“So, this is what it’s like to go packrafting… just with 50 more pounds?” Asked my only-friend-I-made-while-living-in-Seattle, Becky (jk I also made friends with her husband Frank), as we pulled off to the side of the river.
You see, the previous day had been spectacular! Diana, Becky, Frank and I had all made a solid step up taking on Matheny Creek (thank you Chris, Mike and Arwyn for guiding us down!). It was personally, my very first solid class IV run (click here to find out more about class ratings), and among the first for Diana, Becky and Frank. It was an amazing creeky ledge-drop-to-pool run, with holes which made me grateful to have a larger boat. We had a few flips here in there, but no swims. The sun even came out to say hi, which is a rare experience in the deep dark corners of the Olympic Peninsula (OP) in November.
But, that was yesterday, and today we were being quickly reminded that mother nature is beautiful not only for the sunny days, but also because of the way she can inspire humility at the drop of a hat. At the put-in (which took a nice half-hour bush-wack to get to), while we were gaining a greater understand of why they call it a rain forest, we had noticed the water color had become more earthy (meaning the levels were increasing, and picking up more dirt along the way). The river was considerably more pushy, so Chris took some extra time scouting the first drop… and then asked Mike to come and take a look. And pretty soon we had made the group decision to start the hike out. (insert Becky’s comment here for proper timeline placement).
We had about 3 miles to slug out with all of our gear and boats through a section of forest that had been logged recently enough to have a sufficient underbrush covering. Yes Becky, this was going to be a lot like packrafting… with 50 extra pounds.
We only had to set up 3 ropes to get our boats up steep banks. And only got in one minor disagreements about directions. And Frank did not mess up his knee again! And we were wearing our dry suits, so who cares how much it was raining on us! And think I had a snickers hiding in my PFD (there was a surprise snickers somewhere in that weekend at least)! And Becky and Diana made a new song about slugging in the OP! And since we hiked out, we left earlier then intended. Which allowed me to finally get to see a little bit of the Washington coast!
What a great weekend!
for my friends who are moms 