Devin about half way down the slide. Next time hopefully it'll be juicy and a waterfall
Devin boofing a medium sized pour over in the Remix59. photo's by Corey Morton
Last year I had the opportunity to get down the Illinois River for my first time and while I'd wanted to take Devin down with me I was concerned about the run being a class IV-V overnighter that's really remote. What if something happened or he was in over his head? The levels had been rising that trip and we estimate it was around 2000-2400 cfs on the gauge above the run. One thing about the Illy is that there are a lot of waterfalls from creeks screaming with water after a rain. The gauge is only a reference tool and seems far from accurate to flows once on the run. The main rule is that you don't put on if it's raining or a storm is rolling in. The river flashes up quickly due to the steepness of the canyon and soil on the banks doesn't absorb the water resulting in the levels jumping from a low 800cfs to an out of control 4-8000cfs in several hours. The class V (green wall) has claimed lives of people attempting it at higher flows. From what I was told a group tried to eddie out above the Green Wall and found there wasn't any and washed into it.
This wasn't that sort of levels by any means but we were dealing with a small chance of rain and the levels were currently sitting around 1200cfs and predected to rise to 1750cfs or so. Cold, rainy but it's the Illy and I'm use to multi-day's in the rain.
IT'S OREGON!!
We considered playboats with the lower level but this being my second time down and at half the flow I was told the run would be pretty mellow but I wanted to be conservative. So we opted to big boats down and Devin borrowed a LiquidLogic Remix59 from Sam Drevo at eNRG Kayaking, who is letting Devin train for the Canyon Creek Race in the boat. The boat proved to be a great boat for the run with it's 9' length Devin was intentionally plowing through big hole, held a line well, boofed some of the biggest pour overs we had to date and with planing hull it's surfed on the big glassy waves effortlessly.
In all it was a great trip with a really fun group of friends and I'm bummed to be back home already sitting in from of the computer typing this. Oh well, we should be heading to do a lap on Canyon Creek later today!!
One note to mention about the Illinois' (Green Wall) is that while everyone usually spends 10-15 scouting it you'll want to walk down to the bottom of the rapid and see a new feature. (Harvey's) The river bed changed and there is now a huge stomping hole were there wasn't prior. We got to watch Mike Evan's rodeo his small cat (12' Sotar) for a minute till the bull tossed him out. Good news both Mike and his gear flushed right out. Talking with others camping below Green Wall several cats and rafts flipped on this new feature. Me and Devin, the only two kayakers that ran the Green Wall found sneak on far river left that required a commiting ferry that if went bad sent you right into the hole. We both hit our lines!!
