Sultan

Before heading out on the Sky for the day my buddy and I decided to take a quick dip in the Sultan. I had only done this run once before ~450cfs and it was too low for my liking so I was stoked when I saw the gauge a little over 600 that morning. To keep the shuttle easy and to make the run a little longer we floated down to Sportsman's Park in Sultan. Our group was one kayaker and one packrafter.

We put in at the powerhouse, the first rapid exiting the pool is by far the easiest rapid until you exit the gorge so don't be fooled. Around the first corner comes the first real rapid, the river splits roughly halfway through the rapid before rejoining and slamming into the right wall, take the left side going in and the right side around the island. There is a short pause before another rapid that is fairly straightforward but should be checked for wood. After another short pool is Last Nasty, which I think separates into three sections with eddies to catch along the way. The first section squeezes to the right of a big midstream boulder and then pounds into a cave on the right. Don't go left of the big boulder and also don't go into the cave (we actually pulled into the cave to stop and scout at 450 but any more water makes this option sketchy. The second section is a little manky and we ran through it on the right side too before catching an eddy above an obvious horizon line at the third drop. There is a flaking ledge on the river right side that creates a perfect boof into the pool below and could be lapped with some effort.

After Last Nasty the river cruises through another mile or so of fantastic class III/III+ boulder gardens with countless chutes, boofs, splat rocks and surf waves. A huge midstream boulder marks the beginning of the end of the gorge and the fun rapids, with only a short section just below before the river significantly changes and flows through wooded gravel bars. First island go either way, second island the left side fans out really bad and gets super shallow. Right side has a sketchy log to go around and then some dumbfuck landowner strung a rope across the river to the island from their property. Be careful of this as it's hard to see and is roughly at chest level. There are several other similar rope features on smaller river right side channels as you make your way down to the takeout. Takeout at the 3 bridges that cross over the Sultan just above the confluence of the Sky. Entire trip took roughly 2 hours but could be shortened if the gorge is pre scouted and you boogie out the lower stretch instead of dinking around.

A trip that began on the Upper with a release from the dam, we continued on down through this section to Trout Farm Road. With the additional flow from the powerhouse, this was a fun level for this section.

A few runs of Last Nasty and a swim during a juicy flow on an Upper Sultan release day (the release flow plus powerhouse generation).

For people new to this run. The description to the put in above is accurate. I'd suggest not using the information/map in the 'directions' tab at the very top.

Lower Sultan on a summer day.

Last Nasty at lower flows. 3/24, 350cfs

After American Whitewater raised the issue of lost access resulting from a bridge construction project near the powerhouse, the Snohomish PUD developed a new trail during summer 2004 that now provides improved public access to the water.

This new bridge was constructed during the summer of 2003 to provide PUD personnel with improved access to the watershed. This project eliminated historic social trails to the water but once the issue was raised by local AW volunteers, the PUD built an improved trail during the summer 2004.

The City of Everett keeps the Lake Chaplain Road gate locked at orange or above level terrorist alerts. Call them at 425-257-8200 to ask and/or complain about the gate. The 116th street gate (controlled by the powerhouse) was open Tues. 3/25/03 but I don't know their policy. Their # is 425-347-5549.

Thomas O'Keefe, James Girton, and David Wilson on the Sultan River.