White

Packrafted down the White. There's a construction/water treatment access road on the east side of 410 to get down to the river where the put in is. There is an active construction site, but workers were away for the weekend so we didn't have any problem getting to the river (that might be different if you show up while work is happening). If you can't access here, I'm not totally sure where you'd put in . We put in a few hundred yards east of the 410 bridge spanning the river, wanted to get those first few rapids in. You can't park in front of the gates to the access road. There's parking by the Buckley Log Show venue. Easy 10 minute walk from the parking lot there down to access road along 410. Drop gear at the access road, park, then return and walk the short distance down the access road.

I really like this river at ~1900 CFS. Not much worry about scraping or bottoming out ever. Water moves pretty quick, but never feels out of control or overwhelming. Water is clearer than I've seen in the past, but still a bit turgid. Nonetheless at these flow rates, we never encountered any unexpected hazards. Wave trains are a lot of fun at these levels!! Really enjoy the river for having lots of features relative to other neighboring rivers, it keeps you engaged and a smile on your face. The first half of the run has the most rapids and wave trains, the second half starts to braid and the river widens a bit, but there's still the occasional feature to keep that smile on your face. Couple of the rapids throughout the run will blast you in the face if you want to take them on! Otherwise, for newer paddlers, you can easily navigate around most features you find intimidating. That being said a couple of wave trains thrust you into the thick of it and you're best bet is to stay upright and have fun!!

River is a pretty clean, no portages required, any hazards are easily avoidable. There were a couple of log jams to avoid but you can paddle clear of those as they don't span the whole river. Everything were able to read and run and never needed to leave the boats. If you're new to the river, make sure you're confident in the braids you follow, most hazardous braids are obvious, but if you turn down the wrong one you could be faced with a lot of wood debris jamming up the braid.

Quiet day in terms of wildlife, but love this stretch because it's one of the few contiguous stretches of river where you don't see houses/other signs of civilization. Feels remote despite it's proximity to towns and cities.  Pull out was easy at ballard park. Dropped a car there and then climbed up the banks, tossed our boats over the chain link fence before heading for home.