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Sept 2011 Chelan Release was a success.  
For the past decade the PUD has been conducting flow studies for ecological and recreational "whitewater" purposes in the dewatered Chelan Gorge. The river is only 4 miles dumping from the lake to the Columbia with only about 1 mile of actual whitewater with about 5 distinct drops set in an amazing east side desert granite gorge.  The PUD is planning on giving this project to the Parks service potentially and there has been a lack of interest in the past however there is strong motivation now to keep this run alive. The only reason we get to kayak this stretch of canyon is due to American Whitewater and the relicensing of the dam. If we as kayakers  don't show our support for every release it is possible that this section will be closed as in the past to kayaking. having never paddled this section I heard tons of beta like, oh its just five drops, oh it's pretty far away..... having spent the past two summers in search of the best whitewater I would put this on a must see section of classic whitewater. The next release is this month September 24th. I will try and make it to this release and encourage paddlers to support this cause and keep this section open to kayakers. 

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   Here is a map showing the end of the lake with a hydro dam that is used for power and eragation. From there the river falls off the platue and dumps 4 miles into the Columbia river. This section never gets seen by people paddlers or often even water most of the year unless they dump water due to axceeding lake levels or your let in the gates by officials and escorted to the put in for the study. 
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                              A historical photo of the gorge before the dam and dewatering 
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                                                      A dry river bed ???
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                     The two mile paddle in before the river tilts down hill through the gorge 
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                    The first drop you get to is entrance exam. Kelly fires up entrance exam
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                              Scotty cleans the line on entrance that no one could duplicate. 
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                                             Marco gets a good boof off the top
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                                   Playing in the middle ledge hole. this rapid was tuff !!! 
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                              Adrian bringing her down just before the middle ledge hole
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                    The bottom of the drop pinches down into a boxed in hole that was hard to 
                    style. This is the hole above the box hole below the two upper ledges.
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                         The box hole, the exit of entrance that included 5 swims           
                                 Scotty with the arm. This hole was a beast !!! 
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                                 How did Scott get to the other side of the river so fast ??
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                     Double Slide. A nasty 20 foot plunger some call the meatlocker. it goes ??
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                                                    Marco.... Double Slide 
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                                          Alex dropping into Double Slide
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                           This is the best you can hope for. Least your not in the meatlocker.. 
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                                           The most glorious boof ever... Matt Kurle
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                       right below super boof you have Throne. A 15 foot slide that ran right into
                        a portage. Scott running Throne. 
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                                             Amazing team work on the portage 
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                                        Me on the boulder sieve sneak close to the end
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                                    Chelan is hard on gear.... it was time anyway....
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               Bootie time !! everyone went big and Chelan handed out some serious gnarnage... 
               it tested my skill and is one of the most beautiful gorges I've paddled. We need to keep 
               this gem in our backyard. Come support Chelan Gorge and keep the water flowing !!! 
 
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Back to BC with Leif and Ryan. The plan was to go to Idaho and paddle the mighty NF Payette however driving all that way when BC was right here and the pixie pool was calling our name seemed foolish. I got the text. Tatlow?  My heart started pounding just thinking about it.  So we were off again to BC to get another lap on the BOX and to hike up and run Tatlow if we got good reports.  Tatlow is a classic BC creek that doesn't get done that often due to water levels and pure accessibility and is a pure class V gem.  All the stories about wall drug and the hike in and the first three blind ledges into the 20 footer. We loaded up Ryan's tank crossed the border and made our way to the Ashlu to warm up and talk to the locals and see who had ventured into Tatlow so we could get beta on wood and access issues. the word was good all was clean and the level was perfect. I started getting nervous knowing we were dropping in the next morning and are wavering plans become as solid as granite. 

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I had not been back since last year when Jeff and I went up to the Callaghan race and got all our paddling gear stolen out of the truck. I still love Canada, you just have to be careful which hash bars you choose to go to I guess...... So my first trip to paddle in BC. This time we didn't stop in Vancouver.  British Columbia is a place of magic, big glacial covered mountains, rivers that fall off every valley and a feeling of true wilderness.  We hooked up with the local legends and some cool Austrians that were in the area boating for a month and had a marathon weekend. Two laps down the "BOX" and the triple crown. That's four new rivers in two days....

 It was a great weekend of paddling and hooking up with new friends and boating new rivers. I had read about all the hydro projects affecting the area but had no idea until I was up there how much the power industry is affecting the wilderness up there. Mini hydro projects are going up everywhere and power lines will soon cross every valley.  BC is still an incredible place.   

