Lava Island Falls at 1000 cfs...

By: Christina Russell
Date: December 31, 2006



Today is New Year's Eve and what does a paddler do? PADDLE! It was of course no warmer than 35 degrees out but the river was up....at 1000 cfs. The Deschutes has been crankin' this winter which ='s LOTS of boating and not much else.

I hooked up with John Cramp and Josh - two locals here in Bend to run Lava Island Falls. 1000 cfs is considered a medium flow,a class 4+ run. Some solid whitewater goodness! It's only about a mile long which means...LAPS on the run. :D
*Unfortunately I have no photos of from today. Getting photos and vid are difficult....the run snakes between two lava flows and there are very FEW eddies. Having an official videographer is really the best way to go.

For photos of Lava Island Falls check:

http://www.oregonkayaking.net/riverframe.html


We put on at roughly 2:30 and completed the run in less than 30 minutes. Josh paddled his brand spankin new Jefe.... he traded his Dagger Crazy 88 for a Jefer just before we rendezvoused! Making the switch to Liquidlogic! We gave him a few minutes to paddle her around- get used to her, and then started down.

From the top of this section, the run looks intimidating- a blind corner into a class 4+. The first drop, Lava 1, is the meatiest. It begins with a tricky right handed airplane turn directly into two channels seperated by a log jam. The right channel is where the meat is-one large keeper hole. You can boof left and land directly in the eddy at the base. The left channel is composed of several ledge holes followed by "Bob's Butthole" at the base...several paddlers have had the unfortunate experience of swimming here...for a while. Boat, paddle, and person were all recirculated atleast a minute. John followed Josh down the left channel shouting, "Go hard left! left! left!"...referring to Bob's Butthole at the bottom. Josh avoided a confrontation with the hole much to his pleasure and ours. Swimming on Lava is something you just don't do. Unlike most river rock in this country that is smooth, Bend's rock is lava. Unlike the boys, I went right and snagged a sweet boof off the ledge along with "love marks" on the hull of ma boat.

Below Lava 1 is "Cut Up". A read and run section full of sharp rocks. At this point Josh decided he was quite please with his Jefe and was stoked for Lava 2. The gradient increases before Lava 2, creating a steep pushy rapid. The drop involves making a hard right above a river wide hole and boofing on the right next to a large logjam.

Following Lava 2, there is some boogy water just above the take out...dry clothes. Overall the run is very straighforward but should be respected. As flows increase, it becomes a completely different animal.

Today, the take out was filled with people celebrating New Years. An enthusiastic local showed us the "world coolest card trick" according to him. He then proceeded to tell us that he hosts the naked skydiving at the Burning Man celebration....right...we did NOT want to know that. But hey according to Franti- "All the freaky people make the beauty of the world!"

With any luck I will hit up Dillon Falls and capture some video :). WOO HOOO! Happy New Year everyone and keep toasty warm... :D

This is "C" over and out!

High water on the Riverhouse Run- 1000 CFS

By: Christina Russell
Date: December 26, 2006

The day after Christmas turned out to be a sweet day for paddling here in Bend, Oregon. I woke up to see this .......it was dumping snow and about 30 degrees. Not too cold but WINDY. Most people were up skiing but after several days of rain and snow, all the runs were up. :) How could I resist? My sister, Kimmers, wasn't able to join me today but I was able to round up a crew of 4 people including myself. (Not many people enjoy boating in the snow)

Riverhouse is a fun , local run in Bend. It's named after the Riverhouse hotel just below the put-in. It is about 5 miles long and technical...but it's mostly just fun fun fun . On average, the flow is around 600 cfs.....today is was 1000. It hasn't hit that flow in years. I was so excited to check out the river at this level...it turned out to be big and fluffy :) but very mellow. The 20 foot dam at the put in was unrunnable in the normal location (right) so John Cramp and I scoped out the left side. The line looked clean, so we fired it up. The hole at the bottom wasn't sticky at all and I flew through the hole...leaving my right contact behind. Ugh not cool.

