Put in on the June Creek section of the Clackamas.

My helmet would not fit right today.  This had not been a problem before.  My head hurt.  We stopped for a break at the confluence with the Collowash.  Searchers scoured the banks, the first day of sunshine in a week and the lowest water levels were, in my opinion, more than happenstance.  ”The plans of the righteous are just…”

Just below Drop Stopper, we enter the crux of the run.

I had never run the Killer Fang section at higher levels for good reason.  On this day the 3 Lynx gauge read 4,500cfs.  Prelude, the last drop above the mandatory portage known as Killer Fang came into view.  At this level it looked really big.  I had planned on catching the eddy river left just above then sliding through the left slot.  From our perspective the left and middle slots looked huge.  The safest line would be to go right, we dropped in with speed and charged right.  We weren’t able to square the Puma up well off the boof rock and landed sideways.  Chris and I were now swimming above the Killer Fang.  ”Don’t become a victim during a recovery mission” was just discussed.  By going right at Prelude we were out of the main, fast at high water current that feeds the Fang.  We easily swam to the right bank and watched the bigger Aire D Series boats navigate the ledge.  The Puma was still getting surfed.  We tried to get an R4 back up to the boat but couldn’t make it.  After a few minutes it came loose and began drifting into the main current.  Matt and I rallied into the boat and paddled to the right bank where we began the portage process.

Stage 1 of the portage.

Stage 2

I crawled, waded, and climbed out to take a peek at the Fang.  The sieve present at low water was gone and in its place was a river wide ledge that type-writered into a terminal hole next to an undercut wall.

The bottom of Killer Fang at 4,500cfs.

Killer Fang "rapid" from downstream.

While the team finished the portage I walked down to scout the Sieve and what was now a beefy class IV entrance rapid.  Of course, once your actually on the water everything gets a lot bigger.  The entrance drop was huge on the left, we quickly scurried over to a safer line on the right and then worked back left to set up for the Sieve.

The Sieve

This is usually a boulder garden with a few very narrow slots.

Making the left to right move at the bottom.

The only part of the drop that you cant scout is usually what gets ya.  On the very last move after the meat Chris didn’t make the high side and had a little swim.  Val and Matt were clean, somehow Jake and Dustin stayed in the boat:

After River’s Revenge we came back into sight of the road which was just before our take out.  An emergency vehicle was heading upriver with its lights on.  ”They found her” I said to Chris.  This was later confirmed by the Sheriff on our drive out.  The healing process begins.  ”The plans of the righteous are just”.

Aire. The toughest boats in the world. We'll leave brand X on the trailer for this trip.

Prior to sharing our experience I must add that the conditions were very dangerous and not recommended.  We accomplished this task with a team of veterans who have run many difficult rivers together for several years.  There is no margin for error and zero tolerance for miscommunication.  Even with that, we were challenged.

Fire Man and Grizz.

Our boat did not make the eddy above and instead chose to duck under this log.  Another log just beneath the surface prohibited us from getting low enough for the limbo.  Pictured log delivered a wood to Shred Ready helmet blow which dislodged my Go Pro and reminded me of sparring the night before.  From this point forward footage was limited.  No time to snap pictures, no functional helmet cam.  Getting stuffed into this log awakened the survival instincts.  It’s on now.

I decided on a mid stream log portage some time later.  The boat was nearly over the last log in the jam when a momentary lapse in communication with a teammate precluded the raft slipping back in the stream and becoming pinned against a creek wide log with several vicious sharp broken branches attacking the Aire (it was NOT punctured!).  We drug the other boat through the brush on shore and placed it in a stand by position below the log jam and the pinned raft.  I then shimmied back out on the log jam, got on the boat, and checked for all air valve locations reachable from the surface.  The plan was to either come back the next day when the water dropped to recover the boat, or deflate and hope it comes loose.  One minute after releasing the air out of the only valve I could reach the boat started sinking and slipped under the tree.  It quickly picked up speed, I dove in after it, climbed on top, tied off a flip line, flipped it over, got in, and began de-rigging the spare paddle when the next log jam came into view.

