PacNW with Cruise and Cody

Matt Gerhardt

Pacific Northwest Spring 2014 Kayak Trip

After a long winter in Southwest Colorado, myself (Cruise Quenelle) , Cody Beach and Claudia Temmer needed a break from the region. So we packed up our kayak gear and rain gear and headed to the great states of Washington and Oregon. After checking river levels we came to find out that most of the rivers we had planed on kayaking were at high flows. We took into account this information and continued on our original plans. The first few days of the trip were spent on Canyon Creek, East fork of the Lewis and the Upper Lewis. Warming up on these Class IV sections was a great way to get comfortable with our new gear and warm up our bodies for the later part of our trip. _MG_4001

Cruise Quenelle on Punch Bowl Falls, Eagle Creek, OR

After a few days of camping in what seemed like a constant rain, we decided to head to Portland to stay with a friend. The next morning we decided to check out Eagle Creek in Oregon. Shortly after breakfast we found ourselves hiking 2.5 miles up the trail to Punch Bowl Falls (45ft). Now residing in Colorado we don’t often get the chance to run big waterfalls. So we were excited with the chance to see/run some of the classic drops in Oregon. After losing at rock paper scissors I was first up to probe what at that time was the largest waterfall either of us had done. After both of us took the plunge we high fived several times and ventured down stream to scout Metlako falls (85ft). Metlako is a Class II move over a 85 foot drop. We couldn’t find any reason to not run it so off we went. _MG_4087

Cody Beach, Metlako Falls, Eagle Creek, OR

The remainder of our trip was spent in the kayaking paradise of White Salmon, Wa. paddling classics such as The Little White Salmon, White Salmon, The Wind and The Hood. All in all we paddled 15 runs in 10 days. This wasn’t our first time to the PNW and it will definitely not be our last! _MG_4037
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