Snoqualmie

Preparing for a beginner float, we paddled the section between the Plum Landing #1 (Tokul Creek) and Fall City Community Park, because I saw warning signs in the Plum Landing #1 parking lot. When you get close to the southwest corner of the golf course where the river bends almost 90 degrees to right, you would see warning signs on the left shore and one on the right gravel bar. You will see the big tree in the water at the bottom of a slight drop. At 541cfs, the drop is shallow, and we had to go towards left, but we could paddle over it in the middle.  The right side of the log is open.

The Diversify Whitewater event was a success again this year!  Day 2 we took participants down the Snoqualmie River from Fall City to Neal Road. We had kayaks, inflatable kayaks, a bellyak, packrafts, and SUPs in our crew. There were about 50 participants and 50 volunteers to make this a memorable day. We had beautiful weather and a fantastic time! The flow was about 455 cfs making it low, but still runnable.

Yesterday evening (11/3/2022) three of us spent a couple of hours popping and blunting unexpectedly.  Friends told me there was a great play hole with eddy service; now I concur!  Textbook smooth and smiley.  Dead center of the river, 50-75 meters down from the generating station.  Eddies all over but great service from the river-L side.  It was smooth, deep, good shoulders on both sides, easy surfing and looping, and surely washed out today as the rains are bringing things up.  Play your brains out then walk back up to the parking lot.  Thanks for the beta, Rich!  Def on the lookout for this level again!  No pix because we were too busy playing to think of it.  Next time ;)

11/10/2022 we went back at 1600cfs and the playhole is still awesome (see video clip).  There are also two great training surf waves above it.  All is park-n-play, walkiing back up to the parking lot when it's really dark.  Will keep probing and posting other playhole levels.  Supposed to be good even to 1100cfs.

The annual Diversify Whitewater event was held on the Snoqualmie River at the park in Fall City that provides river access on river right. Jim Good organized the event that included many volunteers from the local community. We paddled from Fall City down to Neal Road, a distance of approximately 3 miles. This is a good trip for those experiencing a river for the first time and is just class I moving water. Although the flow was low, it was enough water to get down.

Last night after a lap on the South Fork I decided I still had some whitewater in me and wanted to check out the Powerhouse at 'higher than recommended' flows. Normally, I love to ferry across the river at the powerhouse and walk up the other side of the river and put in at the base of the falls. This is a convenient little loophole that allows boaters to continue to run the rapid above the powerhouse, which is the best rapid on the run by far. It's kind of wack that the PSE doesn't allow boaters to still access the pool at the falls via the trail, but this will do for the time being. Only problem, this is not really an option above 3500cfs. The currents pushing through the center of the river combined with the surging outflow of the powerhouse make the ferry practically impossible and the scramble up the river left bank would be pretty ghetto.

The gauge was running at 5300cfs, and I don't think this should be considered 'above recommended' at all. At this flow the river gives a big water feel, with choppy waves and massive eddylines (the one at Tokul Creek was rip roaring!). The rapids are basically just big wave trains, the largest being the one about halfway down with the big boulder in the middle. There were a couple fun little holes in this rapid but as a general rule the rapids tend to wash out a lot at this flow. Less technical skill building than standard flows but a lot of bracing practice for beginners. It's nice that the road to the boat launch a few hundred yards downstream of the standard takeout is open again so the last rapid around the corner is more in play. With a couple solid boaters to tag along with, I'd say this is still a great class II/II+ run at this flow!

The Puget Sound Energy Plant 2 Powerhouse at the base of Snoqualmie Falls and the access point for the Powerhouse run.

New access at the Snoqualmie Falls Powerhouse, Plant 2

Construction of the new access point at the Powerhouse under construction. The rip rap downstream of the powerhouse is being configured to better facilitate access down to the river. American Whitewater provided input on the design for this project to address the challenges of getting down to the river over the irregular rip-rap that was challenging to navigate while carrying a boat.

View of the Powerhouse Run from above on river left from the train. The run starts with the first rapid visible, passes by the powerhouse (located on river right) and continues through 3 more rapids before turning the corner to the left and hitting a final rapid just before the take-out.

Downstream from the Powerhouse That center line looks good......

Jennifer De Bruijn runs the optional Power Tools rapid above the put-in. This is by far the most technical rapid on the Powerhouse section.

The views are just around the corner