Washington Lap

In July this year a crew of friends joined us in Washington for a flurry of boating on some of our favorite runs in the Northwest. Here are some photos and a brief write-up by Leland from our adventures.

Classic Cooper
The Cooper is an amazing place - a super sweet creek in a beautiful little gorge, surrounded by incredible camping of both the developed and primitive kind. We spent two days on the Cooper, dialing in some lines and enjoying classic Washington bedrock paddling. The Cooper is like a Northwestern version of Wilson Creek back home in NC, except a little steeper, a little tighter, and a little trickier - with whitewater absolutely from the top of the run to the bottom. It's hard to get tired of this one!

You put in at the base of a gnarly looking 50 foot cascade, and as you round the first corner the action kicks right in with a cool slide.

Alex Zendel on the slide.

After about 200 yards of gorged class IV, the river rounds another bend and reaches one of the bigger rapids - Norm's Retreat. Norm's has a tricky entrance move and then you have to get right to avoid a very sticky pocket hole on the bottom left.

Newton styling Norm's.

Andria at Norm's.

Doug Benton sticking a sweet boof ledge downstream of Norm's.

The next of the big ones is S-Turn - a tricky boof entrance with a sticky hole to avoid or punch at the bottom.

Anne boofing into S-Turn.

Me making the tight turn after the boof.
Doug Benton photo.

Jen finishing it off and missing the meat of the hole.
Doug Benton photo.

Alex doing some dirty work in the bottom hole.

The next big one is Shark's Tooth - a long complicated boulder garden rapid that trips me up almost every time.

Jen running Shark's Tooth.

The last hoorah at the takeout is Wall of Voodoo - a complicated rapid complete with tricky entrance, boof flake over a hole, an undercut wall, another hole, and an exit ledge downstream. This is a classic rapid - keeping everyone on their toes.

Newton nailing the boof flake.
Doug Benton Photo.

Me on the flake.
Doug Benton Photo.

Geoff Kohl styling it up in Wall of Voodoo.

Anne punching the exit hole near the undercut.

Two great days on the Cooper were had by all! After the Cooper we swung north, where the Tye was running out of water - but that's for the next update. Stay tuned!!