Upper Klamath River and Scott River

Bryan from Next Adventure shuttled us down to the Upper Klamath race in Deek's bitchin' Mercedes van, with a dozen boats and 11 people making the journey. It took us 5.5 hours and 4 cases of beer, but we made it. I think everyone liked my story about hunting with my dad and brothers and running into a trapped sheep. For some, it was a crash course in my sick sense of humor, I think. We arrived at Noah's Rafting, set up sleeping bags both inside the warehouse and outside by the van, and conked out, eagerly anticipating the next day's whitewater.

Saturday morning brought a clear and dry dawn. After a bomber breakfast at the Breadboard in town, we loaded up and hit the Upper Klamath. The Upper K is a classic big water Class IV+ run. We were fortunate that both turbines were releasing from the dam, so flows were around 2850 cfs, which made for more entertaining whitewater and fewer nasty rocks to hit. Caldera was definitely the highlight of the run, with about a quarter mile of big Class V-ish waves, holes, and funky hydraulics. Our kayaker crew styled it, with most of us running in playboats. We definitely did a good job of representing Portland kayakers.

Snow Saturday night forced Tim B. to relocate the race to the Scott River. We even had a couple of inches on the valley floor.

A highlight of the trip came when I was inspired to throw a wet sheet of plywood on one side of the huge bonfire we had and jump it on a borrowed bicycle, under the full moon on 4/20 -- twice. I flubbed the landing both times, but Ty styled it once and called it good. I don't have any hair left on my knuckles. Paul Gamache from Team Bigfoot let Robbie Virostek shoot some video -- apologies in advance for the camera work of an inebriated minor:



Here's the weird part: I hadn't read Willamette Week before hitting the road, and I only sometimes read the Free Will Astrology horoscope. After the trip, I returned to read this horoscope:


Ooh-wee-ooh! Spoooooky!