North Cascades River Expeditions

Story Time: Page 3 of 6

We scouted the next section of canyon. It did not look too bad. We boated three more klicks of heavy rapids and then the Taseko resumed it broad, play pace.

A frustrating search for a camp ended in great success. We found a beautiful camp on a bench overlooking the river. That night, I had trouble sleeping. It had nothing to do with the powerful thunderstorm that rocked, lit up, and drenched our camp. No, it was the Wrights. Their underclassing of rapids was becoming frighteningly consistent. Those rapids we had gone through today were definitely class 5. Why had they said 4 to 5? What would their class 6 rapids be like? We would surely meet them tomorrow. Would we be able to pull off in time to scout and portage them?

I persuaded the group to proceed more cautiously on day two. Jack would take the lead and eddy out if he even remotely suspected we were close to a class 6. Several times we scouted false alarms. Finally, about 2 p.m., I spotted Jack's waving paddle in an eddy upstream of a horizon line that appeared to hide a waterfall. I knew we had arrived at our first class 6. We all eddied out left.

The scout revealed an impressive rapid. On the right, a narrow current raced into an enormous hole. In the center was a truly formidable obstacle, a 10-foot pour-over with a 4-foot reversal at the bottom. This was definitely not the place to run. On the left the river dropped through a double-V and seemed to offer a passage. One thing was evident: a portage would be a full day's work. By a stroke of luck, our boats were on the left side of the river, so we decided to have a run at it.

We donned helmets and went for it. Our scouting conclusions proved valid. We all cleaned the drop. I felt euphoria replace chilling fear as "Hurricane" and I sped safely down the frothy rapids. "Oh, moment stay, thou art fair!"

As we continued downstream, the Taseko exhibited its by now familiar duality. Now it would be wide, bouncy, and fun. Then it would constrict between rock walls and kick out the jambs for 4 or 5 klicks, scaring Jack and me, and merely thrilling the others.

Around 4:30, we were ready to camp, but could not find anything suitable. Around 5:30 we rejected a creekside site because of heavy bear droppings. We pushed on another klick and there it was: the second class 6.

Luck was with us again. We had eddied left and the rapids seemed runnable on the left. We did have to remove a sweeper, nearly crippling Tim in the process. Again our runs were clean, although Jerry and Brad narrowly pulled past a nasty pinning boulder. Lucky too, for less than half a klick downstream, we eddied out for yet another scout. We began to wonder whether we would be spending the night in this latest canyon of vertical rock.

The scout showed that the next rapid was long, narrow, and incredibly fast, but, at least it was not the third class 6. We boated the rapid, and to our great relief, left the canyon 2 klicks downstream. As though on cue, a lovely midstream island appeared. We gratefully set up camp.

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North Cascades River Expeditions
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Arlington, Wa 98223
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