The drop was SWEET but I was not so happy about running Riverhouse with one eye closed. The first drop was mostly flushed out. The third drop called the Wright Stuff was easier than at lower flows because there was less risk of pinning yourself in the middle of the rapid. Just lots of water flushing through tight locations. My personal favorite- the Ogre was nothing like it's low water self. The shelves that sit in the middle of the rapid were completely gone and the foam pile that covers the boulder at the bottom was perty darn big. Im sure things were slightly distorted as I had one eye closed the entire time but it sure made for an exciting run. Note to self- remember to wear the sunglasses! The same picnic table that the Tumalo state park always forgets to move away from the river bank was still in the water. Maybe one of these years they will remember to move it.



This photo is a dramatic re-enactment of my paddling today....a very edible re-enactment :D


So if you are interested in catching Riverhouse at a high flow, fly out to Bend NOW. If you are lucky enough to hit it at or above 1000 cfs you will be stoked...just DONT run the dam on the right side.

Snow, Logs, and Surf Waves on the McKenzie River

Kim: After a harsh week of finals for the both of us, Christina came home for Christmas break and some boatin!' We did the important Christmas decorating around the house of which it took a good five minutes to get the angel to stay on top of our tree. THEN, it fell, and it took another five minutes to get it back on top of the tree! It was sad. We don't got skill there. haha. Anyway, we'd made plans to do a fair amount of paddling together over break and finally got the opportunity.

We woke up to see our thermometer reading 6 degrees at the house, and did the normal morning ritual or checking water levels. Lake Creek was in, Quartzville Creek was in, North Santiam was in, and so was the Hood. It was another morning where there were way too many options to count.

We decided to go somewhere that wasn't too far a drive, but still fun of epic proportions: Clover. Clover is a killer playspot on the Mckenzie River about an hour and a half from the house. It is a set of big bouncy surf waves that only come in at over 10,000 cfs in the winter (its at its prime from 13,000-14,000 cfs). Today it was at 9,000 cfs. Depite the "lower" flow (it runs at 2 grand in the summer) , we decided to hit the road anyway! If there is a chance it's going to be good, it is definetly worth the drive over!








Photo by: Christina Russell
HA! I actually got it in the center of the photo! YEAH!








To get to Clover, you have to drive over the Santiam Pass (elevation about 4,600 ft: not bad, but high enough for lots of snow). The day before, this pass was closed due to three feet of snow overnight. We could only hope they would not shut it down on us. Luckily it was sunny and "warm" (about 20 degrees), and the roads weren't too bad. We were able to make it to the Mckenzie River in good time. WOHOO!






On the way over, we stopped at Sahalie Falls to check out the high water. Normally, there is only water on the river right, but today, there was water flowing off the river left too. LOTS of water!









We continued downriver to Clover, rockin' out in the car to the Scissor Sisters and Metallica and did a quick drive-by to check it out.



Christina: It was a balmy 30 degrees outside so we didnt have to wear quite as many layers. I'm still old-schoolin' it with my full body surfer wetsuit (Im a poor college student ) and kim has upgraded to a drysuit. Anyways, we changed in the parking lot of the old Mom's Pies restaurant. When it was open, it served up some of the best huckleberry pie EVER. You haven't had pie until Mom's! It closed a couple years ago but hopefully will re-open in the near future! Cross your fingers!






Photo by: Kim Russell
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Photo by: Christina Russell

Photo By: Christina Russell

After three hours of surfing, and a mini (emphasis on mini) break, I was about to get back on the waves and
Three logs floated on by... hmmmmmmm. Maybe that was all that was going to float down. Nope. Five minutes later, two more floated on down. It became obvious to us that we should relocate to a surf wave upstream where we could actually SEE what was floating down.

On the drive down, Kim and I had checked out a summer playspot called Redsides. We couldnt believe it was actually IN! Of course it looked better than it actually was!



It was too flushy though at the high flow of 9 grand. Since we are EASILY entertained, we actually had more fun off the water than playing in Redsides...











I like to knaw on a mossy rock...mmmmm nutritious....








And Kim's helmet- not so nutritious


Around 3 pm, we decided to get some dry clothes on and head home...of course this is one of the best parts of kayaking in the winter...
It was time to go STREAKING! WOO HOOO! Yes, we had some fun he he he :P If we posted those pictures, of course we would have to kill you...that's confidental material. Only those who boat with us get to witness that goodness.


Maybe...






And here is what we saw when we got back to Bend...gorgeous eh? It was the end of a perfect day on the river.

Photo by: Christina Russell

Photo by: Kim Russell




This is Christina and Kim signing out for another day on the river....