Cispus

The Washington Kayak Club hosted a trip and barbecue on the Cispus River with nearly 30 people joining the trip. The club has a long history of enjoying trips on the Cowlitz River system dating back to those lead by club founder Wolf Bauer. For this trip we enjoyed clear skies and beautiful sunny weather, but of course it is always sunny on the Cispus.

A great time was had by all with a run down the river, a surf session at Paul's Play Pen (nice level for long boats), and then a barbecue at the take-out organized by Michael Deckert and his wife Becky. Wood hazards were present along the banks in a couple places, most notably the river right channel at Lower Iron Creek Rapid. The main lines were clean.

We met at 10:30am at the take-out, shuttled up to the put-in and were on the water by 11:30. It was a relatively short 20-30 minute session at Paul's Play Plan. We had another short break and reached the take-out shortly before 3:00pm. It was thus an approximately 3 hour run plus stops at this flow. Everyone completed their shuttles and the barbecue wrapped up around 4:30pm.

This was a chance to enjoy the new picnic shelter and take full advantage of the take-out facility finally constructed and available for the public to enjoy nearly 40 years after issuance of their hydropower license. In 1986 the Federal Energy Regulatory authorized the construction of the Cowlitz Falls Hydroelectric project and included a provision that 'The licensee shall, after consultation with the Friends of Whitewater, construct a boat ramp take-out facility at the head of the reservoir on the Cispus River so that boating use of that river will not be interrupted by project construction or operation.' It took decades of advocacy, much of it coordinated by Michael Deckert, for Lewis County PUD to comply with this license condition and it was a please to be out on the water enjoying the facility with Michael.