Pigeon

Four of us took a post-Hurricane Helene run down the Hepco today. The gauge said 800 something before we drove over there, but we realized it was fluffier once we put on. We put on at Panther Creek. We expected to find differences in rapids, but we were pleased to find that much of the section was the same. We did notice a landslide into the river near Jonathan Creek that changed the size of the ledge at the corner. It was smaller to me. 'Wormy's,' the first rapid of any significance and size (named after my friend's father, who owned the land next to the rapid), was the same. We ran down the center on the right like we usually do. A few rapids down, there were two noticeable rock slides on each side of the river. There is a stellar little 360 hole caused by one of those slides on river right. As we approached the old dam, I jumped out to scout and give some beta to my group. The dam seemed to be much shorter and the left side much cleaner than in the past. Three of us ran to the right side of the shorter dam, and one ran left. Then we all took different lines down the next drop, but the smoothest line was in the center pointing right. For the last drop, there is a nice tongue right of the big rock in the flow. Take that and head left to finish the rapid. There is a giant hole in the center if you don't get left. There used to be a left creek line that you could ferry over and run after you ran the dam. Know that there are three enormous house-sized boulders lined up from the left bank into the center of the river that used to be scattered on the left side. There might be some new lines/boofs over there, but best to scout from below after you run through. There is construction on the I40 bridge by the takeout so know that there is only one way through under the bridge, which is the center. We took off at 1550 cfs, which I deemed to be a great fluffy level with lots of surf waves to catch.