Sandy

Posting for a friend who ran this a few days ago:

Sandy River Revenue to Dodge Park
Re: Unknown named rapid I have formerly referred to as “Rt wall curler” I will now refer to “Rt wall cave and pillow rapid”. It’s located in the immediate proximity of the end of SE Marsh Rd. And it’s after the class 2-3 rapid that is at the start of the houses on river right.
The clay wall has been undercut more and the indent on river right wall is now more like a cave. The curler is now a pillow and a little retentive to an inverted boater. Immediately following the pillow it appears as the soft clay wall is undercut. At 1,100 CFS (Marmont gauge) the surface water hitting the wall and creating the pillow deflects at 80°-90°, my concern is a swimmer upstream could be pinned against the wall or flushed under portions of the wall immediately downstream.
The lead in to this rapid at this flow is rocky and could easily disrupt a newer paddler. From near the top of the lead in (I started river right) as soon as I saw the increased size of the cave i immediately paddled hard to get left and still got pushed up onto the pillow. The next paddler remained along the right nearly brushing the rocky outcropping on the right just above the cave. He passed the cave, rode up on the pillow and flipped upstream. He was momentarily held inverted in the depression upstream of the pillow, and despite bracing and rolling efforts flushed out swimming. Wouldn’t necessarily call this a close call, but rather a heads up to everyone that this rapid has changed and brings an increasing risk to be mindful of as I have heard this has traditionally been considered a beginner to intermediate skill building run.