The 2015 Xavier Engle Memorial Robe Race

Spring time means you get to find out how bad your wrist and neck gaskets have degraded over the winter.

Spring time also means Robe Race.

There were murmurs that the race might be shifted by a weekend, as there was no rain in the forecast  the week leading up to the race. But level bumped up to just below 5.2 feet and by Friday afternoon we knew how we were going to be spending our Saturday; racing Robe Canyon and praying not to take home the Gnome!

It's an easy template for a race: paddle as hard as you can for roughly 3.5 miles and crush around 40 rapids with as little carnage as you can manage. Then, just for shits giggles, throw a hideous portage in the middle of the course to see just how flexible those ankles really are...



The flow range is 5.0-6.0 feet. Teams of two, as you set your own safety... The race starts in the eddy below T1, above T2 and ends in the pool a quarter mile(ish) downstream from Mrs. Robinson

With water levels low, the stoke was high. We had a large turnout with 14 teams and scores of safety boaters, we also had two Robe Race "firsts".

2015 gave birth to the inclusion of the first female participants as well as the first long boat entries.

Ellie Wheat and Hillary Neevel are not the first women to paddle Robe, and they certainly will not be the last. They are, however, the first to step up and chase the glory that goes hand in hand with swimming in front of your friends. There was no carnage on their part; instead they shut out a couple male teams and came out the gates hot!

Joe Keck and I decided to take our love of long boats and our fear of fatal pins and combine them into one stressful morning.

 I had never taken a boat longer than a Dagger Mamba down Robe prior to the race and despite several spinouts in and below rapids; it went way better than I thought it was going to go. The Dagger Greenboat is quickly becoming the only kayak I want to paddle. I had so much fun in that boat!




David Spiegel & Will Grubb went the fastest and took the most chances this year; taking home the Robes and dominating the field with a 30 second lead over reigning champ Ben Hawthorne and Brian Fletcher. Sam Chesley and Jordy Searle came in third place.





1.) Dave & Will                                29:50
2.) Ben & Brian                                30:20
3.) Sam & Jordy                               30:42
4.) Sam & Benn                               31:00
5.)Henry & Adam                            31:29
6.) Darren, Scott & Christian           31:40
7.) Brad & Evan                               32:15
8.) Trevor & Chase                          33:20
9.) Joe & Dan                                   33:39
10.) Chris & Chris                            33:56
11.) Hillary & Ellie                          37:14
12.) Jon & JD                                   38:45
13.) Chris & Leif                              39:37
14.) Steve & Conor                          53:54

Eric Mickelson is an awesome photographer, great paddler and an all around decent dude who operates out of Bellingham. Eric took some awesome shots at T1, T2 and Last Sunshine.

Enjoy these great photos that Eric sent over:

You can see more of Eric's work right here: http://ericmickelson.com/

Tammy Ritchey set safety at Catcher's Mitt and grabbed some sweet shots of the teams as they dropped into the Mitt.

Good ol Faceplant.

This years event follows the loss of a Seattle transplant boater in Robe Canyon.

 27 year old Xavier Engle tragically passed away on Robe Canyon this past winter. Xavier grew up in Alaska and moved to Seattle and enrolled in the UW school of medicine after attending Dartmouth College.

After the race was over, everyone paddled over to the Lounge and sat around drinking beers and dissecting race lines. Earlier in the year a couple folks took it upon themselves to haul an amazing tribute to Xavier into the canyon for kayakers and rafters to enjoy. It's definitely worth a stop to sit and reflect on why we do this incredibly rewarding and sometimes dangerous sport.

Once we paddled out of the canyon it was back up to Paca Pride at the putin. David had offered to allow us to host the event on their property and we obliged. These guys are amazing. They let us park on their property and they put up with all the shenanigans that go hand in hand with kayaking all the while running a successful business.

 If you're in the area or looking for a great non-paddling weekend adventure, take the time to check out Paca Pride. And if you paddle Robe, go in and say hello; they would love to meet you.

Leif stands by to name the winners and the rest of the losers.

Joe and I assumed that we were going to take home the Gnome this year, but due to a broken paddle, we were saved. This year the Gnome will be traveling with Conor and Steve as they boat in and around the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy it boys!

Leif does the honors.



The crowd waits with baited breath.



Will and David.

That kayaker life.

I have to say that in years past, I've paddled Robe so often that I'm surprised I don't have the combo for the gate at Paca Pride. This year however; the combination of out of country travel for work, school and a shoulder surgery had me dreading that phone call. I practiced my excuses for not racing in the shower, on the drive to work, in class. Every day my ability to say that I wasn't going to race was getting better and better. By the time I could say it with a straight face, without sweating, I got the call from Joe Keck.



"Hey bud, how's the shoulder feeling? Lets just get wild and let it all hang out. Lets race long boats. C'mon man, what's the absolute worse that could happen?"

That's a quick summation of the conversation that went down on, I think, the Wednesday before the race. Joe was motivated to rally the longboats down the Canyon and do it while completely out of breath. I was terrified and thought it was a horrible way to spend a perfectly good day.



