water levels go down, but fun goes up

One of the qualities of the Wenatchee river I’ve learned in my two years guiding it is that bigger isn’t always better.  When water levels rise, it means bigger, faster runs, but sometimes the hits aren’t as adrenaloaded since the holes tend to wash out (a big hole is a vacuum that water is attempting to backfill-if the water gets high enough it just submerges the hole completely).  When we’re up at 13,000cfs, some of the river monsters come out to play-freak waves that only awaken at the highest levels; likewise, when you’re around 7,000cfs, the holes become defined and sticky (they want to grab you), and make for hard hits and fun surfs.  Around 10,000cfs is fun, but really becomes that in between place that is big and flushy, but not really defined.

So when the river dropped into the 7,000’s this week and my friends Erin and Dan from Idaho decided to come out, I was pretty excited.  Joined by my other buddies, John and Erik, from Seattle, we set out under sunny skies and didn’t flinch with the occasional peal of thunder.  Another great day on the river.

Interested?  Well, you’ve only got about a week or two left on the Wenatchee.  But the great thing about rafting in Washington is that with the right equipment you can pretty much do it year-round!

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