Three of us are considering heading down to the EF Lewis this weekend. Any   seasoned vets of this run feel like joining the party and showing a few college kids the way down stream?

We are all competent class IVish boaters. Its just that this whole waterfall thing is new. Looks pretty straight forward from the vids, but any relevant beta would be appreciated. Thanks guys.

Horseshoe Falls: the main thing is to go off the middle, the most "Proud" (as a Stone Mason would say) portion of the falls. But don't fall off to the right. Very ugly over there.

There's a tight 'lil Gun Barrel style slot you run above the falls that feeds you right where you need to be. The fan shaped rock tends to autoboof ya pretty good.

Be a good sport and bring Ollie some quality beer.

EFL's Sunset high (3300 cfs) was the first falls I ever ran, even at 1800 it was sweet but very different. Horseshoe is also awesome, if you super boof the autoboof you can land almost on your stern lol...if the run is high, the upper is fun as well and a bit more creeky feeling in spots.

If you're feeling comfy on the run consider Canyon Creek Lewis if it's at a reasonable level, that was my second creek (after Canyon Creek Stilly). A good weekend could be spent just running those 2 gems if they are new runs. Combined there's 5 waterfalls.

A couple of us from BC might be down in the area for the long weekend as well. If we are (not that there will be any shortage of local talent around I'm sure) I'd love to hit that/those again.

Yeah, I thought that last headwall was Hippie John's swimming hole too. No offense, Yotes, but I'm inclined to think you got some beta wrong on the river page. I don't think Hippie John's is the boulder garden upstream as its listed on the rivers page.

We need some more PPeeps to weigh in and settle this matter, but I'm inclined to agree w/ the esteemed Mr. Ross (good to see ya on the Green, BTW).

Yotes, I'll buy ya an Arrogant Bastard if I'm wrong. But, being an Arrogant Bastard myself, I'm pretty sure I'm right.

"About 100 yards below the gorge, the East Fork plunges into John's Swimming Hole, a large, nearly riverwide hole near a 20-foot high cliff above the Copper Creek confluence."
-Bennett book

But who can trust a book? I guess i'll have to find out for myself this weekend...

Ok- just checked my Bennie and it is exactly as you quoted.
My next course of action is to crack open the bottle of Arrogant Bastard that I had ear marked for Yotes if I turned out to be in error.

Done.


Now its off to the E. Frk Lewis page to tweak some stuff...

Edited by jP - 03 Apr 2012 at 8:35pm

call me a hater but I wasn't all that impressed with the east fork. sunset is fun, running laps and stuff. one of the first waterfalls I ran and figured out the mechanics of boofing (canyon creek is good for that too). there's lots of flat water though and horseshoe was fun but you can't really run it multiple times. I din't really think that the e fork alone was worth the drive down from olympia.

I do want to go back and do copper creek though. that looks like tons of fun but it also is a bit of a step up, correct me if I'm wrong.

going the extra distance to hood river is totally worth it, wind river is a good beginning creek run and the hood has some fun stuff too.

completely different area but a run down the narrows on the humptulips ( olympic peninsula) combined with perfection falls (15 footer on the side of the road, do lots of laps) is a great day if the queets is high. Class III+.
Last time I ran that there was a new landslide drop on the humptulips that wasn't too bad but rolling wasn't a good idea because of sharp rocks. Easily could have changed in the last two years though. might be nastier now... thread drift but if anyone has been in there it'd be nice to know... the back up from the slide pretty much took out the class III where the waterfall comes into the river from the right

landslide is right below this:
http://americanwhitewater.org/photos/archive/medium/6451.jpg?no_cache=92720000

Edited by Kiwi - 04 Apr 2012 at 12:21pm

Actually its faster for us here in Ellensburg to travel through the gorge to get to the lewis. Maybe hit up the wind on the way back? Flows look like they will come down to a good level.

That's correct, at least that's what paddlers were calling them 10 years ago.

Names on rapids seem to be getting added and changed frequently these days.  The Ohane is another example of this.  Thirsty beaver???

Thread highjack, but I was gonna say the same thing.  Me and TD thought the the Ohane deserved better rapid names then "8 foot ledge with semiundercut runout" or "last class V after the waterfall". That's where Thirsty Beaver and Petrified came from. Little Tijuana, way better then secret camp, came from an older couple who'd been camping/living there every summer for 30 years...they get naming rights.

Just want to say that we had a very successful weekend on the EFL. Big thanks to Mike for the hospitality and good company. Will definitely be back for the NWCC comin up!

http://youtu.be/GPMLR6EX2mQ

Edited by Fenix747 - 10 Apr 2012 at 7:58pm