Upper Siouxon Creek, WA

On Saturday November 17, 2007 Nate Herbeck, Jesse Becker, Jarred Jackman, Chris Bolken and I made the early morning drive leaving Hood River at 5am to run Upper Siouxon Creek. The water levels appeared to be leveling off that morning, but as it poured rain all day on us that was not the case. We put on with 1,450cfs on the E.F. Lewis gauge and it rose to 2,000 by the time we took off. We had a two and half mile hike in and were pressed for time. The unknown of what lie downstream hit us around each corner. Jarred ran this big 30+ footer, Middle Siouxon Falls, as we thought our day was coming to an end.

Middle Siouxon Falls
In the begining we all thought we had 2 miles of creek to complete the entire run. After about 3 miles we came to a 40+ foot, knarly drop and started questioning if we had missed our take out. As we paddled downstream the entire crew was feeling the day. You know that feeling where just pushing yourself up out of your boat in the eddy is painful and you pray that all you have left is read and run downsteam all the way to the take-out? That is where we all were, but we still had another couple miles and a few portages to go. We made it to the take out right at dark. We hiked up the 1/4 mile trail to the parking area to find two other kayak rigs parked there. My first thought...."Damn, I feel sorry for those guys." They made it out shortly after we did. More info for this run can be found on Oregonkayaking.net.

The next day I arrived at the LW with a low, 2.7 feet, but fun flow! Austin, Keel, and I managed to catch the TA eddy in the middle of Backender, it's not an easy one to catch...A great finish to an epic weekend!

check back for an update on the TA eddy soon....