Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival dealings

The Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival was another hit! After 28 years these guys just keep doing it right (except for the ramp dudes), the location, events and of course the shwag!!

 Next Adventure gets around!

when you come to the Clack you CAN challenge the best

on the river

We did the Clack at a big flow on Fri, what a hoot!! Unfortunately, there was a big flood earleir in the year that washed all the play features away. And the ramp didn't get built in time. No ramp either. Maybe there is something new to paddle around here with so much water... The Roaring was snowed in. NF Clack was too low. We went up and did the Collowash, a fun river with an interesting mix of scenic floating and some fun class IV-ish drops. There was one solid class V drop in there, complete with a very active sieve, multiple moves to make and a backed up room of doom at the bottom. Yeah!!

Alder Creek has a goood selection of boats

Dave Hoffman and Kim Russell say Hell Yeah to another Clack Fest!!

mass starts are usually pretty fun

 

What's cool about this photo, besides the three upside down or partially upside down boats in the hole on the right and the upside down blue and white one on the left (not to mention the dude Luke Spencer is running over in the blue boat), is there are two other boaters you can't see IN THE HOLE!! And the dude paddling into the hole... his boat isn't yellow. Good thing this race is only one rapid!! 

 too many boaters in one hole

Wallace and Sunset Falls

Comps are fun. So is seeing old friends and paddling new runs, but Creek Siders like to get back to nature and commune with the little woodland critters of the PNW. Critters are people, too.

NF Wallace

guess what was next door...

Sunset Falls - Index, WA

A thundering, riotous, thunder-horse of a freight train that will rip your body parts off if you flip over. You have to stay upright for at least 19 seconds (if you don't go in the cave on the way down).

yeah...

The ramp didn't happen and the play features were all gone so we went upstream to parts unknown. The Collowash has 2 sections, we did the lower. And I got a chance to take out the new 2011 Super Hero!! Thanks to Alder Creek Canoe and Kayak, who had a plethora of Jackson demos available!! FOR FREE!!!

The new Super Hero is an improvement over the old design. Snappier on eddy turns, more stable, and overall a better fit and feel, the new Super Hero was predictable and boofed like a champ!! A great boat for the newer creeker or the steepest shizz yer gonna fire up!!

The Collowash was a perfect river to try it on. Lots of scenic floating interspersed with great class IV drops and one class V with a very active sieve that most of the flow went into. No one had issues. I love trips like that. Unfortunately, my Go Pro walked off and I have no cool little video to put up. I still haven't found it. Bummed. I had a lot of video, of other trips, too. Anyways...

More coming soon, kiddies. Getting ready for the Professor Paddle Ball!! Haven't heard of the PP Ball? Check it out...   2011 PP Ball