prior. Ok, so technically I will still be paddling this weekend!

We did a practice run this evening. We paddled 3 miles from Lake Washington up the Sammamish River, had some dinner and beers at a pub in Bothel and then went back the way we came. It was weird being in a canoe – ungainly vessels. Good fun though. We headed back around 9:00 with the sun just setting. It had been a sunny day and dusk was beautiful. If you’ve ever experienced a perfect summer evening in Seattle you know what I mean. There was plenty of wildlife too - waterfowl, herrons, a beaver and even a swimming rat just to keep with the urban theme.

Seattle is a great place for urban kayaking. Besides Puget Sound, there is Lake Washington, Lake Union and several different waterways like the Sammamish River. I don't get out on the lakes a lot, but when I do I really enjoy it. It's a great thing to do with visiting guests and allows them to see the city from different perspective.

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Where's the Water?

It didn't seem that water levels got that high this spring. I remember in 2006 when the Wenatchee was over 20,000 cfs and the Skykomish peaked at 17,000 cfs or so. I looked at some numbers from the U.S. Geological Survey. As it turns out we had some higher spikes last year. Check out Brian Vogt's blog entry from the spring of 2006. I'm not sure how the 2006 snowpack compares to 2007 (if there are any skiers/boarders out there who keep track of these things please drop me a line), but I thought this year's snowpack was pretty good.

Looks like we won't get much of a bump with the current hot weather. Both the Skykomish and Wenatchee are forecast to fall. Crap, I thought we'd get at least one more weekend of high water. Too bad! I had some epic weekends on the Wenatchee last year. Drunkards/Trinity was monstrous, and Ingalls/Peshastin Creek had some kick too it as well. Such is the will of the river gods.

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