With the Little White and the Green Truss turned into a beaver's wet dream of strainers, we decided to head up to the Wind River next morning for a nice warm up run. I picked up my new Magnum, finally, in Portland that morning and we headed out. After driving in circles for a good hour, searching for takeout, we arrived at the river to join the growing crowd.
We had a great paddle on the Upper Wind with a crew of around 15 people, and then rolled back to Hood River, where we were fortunate enough to stay with the Airborne Athletics crew (Kyle Hull, Kristina Van Wijk, and Devyn Scott) at their awesome house up on the hill. That night, in a flurry of shit talking and PBR drinking, we decided that the next day we should head up to Eagle Creek. I had been wanting to run Metlako Falls for about four years, but had never been their with a good flow or a motivated crew. This time however, it all came together beautifully.
Our friend Xavier Engle met us at put-in the next morning, and after he and Will fired off nice lines on Punchbowl Falls, we cruised downstream, through a gorgeous canyon to the lip of Metlako. We arrived at the drop, and I popped my skirt to extract a delicious PBR, which I enjoyed while sitting in the eddy, waiting for the camera crew to get set up. I retrospect, it may have been foolish to not scout the drop from above, but deciding that I had already seen it from the overlook, and that the only way down was through the crack in front of me, I opted to chill in my boat.
With my empty can in hand, the camera crew signaled that they were ready. I stuffed the crushed can in my vest and made one last smart ass remark to Xavier and Will, then turned and peeled out of the eddy. Rollin off the lip, I think I was a little too far right, and as I tossed my paddle, my bow deflected off the right wall curler. Looking down at the impressive height, and realizing I was going to land a bit crooked, I tucked up tight and enjoyed the float down, bracing for the hit. Turns out, that falling that far without the proper angle ends with an impressive hit, and I was ejected from my boat. Ironically enough, I popped up right next to my jettisoned paddle, while my boat proceeded to go behind the falls and then get worked against the right wall for ten minutes or so. Oops. Will followed with a beautiful line and a skirt implosion, but made it into the eddy in his boat. Xavier followed him down, opting to hang onto his paddle. He had another great line, and popped up on the pillow grinning. The impact, which he reported to be less than soft, sheared his bulk head screw clean in half on the right side of his boat, resulting in a worthless foot block.
With our little crew reassembled at the bottom, we cruised downstream, stoked, to the takeout. Thank you to everyone for the support, photos and safety on this trip!!
Enjoy the photo, courtesy of Katrina Van Wijk.
