BIG CLEAN GREEN Thursday 2/23

A big system moved through this week causing the usual spikes on the guages throughout the State of Washington. The Howard Hansen resevoir was filling up so much that they were releasing large volumes of water for several consequetive days. So while other runs got huge quickly and dropped out equally quick, the Green held a sustained generous discharge of high water proportions for 5 days running. I had to miss Wednesday's episode at 8,040 cfs or whatever it was that Fish and Darren got out on, but the following days would add up to a four day weekend of classic, big water boating! Thursday @ 7,500: By Noon Fish, Bret, Jeremy, myself and Darren were putting on. This was the highest I'd ever run the Upper Green Gorge. It's fair to call this whole run a Class V endeavor at this flow. You don't want to swim it could potentially be fatal. But it boats like Class IV for experienced Class V paddlers with Big Water experience. Straight forward and manageable, if you stay out of trouble. HUGE WAVES AND HOLES, the ugliest of which are avoidable "by a country mile" as Fish likes to say. Some ugly wood hazards tucked into the margins, but not in play. The currents were smooth and stable. We went Center Right down Mercury through huge predictable waves into the large eddy on R. Right above the Nozzle. Peeling out, we ferried over to Center Left with Right-To-Left angles to thread through the Nozzle between the two large holes that are normally dry boulders. It was a wide glassy toungue, and not to hard to find. Around the corner the Large Boulder on R. Right was a monstrous pour over ledge. Two large standing holes flanked the left wall where the surf wave usually is. I rode the left shoulders of these big fluffies along the left wall. We skirted to the right of another monster pour over on R. Left, then angled back left for Let's Make A Deal. A BIG FAT LOG was broached on Stano Rock and seemed to protrude into the right channel. The rest of the run seemed chill by comparison.