Double Duty Wenatchee Post

We've been east of the Cascades the past two weekends rafting on the Wenatchee River. Since we finally got some spring sunshine and warmth, the snow has started to melt and the rivers are swelling. In my opinion, this is the best time to run the 'snatch, since other local runs are above recommended flows.

Two weeks ago, the temperatures were at near record highs and the Wenatchee was above 15,000cfs on Saturday the 17th. Due to some mismanagement, I ended up on the banks with the dog, as the 96F weather was too much for him to bear on his own. Kat took down 4 of our friends for a huge ride, and I snapped a few pictures instead.

I did get to raft this past weekend, with flows at 11,000-12,000cfs. This is an ideal flow, as the waves become enormous but almost all are runnable. Most of the rapids feature huge standing haystack waves or big meaty holes with recovery time after each. We ended up organizing 3 boats on Saturday and five for Sunday, which is large for us without meeting other WRRR boaters or joining another organized group.

We're inching closer to our California road trip - we leave nine days from today. I'll put up a post with a map and list of our planned destinations sometime this coming week. We don't have any rafting planned this coming weekend, but may try for a day trip if we can make the time.

Our Former Company Cleaning up a Flip

Wenatchee River

We had a great time rafting the Wenatchee River over the weekend with our soon to be married friends Lance and Jacinda. Jacinda has recently been bit by the rafting bug, so we got her out on the river with a chance to guide the boat on her own. She did great on her first real opportunity on the stick - especially after she took her first swim! The river was a decent moderate level, but will probably skyrocket this coming weekend due to the forecasted heat wave. Most likely, we'll be out there again since most of the rivers this side of the mountains will be flowing well above our comfort zone.

Kat and I have been working out the details of our road trip. We've made some reservations at campgrounds, so our itinerary is becoming more structured than we originally thought. I'll put up a post detailing our plans once they are ironed out a bit more.

We'll also be bottling the two batches of beer we still have in fermenters - the IPA 3 and Wheat Ale 1. If we bottle by this weekend, these will be drinkable during the trip. For once, we have an opportunity to bottle two batches on the same day. This is because the wheat ale is not dry-hopped (and therefore not transfered to secondary). It will mean for a long day of washing and sanitizing bottles, but will be nice to knock out two batches.

Here's a couple shots from the weekend:


Jacinda on the stick


Marc tripping out in the cave