![\"Dropping](\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/spirit.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAfter spending most of the spring and early summer training for and competing in the the freestyle world championships, I had a few options for places to go paddling in July.\u00c2\u00a0 I decided it was time for some paddling ‘just for fun’ and the best option would be to fly out to the Northwest and meet up with Demshitz for a couple weeks.\u00c2\u00a0 Dave and Nicole picked me up at the airport in Portland and had boats waiting for me- the full rockstar treatment.\u00c2\u00a0 Our first stop the next day would be the Little White Salmon.\u00c2\u00a0 Having never paddled in Washington, getting on such a classic run right off the bat was a great start to the trip, and of course, in true Demshitz fashion, we rolled down the creek with a stout crew- something like 16 people at the put-in.<\/p>\n
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Dropping Spirit Falls.<\/p>\n
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Our next destination was the famous Skookumchuck Narrows, but first we had to pick up Craig and Mike, who had been competing in the US National Championship finals.\u00c2\u00a0 We drove 3 hours south, picked them up around midnight, and turned and headed back north.\u00c2\u00a0 Driving all night, we got to British Columbia slightly too late to make the ferry that would have gotten us to Skook in time to surf that day, so we went looking for a creek that wasn’t too high.\u00c2\u00a0 After looking at the Ashlu and the Callahan and 20 hours in the van, Dave and I put on the Cheakamus for a quick but fun class IV rowdy big water run.<\/p>\n
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Boofing into the Cheakamus<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n The next three rainy days were spent at Skook.\u00c2\u00a0 Paddling at Skook is a fairy tale experience, complete with a ‘river’ that changes direction part way through the day and builds into a massive wave, a hike through an enchanted forest, and bizarre looking creature.\u00c2\u00a0 On the first day, we paddled in on slack tide, and as the flood tide filled Sechelt inlet, the wave formed and changed, building, breaking, greening out, and giving up lots of big tricks.\u00c2\u00a0 As the flood tide reached the end of it’s cycle, the wave flattened out, and we stashed boats on the rack in the woods and walked out through the amazing BC forest.\u00c2\u00a0 The next two days were similar, a two mile walk into the wave, surf until it was gone and we were exhausted, and head back to camp.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, it rained most of the time, so camp wasn’t that much fun, but we made the most of it.<\/p>\n \n \n Dave blunting<\/p>\n \n Craig Cleaning<\/p>\n \n Nicole taking the tour.<\/p>\n \n Yours truly blunting<\/p>\n \n Demshitz loves throwing clean blunts<\/p>\n \n Nicole levetating<\/p>\n \n Camping in the rain.\u00c2\u00a0 Not sure how we got a fire started.<\/p>\n \n More stout tricks<\/p>\n \n Craig has ninja airscrew skills<\/p>\n \n Nicole walking in for day 3<\/p>\n \n Dave with a beautiful airscrew<\/p>\n \n A pile of purple starfish<\/p>\n \n \n Friday was essentially a rest and travel day.\u00c2\u00a0 We stopped to scout a beautiful set of waterfalls on our way back south, but decided it was just a little too high to run.\u00c2\u00a0 Saturday we had a demo on the Skykomish with Aquasports, splitting into two groups, one group doing the North Fork Sky and the other doing the Main Sky.\u00c2\u00a0 We even got to see the sun briefly that afternoon.<\/p>\n \n The next day, on the advice of some locals we met in the grocery store parking lot, we ran the East Fork of the Miller.\u00c2\u00a0 The East fork features some stout drops, but also a lot of mank, wood, and wood-choked mank, so it’ll never be a classic.\u00c2\u00a0 Dave managed to fire up most, if not all the big drops.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n First drop on the E. Fork Miller<\/p>\n \n Dave boofing a shallow 15 footer<\/p>\n \n Dave running another rowdy stout.<\/p>\n \n Craig falling off the funky double drop on the Miller<\/p>\n \n Mike found out the double drop had a stout hole at the bottom.<\/p>\n \n Sweet boof.<\/p>\n \n Dave running the big slide at the takeout.<\/p>\n \n \n Getting tired of camping in the rain for the past week, we headed east over the Cascades in search of sunshine.\u00c2\u00a0 We found it near Icicle creek, where we dried out, ran the upper section one day, and the Ricochet section the next.\u00c2\u00a0 High water made for some rowdy action, as we ended up scouting our way down the Ricochet section, seemingly scouting the last mile 100 yards at a time- running to the next eddy we could see and scouting again.<\/p>\n \n \n Dave and I routing Richochet<\/p>\n \n Just another boof on Icicle creek<\/p>\n \n \n Dry and feeling ambitious, we decided to knock off two (short) new runs in a day, Nason Creek and the classic Top Tye.<\/p>\n \n \n Monkey cage on the Top Tye.<\/p>\n \n Crack in the Earth<\/p>\n \n Box drop is too good not to throw a brown claw<\/p>\n \n \n The final day was another two run day- the Cooper and Fall in the wall.<\/p>\n \n \n Falling in the Wall<\/p>\n \n \n![\"Cheakamas](\"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/cheak.jpg\")
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