Thunder Creek Weekend
Well this last weekend we did it again. We got suckered up to Thunder and taught a lesson by this wicked little creek.
Day 1
With first hand experience of the run, Jon Dufay and I headed up on
Sat. at around 1:30 from Colonial Creek Campground. The flows were in
the mid 700 range and we were excited to see the difference in the
creek. Although we had hoped for lower flows this run proved to be
fluid level that Jon and I both really enjoyed.
Gauge Rock on Thunder
We started out below the V+ slide sequence and rallied through the
first 3 rapids with speed. We instantly portaged Big Daddy and set up
for Chopsticks. Both with Aired out boofs on Chopsticks we headed down
to the second known portage which had not been run.
At the lower level the drop was not sneakable on the left because there
is not enough water to get by the wood. As the water comes up more
space is created to pass by the wood but we did not know that yet. We
found a new portage on river left that was much easier but the eddy was
schetch so we made note for the next day when the group would be larger.
The rallied through Dim Sum with a quick peak for wood and then bombed
through the hole in the wall drop between dim sum and the mandarin
palace. The mandarin palace was much more easier to navigate at the
lower flow and the eddy above mandarin ledge was simple to catch. The
line off Mandarin ledge was good for both Jon and I.  Boof on Mandarin Ledge
We continued down
through the palace to the last half of the 2nd Gorge. This was the
beginning of the section that we had not run.
We ran over a ledge that we should have stopped at to scout Triple
Trust, so I scurried out on a ledge and took a peak. This was no scout
either... I am talking about a balancing act and little peaks around a
rock just catching glimpses of what was below. Not wanting to waste
more time in a useless situation I figured the best thing would be to
run the first ledge and then scout more and continue down from there,
which is what we did. Of course we did end up boat scouting #2 since it
was so quick in progression but #3 was easy to scout from below #2.
After Triple Trust we cruised through the rest of the run which is
class III down to Neve Creek where we took out but first enjoying the river.
Then we carried our boats up
top for day #2. Chucked the boats and gear in the woods and headed down for our hike back to camp discussing tomorrows run and safety. It started to rain while we were walking and with only shorts and sandals on we were both glad to be kayakers .... not hikers. Occasionally a set of hikers would pass us all buttoned up with gators and waterproof pants coats pack covers the shabang... they looked at us like we were nuts runnin around miles out in the woods with just shorts on. Good fun good fun. Then as we were discussing safety again at mile 1 where you cross the river and you can see the gauge rock, we saw a mother deer in the trail so we stopped. She bolted off in the woods. So we kept walking, then a little doe comes walking up. Check it out 
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