 But it was awesome. My biggest fear was screwing up the line at Sunshine and going into that left wall, smashing my shoulder and potentially my face on the lovely undercut that waits to reward those with a poorly timed boof stroke. As level was on the lower side I was very concerned that some of the more vertical drops would present more of a pin potential.

But it actually went pretty well. I still buried my nose in the pile at Sunshine, but it didn't kick me as hard as I thought it would. Hole in the Wall got a bit sportier than I usually prefer and I am still kicking myself for not wearing the GoBro to catch the amazing gaze of terror that Joe and I shared when our eyes locked, mid carnage. But if it's not on camera; it didn't happen.



Good times.

Thank you to everyone that raced. Thank you to all the safety boaters. Thank you Leif Embertson for taking charge and herding these cats. Thank you David Capocci and Paca Pride for hosting us and just being awesome in a general way. The Washington kayak community appreciates your generosity and help in gaining access to this incredible streambed.

Until next year. Go fast and take chances!

Video - Robe Race 2013

Here is a quick and DIRTY video of the beaterfest that was Robe Race.

Level is around 5.9 and the stoke was high.




Stay safe!

Robe Race 2013

2013 Robe Race of Champions

The Range Life crew started a race on our local canyon run a few seasons back and every year the competition has gotten tougher and tougher.

The Robe Race is a two person team race from the rapid T2 to the pool below the rapid Mrs. Robinson. This roughly 3.6 mile race covers around 43 rapids (depending on water levels) and one arduous portage over a landslide. The race course forces you to paddle all out, as hard as you can, through 14 class V rapids, 21 Class IV rapids and 9 laid back class III's. The largest hole is also one of the last ledges you run after about a half hour of charging. Always fun to look forward to...

As Spring flows here in Washington can be hard to predict, you have to keep events like this mobile. You can't lock into a specific weekend without running the risk of dooming the event to either high or low water.

The week prior to the race saw river levels all over the place; from the low side of the spectrum in the 5.3 foot range, all the way up to the 6.5 foot range.

There's more than enough beta on Robe Canyon on this blog so I will dispense with any descriptions of the run other than this: Robe Canyon is rewarding but can punish with impunity.




With sun beating down on us, we rolled into the takeout about 45 minutes late. But, as we had the defending Champion Scott Waidelich with us, we did not fall into the normal social constraints pertaining to timely arrivals.

Moods and ambiant temperatures were soaring by the time we consolidated gear, boats and bodies for the short drive up to the putin. The hike down the trail was definitly unique for me. This is a run that I know so well, but I had never raced up to this point.  A lot can happen when you are exerting yourself. A lot can go wrong when you're pushing. A lot can happen when there is an audience eager for carnage and the river has provided a level that is conducive to to hair boating.










Robe was sitting just over 5.9 feet on the online gage. This is a pretty healthy level and not a volume of water to take lightly. At 5.9' the lines get a little bit cleaner, the holes get bigger and the boofs pad out like a sophmore in a sorrorety.

By bigger holes I mean massive holes (for this guy at least).

Irene Nash grabbed a couple of actions shots at the second rapid of the race "Last Sunshine". This is the start of a quarter mile of intense read and run whitewater. A swim here has a high potential for a totaled creekboat.

I think I learned a lot from this race. I learned that my lines are not as clean as I thought they were. I learned that I let go of my paddle a lot. I also learned that I have a lot to work on. But I'm stoked to have been part of the race.



Robe Race 2013 results:

1st Place at 25:41  - Darren Albright & Andrew McEwan 
2nd Place at 27:01 - Scott Waidelich & Ben Hawthorne
3rd Place at 28:37  - Fred Norquist & Eric Parker

The mortals:
4th Christian Knight & Brock Gavery 31:17 (not really mortals, but they pretended)
5th Dan Patrinellis & Jeremy Bisson 34:10
6th Alex Podolak & William Griffith 34:28
7th Leif Embertson & Chris Totten finished
8th Sean/Mike DNF




While it's still being verified; Darren and Andrew set a new course record for time. In 25 minutes and 41 seconds, these two guys charged through 3.6 miles of class V whitewater and completed a grueling quarter mile portage that takes a normal crew and hour and a half to finish on a "fast" lap. Well done.

Jah Bisson came up to race with me and while I feel bad that I killed his time; I had a great time racing with him. We both took helmet cam footage so keep on the lookout for a quick edit in the upcoming weeks.

One of the fun traditions of the Robe Race is the Robe Gnome.



The last place finisher wins the ultimate prize and gets to take this guy around with them throughout the year on their boating adventures. This year Sean Lee and Mike Nash took home a third teammate.






Huge thanks to Leif Embertson out of Bellingham, WA. Leif organized the Robe Race and even brought us cold beer for the takeout. Stand up guy in my books. Massive props to Shauna Hawthorne and Joni Randall for keeping time for all of the racers; this wouldn't have happened without volunteer help.

Until next year!



Many thanks (again) to the volunteers who came out and made this race possible.

Thanky you Irene Nash for grabbing some photos of the race for me.

Its not often that we get photos as good as some of these of our boating escapades. All of the amazing photos on this trip report are curtesy of  yo_tuco from Flickr. You can check out more of his amazing photography on his Flickr account HERE