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kevinh
McNasty
Joined: 21 Feb 2011
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   Topic: Icicle Thurs
Posted: 17 Jun 2013 at 1:26pm |
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Headed out to Leavenworth Thursday after having a cooper filled wednesday.
Never boated the Icicle and would love to do the Upper and Lower.
Anyone want to show me the lines?
cheers
972-971-7218
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kevinh
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Posted: 19 Jun 2013 at 8:50am |
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anyone? bueller?
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jP
Rio Banditos
Diddle Fuerte Diablo !
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Posted: 19 Jun 2013 at 12:57pm |
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Probably going to be 11-noon meet time on thurs, Kevin.
Got one or two friends showing up to boat.
The Lower is a decent medium low right now. Not as big and pushy, yet not boney yet either.
If you were smart you'd show up at 11 and scout the Lawnchair Ledge below the footbridge at the Snow Creek. It is the crux move on The Lower, and its a very short walk down from the put in. You should be here early enough to scout it before we are ready to put on. I've seen it, and get tired of walking down there. Otherwise happy to have ya along and show ya some lines.
The Upper is a good medium still, and the two crux rapids on that stretch are easily scouted from the road on the way to the put in. 1500 this week is much less water on the Upper than 1500 was a few weeks ago. This is because more of that 1500 is pumping into Icicle below the Upper at Mountaineer/8mi crk. It still feels medium fat as far as the scale of features, but less so as far as push and gush, if that makes any sense.
Monday we put on to combine the Upper and some of the Middle. But we had some action in Log Limbo requiring some extra ciriculum in the form of "rescue drills", ect. All players were fine, but we all took out by Ricochet due to the lengthened adventure. Fuqua had shared some of his guage markers above Ricochet w/ me, and sure enough they indicated the increased flow from Mountaineer/8mi crk.
So from Ricochet down it is still pretty fat'n full-on. Still, there is good water to be boated between the Upper and Ricochet (a handfull of fun no name class IV's). And one can portage Ricochet and get a few more quality rapids in, taking out at the Grey Bridge or venturing further down towards the "Bonus Rounds", but all that stuff will still be fat n juicy till flows drop below 900 cfs or so...
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jP
Rio Banditos
Diddle Fuerte Diablo !
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Posted: 19 Jun 2013 at 1:40pm |
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Richochet season for the masses is right around the corner...
So I got about 35 laps on Icicle since March of this year, counting all stretches I've run (Upper, Middle, Lower) depending on the flow for each given day. Those of you who know me know I take fairly accurate notes each time I boat. I do this for myself because its fun, but largely I do it for you as well. And by "you" I mean everyone, since I am posting this info here where it is publicly available.
Ricochet season...
Its not "in" yet unless you have an appetite for Big, Stout, Long gnarly old fashioned WHITEWATER. I can count on one hand how many peeps I know locally who are eligible for this, unless I include those who have an "appetite for destruction".
For the rest of us...
Me, I'm a "medium" flow kind of guy when I am looking at any whitewater I consider difficult for myself. For Ricochet I've discovered
The flow range I like to be between 5.2' (I'll call medium low) and 6.1' (gonna call 6.1' medium high w/ some stompy power). Above 6.5' I'm probably gonna walk Ricochet and below 5.1' I probably won't bother putting on the run at all-- too bone zone.
Now that's all based off of the stick guage found at the end of the run (the green guage house). Those guage heights correlate roughly to the DOE cfs readings as follows...
4.99' = 477 cfs (boney. Should be a low end cut off for the run unless you like scraping plastic off of your boat and depositing it in our nation's streams)
5.35' = 568 cfs (Medium-Chill. I call this "Ricochet Casual", assuming one is qualified. Much less pushy yet plenty of water to boat on and feel good.)
5.60' = 690 cfs (straight up medium. Pushy enough to command the respect Ricochet deserves, yet boatable enough.)
