The Lochsa river is an Idaho classic bringing paddlers from all over to enjoy the big water feel of Idaho paddling with fun rapids and the party scene that combines all my friends from four states.  As we committed to the trip Chad and his new cat boat had some big water training to do and had a date with Lochsa falls and the flipping of his new boat. The weekend was off the chain and started with Rob and I kind of borrowing a raft and taking some folks down in the raft never seeing the river before. It was so fun ! Big hits almost flips, Well Chad got his flip and tons of carnage and laughs on the first day. We stayed for three days kayaking and hanging out with all our friends new and old.  The Lochsa was a hoot and the area was amazing. I'll definetely be back next year With my play boat and more time for the hot springs !!!!

                                                Rob Bart surfing Pipeline wave

                                  The masses at the put in getting ready

                         The ladies man Rob with our crew Stanfield, Erin, Johanna

                        Massive stack of rafts and a full party shuttle headed for camp

                                                           Dead Sexy

                   There were fifty folks from all over in are camp. It turned into a good party !!

                               A lone mountain surfer trying his luck on pipeline wave

After everyone went home I had this Selway trip that was on the hit list next and needed paddlers to go with me. I talked my new awesome friend Kendra into going. She drove back to Bozeman to get her gear and came back the night before we left. Rob I had to convince to ditch work and find a way for his car to get back to Hood River and a way for him to get home. It all came together and wse had a crew for the Selway. The water was super high the week before and we had a small window to get in there before it spiked again. Chad was pretty stoked to get on another Classic Wild and Scenic river.  Here's us after Lochsa weekend sifting and organizing our gear for the drive around the pass into the Selway drainage.

Leavenworth, What can I say. I went back to spend some time with my old town favorite rivers and my two favorite friends John, Michelle and their new little cutie June. It's been two years since I've been back. Icicle canyon is one of a kind and being back reminded me of why this area is so amazing and beautiful, not to mention I burried my dog up here and have years of memories being it my old backyard run.  Sun, the alpine mountain backdrop and good friends always make it the best.  It's a turning of age. We used to rally to Metallica or Regge now we are heading to the put in listening to the Mickey Mouse Club clapping with June. It's         
                                                                                nice, it gives class V a little Disney-esc sort of 
                                                                                feel.  
       Little June breakdancing at the take-out

   

                                 Johny Fuqua running the goods in between babysitting 

                                        Joe coming through the entrance to Horseshoe

                               A typical outcome at the bottom of  Horseshoe 

      On lap three the second day Marty the Jackson rep joined us for some Icicle action. Marty was stoked 
      and was ready for another lap as soon as we were done. It was cool to show him such a good run. 
   

                                                    Joe showing good form

                                     Me in my new Remix 79, still getting used to it. 

                                                       the remix dropping the Plunge 

                                               Three stooges - Marty is fired up !!! 

                                                                      Joe

          

                                             Fuqua coming through the Plunge 

                        Marty on his first run of the Plunge without scouting, It's a right of passage. 

                                                                    Mua

                                                                      Fuqua

                     Fun Week on the Cicle.  Five runs on Icicle and we hiked Horseshoe four times in 
                     on one day. We were lucky to jump on Tumwater the last day and show Marty
                     some big water because all he could see from the road was flatwater.. haha 

Here are some random shots of Robe we got over this winter. Robe Canyon is our backyard run only 1 hour from Seattle and gets done a lot. It's my favorite river to paddle in the area !!! 

                                                         Me on Sunshine

                                         The view looking back up at Sunshine 

                                   Me coming through T-1 Before the wood blocked it 

                                                    Unknown drop but awesome !!!!!

                                   Evening sun making it's way into the canyon 

                                              Super Rob running landslide

Despite me not being very competitive Brett talked me into to the race after I talked him out of it to go run the multi-day Illinois river.  After our trip got cancelled he won and we raced. I had just got my new Remix 79 and was not used to paddling it so it was interesting getting to know a new boat in a down river class V race. The Remix is awesome though, got me through everything and proved to be a fast boat. Though we only got 9th, I did flip in "20' falls" and ran cats paw to the right upside down and bruised the arm up pretty bad. After eddying out and Brett yelling WTF ? we still got 9th. room for improvment. But it was all about fun ! getting all the best boaters in the area together for a goot time and a gentlemens race.  In the paddle out we had the biggest party at our favorite little spot with everyone hanging out for a while at the tree !! Good times.. Thanks to Todd Gillman for putting this event on and for all the beer!!!! 

