soul touches the earth: don't go over the waterfall...

johnny and i decided to try and squeeze in one last trip before i headed off for the month of biking in the western states. we decided to meet up in central washington at potholes reservoir. we met a man named dick who gave us a really great idea of where to paddle. the winchester wasteway that will drop into potholes. it was about 30 miles of beautiful water.

just before we put the canoe on the water a storm rolled in a dropped a serious amount of hail from the sky, we grabbed our rain gear and rain for the car (yep we are soft) after about 10 minutes it let up and we headed for the water. pumped out the canoe that was about 3 inches full of water.

the rest of the day the clouds were brewing but the weather stayed wonderful.

the water was calm, but with a nice under current. however there were a bunch of random wrong turns. we decided we needed to really keep our eye out for the correct outlets. dick told us to always stay to the right, that folks have a tendency to get lost out there due to all the random dead ends.

the weather turned quite nice for us, lots of sun bathing time.

this was our first camp spot. the night was peaceful, a little wind around dusk, but it let up soon after that. dinner was amazing as usual. johnny and i do a good job eating amazing meals out camping. there were some lamb quarters that we harvested and ate for our greens.

i was so amazed that there were no mosquitoes out. i had heard that this area can be really bad, but none were to be found. thank goodness

one of the high lights of the day was the sand sledding that we had done. we found a great sand dune that dropped right into the water. we slid down it several times, it felt like i was oh 7 again. lots of good laughs and lots of SAND in places i wont mention. (ha ha)

making dinner

another beautiful day.

i really enjoyed how chill the water was.

about mid day we came up to C street bridge (which wasn't much more than a atv parking lot area). there was a small bridge that we pulled out at the see if we should portage or not. after looking at it, we decided to just go under it, stay far left so were were lined up for the log jam that was just on the other side of the bridge.

at this point the water had changed from being nice and chill to quite a bit faster, the log jam didn't look like a good spot to get stuck in, (seemed like an really easy spot to get stuck and therefore dunk the canoe) ((which wasn't something i was willing to risk))

got back in the canoe, and before we took off i put my head between my knees and asked johnny if he thought i was low enough. we decided that laying back on the seat and the gear i was lower and that would be that best way to go. we took off, lined up on the far left and before i knew it we were at the bridge going really REALLY FAST. i layed back and realized not only was i not supper low but i realized that there was not much i could do, i put my hand to my face and prayed to NOT HAVE MY FACE RIPPED OFF. this was gonna be a close call!!!!

thankfully i made it, however it was close my hand that was covering my face scrapped the bottom side of the bridge. another inch im not sure what would of happened. WAY TOOOOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT

at the same time, johnny realized that he was in the same predicament as i was in and decided he needed to get out of the boat, he threw his paddle and then just as he was about to jump realized he didn't have time and basically did the same thing as i did, when we popped up from our, "save our lives/faces position" he yelled i don't have a paddle, and we were headed right for the log jam, so i paddled hard and luckily we skirted right around it, i then banked it and johnnys paddle came right to us.

i will tell you right now, im not planning on ever calling it that close again, WOW

from C street down the water changed, we were losing elevation, the water was a lot faster and full of class one and a few class two rapids with lots of log jams. now this could be totally fine, however we were not in a canoe that was built for that kind of water. and i wasn't about to get stuck in a log jam. needless to say we banked it quite a bit to realign, and or to get out and check things out before we were too committed to get out of something we didn't want to be in.

we knew that somewhere close upstream would be a waterfall that dick had told us about, and said "you don't want to go over it" so we kept our ears out. before long we had done a couple portages that we didn't expect due to log jams and rolling big rapids. we were getting tired and decided best to call it a night.

our camp spot was nice except for one thing. the MOSQUITOES were TERRIBLE, not that im counting (okay i am) i have 41 bites on my butt alone. not sure how many more i have, but im guessing close to 100 over my body, nice!

again a fabulous dinner and a sound sleep NOT!, all night long i kept jumping up thinking i was going over the water fall, or into a tree jam or swimming a rapid, so it wasn't the best sleep i have ever had, but i was thankful each time when i realized that i was just dreaming. i woke johnny up a few of the times when i yelled out profanities (sorry mom)

anyway the next morning we finished the portage, lined up the canoe for the next rapid, got at least 17 more mosquito bites and hit the water. we did have one close call here one more inch (leaning to the right) our canoe would be filling with water, but we did good, and shortly later i heard what sounded like A LOT OF RUSHING WATER...

and it was the WATERFALL. we banked it immediately. i smiled to be on dry ground, and took a big breath as i looked over what for some has been major injuries and for others sadly have been there death. i again was thankful to dick for letting us know about it.

the view after the portage. its actually two waterfalls both with big rolling under currents. we both said our thanks, enjoyed the view and headed towards potholes.