By anonymous. All names have been changed.
Today, Cesar, Yoshi, Otto and I ran the Foss and had quite a bit
more of an adventure than any of us was hoping. Everyone is OK
except for a couple of relatively minor injuries and minor gear
loss. But, the incident was instructional for me and I wanted to
share it with the community. Certainly there is no intention in
any of this to assign blame and lots of things went right today.
I’d invite all of my fellow paddlers to embellish or clarify
anything that I write here (in fact, much of this is from our
debrief session after the incident).
Cesar had invited me to join him on the Foss today. He was
planning on running the Upper Foss along with Otto. Yoshi and I
were going to join them at the RR bridge to run the Lower Foss.
For those that don’t know me, I’d consider myself to be a
reasonably solid (and usually overcautious) class 3/3+ boater
with a solid river roll. Yoshi is clearly a step above me in
terms of boating and Cesar and Otto are both stronger still.
Last night I was a bit concerned about (high) water levels and
spoke to Cesar about whether this would be too much for me.
Cesar was reasonably confident that my boating skills were
strong enough but wasn’t so sure about my mental readiness (and
I’d concur). But, after reading Bennett, AW, I decided to drive
up and check it out.
We all checked out the water level by the railroad trestle
bridge and while the water was really moving fast, none of the
rapids that we could see from the road or at the put-in looked
particularly bad. Cesar had run the Upper and Lower Foss last
weekend when the Sky was at 7500 (it was about 11500 today) so
had about as up to date beta on the river as possible. He had
run it last year at a level similar to today as well. After
checking out the level at the railroad trestle, we all drove
upstream to check out Ken & Barbie rapid. Apparently, the wood
had moved to an even more dangerous place so Cesar and Otto
decided to put in just below Ken & Barbie and Yoshi and I would
meet them at the RR trestle bridge and then all continue down.
Soon enough, Cesar and Otto came through and Yoshi and I joined
them. I was certainly nervous at first but we finished the first
couple of rapids uneventfully and hit an eddy (there were very,
very few of these today). Cesar indicated that soon there would
be a river wide log and we’d need to all portage left. So, we
started making our way down and needed to go right to avoid some
type of obstacle. As we were heading left again, I saw the log
and the eddy above. I guess I was a bit nervous and flipped.
Fortunately, I rolled up quickly only to be off balance and roll
again (fortunately, successfully). We all hit the eddy and took
a break. This was the first chance we all had to talk and Cesar
mentioned that it was much burlier than last week. Between him
and Otto, there were 3 combat rolls on the upper section. Yoshi
felt like the river was pushier than when he had done Ingalls
Creek a few weeks ago. And, me, I was definitely feeling a
little relieved that we were now going past the only log
obstacle.
As we looked downriver, the river split around a small island.
On river left, there was a rather clean log that was sticking
out about 15-20 feet into the current with a downstream 30
degree angle. Downstream from this, there was a rock in the
center of the river and a stick that appeared to be wedged on
the rock. Cesar had set a plan for us to ferry out to the
center, run past the log, then go left or right of the rock. The
stick wasn’t anything to worry about and the plan was to
actually run to the left of the rock. I actually thought about
walking around the log but the intensity of the run had stepped
back a small amount and I thought that even if you had managed
to hit the log, it wouldn’t keep you there given the angle and
the way the current would push.
We began downstream and everyone easily avoided the log. Cesar
was leading; followed by Yoshi, myself and then Otto. I am maybe
3-4 boat lengths behind Yoshi when the next thing I know, he
looks like he isn’t moving. Or is he upside down?? I can’t tell
immediately but it looks like he is pinned on something. I try
to move hard right and I think (but I’m not 100% sure) that I
hit Yoshi’s bow with my boat, right before I hit the submerged
strainer. Yes. That innocuous stick was attached to a log that
was buried just a few inches below the surface. The next thing I
know, I am being sucked under the strainer and, without pulling
my spray skirt, I am being sucked out of my boat. I think my
boat caught briefly on the strainer. My leg was caught briefly
in my boat and I managed to really tweak my calf muscle (it is
about the size of an orange as I speak though didn’t hurt that
much at the time) before I came free. I saw my boat floating
behind me though at this point, survival is more important than
gear so after gaining my senses, I swim aggressively for the
shore and self rescued. Luckily, Yoshi and his boat came through
a few seconds after me and he self rescued as well. Cesar saw
that we were both okay and he and Otto went after the gear.
When we were on shore, Yoshi was pretty disoriented at first.
