Boof or Consequences!!!

Wind River, Washington State

April, 2007

by Jim Burton, Sherwood, Oregon

In a previous trip report, I told you that I wanted to step up my kayaking this year. One of the local kayaking clubs in Portland has been offering an intermediate/advanced kayaking clinic once a month & I have been attending to improve my skills. Michael, the guy teaching the clinic, told us that he was we were going to step it up on our April outing. I thought this is perfect. Just what I have been looking for. As it turned out, this fell into the be careful what you ask for because you might get it category. This past Saturday I think I stepped up as much as I want to for a while.

Our group of ten (2 instructors & 8 students) headed to the Upper Wind River in Washington. When Michael announced that we would be paddling the Upper Wind, I began researching the run. What I found worried me. The average gradient of the 6 mile run is 87 feet per mile but most of the drop is in a 2 mile stretch. The gradient over this stretch is 107 feet per mile. The run is rated class IV+, IV-V, or V, depending on which guidebook you are looking at. I initially thought it would be like the Numbers on the Arkansas. WRONG. Think of the Numbers with LOTS more rocks. I have decided that it is a class IV+ run with class V consequences. It is a very rocky, technical river. Michael suggested we bring our best helmets & elbow pads if we had them. William & I began to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into. All too soon, we found out.

Upper Wind River                      Another look at Upper Wind R.                    A tree across the river bed.

The river starts off slowly with a couple of class IIs followed by a couple of class IIIs. Then about a mile from the put in, it breaks loose. The first big rapid is Initiation & it is long & congested. We could only scout the upper part of this rapid because the rest was hidden around the bend. The route for the upper part was pick your way through some rocks, boof over a hole, pick your way through some more rocks, then catch the last eddy we could see before the river went around the bend. From there we would boat scout the next section, catch another eddy and boat scout the last section. It was quite an initiation.

Initiation Rapid                                          Where you need to make the boof move.                  Looking downstream

The next four rapids were all back to back & were essentially a mile long rapid. Each drop had a boof move over a rock or hole. We soon found out that this was the theme for the day. We were boofing over holes, over rocks, everywhere. When in doubt, boof. These four rapids lead into Ram's Horn. A swim in one of them would probably result in a swim of Ram's Horn and that would not be fun.

Below Initiation                                                                                          Another rapid below Initiation

Ram's Horn is a large drop into a BIG hole. One of our fellow paddlers took one look at the hole & immediately walked back upstream to his boat & began carrying it around. Ram's Horn begins with, you guessed it, a boof over a ledge hole then down a short slide into the hole. The move was to get left where you could just sneak around the hole. The problem was the whole river feed into the hole. William went over the top ledge in the wrong spot & momentarily pinned. After he freed himself, he styled the rest of the rapid getting left without much problem. I did manage to get left but got spun out on an eddy line, causing the tail of my boat to drop into the far left side of the hole. This was followed by a nice view of the sky as I got back endered. But I was continuing to move downstream so all was well.

Upper part of Ram's Horn                Ram's Horn hole                   Kayaker in Ram's Horn      William scouting

We all gathered in an eddy below Ram's Horn & basked in our glory. But the celebrating started too soon because the next rapid became a swim fest. We had 3 swimmers in this rapid followed by 2 more swimmers in Balls to the Wall Right. One of these swims lead to a lost boat.

Balls to the Wall Right                                            Balls to the Wall Left                                     Pinned (empty) kayak

Next was Balls to the Wall  Left a mirror image of BTW  Right. Both required a boof move over a meaty ledge hole at the bottom of the drop. After BTW  L we found the wayward kayak. It was pinned in the middle of the river next to a large rock. Michael did some amazing rock climbing moves from his kayak to get on top of the rock to retrieve the kayak. Unfortunately, his boat floated downstream in the process. I don?t have any pictures of the pin extraction because I was chasing Michael?s boat. There is nothing like paddling a class IV+ river that you have never been on before chasing a boat to over work your adrenal gland. We got the boat out right before the last big rapid, Climax.

After draining the boat, I scouted Climax & ate some lunch. Climax is a boulder ledge all the way across the river creating a hole. The move is a boof off of a rock over the hole. It is very anticlimactic when done right.   It is very exciting when done wrong.

Climax upclose                                                Instructor punching hole                              Climax from afar

After Climax the river lets up. There are numerous class III rapids that gradually taper to class II. William & I put our newly learned boofing moves to use in this class II & III stuff. We were boofing everything we
could find which got us into trouble some times. At one point I lined up on a big wave that looked like a lot of fun. As I was approaching it, it occurred to me that it might be the pillow in front of a big hole. I thought, no big deal, I will just boof it! Well, the wave did lead into a big hole. I hit my boof but it wasn't big enough. Fortunately, the hole wasn't real sticky & I was able to hold a high brace long enough to pull me
out of the hole before I flipped.