Crystal

Several years ago, I and my packrafting buddies did Bogan Canyon around 900 CFS.  It lived up to its rating of a III/IV river, which also is what I would describe our boating skill level to be. We had no swims, save for our most inexperienced boater on the trip, and ran at least one rapid I would have rated at a IV-.   So, we went back to check it out at 1700+.  Big difference!  Fortunately for us, we went to scout a strainer reported above the 'last big rapid' before the take-out.  We found the rapid easily from the highway.  It was at least 100 yards long of continous, rowdy class IV+, with slolam boulders situated throughout that created pushy drops into holes with haystack waves on the downside, lots of hydraulics, and lots of lateral, oppositional waves.  We calculated the best line, which would require precise boat placement and moves to complete the run without a swim.  We then went to the next rapid, shown in the pictures in the gallery.  Same stuff, but even harder, with the river coming around a blind turn and funneling right into a big drop, hole, and haystacking wave.  With our newbie boater paddling a Tomcat Solo, and I and our host in Alpackas, I decided discretion was the better part of valor and bagged it.  We realized this whole run was probably full of long class IV's, probably wood, and a highway tunnel to boat through.  This is not a river for rafts because of the tunnel and possibly low bridges, and, at bigger flows, is for IV/V boaters who have solid rolls.  When the gauge is at 1700, best for III/IV boaters to do the Avalanche section below the Narrows, which looked plenty spicy at this level.