Closure

Put in 2012. Compare this to the photo of Kenny and David below, same place.

It has now been 7 years since Kenny Kiley, David Saquety, and myself attempted a first raft descent on Roaring River of the Clackamas drainage.  Our attempt also marked the highest flow it has ever been run at, by anything.  The photo at the top shows why.

We were about to experience one of life's unique trials.

I had driven over or floated by Roaring probably 100 times in the past several years, on each occasion I was reminded of some unfinished business.  There were several drops we had been unable to run in 2005, that is not the case anymore.  Jacob Cruser also accompanied me in 2005 as he did this past weekend.  Back then he was a 16 year old kid who had not yet attempted a first D.  I asked him to sit our first attempt out.  He later got that first D experience when David and I ran the North Fork of the Clackamas.  He apparently enjoyed the punishment as now at 22 years of age, Jacob is an accomplished first descent trip leader with many extraordinary runs under his belt.

1st raft descents started happening with more frequency in the northwest following these adventures.  The guard had changed from Val Shaull, Jeff Bennet, Doc Loomis, and their crew to a new set of risk takers who loved whitewater.  This seemed especially true after ORT ran the big waterfalls on the Lewis River (Jacob’s idea) and then showed up at the PDX Kayaker Film Festival with a piece Jacob created that would show the world what rafts were capable of.

Bruce Reed and Tim Brink of ORT

Dan  ”Stunt Man” McCain approached me afterwards exclaiming, ” I aint that smart but I want to run waterfalls”!  Well, despite appearances Dan is quite intelligent and his feats are well documented.  Although I’ll never get in a boat with him again after having my hip dislocated on Celestial Falls:)

The Pain Game is about to kickoff.

Hans Hoomans, Scott Wadelich, and Darren Albright have certainly fueled the current drive to go big in rafts.  Of course Ben (Dirty) Sigler of ORT is more than worth mentioning as well.  The Habitat film that Ryan Scott has been working on will surely confirm the bad in the badass of the Northwest’s rafters.

Bottom of Headknocker on Roaring River

Just like in 2005, our Aire Puma again spent the night underwater!  And just like 7 years ago, we came back the next day, peeled it off, and finished the trip.  Yes they sponsor us but anyone would be challenged not to appreciate the resiliency of these incredible boats!  We would R4 the rest of this day and come back the next after the water dropped to recover the boat.

Bottom 1/3 of Headknocker, wood prohibited an entire run, again.

Back to 2012.  It is now 3pm and we are only 1/2 a mile into the 3 mile run.  We are in a heavy R4 on a low volume run which has unknown wood hazards and we just completed a long and arduous portage shown above.  We missed a turn on the hike in which added another mile of hauling rafts through the forest but we could not sit down and rest.

Overcome (pain+fear+exhaustion) = Survival. 1st D algebra.

Here’s the run:

Another towards the end:

Big ups to kayakers Willie and Andrew for their assistance and PATIENCE.  Bruce Reed proved once again to be an incredible teammate as he drove the LONG shuttle while recovering from shoulder surgery.  Kenny, Jamie, Caitlin and I went in the next day to recover the Puma.  Kenny was also the recovery expert on our first attempt years ago.  Blunt Family Paddles is branching off into the realm of Blunt Family Boat Recovery (BFBR).

Kenny Kiley. BFP

Timber crawling around on pinned boats, what else is new:

Success!

Kenny and I then R2ed the last 2.5 miles of Roaring in about an hour.  A little too quick as we had to wait almost 2 hours for the shuttle rig.  I am truly blessed to have friends like Kenny and teammates like Bruce, Jamie, Karl, and Daniel.  Caitlin spent the day tromping around mud with freezing feet as her BF Timber cleaned up another mess:)

Hopefully this TR and piece of inflatable history finds everyone well.  I may have missed a few names or even recalled events to fit my own schemas but that was certainly not the intent.  There are a lot of great boaters in our area that I respect and wish to run rivers with for may years to come.  We all wish to contribute, make the world a better place, somehow I pray that maybe this is my niche, a very small contribution to the greater good.  Please do come to the events that ORT coordinates and say hi.  It really is all about coming full circle, as the water does, and together we will find closure.