End of Season Wrap Up
Well it has been an epic season here at Blue Sky Rafting. We had tons of snow in the winter which turned into high water levels through the whole summer. Most of the season we were 2.5 times higher than average water flow! This was new territory for everyone out on the Clackamas. I believe we were the first commercial company to do a trip above 7000 cfs and we peaked out the following day with trips at 9500 cfs! That’s about 3 times the peak of last year.
High water and 90 deg. weather!
The high water forced the guides to look for new lines through familiar rapids in order to avoid dangerous, new features. Waves and other features were huge but generally pretty forgiving. It took us a few days to figure out the safe waves to hit and the ones to avoid. The biggest wave on the river was definitely at Carter Bridge. The wave at the main line was easily taller than a raft. It took a lot of guts and a willingness to flip to run this line. We had some of the younger guides itching to hit it and they did great. No flips for us but there were lots of other flips at Carter from other rafters.
Chaos at Carter Bridge
(9500 cfs!–Jesse in the foreground with Neal’s boat coming through the huge wave in the background)
At really high water Toilet Bowl tends to flatten out, but as the water drops a bit, there are some huge waves. The biggest wave in Toilet Bowl was only a bit smaller than Carter Bridge but was pretty forgiving. Still an intimidating line that not everyone wanted to do.
Kurt taking the high water line at Toilet Bowl
Neal taking the high water line at Toilet Bowl
By mid-June water levels had finally dropped down to the historic peak water levels on the Clackamas which was still 2.5 times average water flow. This is the level when the carnage really starts to come out on the Clackamas. The waves aren’t as big as at higher flows but they are crunchy; leading to more flips. The hero line at Carter Bridge is a massive, gut-punch of a wave but the last wave in Toilet Bowl probably got more rafts. Partly this is because there are few consequences of a flip in Toilet Bowl as there is a nice deep pool below the rapid. As guides, we are much more likely to go big when we know there isn’t a big risk of someone getting hurt.
Trev bracing for carnage at the lower wave in Toilet Bowl
Punching through the big one in Toilet Bowl
By the beginning of July the river was back to the range of normal summer levels although it remained higher than average for the entire season. We had a great season of surfing, swimming, general goofing around and lots of warm days.
Pete working the surf at Rock ‘n Roll
Paul getting vertical at Rock ‘n Roll
Now the fall season is here and we’ve been busy cleaning, organizing, and storing gear for the winter. We also spend a lot of time in the winter planning for next year and we think we have some good ideas for ways to improve the quality of our trips even more.
So remember, it’s never too early to start dreaming of summer rafting and keep your hair dry!
