Sunday, May 10, 2009

Minam River and Wallowa Exploration

This weekend Nick and I loaded up our boats friday and headed down to the Wallowas after my Grande Ronde trip was canceled due to high water. High water meant though that the Minam river was up! After jamming our two kayaks into the back of a Cessna we flew up to the Minam River Lodge. The river was incredibly beautiful, however the whitewater was somewhat lacking. After getting out to the car we decided to do some scouting and headed over to Bear Creek, which unfortunately looked pretty wood choked and small. I had a hunch that the Lostine might have more water, so we drove down there, parked the car on a steep section, and walked in. What we found was pretty cool, a couple of miles of granite walled gorges with class IV to V whitwater! We decided not to run anything with just the two of us, but I'm guessing we'll be back with a chainsaw and winch and a couple of kayaks!
-Ben












Mill Creek Fun

Pictures from a couple of days playboating on the Missionary Hole on Mill Creek by the community college. We thought it was only good up towards 1000 CFS, but some exploring lead us to discover that it's okay down to about 250CFS.













Palouse River

Here are some pictures from a recent run on the Upper Palouse (above Palouse Falls) at about 1200 CFS. Pictures by Ben and Nick, Nick Matisse was in the Orange Boat, Jon Loeffler in the Blue Boat, and Ben Hayes in the Yellow Boat. A great day on the water!!! also, the pictures are all in reverse order.