Chris at three 6 zero 867 one nine two one

 

second, jP the Toutle is another south WA clasic with some nice play spots , very difrent then the Tilton tho ... its a much larger river with 3 distinct sections....the rapids at the start are big boulder gardens (tempest in a teapot being one of them, i dont think its to undercut there but there is a large hole right next to the one house sized boulder that can give a good beatdown at some flows)... then the flats, braided class 2 (2 or 3 miles, can seem much longer on a cold wet day and some of the chanels get shallow) ... then Hollywood Gorge, wich is a canyon with  some nice rapids and play, the big horizon line is Hollywood (the one class 4ish drop), its easy to scout and walk on the right ... there is a nice set of waves on river left just above the takeout that can be some good soul surfing at some flows, seems to change year to year

 

it is possible to do just Hollywood Gorge and cut out all the flats for a shorter run, but then ya miss the rapids at the start , i do this sometimes for a solo run since its a nice short bike shuttle

 

as far as flows i have run it from 800 to 15,000+ (at 800 we just did Hollwood)... but i would say a good range is more like 1500 to 4000....its still good to go at the high flows but the play washes out ...but one time at around 10,000 we found a epic wave in Hollwood

 

this run is unlike any in WA since it took the brunt of the Mnt Saint Hellens eruption, a huge mud flow went down it and torn out every bridge and totaly changed the river, you can still see bridge beams twisted around rocks like tin foil , and if you look for it you will see the mud line on the canyon walls and trees about 70 feet above water level in the canyon from mud flow ... also the water is a creamy grey color from all the volcanic ash still in the river system, that water seems to have more push and some say its hard to read because you cant see rocks or how deep it is (the one time i did it at 800 the water was actulay kinda clear) 

 

another thing is that this run will hold water for a long long time, there is a sediment dam upstream from the run that seems to buffer the flow out ,  watch the flow on this run,most of the time it will still have water long after the Tilton or other WA rivers have droped to low

 

i havent been on it yet this season so i dont know about wood, but generaly this run is wood free since alot of it got striped clean from the mud flow,  i have seen wood in the first boulder garden sections from time to time tho

 

this is also a great raft run since its so wide open and usealy has lots of water, i love haven a raft to get into for the flats and chill and drink a beer

 

 

Anyone planning on going tomorrow? If so I'd consider going with a carpool!