Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Robe Canyon - Levels

March has been a bit of a slow month so I have been playing around with some footage of Robe Canyon (South fork Stillaguamish). The river level fluctuates a lot and sometimes its hard to describe the difference between water levels and how it can change some features and make them much harder, while other features become easier.

Last Sunshine is one of the coolest rapids on the river. Not very difficult, but very aesthetically appealing; from the pool above the drop you cannot see anything but the canyon falling away from your bow and lends itself to an air of ominous intent. River level features are left a mystery because your prying eyes are blocked by a large picket fence of boulders. All you can tell from a visual inspection of your situation is that it's loud, the canyon is deep and the river disappears.

Water level dependant, there are multiple lines but the normal line for the commonly run water levels (4.8' to 6')  is right up onto the left bank of the river. The flood polished rock wall of the river bank and a large boulder chalked into the main ledge create a beautiful little chute. You can enter the drop with almost zero speed and ride high on the left bank, throw a right late boof stroke and sail into a huge foam pillow.

I love Last Sunshine because it is so visually stimulating. You cannot see anything but the river left wall and the boulder that creates the chute, until you are completely committed to the drop. As you peel around the boulder and line up on the left wall the world drops about 10-12 feet and all you can see is a massive foam pile with all the water shooting back into the river left wall downstream. As of the floods of 2010, there is now a humongous boulder that appears to be in the landing zone. The truck sized rock is safely out of play due to the nature and direction of the current in the landing zone, but the undercut on the downstream river left wall is not. No worries though, a lot of people have had issues with the undercut but I believe they were confidence induced issues as it flushes and you have a decent sized pool to regain your composure in.

Sit back and enjoy some levels:


Levels - Robe Canyon from daniel patrinellis on Vimeo.