Pat Keller, with yes, hand paddles on the Little White!!
On Saturday, Devin and myself ran the Farmlands and Green Truss sections of the White Salmon at 3.25'. The highest we've both ran the Truss to date. The Farmlands 3.25 is a normal medium level and there were not many surprises but once we hit the Truss. Things started to get juicy really quick but not in a bad way. Many rocks were covered and with the exception of some bigger holes we both felt that the run cleaned up. We both portaged Big Bro', Bob's and BZ and Lower Zig-Zag cause of the wood. Every since I got beat in Bob's, Devin is very respectful of the drop and has not been really interested in running it. I'm kinda still working on it as well and it seemed much better at 3.25 than at lower flows as long as you stayed out of the pocket hole in the middle.
Our only real entertainment for the Truss was Upper Zig-Zag were I got spun around near the top, flipped and ran the majority of the rapid upside down!? It's nice to know that you can ride it out since the water takes you where you want to go anyway. Plus, once your doing a head rudder it's easy to not flip!! Devin got tangled with me near the bottom left undercut wall and we both briefly flipped and plushed through but Devin got to brace off the wall with his head. Oops! One thing that is amazing with Upper Zig-Zag is that even if you gap yourself 60-100 feet behind the person in front of you. If they get off line, you are on them like white on rice. Allen Thatcher who was behind Devin became too close for his comfort as me and Devin got tossed around.
Sunday I decided to take a break and let my shoulder rest and Devin got a email from Austin Rathman wanting to boat the L-Dub. The flows had dropped to around 3.2' finally and it seemed a good option for the day. The flows ended up being 3.3' and Devin had a blast running it with Austin and Pat Keller from Team Dagger. Pat is a amazing paddler that is alot like Devin. Not only in hairstyle but Pat started out ina kayak when he was like 6 years old. Pat being the animal he is opted to hand paddle the Little White without portaging any drop and even fired off Spirit Falls. I had hiked in to take some pics but after my scouting of Upper Little White. I got down just after he had ran it and got to only see Austin signal to me that everything went smooth and I saw the three head down river. Austin and Devin portaged Spirit.
This was Devin's second run down the Little White and he had remembered most all the lines and was even taking some of his own. Something that most people don't do till their 6-7th time down the run. It's impressive to see how well Devin's memory is to rapids. I've learned to not argue with him to much on a rapid. Though I still do. I'm a little stubborn too!
