It was Memorial Day weekend and Tara Moser and I decided to venture down to California, where the
water flowed like honey, to do some boating and 'hang out'. We left Hood River around 10:00 pm,
arriving at camp on the Cal Salmon around 8:00 am the next morning.
I wanted to paddle, but without much sleep the night before, I didn't want to paddle anything
that was too challenging. Ben Stokesberry convinced me to do the Nordheimer section of the Salmon -
class IV-V, assuring me that if I didn't want to do the "hard" stuff I could either take out before
the class V or I could walk around. So, with my mind at ease with these options, Ben and I put
on. Little did I know that the river was running 6,000 cfs (locals note this as a high flow).
The first significant drop was "Bloomer's Falls" - a class IV drop. Ben described the drop to me,
"Enter left with a right angle, paddle hard and hold on." So, I followed Ben's line, mimicing every
movement he made with his paddle and lining my boat at the same angle he had as he approached the drop.
I went over the drop, "Just keep paddling, Heather" I thought to myself. I hit the hole at the
bottom, it completely stopped me and I flipped. I felt the current trying to rip my paddle out of
my hands, "Hold on Heather, relax, roll." First significant drop. . . done!
We continued downstream, blasting over huge waves and dodging enormous holes. I studied each move
Ben took, when his boat angled left, I made sure mine did too!
We came to the next significant drop, . This was the rapid that, if I wanted,
could take out here and miss the harder class IV/V rapids. But, I was having so much fun that I
forgot I hadn't slept the night before and continued down. Ben explained this rapid, "Start right,
cut middle/left with a boof stroke." Sounded easy enough, I thought. I followed his line, but
I missed one thing. . . the boof stroke! Totally plugged the hole, braced out and recovered.
The last rapid was Freight Train, the class V rapid of no return. With the flow so high, Freight
Train was booking. Earlier on, Ben had assured me that this rapid could be portaged. We eddied out
river right so that I could scout this rapid. As I walked along the rocks, I looked downstream
for the "portage". "Ben, I asked, do you realize that this portage would take me 45 minutes and
running this rapid would take me 5 seconds?" He just laughed. We watched as rafts and kayakers
ran this rapid. The line: Go as far left as you can, without getting caught up in too shallow
of water, boof the bottom hole and watch out for the undercut at the base of the rapid that the
water boils into. The thing to avoid on this rapid is a bus sized hole in the middle of the
river that will definately swallow you for a while. Ben went first, I followed. Perfect lines for
both of us. . . let me just say, "there really is no portaging Frieght Train unless you have lots
and lots of time."
To this day, this section of the Cal Salmon is on my top 5 favorite rivers. I think what added
to this pleasure of running such a great river, was the opportunity to run it with Ben. I learned
a lot just from watching him paddle.
~Heather~