Long-time IR supporter Stephen Forster recently spent nine days paddling the rivers of the Pacific Northwest in Oregon and Washington state. Stephen was a student at the New River Academy a couple of years back, and has since been traveling and kayaking some of the best runs in the nation.
Here is what he had to say about it:
One month ago I bought a ticket to Portland with the plan of runninga couple rivers throughout Oregon. Currently I am more then halfwaythough my nine day trip and I have rune more vertical feet than mostpeople have run in their life.
The first day I got picked up from the airport after waking up at 3am to geton the plane. We quickly drove to Eagle Creek and Kyle Hull and I ran 35foot Punchbowl falls and 90 foot Metlako falls. It was around 6.00 whenwe ran the falls so the light was too low to film.
The next day I ran Upper and Lower Bridal Veil Falls. The Upper drop wassupposedly navigated twice before. The Upper falls is about 60 feet with anauto-boof halfway down. The bottom drop is a 30 to 40 foot slide. I scoutedthe drop briefly and decided to run it. The lip of the top drop was gigantic.The crowd at the bottom had to be 100 feet down. Luckily I had great lineson both drops.
After, John Hyland, Kyle Hull, and I traveled to the Little White Salmon.This classic creek is a gem. The water was high, but nonetheless we headeddown the river. This has to be my new favorite creek. Kyle and I ran everyrapid including Sprit falls, a monstrous 30 footer with a very dangerousrapid called chaos right after. We both had good lines.
The next two days were spent Southeast of Hood River on the MckenzieRiver. Kyle hull and I ended up running 75 foot Koosah falls and 85-foot Sahalie Falls. Both had difficult lips. Our lines were good though.
After that, John, Kyle, and I went to Celestial falls, a clean fifty footer.We ran our boats in, hoping not to get spotted by the locals and we weresuccessful. Celestial falls is a great drop for an introduction to hucking.
The last day I was in Oregon I went back to Eagle Creek. My goal wasto run Metlako 5-8 times in a day. The water was ridiculously high themorning I woke up. I hiked up to check out Metlako Falls and it lookedpretty good. I ran back down to the car, did the two-mile hike withmy boat, above Metlako and started hucking. I ended up running thisinfamous 102-foot drop 6 times that day. The only battle scar I came outwith was a gash and a black eye.
It definitely sucked leaving this amazing place. The quality of waterfallsand rivers is astounding. Hopefully I will get to go back this year.
At the Lip of Koosah Falls, Oregon
Sahalie Falls, Oregon
Paddle Toss on Celstial Falls, Oegon (Known to the park service as White River Falls)
At the lip of the new Hucker's Classic, Metlako Falls on Eagle Creek, Oregon. 20 ft of slope, followed by 82 ft of freefall.
Upper Bridal Veil Falls, Oregon. The 3rd known descent of this drop. Dave Grove had the 1st D on this one years back, then Tyler Bradt had the 2nd about 2 years ago.
You must have shrunk after the boof on Upper Bridal Veil! A wheel chair by 40!
luckily i brought her down, for a split second my back was definitely about to hate me