Weekend in Leavenworth

Kayaking

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I headed to the Leavenworth area for a weekend of kayaking. The Professor Paddle Ball was this weekend and was a huge success. There were easily 50 people or more that showed. People were kayaking everything from Lower Icicle, Upper Tumwater, Peshastin Creek, Ingles Creek, and the Wenatchee.

After rolling in Friday evening I met up with Yotes for a quick session on Rodeo Hole on the Wenatchee. The Wenatchee was at 10,300 cfs and it was a wave on the right side and a hole on the left. After some fun we headed to the camp grounds to meet up with the others.

We stayed at the group site of the Bridge Creek campground. It is a huge open area that is more like true camping instead of having your neighboor 20 feet away. However, when you have about 40 cars and 80 people it starts to get crowded. Friday night was a lot of fun cooking out and talking to everyone around the campfire and building a huge bonfire. There were 2 kegs so the night got pretty interesting for some.

On Saturday Bryon, John, Leif, Kurt, and I ran Ingles and Peshastin Creeks. Ingles Creek short 1 mile stretch of class IV- that only Bryon had run. It was a lot of fun. We had a swim at the very beginning of Ingles which was the crux of the run. There is a series of 4 ledges that get increasingly more difficult. The third ledge got John and he didn't hit his role before hitting some rocks and bailing right above the 4th ledge. We had safety setup at that ledge and Kurt throw-bagged him right away. Unfortunately we had to chase his boat down most of the creek. Eventually it pinned on some rocks where Bryon got it out with the help of John who had hiked his way down to us. Once the boat was on the shore he went up for his paddle and we continued down stream to finish Ingles. Sorry, no photo's for this section.

Ingles feeds into Peshastin Creek which continues for a few miles of class III+ with one class IV called Fresh Squeeze. This is a pretty straight forward series of ledges with one that seems to get a lot of people. Everyone had a clean run through Peshastin and we took out, ran shuttle and I was off to meet up with Matt who just got in town.

After a bite to eat we headed over to the Wenatchee to play on Rodeo Hole and Trinity Wave. Trinity was by far the best play feature on the Wenatchee at this level. It was fast, had a great foam pile and allowed for spins and much more. I didn't do too much other than front surf but it was still a great ride. You can easily ferry across Drunkard rapid (which is where Trinity is) and hike along the railroad tracks back to the Rodeo Hole parking lot.

Saturday night was the 2nd annual Professor Paddle Chili Cook-off which was followed up by a dessert cook-off. After trying everyones chili and dessert I was stuffed. After an even bigger fire and twice as many people than Friday night it was time for bed.

On Sunday Matt, Erik, Heather, Texas Dave, and I all ran Peshastin Creek again. With the Wenatchee dropping we expected the creek to be lower but we were in for a treat to see it had risen and was a lot more fun than Saturday. We had some carnage at the infamous Fresh Squeeze as Matt tried to roll up after running the ledge upside down. Smile Oddly enough his paddle got stuck between Dave's arm and chest making it impossible for Matt to setup and roll. Dave couldn't do anything either as he was getting smack around by Matt's paddle. By far the oddest swim I've seen. While chasing his boat I ran through the last ledge of Fresh Squeeze and Matt's boat ended up right on my chest when I hit the ledge. I thought it was going to pin me in the hole but after being stern squirted and thrashed for a couple seconds I flushed out, rolled up and continued chasing the boat. I was able to pin it into some branches, eddy out and get the boat out of the water. Matt had to hike down to us through a near jungle bushwacking his every step. He finally made it and we finished the run with a bang. Here are some pictures courtesy of Texas Dave of us running the crux ledge of Fresh Squeeze on Peshastin Creek.


Ryan	Matt	Heather	Dave

The day was ended at the Snow Creek Rapid on Icicle Creek where Snow Creek Freak ran the never run "unrunnable" rapid. Here he is getting ready to hit the river. Oddly enough there is not a picture of him afterwards.

**EDIT**

AND last but not least!!! This weekend was the debut of my carpet kit! I'll write a seperate post about how we got this setup but here's a few pics. It was awesome!