Lochsa trip coming up

The Northwest River Forecast Center's map looks like a condiment fight gone wrong. Nobody wins when you get ketchup and mustard all over your map...except whitewater enthusiasts.

The Lochsa will likely be somewhere between 6 and 9 feet on the visual gauge. Here is a brief video of a raft running two rapids at 9.5 feet on the gauge, muhuhahaha:



Big water fun is sure to be had!

Update. Well, maybe the big water fun will be had by some, but it's looking like much of the PDX community will not be heading out this year, due to high flows. Listen to Johnny Ott, the voice of experience and reason:

Lochsa River

I saw a post by Will[ie] mentioning the Lochsa. I am very familar with this area and I have gone to the big weekend four years steady. This year however I am going in June. Will[ie] is right the river is going off in a not so fun way. IT is very high and thing are washed out with wood floating down. Not a safe time for rafters or kayakers who might be swimming. The weather is not great for the weekend and Idaho is still at 100% snow pack. I would highly recomend going there in the middle of june. The creeking will be great righ around then as well.

Johnny Ott

Second update. Very few people from the PDXkayaker community went out to the Lochsa this Memorial weekend, but those who went said it was pretty epic. Turns out that the water came down to a more manageable "very high" level, and the wood was mostly washed through by the weekend.

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!