Yoshi’s bow was buried under the strainer but his body was stuck
above, forced to the back deck. He was probably under for 15-20
seconds in total and says he was trying to reach for the grab
loop but doesn’t know whether he found it or was swept out of
his boat. In the process, he managed to get a 1 inch gash at the
top of his cheek and quite a bit of swelling.
Of course, we were on river left. There were some houses and a
dirt road on river right but we were stuck crashing through
fields of devil’s club in full glory – not good for that drysuit
or drytop. But, we are both glad that our injuries are
relatively minor given what could have been deadly. We figured
our gear was lost. But, as we walked we saw Yoshi’s paddle on
river right which was a signal that Cesar and Otto had managed
to find and throw at least some gear to shore.
Eventually we caught up to Cesar and Otto. They were parked on
the side of the river just above another river wide tree that
was not in the river the previous week. This was a much more
dangerous strainer in the sense that it was still full of
branches instead of the luckily clean submerged log that we had
earlier hit. Cesar and Otto could provide more details but
apparently, Yoshi’s boat was caught by the strainer and easily
wrestled to shore. My boat was caught towards river center right
in the strainer. Cesar had managed to get my paddle but while
throwing Yoshi’s paddle to shore, lost his own paddle.
So, now, we have 4 people on river left; 3 boats and 2 paddles.
We took an inventory of our gear. Everyone had a throw rope
(mine was stuck in my boat). Cesar had a pin kit. Yoshi and I
each carried a pin kit in our pfds. And, I had a spare paddle in
my boat (which was inaccessible because it was pinned). Cesar
and Otto ferried across and Cesar approached my boat downstream
of the strainer as live bait. He attached the rope to my boat
but, in the process and I’m not 100% sure how, Cesar lost his
pin kit. After another couple of ferries, to get more gear, Otto
and Cesar set up a 2:1 z-drag and were able to free my boat.
This entire process took quite a bit of time. We threw a line
across the river and then pulled my boat to river left. Cesar
retrieved Yoshi’s paddle and paddled back to river left.
So, now we had 4 boats, people and paddles together. Yoshi and I
were both still pretty shaken up. The plan was to ferry across
the river (and in front of yet another partially fallen tree
though one that didn’t represent a real hazard). After, Yoshi
and I were going to walk to the road and then back to the car
while Cesar and Otto finished the run. Otto found one of the few
eddys on river right about 100-150 yards downstream. After
ferrying over, I think Yoshi and I both felt a little better in
our boats than we expected and (foolishly) talked of continuing.
Cesar wisely urged us to get off the river, which we did and he
and Otto finished the run without further incident.
So, what are my takeaways from this incident?
1) I’m never going to be a creek boater because I am not willing
to accept the inherent risks in creek boating. For me, I always
like to have what I’d consider a wide margin of safety and, for
me, it isn’t in creek boating. The combination of continuous
water and seldom run creeks with limited beta is a bad
combination for me. Of course, one could hit a submerged
strainer on the Sky or the Middle Middle (for example). But,
those runs are run so frequently that the availability of river
beta is very high and the river visibility for making decisions
is also high.
2) I should have had more boat spacing between Yoshi and me. We
found out in our debrief session that Cesar had seen the
submerged log and drove hard right before hitting it. Yoshi had
seen Cesar drive right but wasn’t sure why. I think he thought
that Cesar was just trying to avoid the rock. If I had had more
boat spacing I may have had time to move harder right and avoid
the strainer – not because I saw the strainer – simply because I
saw Yoshi stuck. Cesar thought that perhaps he should have
yelled, “LOG” though no one would have heard him anyway. Now
then, as it turned out (accidentally), I may have hit Yoshi’s
bow and helped him flush through. But, this, if anything was a
good outcome from a bad process.
3) I’ve had a general rule of never running a river at anything
more than a low-moderate level the first time down. I’ve
violated that rule twice and both times I’ve been sorry. I won’t
do that again.
4) I’ve thought about the stick and whether we should have
thought it was attached to a log and investigate further. I’ve
seen lots of sticks in the water, always benign until today.
Cesar hadn’t remembered this being anything (in fact, it may not
have been there last week and only washed in with the high
water). I don’t know if we made a bad decision here.
So, what went right?
1) We all were well equipped for the trip with safety and rescue
equipment and we basically knew how to use it. Cesar and Otto
did an amazing job of rescuing the gear – which we all thought
was lost.
2) Yoshi and I managed to self rescue in very swift water.
3) Nobody panicked.
4) Cesar wisely advised us to stick with our original plan and
leave the river after we were all safe.