2006 NW Trip
Monday night, we headed south in the rain and spent some time on some forest roads in the dark, looking for a camp spot, The first road started a steep ascent with no turnouts. We quickly hit the snow line and decided to turn around at the first road fork we found. Eventually found another road and found a flat spot near the North Fork of the Tilton. Rained all night but finally let up by the morning. Made it back to cell coverage zone and decided to head to the Toutle River to meet an old friend and hope the rains would continue and bring some creeks up for later in the week.
Met Troy Norman, an ex-Arkie now living in the Portland area at the take-out to find that one of his brand new tires was flat. After a muddy tire change and trip into town to get a patch, we headed to the put-in. The Toutle River is a unique place as it carried the majority of the mud/ash flow from the Mt. Saint Helens eruption. The remnants of the eruption still line the banks of the river. The sand bars are ash, the river is always ‘a muddy grey’ from the ash it carries out of the devastated valley upstream. Many places along the bank you could see new vegetation growing on the thick ash deposits.
The overcast skies along with the grey water and banks made for a surreal landscape at times, especially in the gorge section. The river was classic class II-III big water as it was flowing ~2300 cfs and created some boiling eddys and large waves in places. This was a new experience for Mark, who spent most of his paddling career on the steep creeks of the southeast, much of which is documented in his two films ‘Falling of Walden’s Ridge’ and ‘Steep Creekin’. Creekboats probably weren’t the preferred craft for this water, but the unique aspects of this run made up for the cork-bobber feeling on the river.
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These two photos show the ash-laden water and
the ash/mud flow deposit high on the bank. Photos by Lance Jones
After the run, we headed up the valley to get a look of the devastation from the Mt. Saint Helens eruption, the snow started coming down before we could get to the blast zone, but we did make it far enough to see the main valley that carried the mud/ash/debris flow.
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North Fork Toutle River Valley devastation. Photo by Mark Cumnock The snow that turned us back. Photo by Marc Cumnock
Headed back to Troy’s place to have dinner and finally meet his wife and new son. Troy and I met in college and made some of our first whitewater trips together and was one of the first kayakers I met. He moved to Asheville in the late 90’s and we made our first trips down the Green River narrows together.
The rain started again during the night, so we headed west of Portland to the Wilson drainage try to catch the rain as it moved in. The creeks were still low, but on the rise as the rain steadily fell, after checking a couple of them out, we put on Jordan Creek. This was a scenic class III creek, which of course turned muddy and doubled it flow after we took off.
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Mark and Troy below a drop on Jordan Creek. Photo by Lance Jones Side creek flowing from the rains of the day. Photo by Lance Jones
That night, the rain turned to snow and the Portland area recorded their first March snowfall in 55 years (just our luck). We decided to take a day off to rest our aching bodies and wait for the snow to change back to rain to bring up some more creeks. We took a short trip up the Columbia River gorge for some awesome views even though the low clouds blocked some of them. Here are some shots of Multnoma Falls in the gorge.
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Upper Falls. Photo
by Mark Cumnock
Lower Falls. Photo by Marc Cumnock
Later that day, Troy presented a great slide show
about his trip to Pakistan after the earthquake. He is an ER nurse and made a trip over there to provide medical
assistance. The devastation was incredible and the conditions were much less
than desirable, but those are the types of adventures and challenges that drive
Troy. I have much admiration and
respect for him and the amount of courage to make that trip.
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