Snoqualmie, S. Fork

Yesterday we ran this section at around 700cfs and I'd say this is about the perfect level for beginner paddlers. Much less than this and the gravel bar sections would be pretty bony, much more and it will pick up speed and be a bit more continuous. Our group was just two packrafters, and I had used a razor scooter to shuttle through the side streets and across the bridge at Camp Waskowitz. The shuttle took me about 35 minutes intermittently walking and scootering. We put in at the parking lot for Twin Falls.

The first rapid is a nice warmup and is just a fun little chutey wave train banking off the left wall. After a couple more class II rapids the river passes under the 468th st bridge. From here the river calms down a tad for a good half mile or so, the first split right after the bridge we went right with no issues. Before you even realize it, you'll reach the Clay Wall rapid which is just an easy little wave train with one large boulder in the middle that I assume creates a nice hole at higher flows. We caught the eddy river left below the clay wall and took a quick pause. Leaving the clay wall, the river wraps around a big left bend and here's where we encountered the only wood hazard on the run. Basically the river split, 90% of the flow was going right so we followed. Very shortly after this the river splits again, only this time you must go left because the entire right channel which took most of the water with it drops under an absolutely nasty logjam. The entire current pushes under several channel spanning logs and an accident here would mean serious trouble. That being said if you take the second left channel the wood is easily avoidable and shouldn't pose a problem to those who are paying attention. A large boulder on river right marks the start of the class II+ rapids and there are a couple more as you approach Waskowitz Canyon. The first footbridge marks the start of Waskowitz Canyon, a continuous class II+ section of whitewater that lasts roughly 1/3 of a mile. There was no wood in play, and the rapids are basically just a big boulder garden with some holes and wave trains here and there. One thing I would note, on a sunny afternoon plan ahead and bring sunglasses. The entire canyon section we were being blinded by the reflection and it made not scouting kind of a pain in the ass.

The canyon section slowly tapers off as you pass under the second footbridge and then around a left hand turn. Shortly after this turn is 'the Weir'. This isn't really your typical 'weir' as there is no uniform drop and not much of a recirculating current. This rapid should not be disrespected, there are a couple nasty little pin rocks on several of the middle-left lines and at 700cfs there is not enough flow to make any of these slots clean. I ran one that looked like it had a decent flow through it but ended up skipping my ass down rocks before telling the girlfriend to walk around. There is an easy clean line far river right that avoids the entire feature but from the left side where we stopped to scout there wasn't much of chance of us making it back over there.

The river meanders it's way down to the 436th ave SE bridge and has a couple more class II rapids along the way. The takeout at the bridge is on river right. We took out in this micro eddy right before the bridge. It wasn't great for beginners to catch but it worked. There may be a better access point here at the bridge but I didn't look very hard. Whole float took roughly an hour and a half with a couple little stops to practice eddylines.