Video - Clearwater Creek

Boofs per Minute was the rapid that perked my interest.


I had heard about this elusive, gem tucked away in the Bellingham area, but not a lot about it. I had heard it was super fun, intense and very hard to time as it is a very small trib to the Middle Fork of the Nooksack.

It flashes when it rains so it's in often, but if you're not a local, it can be very difficult to time a trip. I had been skunked two times in the past two seasons, but then again, it's hard to commit to that drive when Robe is so close and so good. So I might have missed some oportunities...


Scott, Chris and I were fortunate enough to have a local legend showing us the ropes after a big rain event. Leif Embertson is an old school charger even though I doubt he's out of his 30's. Great guy and very patient with noobs. He also runs the Robe Race, so huge props for that undertaking.


The run starts off in an inconspicuous pool and once it starts it doesn't let up. Even the takeout is pretty full on; miss the last eddy and drop into a beast of a seive pile that is only runable at super low water levels (or so I've heard).

There are 31 destinct rapids spread out over 1.9 miles. The gradient isn't huge (~360 fpm) but the rpaids just never let up. There is nothing over about 6 feet, i feel like, but there are a few very sticky looking ledges in there. Swimming is never advised, but here it could be expensive... I would describe the run as a mini version of Robe Canyon, just much more busy. The rapids are significantly lower volume but the same style features. Maybe even as a tougher version of the cooper? Scratch that, Put in a mile or so above the normal put in for Ingalls/Peshastin (at high water) and you'll get the vibe of Clearwater Creek. Very continuous.

I had some time on my hands the other night and put this quick edit together. We only got two runs and nobody got out of their boats, so if you're not a fan of POV videos, stop right here.

If you're into that kind of thing, however, grab a beer and get STOKED for the NookGnar.

Paddlers:
Scott Waidelich, Chris Totten, Leif Embertson and Daniel Patrinellis.
Music by Ben Khan.
Edited by Dan Patrinellis.

Enjoy!




Thanks for watching!

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

Dagger Mamba 8.6 long term review - 1 year with the Green Snake

Don't mess with this Mamba:

Mess with this Mamba:

I got my hands on the Mamba 8.6 in April of 2012, and it has been a great boat for the past season. I bought the Mamba 8.6 thinking that this would primarily be a big water Idaho or extended overnight boat. I didn’t really see myself pushing a 90 gallon creeker on a regular basis, then I took it down Robe Canyon on the South Fork Stillaguamish river; I’ve been sold ever since.

Mamba 8.6 stats son!!
Length: 259cm
Width: 70cm
Boat Weight: 22kg
Volume: 337L or 89 gallons
Paddler Weight: 79-118kg

This is probably the largest boat I’ve ever paddled. At 90 gallons of displacement, this thing (for my body size) is the whitewater equivalent to a Chevy Tahoe. This thing is a beast, and destroys waves and holes accordingly. That being said; it’s a very easy-to-roll boat and has crisp, clean edges. The rise of the cockpit gives you a sunken feeling if you’re under 6 feet tall, but I think this can be easily remedied with either foam shims under the seat, or a foam pad over the seat. That sunken feeling only lasted for about a week while I was getting used to the boat.

The Mamba 8.6 doesn’t have the rocker that you are used to seeing on some of the newer creek boats these days, but that doesn’t stop the nose from coming back to the surface when pushing through a hole or hitting a nice delayed boof.  The hull has a very pointed, slightly upturned nose with sharp, crisp edges that run back to about where the seat meets the thigh hooks, then they smooth out into more of a displacement hull shape.  The stern is large volume and flat, but not slicey.

There are always pros and cons to any hull design, so while this boat is much wider than the Nomad, it’s definitely not as nimble. The planing hull helps you turn pretty quickly in big water, but on lower volume rivers and creeks it’s not as fast to change direction as the Nomad or Shiva (IMOP). The upside to this is stability. This thing is very stable, to the point that I really can’t say much about it’s secondary stability at all. I’m always upright and the few unplanned rolls that I’ve had in this boat were generally initiated by either a plugged boof or an Oprah sized hydraulic. Neither of which care one bit for the width of your craft.

The outfitting for the 2012 was awesome and while I haven’t gotten my hands on the 2013 outfitting yet, I hear it’s even better. The boat boasts a movable bulkhead with a generous helping of predrilled holes for your leg accommodation. The “out of the box” boat comes with a pretty solid foam kit that is pretty easy to install and has proven durable in the long haul. Neither of the foot foam blocks has even come loose after a year of use and the hip pads are still tight and have held their shape.

The boat has 5 metal hand holds that are pretty evenly spaced for rescue scenarios as well as normal boat strapping escapades. One of the things that I like about this metal hand hold design is the width and placement of the band holds. Too many times, in a rescue scenario or sketchy portage session, the cloth grab loops on other boats can be a pain. Another boat I’ve paddled has small, almost finger hole type, grab loops at the base of the rear cockpit. You can generally only get a finger or two in there and a well-aimed carabineer. The Mamba solves this problem by giving you a full handhold. Very easy to rig webbing or rope to. Very easy to hold onto while stabilizing a buddy or recovering a boat.

Scott Waidelich grabbed a couple great shots in Robe Canyon. Robe Canyon on the SF Sillaguamish river is a great place for a large volumed boat.

  Last weekend I was able to finally put the Mamba's big water specs to the test and got out on the Tumwater section of the Wentachee at about 6500 cfs. The Mamba made it a breeze. Enjoy the photos by Scott Waidelich and Jeremy Bisson.