The D Series Aire passed close enough to a mid stream island that I was able to jump out and after a few minutes wrestle the boat out of the above pictured log jam.  The chase boat then arrived.  One paddler was walking down the bank.  I decided to roll one boat and make the two R2s one R4 for the following reasons. 1. Given that I had the most experience I wanted to guide everyone down in one boat. 2. Eddies were minimal and not conducive to getting to 14′ rafts into simultaneously. 3. An experienced and seasoned R4 crew was more solid in big water than lighter R2s who had not had the opportunity to develop team chemistry. 4. We had two boats mid stream and 3 paddlers.

Rigging one boat inside the other to finish the run.

We made the eddy to scout the falls.  I had never run an 18 footer with 4 people.  Not to mention a rolled up raft.  Keep it straight and hold on tight, very tight.  Let’s just say that next time everyone will have a Shred Ready helmet with a retention strap that prohibits the lid from rolling back and exposing the forehead…

As you can see there was even wood river right in the landing area.

Fortunately we landed this drop cleanly. One more tough portage and we were below the Boy Scout Camp.  Here we were rewarded with a long, class IV at this level rapid with of course a tree river right that we missed while “yarding” through the holes.  We took out at eagle Fern Park where we were rewarded with heated bathrooms!

Jamie shows off his wounds. Fire Man enjoying the carnage.

Another great day of boating in the Pacific Northwest!

We are what we are not.  ORT has survived through relationships which in one manner may be described as a dependence, alliance, or kinship.  We needed all of these likely as a result of our inability to attain these variables in traditional settings.  An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring.  Fleeting to enduring, that’s ORT.  In 7 years we have had about 28 paddlers come through our ranks.  In nearly each case we still communicate on some level, enduring.  However it is also true that we do not have tight nuclear families, and only in some cases lasting marriages.  Then what’s the glue?  Competition?  In part, a common goal that we can work collaboratively to achieve.  Yet only a few of our paddlers have or had previously participated in organized team sports.  Adrenaline?  We don’t all drop big waterfalls, attempt first descents, and enjoy racing head to head or even against the clock.  Acknowledgement, notoriety?  Possibly.  In our travels nationally and even globally we bump into folks that know us, but that’s not the primary innate force.

River; a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, lake, sea, or another river!  That’s ORT!  An alliance that is both fleeting and enduring.  A wonderfully natural and pure connectedness, an everlasting sense of belonging that doesn’t have issues or expectations.  As Bruce commonly says, “Expectations are predetermined resentments”.  A river is an earthly manifestation of God’s soul that instantaneously replenishes our own.  Water brings so many forms of life.  Whitewater provides the platform for glory and humility.  Life, death, and everything in between.

Of course we need support to sustain our efforts.  Our biggest sponsors share many similar traits, likely the reason the relationship has endured.  Aire, longest warranty in the industry and built in the USA.  Whitewater Designs, products made in Oregon by boaters.  Next Adventure, Deek and Bryan were resilient in starting their store years ago through the concept of sustainability by buying and selling used goods.  Team  Quest, Olympic silver medalist Matt  Lindland and wife Angie have been happily married for 16 years and manage a business training fighters of an obviously volatile nature.  Aquabound Paddles, likely the best bang for the buck in performance paddling equipment.  Immersion Research, John and Kara Weld are boaters for boaters.  More recently Keen from our hometown of Portland Oregon, Tom from Shred Ready, Chris from Kershaw Knives, Revo, Sierra Nevada, and Paul from OS Systems.  All of our sponsors have soul, heart, and a genuine love of our rivers.  Not fleeting but enduring.

      ORT shares it’s energy.  Like a paddler picking up another thumbing a ride to the put in we give back.  Our coffers are nearly empty at the end of each season.  Events are run to cover costs, and fundraisers keep our vehicles on the road and make it manageable for our paddlers to participate.  We sell or raffle gear below wholesale, hand out t-shirts and shwag, provide free barbeques and beverages at our events, and do a lot of darn work pulling it all together.  The return is amazing.  Paddlers are independent and self sufficient by nature yet we help lay the platforms to start and maintain relationships.  The river is always the blessed medium.  We hug each other after months and sometimes years of separation.  Our stories make the camp fire glow.  The water returns to the sea and comes back in another form to facilitate yet another adventure.  So will we.  ORT.

 Fleeting and enduring.

A sign of maturity which has taken me 42 years to address, accept, and begin to apply. My aggression will never go away. However, it will be controlled through fighting a predetermined and accepting opponent, by leading young men into battle, and by constantly reevaluating my behavior towards others.