 Check out this video of the race course shot by Fred Norquist on BombFlow.com 

Here are the results:

1. ROBES: Darren Albright & Tao Berman (28:34)
2. Louis Geltman & Andrew McEwan (29:02)
3. Brian Fletcher & Aaron Johnson (30:15)
4. Ben Hawthorne & Rob McKibbon (30:48)
5. Lane Jacobs & Jamie Wright (31:05)
6. Fred Norquist & Jure Poberaj (32:13)
7. Jonathan Ehlinger & Scott Waidelich (32:32)
8. Leif Embertson & Chris Tretwold (34:05)
9. Brett Barton & Chris Totten (34:31)
10. Mike & Joe Howard (35:28)
11. Jon Dufay & Jon Prentice (37:06)
12. GNOME: Steve Arns & Matt Kompass (38:30)

For a full write up and more pics check out Therangelife blog at http://therangelife.blogspot.com/

                      Brett and I coming through Hotel California Exhausted trying to go fast

Canyon creek is one of the most classic runs in Washington. In the last two years CC has been clogged with a massive log jam. This years floods washed it out and CC is back and as clean as ever. We got the band back together and road tripped down for a fun relaxing day on CC lewis.

                                          Nick Hinds dropping big Kahuna

                                     A look at the falls section from below

                                                Bret Barton having fun !!

                                        Jon Almquist making it look easy !!!

The Carbon river is one of the most classic canyons in washington. Not many paddlers have been down it and it has had a reputation of being walled in and demanding. Our mission here was to rappel in right below the pinched gorge missing three of the hardest drops and paddling the rest of the canyon which was one of the most amazing places I've seen and the coolest gorge I've paddled. I am planning on making another trip in soon at lower flows looking to run the upper gorge and taking more pics of the scenery because these ones just don't do it justice.....

 Video on this will be up soon !! just to get a tease of what the experience is like.  

                                                                 Scotty rapping in !

                                                     Thanks to Dave for all the rope and rappel equip 

                                                 Once your in your committed.... So amazing ! 

                                          Scott climbing out above a boxed in 14 footer

Deer Creek... I never even heard of deer creek until this winter. All the boys around seattle have been charging hard looking for new runs and going back to rivers that were explored but forgotten about over the years. Deer Creek is that one forgotten run that you now know why most folks don't know about it or just forgot about it. On purpose. Deer Creek flows into the North Fork Stilly a sister drainage to Robe canyon on the South Fork Stilly. This run was an amazing exploration for our crew dealing with a personal first descent so close to home.  For one it was no creek and ended up being a full day of hiking portaging and boat scouting some great scary class IV-V whitewater. With four BIG 
drops that I didn't run the rest was well worth the work and worth going back for. Just goes to show how much Washington has to offer if you just look at your topo map and don't mind putting in a little work.. 

Rob swimming after his boat after it slid down the hill at the put in. He got it just before the first rapid.

                             The walls coming in on us and the river lilting down. 

                                  This is where we decide that were not on a creek

                        Deer is full of fun juicy stuff like this in between the big ones  

                                        Our fearless probe going in for the team

                                                Yup.. going more right 

                                     Scott threading the sneak route to avoid the hole

                                               Rob running unamed Biggy #3 

                    Classic drop on Deer, it doesn't seem to let up the whole trip 

                                  Rob making his way through the last major rapid 

                                    The best part of Deer Creek.. Beer at the take out !!

After I got back from the Canyon the rivers around seattle spiked high with all the rain on snow and we paddled the green pretty hard for a week getting a top flow of 7,000 cfs. High !!! Some big water fun in what is normally a low water fun class III-IV canyon becomes a non stop big water wave train for seven miles. Some women at the take out bridge took these photos so I thought I would share.  

                             This is me under a 200 ft bridge taken with a really nice zoom

 I really wish I had more pics of the green at this level. The river was to high and fast for us to get out and take photos. Plus the ranger was looking for us so we were trying to be stealth and fast. Apparently it's a crime to paddle this river at flood stage. We were confronted at the take out by the ranger giving us the riot act on the river closer and how stupid we were. We didn't get sited and talked our way out of trouble but our stupidity is still undecided.......