Adrian Wigston sacraficed a lap for us on Sunday and shot some video of teh "Dam Rapid":

The Mamba is kind of like the Oklahoma version of the RPM. Corn-fed and burley, but no buck teeth as far as I can tell… You can take her home to mom and be proud of your choice. My overall opinion of the 2012 Dagger Mamba 8.6 is that this is a great all-around kayak. While this isn’t a single purpose creek boat, it covers all bases from river running to creek boating with a little bit of green wave surfing to boot. I think that this would be a great beginner boat as it is very predictable and stable and for the same reasons I think this would serve well as an instructional craft. The Dagger Mamba 8.6 would be a solid addition to anyone’s whitewater quiver.

A huge thanks to the guys who sacraficed time in the saddle to get these photos:

Photographer : Dave Costello
Badass : Adrian Wigston
Jah Himself : Jeremy Bisson
The Living Legend : Scott Waidelich

First runs of the year - Little White laps

The Little White Salmon - LDuB

I will be the first to say that WASHINGTON STATE IS THE GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH!

That being said; we have two portions of the year that are less than ideal for kayaking in the PNW. September and January can both be dry (a relative term for WA). The rains do not arrive until mid February, during the winter, and this can cause some problems. 

It’s true: if you don’t use it, you will lose it. So, we must seek water where it hides. This time of year it hides deep in gorges. There was one Gorge, south of Seattle, that promised water.

It also promised to be cold as hell.

The phones rang all Thursday and Friday and excuses’ started to roll though the lines. SE boaters would laugh at the excuses’ we make to not have to drive 3 or 4 hours to boat. We are so used to calling an hour in the car a “long haul” that all of a sudden those Honey-Do lists start to look more appealing than boating.

By late Friday night it was settled. We were to be Hood River bound by 730am. The drive from Seattle to the fish hatchery that serves as a takeout for the Little White Salmon is just under 4 hours, from Everett (WA) its over 5 hours.

A decently sized crew rallied. We made a plan to meet up with locals at the takeout at about noon so we split up into two rigs and started the mission.

Somehow, we made it on time. The drive from Portland towards Hood River on HWY 84 is probably the closest thing to a wind tunnel you will ever encounter outside of a turbine test facility. You could feel the Subi lifting off the ground and moving over with each gust of wind. Unnerving doesn’t really describe the sensation.

We made it, and found fresh powder at the takeout.

LDuB is one of, if not “The”, best runs in Washington state. Maybe even the Pacific Northwest.  It’s incredibly scenic, challenging and most importantly: FUN. Keep in mind, this is a run that gets sandbagged by chargers and locals. This is a tough run. You need to be in shape, you need to be in the groove and you need to be able to take some licks. So check out footage and ask around before your maiden voyage.

We met up with Hood River transplants and headed up to the putin. I’m not gonna lie, I was sweating the entire drive up to the top. I hadn’t been in Little White in a couple of years and hearing stories about new, sketchy wood in “Getting Busy” (a mile long pingpong course) was wigging me out. Then there was the snow. It was really cold. But, as the situations tend to turn out, it was a great couple of days on the river.

The was new wood in the stretch immediately above Getting Busy. A mandatory portage at this level.

We definitely had lower water levels with 3.2 on the stick gage at the put in. But it was breathtakingly beautiful on the water. I do not know why or how, but the water that rams through that old lava bed is the coolest blue/green color I’ve ever seen. Its like boating on Gatorade. Contrasting this almost glowing blue was the inch or so of snow, everywhere. Snow on the trees, snow on the rocks and bank, snow falling into the river you’re trying to paddle. It was a surreal feeling, the way the snow dampens sound and makes colors and contrast stand out more prominently. Maybe this is the hunter-gatherer instinct shinning through; you don’t feel like you’re on top of the food chain in there.

Once we got into Getting Busy all the kinks started to work themselves out.

A large group made for a couple of photo opportunities:

We had a little bit of carnage, in Getting Busy, when the trees in the river decided to boof us.

 The boat was recovered below Boulder Sluice and the paddle was found the next day. We had a scary moment when the boat recovery turned into a double boat recovery and a soul searching couple of seconds…

A little ways downstream you come to S-Turn.

Photo Credit: J. Bisson

A short but very hazardous rapid. Boof any way you want, but never go near the lower river left wall. A horizontal lava tube creates an underwater cave that is barely visible even at these lower water levels. A swim here could be your last. Know your line and have a plan.

Photo Credit: J. Bisson

Photo Credit: J. Bisson

This beauty is waiting about halfway through the run. A lot of first-timers get duped into running Wishbone Falls blind on their virgin lap.


I jumped out of my boat below the canyon section to grab some photos of people charging the right side of Stovepipe. I think this is one of the coolest drops on the run!

Maybe a quarter to a half mile below Stovepipe is the infamous Spirit Falls. Most people stop and discuss their lines before firing up this monster, but I already knew my line! Far river right son!

Jeremy Bisson, however, was not about to have any of that nonsense. After giving me his camera to grab some stills, and some words of admonishment, he walked back to his boat while I slunk away to lick my wounds and take pictures.

Jeremy Bisson, with a SICK line!

Joe and I take to longer, dryer route.


 




Sunday: Round 2.

Getting warmed up below Island Drop.



Alex took the center line at Wishbone Falls.

 

On lap number two we had two takers for Spirit Falls. Jeremy wasn't happy with his line the previous day and wanted a rematch. Mike Nash decided to give'r a go as well.

Jeremy Bisson - Spirit Falls

Mike Nash - Spirit Falls

The lead-in to Chaos has a little branch in it.

The takeout had a fine layer of snow and we all had to step back and take it all in.

When it was all said and done, we were sad to leave. The Little White in the dead of winter is an unreal experience and I'm stoked that I got to see it with some of the best people I know.

 Heres a quick little shot of some fun on Wishbone:

Stay Safe. Stay STOKED.