SF Snoq @ 1800 and 1700 cfs

Great trip down the SF Snoqualmie today.  Great group of people - Jeff Dwyer, Jeff Johnson, Adrian, Samson, Tristan, Deborah and myself (Arn).  We did two runs - one at an average of 1800cfs and one at about 1700cfs.  The AW site lists the range for this river from 300-2500; PP lists the range from 300 -1500.  I suspect the AW range was to 1500 at some point though there is a 5 year old note from an IKer saying that 2500 was okay.

Now then, this is not your momma's SF of the Snoqualmie!  The canyon was cookin' with whitewater and practically all of the rocks are either big waves or holes.  Many of us on the trip were on yesterday's Wentchee run @ 6500 cfs and thought the waves here were even more fun!  It was not that difficult to avoid the holes though Jeff Dwyer, as usual, likes to find every possible hole and look for ways to scribble his initials in the rocks while upside down.  Man - that guy is fearless.  Deborah, after punching a number of holes, decided all were punchable and, even in her Diesel 65, all holes DEFINITELY WERE NOT punchable.  After a brief underwater hole survey trying to find Jeff's initials and banging her head on a rock - ouch - she rolled up.

There were a fair number of boiling eddylines at this level and some interesting eddy seams.  I decided to stay on a nasty seam for a while (translation - it decided to keep me there) and had a hard time rolling up and out - almost was like a hole.  Next time - feel the offside roll, Luke - why bother practicing it in the pool if I never remember to use it.

I would definitely consider the canyon solid class III at these levels and it definitely was not a good level for swimming or beginners.  There were not many eddys and the ones that were there were sometimes difficult to catch.  The takeout micro-eddy on river right was definitely much harder to hit than usual though the river left takeout was fairly straigtforward.  There were not many rocks to avoid at this level and some rocks that are usually 3 feet out of the water were boofable (by Jeff) or completely underwater.  And, the weir is practically gone at these levels and runnable in many places.  At 1800 there was a fabulous wave just below the weir though it disappeared at 1700 (replaced by a hole). 

I would definitely run the SF Snoq again at these levels or even a little higher.