Cooper River

Thanks to 3 'locals' two of us first timers got the guided tour of the Cooper with precious little need to scout.  We did scout the 1st slide drop since you can do that before you get in your boat.  And we scouted the S-turn rapid and Wall of Voodoo.  Other than that all went well with verbal beta.  'Go right' was the refrain at most blind horizons, with few exceptions.  Sure is nice having local guidance.  Thanks guys.

What a pretty creek!  Waterfall at the put-in.  Grey towers of rock.  Dark green mixed conifer forest.  Sparkling clear water.  A few logs in the water but nothing scary.  It reminds me of how Oregon's gem Opal Creek used to be, before the forest burned.  Protect this place!  As best we can.

The inflow to the Cle Elum Lake was rising the day we were out there, from ~800cfs to ~1200cfs.  Twas a sunny day and it must have been due to snowmelt.  The flow was described to me as 'the high end of low' which seems about right.  The holes were barely there and the bony spots weren't stupid yet.  It was a fine flow for this first timer.

My opportunity to run this coincided with the annual Salmon la Sac Slalom.  Having the skills to hit the gates on class 2 in a slalom race is a large part of what you need to successfully run the Cooper.  The other part has to do with boofing edges to stay out of holes.