Robe Canyon - High Water Run

Prior to this morning I had never run Robe higher than 5.9.

There are a handful of boaters in the Seattle area that regularly boat Robe above 6 feet but I could never say I desired to be among them. At 5.8 and 5.9 the holes get much bigger, the wave trains steeper and the pucker factor magnifies by a factor of around 20.

I kept hearing it was "good to go" and "almost fun" above 6 feet, from a couple of locals, but I wasn't convinced.

Then the day finally arrived; Nothing else was in (at a reasonable level) and I HAD to get on the water. Darren had called earlier in the morning and told me that there would be a decent sized group on the river, so safety would be less of an issue. I tentatively agreed to join.

I called Joe and his response to my inquiry as to the intelligence of the undertaking at hand was: "what could go wrong?"

By the time we got to the takeout I had worked myself up to walking T1 and probably Sunshine, as well as the possibility of walking Hotel California (the longest rapid on the run). I told my rumbling gut I would give it a look.

Some Bellingham boys joined us and all in all we had close to 10 kayaks in the water at the put-in. This time last year I would say it would have been wishful thinking to get 10 people to join you on Robe at a more agreeable level of 5.5 or so. The class V community in Washington is expanding rapidly!

We put on and I was surprised to see that there is a sneak line on RL of T1. The boof at T2 is a must make and the hole at the bottom of Last Sunshine looks like the Boogie Man, Pinhead and whatever demon lived under you bed as a child all rolled into one massive mosnter. The video speaks for itself, it was an amazing day. My only out of boat experience was the portage at Landslide and I got a huge boof off the left side of Off Broadway.

The 6 foot and higher realm is actually a fun place to be... if you're on line.






Robe Canyon - 6.3' from daniel patrinellis on Vimeo.

Upper Upper Cispus in September!

Joe Howard, Brian Burger and myself rallied down to the Upper Upper Cispus for a fast lap. I hadn't been in here in a hot minute but neither Brian nor Joe had ever been on the Upper Upper, so I had to school some lines. Brain actually ended up leading most of the trip. Honey Badgerdon't give a fu..



Upper Upper Cispus put in.



Stokes doesn't like what he see's

Upper Upper Cispus put in.

Looking downstream from the bridge

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Warm Up falls, Upper Upper Cispus

Joe Howard, Warm Up Falls

Brian Burger, Warm Up Falls

Looking upstream at the Rapid of no Return, from Behemoth

Bryan Burger picks his line at Behemoth

...and owns it.

Joe Howard hits the left line at Behemoth

My turn I guess...