Winter Waterfalling

Big Brother on the Truss from Dave Hoffman on Vimeo.

Kayakers around the Pacific Northwest have been enduring a grim, low-water winter.  I am not a lover of paddling in the winter but the abundant rainfall here from late November to May makes this part of the world the best place live if you like to kayak.  And the accompanying snowmelt gives us great whitewater through the end of summer and sometimes into the fall. I like to say that our season is 13 months long and that isn’t far from the truth.

No rain for us now means no snow-melt for us later.  I’m hoping, praying for some dark clouds and lack of sunlight.  Even with the relative drought, we’ve still got the best whitewater in the nation right now; I’ve just got to keep reminding myself of that.

Lately we’ve been paddling a classic river – the Green Truss section of the White Salmon River. While I  absolutely love the Truss, the run lies mostly in a small and steep gorge, lacking sunlight.  For my money, the best month to paddle the Truss is July – you’ve got warm air to  temper the icy glacial melt and enough daylight for after-work runs or multiple laps with a nap in between.  With river levels as low as they are, I’ll take what I can get and love every minute of it.

Big Brother is not the most technically difficult rapid on the Truss, or the most intimidating.  It does however hold a certain pull for me as I have a strange fascination for rapids with challenging lead-ins.  The cave on the right side of the drop always gets my pulse pounding.  This wasn’t the best line I’ve had, landing in the veil, but I’ll take it.

I shot the footage with a Go Pro helmet cam which has worked remarkably well.  I mounted it on the bow of my boat and it’s taken a few tries to get it right.  I love being able to see that waterfall fly up behind me.  Thoughts of Big Brother are never far from my mind.

Here’s hoping for some precipitation!