You decide how this relates to the following trip report. If no insight is attained then please do our community a favor and never paddle anything harder than class IV and even then insure there are patient and understanding adults on the trip.

The Skagit drainage in the Northern Cascades.

The Skagit and Sauk Rivers have 12 beautiful runs within an hour and a half of each other. As a new head football coach, I had been rebuilding our program all summer (not paddling) and had just 7 days before I had to be back. This turned out to be a good choice. Things came up and our numbers soon dwindled. I trusted my paddling friends so with very little research we decided to give Granite Creek a go.

254 feet per mile. Paul chases us down an easier section.

While the information we had was vague, it was understood that the most demanding section was the first 2.2 miles. Toby was on the first ORT crew and we have been through alot together. We rafted the Aire Puma through the following drop without scouting.

Paul is an amazing elementary school teacher who now has a wonderful one year old boy. He looks at lines differently now.

The guidebook said no regarding rafts. Not uncommon to fire it off anyhow these days. Rafting has blown the ceiling off of perspectives the past 5 years in the Northwest. I kept telling Toby this felt like a first descent.

One of the few times I had a chance to shoot Paul. Eddies were few and not always raft friendly.

We were aware that a V+ drop sometimes containing wood was coming up. Our R2 made a branch grabbing eddy at the lip. There was wood in room river left. This one goes in a bigger boat. The Honda Civic could only fit a Puma in the trunk. Next time I’m taking a truck and a Super Duper Puma. The V+ link:

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The portage was rigorous. You cannot see this drop from the road.

No safety and wood. FORCED portage.

Following the last portage we ran a few more trashy class IVs without much grace. We fought for the eddy above the next major horizon line once again making it without any margin for error. This was the twisting 14 footer into a ramp which slammed into a wall we saw from the road and had previously thought it to be the V+. Or maybe it’s a class V, or maybe there are 2 V+ drops, or maybe were actually in Canada, eh? Toby exasperated “I’m beat”. Furrowed brow I turned away without responding to scout the drop pondering running it solo. Then the concept of humility set in. Why? What do I have to prove? Make it without safety and be a…”hero”? Not make it and succumb Toby to a life threatening rescue situation or an existence filled with grief if I don’t? “Hey bro, let’s go find Paul and finish this in the morning”. It has taken a lifetime of learning the lessons of anger and aggression to mutter those words. Well, Toby got called into work the next day and our itinerary soon took us to the Sauk.

Glory shines in the Sauk River!

God bless the soul of Allen Satcher.

Some local press:
Oregonian article on UCWWF featuring Dr.F
Oregonian article on USRA Nationals featuring Timber

Team Teva leads the pack out of Fish Creek during the mass start downriver race to Memaloose.

AIRE graciously provided race boats for all the pro men and women teams during Nationals, and even built them in ORT red, thanks!

ORT Red peels out of upriver gate B above Carter Falls.

Law (left) and Ox (right) punch their way through the holes in Carter Falls rapid during the Slalom run.

A big thanks to the UCWWF organizers, event staff, USRA, and all ORT sponsors who continue to support our endeavors into bringing whitewater raft racing mainstream.

A recent article in the Oregonian featuring ORT paddler Trey Knollman.

For more information, please visit the Upper Clackamas Festival website.

The UCWWF is an event open to all boaters (kayaks, driftboats, riverboards, IKs, cats, etc) and attracts hundreds of people from the Northwest. Come and join the action as a participant or spectator!

Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival 2009 from CRG Video on Vimeo.

Sunset Falls

Horseshoe Falls

ORT had 3 boats finish in the top 4 at the East Fork Lewis/Northwest Creek Comp event.  9 boats entered the mass start race just a half mile above Sunset Falls. After plunging over Sunset the rafters then ran together in the gorge below which was determined to be too burly for kayaks according to safety personnel. After a safe run through the big water gorge the rafters restarted the race and finished just above Horseshoe Falls with ORT taking the top spot (click on the image below for complete results).

Sunday’s Canyon Creek Race was canceled due to high water yet 9 rafts showed up anyway this time running together and working as a team as every boat that ran all the drops had carnage at some point.  Only 3 of the 9 boats that ran Big Kahuna were successful! Downstream, 5 paddlers stuffed themselves into an AIRE Puma after getting worked at Champagne and then successfully ran Hammering Spot just to get out of the Canyon!