Yup-- for a bit there it looked like there was so much water it might hold for us, not looking so now.

Well Mike, back up plans? I still want to boat today. Christian was hoping for a thanksgiving day reprise on Pilchuck. We'll have to wait and see. I think we missed that boat for now, though.

Dog gone it Darren, you are most certainly allbright.

Kinda late to rally, now, flowtorch. Mike bailed, and we both saw the water dropping. No one else responded and now I'm at split rick. Its not like we haven't had the last 24+ hours to queue this up. And its not that I'm a "high water snob" either, but I can't afford to drive up there when the flow may not be there and no one commits to paddle it. Flowtorch, why didn't you give us the local water report? Especially if you wanted to hit it today. That's your zone to monitor, kid. sh*t, if you woulda been on it last night or this morning we'd probably already be putting on. Tom n Kira sounded like they ended up out there wanting to run it, but...

I'm in the Sky drainage now where I know there is good water to boat. 11 @ split rock for anyone interested in a Foss Lap (most likely) followed by the Sky or a second Foss lap or three to be determined.

lol... damn JP is droppin the hammer and getting all demandin, watch out Rain Gods, this boy is gonna nurse your teets like banks are nursing stimulus checks...

Anybody wanna try Wednesday? I'd like to go even if it's "low"...

Edited by Travisimo - 21 Nov 2012 at 12:14am

What the fu*k ever, James.
Happy Thanksgiving, BTW- I really am thankful you created this site, you smart ass. Hope your turkey was good, as I've no doubt.

Flowtorch, no big- I got a few good runs on Pilchuck at my personal ideal flows, so no big deal if I never even paddle it again. It is hard to catch. I was just in the neighborhood and I'm currently challenged geographicly. (I mean, I can read maps and navigate, but gas is expensive). If you did get the Pilchuck Passion though, your proximity might help people, and help you lure out peeps to paddle it with you. But you gotta be quicker on the draw. Its one of the flashiest criks in the state, along with Jefferson.

Basicly it looks to me like saturday would have to be an early rally for those wanting to swallow that pill and chuck their plastic into the flow. I'm no longer near there, so if I boat at all it will need to be elsewhere. Peeps should rally it tho.

I really am thankful for this site, as I said. Thankful I don't have to resort to a spam ridden Yahoo Group to connect with paddlers. Thankful for the guages, and of course, thankful for this whole region and all of the abundant waters...

So many options to choose from that I don't need to feel like I'm missing out on the 'Chuckwagon, or the Sitkum, or many other fine but inconvienient creeks to go run, having run most of them by now at some point. Now I just want my repeat favorites.

Thankful for Icicles on Halloween, and Robes that wear me down year round....
'Scuse me while I kiss the Sky, 'cuz that was pretty sweet this week too. Anytime it is 8K or more, you can't go wrong. And nobody was out on it. Almost hard to believe. But there are always a few- enough to run shuttle and run downstream with ya, and that's all ya need.

I saw this post and and the dates and at first didn't realize most of the posts were from back in November.

Time for me to start creating a river log, apparently this is my most accurate description of a day I paddled:

"the day in November when the big crew ran it earlier in the morning"

Hmm, pretty lame on my part.

So this takes me back to my question on my "Robe in CFS" post about how the overall conversion is created from river to river.

You gave me this link for Robe:
http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/station/flowplot/textPlot.cgi?id=GFLW1&pe=HG

I went to the root site and see they give you the ability to filter by river and then station for Pilchuck, so I guess that answers my question on that one.

Thanks for your help Darren, guess its time for me to catch up on my reading and start logging these runs!

Edited by TastyWaves - 19 Dec 2012 at 12:04am

Got on upper & middle Pilchuck today. Level was around 1,100. Stick gage was 4.0 at beginning of run and 3.9 at end. Great level for both sections.

The wood in the upper is still there. It's about a mile into the run, riverwide at the first real standout rapid after the initial easier class 3 stuff. The river takes a sharp left bend and there's a big pointy rock, kind of pyramid shaped in the middle of the river. There's multiple trees riverwide. Small eddies to portage from on the right. Approach with caution.

The rest of the upper was pretty clean. A little wood here and there, but nothing major. The wood on the middle section is a bit better now. About mid-way through the middle there is some riverwide wood that's been there for a few years. We were able to just paddle through it though, and the second log that was just 100 feet downstream is gone. Pilbox canyon has less wood than before. It's pretty clean except for one bit of wood on the right.

In the lower part of the run there is still one riverwide log. Easy to paddle under at this flow. Didn't even have to duck. Might be less duckable at high water.

Right on- good beta, Joe!

Jonlcrain: how did you find those two comparitive flows for you, which did you prefer and why?

Yeah, sounds like it... I think we took off from the take out around 3:30. Great day on the river for sure.

I really like that level... except... I would have liked more h2o at the falls. Got a cut in my floor running the middle chute. DAMN! That slot likes to bite IKs.

Ran the middle section again at low water Sunday with some first timers. We had about 3.3 - 3.4 on the stick and just over 600 cfs. That's actually a great first timers flow because the falls is easy to portage... you can just climb down the far right, and hard boats can seal off the ledge down there and IKs can just flop and drop. Yeah...It's a little bumpy at that flow, but most of the good drops are filled in nicely and there's good holes in there too.

I forgot to mention one other item of interest on the run now....

On the middle section, about 2 miles into the run is one of the biggest rapids (aside from the falls). It's a steep multi tier drop in a more open section of the riverbed. I don't know if it has a name already but I always refer to it as otter drop ever since witnessing a fantastic hole ride there .

Anyway, a typical line there was usually to start right and then cut back to middle after you miss the two big holes in the middle (as previously mentioned). Now, however there's 2 smallish trees each leaning out over both sides of the river and the one on the right is in the way enough to force you to run left or down the middle. Fortunately, there's a pretty good line on the left too.

Thanks JP. I like to share what I think are important things for someone to know.

I've never run that middle line either. I haven't been in there yet with enough water to make it look tempting enough to try. I would say that I wouldn't recommend anyone running it who hasn't been there at low water and has seen where the ledge juts out at the bottom. If you're too far left or right it's gonna be a hard hit  at the bottom.