Robe Canyon: Fall 2011

Robe Canyon is a pretty girl. When Robe gets big hang on!! She will beat you up if you don't give her the attention she deserves. Flows can be a mystery, especially in the winter months when it rains. Even though the gauge is at the take out, what lies upstream can be described at times as 'anybody's guess'. To figure out what the flow might be there are tools like geometry, statistics..  engineering calculus perhaps, but nothing can really train you for Robe Math. You just have to go and hope for the best on those rainy days. What am I talking about? Well, Rob McKibbon describes it this way, "it's the only run where you want it to be lower at the put in and HIGHER at the take out. HAHAHAHAHH!!" I never know what he means when he laughs like that.

To say Robe Canyon has a flashy nature leaves much of the story to ponder. There is just so much more to it!! Robe Math and all, she's a pretty place to spend the afternoon.  Off Broadway, Hole In The Wall, Conversation, Last Sunshine, Hotel California... just a few of the goods. In the meantime, here's a small video snippit on Miss Robe dishin' up some big water love. oh yeah

Paddle safe.

music: AWOLNATION -Sail

Upper East Fork Miller

The Skykomish drainage holds some of the biggest stouts around. And don't kid yourself, just because Tao grew up around here doesn't mean he found everything. He did find this one, though and so did I. The EF Miller has some of the steepest whitewater I've probably ever paddled. Massive drops and totally continuous gradient make this section V+/VI. It took us six hours to complete our first descent. We found the beers at the take out to be quite a tasty treat.

I've been struggling with my mostly disagreeable laptop, oh yeah, and windows movie wrecker to create something decent. I'll put some pics up after I've had a chance to go through them. Til then kiddies, enjoy this fine bit of whitewater magic.

Upper East Fork Miller from Brett Barton on Vimeo.

Winter Update: numba too

This has been an epic winter paddling season for us here in Western WA. Plenty of stoke to go around. 

Dig in. 

town wall

The best journeys bring up questions we never thought to ask - Yvonne Chanaurd

dealin'

Totten tappin' into some high speed goodness

the river is just a ridiculously great place to be

Dave wishes everyone a Merry Christmas from the Carbon Canyon

Totten @ Last Sunshine

T-2

T-1 (pre-   nasty rootwad)

livin in the mountains isn't that bad

Christian Knight

horses are steezey too

Christian checks his kit

Carter prepares for the hit at Last Sunshine

Almquist mid-steeze

POW rocks

There is no reason not to live here. The boating is ridiculous and the more I paddle here the more I find. Matt Kurle and Dan Patrinellis put together a sweet video of some of the region's best whitewater. Take a look at:       MELTDOWN

Don't worry kiddies, more steezed out gorges coming soon. Stay tuned.

...and just for fun  here's a neat little clip          from us..

Canyon Dreams