Snoqualmie

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!