TR: Upper EF Lewis
The Upper EF Lewis River has been a run I have wanted to do for some time. It's not the hardest run around, but one I have been meaning to get to. This past weekend, Dan Thurber was back in town so we planned on getting out on the water. The initial plan was to try for Copper Creek, but with more rain than we had expected we turned our attention to the Upper East Fork. We set shuttle, using Mike Olson's house as our take out, and headed up to the put in. We got stopped by snow just short of the put in, which wasn't all bad as we could see a mandatory portage around some wood just upstream.
Wood was on the menu for the day. Lots of small alders had fallen with the heavy snowfall this year making us keep on our toes. Everything was manageable with lines around all of the wood.
As we approached Double Drop, I was probing and somehow missed the normal eddy. Fortunately, I grabbed the last chance eddy just upstream of the lip. While it looked good, no one in our group decided to run it. We continued the portage past Tombstone and headed down river. Tombstone looked awful at this level with all the water pounding the 'Tombstone' rock in the center of the drop.
Looking downstream into Tombstone
We made our way down to Sunset Falls without much trouble. However, that damn Huka got Dan stuck in yet another hole providing some amusement for the rest of us. Sunset was different than I had seen it in the past, much more water. The left side that I usually run didn't look so inviting so it was time to try the middle line. After a short look at the falls, I took off first to get below and take some pictures. What a great line over this falls. I really enjoyed it. Alex came down next and took the far right line without trouble. Everyone else went center and mostly had good lines. Dan was the only one that struggled here getting shoved into the center slot on both trips over the falls.
Dan proving the center line can go wrong.
After Sunset it was nice trip down through Sky Pilot to Mike's house. Another great day on the river.
2 comments:
Thanks for putting up the report! It was good boating with you and Dan. If you find yourself in Idaho look us up!
Damn, what an embarrassing day. I have good news though: I'm selling that damn Huka. A lot of people talk about the Huka and CFS as being auto-boof boats. It think that's horseshit! I'm good proof of that ;)
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