A summer job as the lead instructor at the Columbia Gorge Kayak School and my freshman year at Western Washington University kept me from doing as much paddling as I had hoped in 2011. However, I was still able to get after it pretty hard and visited some incredible rivers across the West Coast. Starting the season off at home on the Little White Salmon River, we had flows higher than I’d seen. This mean paddling it at higher flows than usual. A great way to start the season: my favorite backyard run at a nice high 5ft.
Later in the season, Tyler Bradt, Erik Johnson, my brother Brendan Wells, and I found Outlet Falls at perfect flows. Outlet Falls is just 20 minutes from my home, and I was stoked to finally see her with enough water. Erik and I liked it so much we paddled it two days in a row. My favorite part is catching the eddy at the lip then fading into the clean 70 foot drop.
As the spring progressed, we continued the the yearly Pacific Northwest huckfest, Sam Freihofer and I decided to step it up a notch. We decided to take a topo-duo over 85ft. Metlako Falls.
It was the biggest waterfall paddled in a two person kayak, but Sam’s ejection out of the boat in the pool below has caused questions about the legitimacy of our record. Does Steve Fisher and Anton Immler’s previous record on 70ft. at Middle Palguin still stand? You be the judge.
Every year my brother and I run all the waterfalls on the Lewis River, and this year we did it multiple times. You have probably already seen footage of Upper Falls in the Bomb Flow video magazine, but here’s a video my brother and I made with our GoPros. It’s pretty sick.
Mid-way through the summer Louis Geltman, Seth Swallen and myself made an “on-the-spot” decision to rally 14 hours south to paddle Upper Cherry Creek in California. It was the best decision I made all summer, and I had one of the most amazing adventures of my life through a High Sierra granite wonderland.
In the fall, I started school, which put an enormous cramp in my style. Fortunately, I was able to explore new local river drainages. Being so close to the Canadian border I made a couple trips into Canada. My first trip north was with Eric Parker, Olin Wimberg, Ben Dann, and my brother, Brendan. We are all alumni of the World Class Kayak Academy, and our plan was to meet up with the school for a weekend. We enjoyed getting to see the school back in full function. It was an amazing weekend that brought back plenty of good memories.
On our next trip to British Columbia veterans of Dipper Creek Fred Norquist and Ben Hawthorne lead Olin, Eric, Brendan and myself down the amazing Dipper Creek. Flows were too low to do the whole creek, but we were able to get into Vertigo Canyon. Vertigo Canyon is an incredible crack in the earth; at points the river is just wider than a kayak with walls towering hundreds of feet above. This is another wonderland of the world.
I finished off my year back home in the Columbia River Gorge for winter break. I was blessed with high water: 4.5 ft. on the Little White and 6ft. on the White Salmon River. It was an amazing year, and I’m sure that 2012 will only be better.
Cheers all, and have an incredible new year!!
IR Team Member: Todd Wells
Photo’s: All of the photos from Cherry Creek and Lower Falls on the Lewis River have photo credit by Seth Swallen. All of the other photos were taken by me.
Awesome collection of river wonders!