                      Ashlu River
                                                         (box canyon)
  The Ashlu river flows into the Elaho river outside of Squamish BC and is one of the worlds finest  gems.  After damming it a few years ago paddlers fought hard for our sport and the freedom of rivers and luckily we can still paddle this section. Not ever doing it before I was glad we had locals Steve Arns, Ali, Steve Rogers and buddy Leif to show me down. It's not long but the first canyon is pretty much boxed in with a cruxie move right out of the gate and into the BOX. If I had to run one river for the rest of my life this would not be a bad river to have......50/50 is huge and I didn't run it but and as I didn't get pics of most of the good stuff in here it's because your walled in and having a blast boating !!! to experience the box is to boat the box. 
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                                                        The 50/50 lead in 
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                                                     Kristof below 50/50 
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                                                       Kristof entering the box 
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                                 commitment eddie, only one way out from here.....
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                                           most amazing canyon i've ever paddled
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                                                exiting the "box" first canyon 
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          the valley opened up after the box for a breather before the entrance to the second canyon
          which wasn't as walled in or hard but had some of the best drops and boofs on the run.  
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                                the double 12 footer run on the right... two perfect boofs. 
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          Making our way through the Ashlu's huge boulder gardens. The rivers here run huge most
          of the year. it's amazing to be paddling in these canyons at there lowest boofing through 
          the huge car sized boulders walled in and committed in one of the most beautiful places in
          the world. 


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   The Whistler Triple Crown 
  The whistler triple crown is running the classic three rivers right near whistler in one day. The Callaghan, Cheakamus and Soo rivers respectively.  
                                           Cheakamus river
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                             Soo River 
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   Alex our Austrian friend entering the Soo via the hydro diversion at the bottom of some serious steepness you can see behind him. Two miles of class II brought us to a canyon that wasn't on the normal put in for the Soo. 
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    looking down the lead in to the upper canyon. It was a two part canyon broken up by a huge river wide hole that you needed to punch and eddie out. 
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                                          river wide hole bottom of section one
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                                            Sam and I entering section one
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                                 me on the move above the big hole you don't want to 
                                 screw up..it was bigger than it looked from the scout
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                                    looking down on section two. Rob getting sporty !! 
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                                        myself dropping into section two
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                                      always bigger in there than you think.......
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                                                         Sam Graffton 


                                       Callaghan Creek 
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The second annual South Fork Salmon river trip. Idaho in general is land of multi-day big water kayak trips and there's not many trips that beat the SF.  It's classic Idaho. Hot weather, big water (well not this year) sweat camping, and more miles of boatable class IV-V than most any other state. 

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                              A wilderness river trip can't get started right without BACON !!! 
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On our long list of runs that have not been done in a while Christian Knight brought a bunch of folks back to a classic or not so classic run that has been off the radar for some years. The East Fork Miller was featured on the old Twitch videos and since then has not been paddled. So with the Pyrahna Demshitz crew in town and Brett fired up to go back in I was talked in to a mission of proportions getting off work with no sleep.  It was hard to motivate for this knowing I was going to hike in a mile and have to bush wack my way through most of the canyon. All in all it was amazing and fun ! alot of work but worth the sweat to see the canyon.  Six hours for three miles..........

                                           CLICK HERE FOR A VIDEO OF THE EAST FORK MILLER
                                   http://creeksides.blogspot.com/2011/07/upper-east-fork-miller.html
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                                      Brett in his usual hiking attire courtesy of Calvine Cline
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                                          The start of the high mountain East Fork
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                                        The first drop of the day a slidy 40 footer
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                                                            The crew filming
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                                                        Brett routing the goods
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                                       Alot of this trying to make our way down stream
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                         Dave with a sweat move then out of the boat again for the 20th time
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                                        Dave Fusilli firing off the 20 footer on the right boof
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                                        Other Dave running the left
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                             Nicole Mansfield cleaning up the fun middle canyon stretch
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                                                  Fusilli with the fader
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                                                Nicole looking at the double drop
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                                                   Dave fusilli on the double
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                   Scouting the last big slide that looked to be 70 feet. We all got out at this one
                     but Dave Fusilli took the pipe and cleaned it up. Watch the video !!!!
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                                                                  70 FEET OF BUTTER
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                                         Fusilli at the bottom. He said it felt like butter ??
 