6.20' = 1000 cfs (Medium-Stout. This is about where I start to, heh heh, "Check my horoscope" before skirting up to run Ricochet. There's some fat whitewater to get chundered in and its a long complex rapid. But it still boats great for strong, bold paddlers who can stay on line or roll or otherwise deal when they don't. Swimming this rapid shouldn't be considered an option).
Now, for those of you studious enough to check the figures WaBoater posted on the rivers page, yes my numbers do not correlate exactly to his. I think his are from 2011. All I know is that I recorded the height and cfs values for each day as accurately as I could, as I'm sure he did. Close enough for hand grenades.
I'm sure most people are going to wait until it gets to be about 300 cfs or so to trickle, bump scrape and grind down through Ricochet, but based on my experience, you'll start to see the phoenomenon you see on the Green Truss below 2.5' where less water starts to get more hazardous. More fu*ker rocks break the flow of the lines into quirky broken routes, making more capsizing more frequent, with less head room to roll in without smacking one's skull or face on granite. More pin potential too-- this riverbed isn't very "clean" at lower flows, and the granite is 50 grit coarse. But, choose your own adventure.
Edited by jP - 19 Jun 2013 at 1:50pm
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WA-Boater
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Joined: 30 Jun 2005
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Posted: 19 Jun 2013 at 8:56pm |
jp - the cfs levels on my post are usgs not the doe. the doe gauge didn't exist then. they are different. havn't been comparing them to nwrfc foot gauge as the doe seems best to use these days.
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WA-Boater
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Posted: 19 Jun 2013 at 9:07pm |
just red my post - sounds like i'm a dick or pissed. no offence intended - just info/beta.
basically use the icicle doe gauge. it is the best.
also, the middle is more friendly then people sell it; with the exception of ricochet. the 8-mile to the seive section, although short, is great up 2000. ricochet is easily portaged with re-entry below the ricochet rock on river left. the rest of the run is MUCH better with 1200+. by the time ricochet comes into a 'comfortable level' the rest of the run is getting low.
i suggest starting to run ricochet from below ricochet rock down. then start putting in above the ricochet rock. then a little further upstream. it is a massive rapid, and very intimidating to bite off from the top if you don't know where you are at. it takes several laps to start to figure out where you are. especially above 1200.
house rock is also scary - but there are a couple good options for lines. scout it - its not that hard. just intimidating.
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WA-Boater
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Posted: 19 Jun 2013 at 9:41pm |
while we're on the topic. my favorite way to run icicle creek is to put in at the rv pull out and take out at the lower take-out. you should try it if you havn't already. it's a shame the run gets chopped up into these one mile stretches. its understandable because flows are fickle with each section. but a river of this quality and scenery shoud be experienced as a whole.
i'd say shoot for 1400 cfs and plan to portage a few times. the portages are all pretty easy and the run only takes 3 hours at a moderate pace. the shuttle is simplified and when you're done it's a pretty sweet feeling.
feel free to give me a call if you want to give it a go sometime.
darren
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jP
Rio Banditos
Diddle Fuerte Diablo !
Joined: 15 Oct 2005
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Posted: 20 Jun 2013 at 10:03am |
Darren, I totally agree, even if you are a pissed off dick  just kidding- you didn't come across that way at all.
Yeah, the top to bottom has its merits. I would like to do it more often. I agree that mincing the run into 1-1.5' mile sections gets old. Tired of "running laps", although it is a good way to get to know the lines if you are new to Icicle.
Looks like there may be some boaters coming out of the woodwork today. Probably 11-12 meet...
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chipmaney
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Posted: 20 Jun 2013 at 2:25pm |
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Yeah, seems like it would require chopping it up, getting to know every section, then putting it all together. That's the way they do it in climbing at least. Progression...Everybody has their own goals that are right for them. Darren's idea is a great ultimate goal for Icicle.
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sitting all alone on a mountain by a river that has no end
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