Canyon Creek Race/ Copper Creek

This weekend was the infamous Canyon Creek Race. The beautiful weather accompanied by great flows made for a record turn out and loads of fun with great friends! Everyone I have met and paddled with in the last 8 months of living in the Pacific Northwest was there to throw down. The race was followed by a huge bash at Olie's place on the East Fork of the Lewis. The next day was a Freestyle Huckfest on Sunshine Falls on the Lewis, just up the road from where everyone had camped the night before. A few of us then hit up Copper Creek, flowing at a medium/high flow, that afternoon where I proceeded to get beat down and had my first NW swim. Jason Schroeder had gone through the rapid known as "The Final Five" first with me following, we had arranged to eddy out half way through the mini gorge and colloct out thoughts on the final drop-which was a steep 10 vertical slide into a nasty hole, with a hole to punch a the top entrance. Jason went, and I was given the signal to hold-up, waited about 10 minutes for him, and his boat to flush after a nice little thrashing. I was still pretty confident that I could nail the line, so I peeled out and skipped over the first hole on the right, driving left of center and unable to see from the top hole, I was where I though I was lined up and pulled a boof stroke, got my nose up but back endered into the hole where I did some goofy stern and bow stall, mainly keeping my head out of the water, but knowing that there was no way out I bailed out and caught the rope while I still had plenty of energy, and It was an easy swim to shore. My boat on the other hand stayed in the hole for another 35 minutes until John Kiffmeyer live baited my boat with a flying spider monkey move that was pretty funny to watch-thanks John!

Eagle Creek, OR

This weekend was pretty action packed and full on. Saturday Tim Thorton, Lana, Christie and I ran the Truss at just under 3ft which is a super fun level. Then Tim and I hit up the Sincline trial on our mtn bikes to finish off the afternoon. Everyone partied down at the Horse & Hound for the latest and greatest LVM premiere that evening with the anticipation of running Eagle Creek lingering around the pub for the day that followed. Sunday, we did just that! Got up to rendezvous at Eagle Cr Park that morning. This run requires a 3 mile hike in, backpacking our boats and gear along a gorgeous cliffside trail with breathtaking views and sounds of big waterfalls in the distance. I didn't get any good pics of punchbowl falls, but I did get some nice shots of the top double drop!!
Me Christie Glissmeyer fires off Skoonichuck Falls
Austin Rathmann scouting his line
Austin Rathmann
Christie G
Christie G

Toxic Waters Weekend

A lot of friends from all over came into town for Nate's kayak video premiere that took place on Saturday night! It was a couple days of great flows on the Little White and the Truss and clear blue bird weather. Here are a few shots that were taken on the Truss, sorry, no pics from the Little White, I forgot my camera.
Me
Stingl
Jason

Hagen Gorge

I've been wanting to get on Hagen pretty much since I moved out here and was just waiting for the right time to do it. Its hard to catch this gem at a good flow, but going on some good beta, myself, Gynner, Andy Round, Jarred Jackman and Nate headed out! There was a ton of snow on the mile or so hike in and we were all pretty happy to get to the get-in. We all ran everything and had great lines throughout and got off the river with huge grins! To top it off, its only about a 45 minute drive from Hood River!

Crazy Snow Storm

Last weekend Hood River got hit with an unusual snow fall! It dumped about 18 inches in a 10 hour span of time. I ended up not being able to drive out of town and ad to walk home, and a few others were in the same boat! Chains would have come in handy for sure. That sunday, Jason and I went kayaking down the white salmon to get some exercise in and trekked in waist deep snow to the put-in, it was by far the most snow I've ever been paddling in!

Florida

This picture was taken by one of our customers at the Confluence dealer appreciation event in November. This is Adam Motes and Myself surfing Hobie's stand-up paddleboard, we were laughing our asses off. One of the most fun times I've had. We spent about 5 hours surfing, paddleboarding, and kayak surfing 14 foot sea kayaks with the reps.....good times for sure!!!!

E.F. of the Lewis

I decided to head to the East Fork of the Lewis to join in on a trip that Heather had planned for a little creeking clinic this Sunday. It is a run that I hadn't done before and was looking forward to getting on it. The flow was super low though, and it would be a lot of fun at about triple the flow. Saturday, Jason, Tim and I did the farmland through the truss section of the white salmon and had a blast....that was a long day!!! Good exercise though!

Hoffstadt Creek

Today we decided to do something that none of us had been on before, Hoffstadt Creek. This little gem is full on right from start to finish! The crew consisted of myself, Heather Herbeck, Jason Schroeder, Ryan Scott and Lana Young. We had about twice the flow as the description on OregonKayaking.net and was just about right. A few of the drops probably could have used a bit more cfs, but we were just happy that it was in. We had a few log jams, some hellish portages caused by those log jams, and a crap load of fun! We put on at about 10:30 and didn't get off until dusk.....a great day and all of the hard work hiking out at the take-out was well worth it! Hoffstadt is pretty much a drainage straight off of Mt St. Helens, and is on the west side of the mountain.