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                                                   Looking over Box drop
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                                                    With flowers in her hair
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                                 Kendra the Killa surfing up Trinity on the Wenatchee
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                                Kendra enjoying our 4th of July float down Yellowjacket
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After my whirlwind Idaho tour I was meeting my dad and nephew in Utah to fish the waters of the Flaming Gorge on the Green River. The snow pack for the year was huge everywhere it seemed and the green was pumping out 5,ooo cfs out of the reservoir.  Not good for fishing but the weather was good and I had brought a couple kayaks to teach my nephew and my dads buddy Jack how to paddle.  We got a couple good days in. Kayaking, fishing on the lake and a couple days on the river.
Utah was nice and relaxing and fun to hang with the family and my boys. 

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                                 The true RG of the trip Tanner slaying the lake trout
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                       Second fatty of the day, the RG said you just have to piss em' off
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                                  Ol' dad in the backround tying one on for an evening fish
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                  Thanks to Tanner for getting us dinner one night. We were all skunked.......
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          A turbine blew on the dam. Didn't help with the flow as they needed to release more water
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                                                   True RG in his element
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                                       Jack taking to kayaking like a natural
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                                                 Flaming Gorge kayak lesson
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                                                   Green river reservoir
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                                                         Poppa Bear
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                                                   MONTUCKY MY LOVE
So after deciding what to do our original plan was to fish our way home threw Montana. The reports didn't look good for the region as far as flooding but with my love for Montana  and wanting to kayak I convinced the boys we needed to go to the big sky country.  As we drove into Montana it was time to find a place to camp and we encountered the biggest darkest rain storm ever. We quickly put up a tarp and tent and sat under it as it pelted and flooded the grass around us. Thank you Jack Daniels for getting me through that night.  After that we woke up in Dillon,MT home to the best trout fishing anywhere. As it was flooded out we decided to head east to the Madison and meet my new friend Kendra for some kayaking and camping for the weekend.
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           Kendra and the boys. fishing was blown out and kayaking was even high. we got a lot of
           hot spring time in at the Noris hot spring.
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                                    Beartrap Canyon high water but super fun
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                                               Kendra stairing down her line
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                                                     It was that good !!!!
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                                   My favorite beach ever ..... I recommend river left ?      
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                                      Fond Memories of Montana.... I'll miss it.
 
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One of the hardest river permits to get in one of the most remote river wilderness in the lower 48.  The Selway River. As a kayaker it's just one of those things you want to do like the Grand Canyon as soon as you start kayaking. Some folks wait years to get on the Selway.  As I feel fortunate on this one I was invited by a man of the name Lance Young (aka) the Silver Fox. Lance pulled a permit after waiting years and had a crew of three paddlers on a raft and himself and needed more crew. So there I was. I was already at the Lochsa and had time to kill before my Utah fishing trip with my dad so timing was perfect.  Going in as the only kayaker with Lance and two crews on a raft that were not super solid made me want more friends on board.  The levels were spiking up and down and with the snow pack we were expecting high high water and the trip to be cancelled. At least for the rafts. I recruited Rob Bart my buddy from Hood who happened to be at the Lochsa and my new found friend from Montana little miss killa Kendra. Kendra Rob and myself had been hanging at the lochsa all weekend with Chad and the crew so we were a team at that point ready to go anywhere.  Driving an hour to get cell coverage checking levels convinsing Rob and Kendra they needed to go dragging Chad around on missions and making sure our trip leader with the permit was leaving Washington and not bailing. With some luck we pulled it off. Water was perfect, the crew was there. The stars were truly alligned for this one !!!!

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                                 Our Selway crew meeting us at the Lochsa camp
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                 Chad and Rob stoked there acually going on the Selway after painful logitics
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                                            Kaiser roll tired of me stairing at her
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                                   In Montana taking a picture of Chad in Idaho
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          A morning walk to the put in with our coffee. Our cars are gone and there's only one way out
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                                                       Put in maddness
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       The week before this gage at Paradise was 6 on the gage. Are friends from Montana said oh don't bring rafts in there above 6 feet, we kayaked it at 8feet and it was huge. The week before we launched a cold front came through and dropped the levels in the high mountains causing the rivers to drop. The night on the river it rained something fierce and we were all worried as the river rose a foot to 5feet on the stick and we ended up getting off before it hit 6feet. A foot is a big difference in the canyon section. I would say our rafting party was just at there level of comfort while Rob, Kendra and I could see kayaking it above 6feet but it does take on a big water feel. 
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                                        Chad rowing down the top of the Selway
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                                                        The Silver Fox
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                                                 Kendra, I think she's excited !!!
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                                          Rob Bart Excited as well to be on the Selway
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                               Chad plugging a tuber wave with Rob going for the surf
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        Camp one: We did a two day Selway trip. Good flow and two good 23 mile days.
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