Upper Lewis River : First Raft Descent

I was over at Young Gun’s (Jake Cruser) pad the other night working on the 2008 ORT video when YG asks/challenges me with, “Would you ever run a 30 foot waterfall in a raft?”
“Oh ya if it looks clean” was my surprisingly quick reply.

As soon as I got home I emailed Ox and the plan was put in place.
On Sunday we would attempt the first no portage raft descent of the Upper Lewis River’s waterfall run, 2 miles, 3 huge drops.

Taitnapum Falls
http://www.waterfallsnorthwest.com/nws/waterfall.php?st=WA&num=1038
Upper Lewis Falls
http://www.waterfallsnorthwest.com/nws/waterfall.php?st=WA&num=1039
Middle Falls (more of a slide at this level)
http://www.waterfallsnorthwest.com/nws/waterfall.php?st=WA&num=1040
Lower Lewis Falls
http://www.waterfallsnorthwest.com/nws/waterfall.php?st=WA&num=1043

I then rounded up 2 football helmets, mouthpieces, coffee, and off we went.

T Falls was super skinny on the approach as we barely had enough water to scrape over the edge. The boat turned at the lip sending us careening over a huge fan rock which directed us into the bank upon landing nearly running over Young Gun with the video camera. We stayed solidly in the boat, that’s a good thing.

After a quick scout we ran the first ledge at Upper Falls, then after much deliberation portaged the 20 foot second tier which at this level had a smallish landing area, with the water either pushing into the cave river left or an exposed rock river right which likely would have loaded the 14 foot AIRE onto a hammering recirculation ride.

Ox got hammered by mist and spray for a good 30 minutes as he clung to the side of the cliff wall at the staging area for the 30 foot exit ledge. Once the cameras and safety boaters were finally in place, I rappelled down to join him. Ox never did scout this drop and relied completely on my opinion as to the runna/livability of this waterfall.
We have been teammates and friends for 3 years now. Trust is earned.

The eddy was just big enough for the boat. We had 6 feet to get out in the current and square up for the plunge. John held the back of our boat as I set the bow angle and jumped in. We cranked out 3 strokes and got down, we were not far enough left and I didn’t think we would be.
“Oh #$%* “ Ox yelled as we teetered over the lip. The next few seconds of white concluded with a crack as our heads collided in the landing zone, a pleasant white flash and numbing sensation, just like when you light someone up when running down on the kickoff team. We were sure the mouthpieces saved us both from a concussion.

Middle Falls was a mellow careening rock slide at this level.
We lost the boat when lining the upper channel at Lower Falls.
It went off sideways and ghost landed upright.
Ox and I decided to come back the following week for a second attempt.

Following a strenuous warm up to get a sweat going we carried the boat down the trail.
Rob and Rob Virostek from http://www.kayakattack.com/ were on hand for photos and safety as we attempted the first raft descent of a rather daunting 40 footer.
The 4 foot ledge 14 feet from the lip insured that the approach would not be easy, the cave river left in the landing zone increased the danger factor.

Robbie held the back of the boat as we lined up our approach angle at the ledge. After several rehearsals of both our paddle and get down technique I gave him the thumbs up to let us go. As we inched away the approach angle felt too left so I skipped my second forward paddle, Ox did not sense this change and took another forward stroke. I braced the stern as we hit the ledge’s hydraulic but the boat still spun bow right. This spin actually lunged the boat forward giving us no time to correct the angle.
We were going off the 40 footer sideways and without time to appropriately get down.

I was able to grab the inner floor handle with my left arm, and the perimeter line with my right in hope that possibly the raft would line sideways and still remain up right like the ghost run last week. Ox had no grab and essentially was free falling throughout.
I had compared running waterfalls to jumping off a cliff into a pool of water, panic never set in as this was accepted as now being the case. We slammed into the froth and my grip was immediately wrenched free by an overwhelming force known as inertia that has rewarded me with a sprained elbow and wrist. Ox went under for a few seconds and was flushed downstream with the overturned raft.

My journey was just beginning.
The beatdown under the falls lasted for around 20 seconds, when the hammering finally lessened my first glance was at a wet rock wall. Going under again concern arose and relaxing became more difficult. The second time I came up it was quickly reasoned that I was river left, surrounded my wet walls, and was going into the cave. The third time I came up it was accepted that I was indeed in the cave and my hands pushed off the sides to insure that my lower body would not get washed into an undercut. Once off the wall and finally floating, I took off the helmet and spit out the mouthpiece so I could breathe.
Noticing a ledge directly behind the curtain I swam over and was able to pull myself out and stand up. A 5 foot log floated around the cave eddy along with my helmet and elbow guard as I attempted swimming out.
No way.
The current was flying down the left wall, and to the right was the waterfall curtain that I had just lost round one to in a TKO. I was going to have to be rescued. The situation was one I had not been in before, the rescuee.
A large wooden beam with bent over nails was lodged into the back wall. I was able to crawl out on this in hope that the folks watching could get a glimpse that I was alive so they wouldn’t panic. It worked. Tired of getting blasted by spray I crawled back to my little corner behind the curtain. A penalty box for blowing the line and attempting something absurd like running a 40 foot waterfall in a raft especially when the entrance was NOT clean and there was a CAVE near the landing zone.

I attempted to coordinate my rescue by yelling from the cave.
No one could understand me. Of course you then get the thoughts of; I hope this is a rescue and not a recovery, this better happen fast so I don’t get hypothermic, I need to remain calm and in control of myself, which I did.
Throw bags floated in on occasion but the angle was all wrong, they would have simply pulled me back into the impact zone. I jumped out of the penalty box and grabbed one anyway. Sure enough it was dragging me back in so I let go and swam back to “my corner”. The raft paddlers couldn’t get in nor could they paddle and throw a bag in, this move is possible and could have worked but with no practice and under pressure…

Finally, Rob climbed up to the ledge overshadowing the cave and on the third attempt got a bag in. He was still directly overhead so I gave a gentle “fish on” tug which prompted him to walk downstream with the rope. Once all the slack was gone I jumped in and swam towards the edge of the cave. Big Rob kept pulling as I negotiated the rocks guarding the exit/entrance to the cave with my feet before finally clearing the hydraulic and swimming downstream.
Total down time, 45 seconds. Total cave time 14 minutes.
All parties kept their heads throughout.

I was given a warm jacket and then ran upstream to set safety for Robbie.

We got away with one, I know that and am quite grateful.