Lower Icicle Creek, Wenatchee play runs & Tumwater @ 9000cfs

Weekend Adventure Number: 40,921.
Mission: Get the fuck back on the water.

Another weekend spent on Icicle creek and another weekend well spent.

I woke up Thursday morning with a headache, dry sweat and a pit bull laying  next to me.

Could be worse I guess.

With three weeks on the couch and the Professor Paddle Ball creek race only two weeks ahead, I decided that I should probably try to see if I still fit in my boat. Maybe do some light stretching and even a few practice laps on the run in question were in order.
It was decided; back to Leavenworthless.

Woody Goomsba. Ambassador of Leavenworth.

      As the mountains warm up, Icicle Creek (proper) gets massive, like a Grizzly bear gorging itself on Huckleberries and Golden Retrievers . The lower section of this run, a two mile continuous class IV stretch opens up and fun is to be had. Ricochet, the more commonly run section of Icicle Creek, becomes more of a giant vengeful high speed washing machine and the hole in House rapid looks like the end of the world.

Above the Plunge - Icicle Creek, WA.

 I knew driving up to Leavenworth that the Ricochet section of the run was going to be above my pay grade but I needed to work on my boating and wanted to see the boating family at large. Plus the weather in Port Orchard was going to suck.




The Wenatchee River, outside of Peshatin (right next to Leavenworth)becomes the boating Mecca of the PNW during late spring and early summer. A large volume play run, the Wenatchee is a great place to take non-boaters on their first IK or raft trip and becomes a great place to meet old friends and make new ones.  For those reasons, as well as the close proximity of the other runs in the area (Nason Creek, Icicle Creek, Tumwater Canyon, Ingalls-Peshastin and a couple more that I’ve never run) the camp grounds at Bridge Creek and Hay Canyon can turn into some pretty good impromptu parties.  These areas provide a staging ground or leap pad for some quality trips.

The lower section of Icicle Creek is very short, only 2ish miles, compared to it’s Big Brothers upstream. It’s a lot of fun though, very continuous class IV with potential for a class V swim in a couple places.

Snow Creek Death trap - Icicle Creek, WA.

The put in scenery is breathtaking. Snow Creek Death Trap is a vibrant display of natures disregard for our safety on the water. Massive boulders at chalked into the river where the stream bed drops between 50 and 60 feet. What could have been and might once have been and amazing drop or series of drops is now just a pile of Chaos. There are sieves into sieves, with sieves at the bottom. But its one of those scary rapids that no one runs but everyone secretly says to themselves “I see a line… I think”.

Here we have Kiwi Mike showing us the proper putin:

     The run starts out with a bang: Bridge Drop is the first rapid, and one of the biggest. A solid class IV rapid; it’s full of big waves and a couple sizable holes. Shallow rocks can make rolling a headache and is not advised unless you are on very good terms with your Dentist. If you have a problem here it’s prudent to take out at the bridge immediately below, as the crux of the run is right around the corner.

Putin rapid - Icicle Creek, WA.

Bridge Drop - Icicle Creek, WA.

Bridge Drop - Icicle Creek, WA.

     Cabin Drop, the crux rapid and the best drop on the creek, gets its name from the gorgeous cabins that adorn both sides of the river here. I’m not sure where the property lines start and stop and as far as I know, there haven’t been any recent issues with access, but if you need to scout please keep a low profile.

Cabin Drop - Icicle Creek, WA.

      A classic Washington boulder garden with two big boofs is what you get when you drop into this gem. What can cause problems here for newer boaters or first timers is the lack of speed that you have as you come into the main ledge. There are as many lines for this one as there are boaters in the state and the one that is right for you is the right line by far.

Cabin Drop - Icicle Creek, WA

I prefer to line up for the first clean boof half way down the rapid:

Cabin Drop - Icicle Creek, WA

Boooooffffff       Cabin Drop - Icicle Creek, WA

... because its one of those clean moves that you start to grin about before your paddle even connects for the stroke.

Then I line up just to the right of the V in the hole of the final ledge.

Cabin Drop - Icicle Creek, WA

In this Photo: Not taking my own advice.

Doesn’t always go to plan…

Carnage @ Cabin Drop - Icicle Creek, WA.

Carnage @ Cabin Drop - Icicle Creek, WA.

Sadly, that’s about it for the run. There are still two more very fun drops, but nothing as hair-raising as the first two. The run has one serious hazard, a sieve that collects wood, about halfway down the run in the center of the river.

Sieve Thing - Icicle Creek, WA.

Due to the continuous nature of this stretch of Icicle Creek, I think its worth hangin with someone that knows the run for your first lap as scouting can be difficult.

The shuttle is short and there are tons of climbers driving around so your odds of being able to thumb a ride for shuttle are pretty solid. People are friendly here so just smile!

After a couple of laps on Saturday and even a play run under my belt I was starting to get back into the groove with this whole kayaking thing. I was even able to watch Sam Grafton, aka: the Baddest mofo this side of Rob McKibbon, run POW in Tumwater Canyon at ~8,500cfs

POW - Tumwater Canyon, WA

Sam Grafton - What's the big deal guys?

Kiwi Mike telling Sam to just "Harden the Fuck Up!"

Sam Grafton in POW - Tumwater Canyon, WA.

Sam Grafton in POW - Tumwater Canyon, WA.

Sam Grafton in POW - Tumwater Canyon, WA.

Sam Grafton in POW - Tumwater Canyon, WA.

Sam Grafton in POW - Tumwater Canyon, WA.

Huge Props to Sam Grafton. He ran POW at around 8800cfs, solo. Yeah there were guys with bags to help in case of a swim, but that's about as effective as using grocery bags for gloves in an alligator wrestling contest.

A quick conversation with Sam immediately prior to his run:

Cold beers were had and again I had to sleep with a miserable, paco pad stealing dog.

Sunday morning I was up bright and early for more practice laps down Icicle and was stoked to run into a couple of rafters busy tearing it up.

 Good times.

A little after my growling stomach and need for coffee dragged me off the river and into Leavenworth, I got the call from Sam that he and Ben were going to run Tumwater. My gear was immediately thrown back in the truck and the camera was pulled out of the dry bag.

Tumwater is one of my favorite runs in the state. It’s fun in the 1500-2500cfs ranges, scary above 3000cfs and a nightmare above 5000cfs. Today's flows were somewhere in the high 8,000 to low 9,000 cfs range and my mind was blown. Sam still thought this was a good idea.

Sam Grafton

Their plan was to put in at the Dam and run down through Chaos. I thought this was a terrible idea, but then again, some people think cucumbers taste better pickled.

Ben Hawthorne

I don’t need to talk; the pictures speak for themselves:

The rapid below the Dam.

Dam Rapid - Tumwater Canyon, WA.

There is normally a fun boof here on the right, but now it’s a couple feet under water.

Sam Grafton - Tumwater Canyon, WA

Ben Hawthorne - Tumwater Canyon, WA

Sam Grafton & Ben Hawthorne - Tumwater Canyon, WA

Chaos.

Sam Grafton in Chaos - Tumwater Canyon, WA.

After shaking hands with Ben and Sam as well as grabbing a fresh set of underwear, I headed off to Peshastin for one last play run on the Wenatchee. Adam and I had Turkeyshoot to ourselves for the better part of an hour and life was good.

Another Solid weekend in the bag.

Cheers.