This past weekend me and Devin headed out to Hood River for a paddle down the Truss prior to the "Toxic Waters" Premier at the River City Saloon. Devin stayed over at a friends house after a failed attempt at going paintballing for a friends birthday. Of course he stayed up till 1-2am and the result was him sleeping out to HR and crashing on Nate Herbeck's floor till the others showed and we headed to the put-in.
At the put-in we geared up, parked the cars and started roping boats down the frozen 20 foot cliff to the White Salmon River. Everybody was having a good time with high spirits with the Party to come and Nate Garr coming in from Idaho to MC the festivities. Once all the boats and paddlers made it down we slid into the river like penguins over the frozen bank and down the 8-10 foot ledge to the not so warm White Salmon. It's like 38 degrees year round.
The river was at 2.25 feet at the Husum gauge. Which can be misleading with the nature of the rivers source. Depending what time of the year it is, the ratio of water on the Truss can be from the top of the run or the springs that feed in from the left bank prior to the Zig-Zag rapids. It's quite amazing. In winter most or all is coming from up top. The springs are frozen on Mt Adams. It makes for the rapids before Zig-Zag almost a foot higher om the winter time than it is in Spring. This was the highest we have ran it too date but are slowing working our way up in a controlled manner. To learn our limits of comfort. Me and Devin were both happing with this flow.
Big Brother Falls is one that a large portion of paddlers that run the Truss don't run. It's not the height of the falls but the right cave and shallow rocks waiting you at the bottom. All but two of us were walking around it when Dave Hoffman looked over at Devin and asked, "Where's your PFD at?". Every eye then looked at Devin and realized he had spaced off grabbing his PFD out of the Heather's Bravada and didn't put it on. Nothing like running a class V run and not having your PFD on? To our luck, Big Brother is one of the best spots to hike out of the run.
Options:
1. Devin paddle across the lip of the falls with no PFD, hike up and out on his own.
2. Me and Devin hkie out together. Which means I'll be roping two boats up and out.
3. and the one I love!? I give Devin my PFD. I paddle across the lip of a falls I have no interest in running and hike up and out while the midget gets to continue down river with the others.
I think I drew the short straw and #3 was the best choice in my opinion only because I trusted Devin's skills to paddle the rest of the run that he knows and the safety of the crew that we were in the company with.
The fun part:
After getting him geared up I hopped in my boat and paddled across the lip oddly like my life depended on it. Made the eddie with no issues and started my trek onto the snow. The cliff heads around the falls and then up a steep embankment that was more challenging with 1-2 feet of snow. I used my throw rope out of my Astral PFD to tow my boat up the hill in 20-30 foot increments. Fun Fun!! I know Ken and Dave both told me how to get back to the road but when I made it to the top I saw no trail thanks to all the snow. 2-4 feet at this point. I headed down the hill thinking I'd hit the road soon. On my way down I lost my footing, slid and came to a stop still on the hill. Oh crap?! I had the boat in tow behind me and the rope was around my waist. He come the boat!! The nose of the Nomad 8.1 nailed my square in the back of my head. Luckily I had been wearing my FNA full face still. It wrung my bell but I don't want to think of the other optional outcome without it on. Keep your helmet on!!
I made it to the flats and waled right to the cliff of the same river I'd just hiked away from. Oops, a horseshoe bend. Yippee!! I get to drag my creekboat back up the hill and try to find my way out. In time I did and quickly came to a clearcut land that allowed vantage of the powerlines that run along the roadway. Nate was driving my Subaru by as I made my way to the road. I'm saved!! It's usually a ten minute hike. It took me close to an hour.
Conclusion:
1. I need to check Devin over more closely prior to putting on the river. He may be a talented kayaker but he's still only 13.
2. Devin may want to think about staying up too late and make possibly fatal mistake.
Sunday we ran another lap on the Truss and I got to complete the run. Oddly enough the majority of the paddlers in Sundays crew were underage boaters that hadn't been out partying and drinking at the Premier Party. We'd paddled with Christina Russell who is sponsored by LiquidLogic like Devin in a prior Truss run, Today we got to paddle with her younger sister Kim Russell. You could not meet a nicer pair of sisters that happen to love kayaking as well. Proof that family is quality!!
SYOTR
