This sounds awesome. I'm not ready to run Robe but would like to volunteer to help set up. Who do we contact? Can you provide their info?

Robe sucks.

Interesting idea. It would be a grueling race. I'd love to try it.

osmelendez thanks for the offer. To help just show up at the TO at 10am on race day.

Others better be getting laps in as the gnome is eager to have a new home this year...

Yo Darren, I tried to check out the Robe Race page but I can't see it.

http://tinyurl.com/cjha4zv

Link to the Robe Race Page.... Whats up? Maybe I am just webilliterate

PS - Todd just got the Robes cleaned and embroidered. JP - No robe stomping this year...

This is shaping up to be a great week of kayaking!   

Well, ain't enough time for me to get practice laps in, no partner, and no fitness, really. I don't feel like subjecting myself to the extreme rigors of the Robe Race. 30+ min is a long time to go all out through Gnar and flatwater. Makes CC Lewis seem like childs play.

But as of now I plan to be present race day. I'll probably be posted up somewhere fun- somewhere likely to produce carnage. Do a little safety boating. Who else is on that plan for race day?

Ooop---

The graph just updated, and now there is a tall Gnome Hat poking up through Saturday night. I hope it doesn't march forward, or saturday's plans gonna get scrapped!

Those mischievous gnomes are up to their usual antics, it appears!
<<<this hat resembles the graph: a bit spikey!

The gnomes are hungry buggers man, you gotta be careful.

 

They've developed a taste for knuckle skin as of late.

 

Yeah, They have been ordained to the task of "renovating" Robe Canyon on an ongoing basis. Robe's unstable geomorphology is more dynamic than any whitewater stream I've frequented. Whole rapids can be completely revised by crews of Robe Gnomes. They push rocks and even house sized boulders around, add fu*ker rocks to the approach to your favorite moves, cause landslides, ect. They would be right at home in the mythology of Middle Earth.

Ppeeps should definitely come on out. Anyone who is interested in running it but unsure should show up early, go up toward the put in, and hike into the Old Robe Historical Trail. When you get to the tunnels, scout the first 1/2 mi. Or so. If the drops around the 1st Tunnel (T1, T2, and Last Sunshine) look like exciting fun that you can enjoy, the run should go good for ya. If they look like something stout that you'd likely portage, best to wait and come back. By hiking in for a peak, you can know what you are in for without the commitment. Safer for you, and safer for whoever might lead you. It's got some rowdy drops.

Race Day may not be the best day to tag along though if you want to scout a lot, portage, ect. Those who are solid enough to enjoy verbal beta on the other hand, ought to have a good time.

Yeah- in fact, the Robe Gnomes even thwarted one of the most successful capitalists of American history: John D. Rockefeller.

Rather than undertake the plan put forth by Barlow to build a more expensive route of trestles around Robe Canyon, Rockefeller gambled to run the railroad to Monte Cristo straight through it. The Robe Gnomes upped the ante, and Rockefeller lost. The following years were spend constantly repairing the railway through there, clearing landslide debris and huge woody debris from the railroad grade. In a Granite Falls cafe that's no longer in business I saw a photo of huge 40' trees stuffed into Tunnel #6 (the most upstream tunnel, the one found at the beginning of the run beside T1,T2, and Last Sunshine). That railroad grade is pretty far above the river. Those gnomes can really tear sh*t up.

Eventually, industry gave up and Monte Cristo ceased to be the potential gold rush it was hoped to be. One local prospector I've spoken to at length said that the geology of the area was difficult to mine. Some gold, some silver, but mostly platinum, a metal that they didn't have as much use for then as they do today.