Awesome! The Upper Sultan is in!!! Discussion Thread
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URL: http://www.professorpaddle.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7730
Printed Date: 28 Sep 2025 at 2:13am
Topic: Awesome! The Upper Sultan is in!!! Discussion Thread
Posted By: Travisimo
Subject: Awesome! The Upper Sultan is in!!! Discussion Thread
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2009 at 3:44pm
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This is the Awesome! The Upper Sultan is in!!! discussion thread. Please post any questions below. Remember the actual Trip Details are located on the http://Professorpaddle.com/ppages/rte/tripdetails.asp?task=View&TripId=687 - Awesome! The Upper Sultan is in!!! | Trip Page We're going to try to get up there, not sure what the road conditions are like. This river is not to be missed if at all possible!!! |
Replies:
Posted By: Travisimo
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2009 at 4:24pm
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I'm getting into the Jeep now to head up there and make sure the road is clear... Stay tuned... You can try calling me at two o six 931 648 six ------------- H2O please |
Posted By: Travisimo
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2009 at 8:29pm
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You need 4wd and probably more clearance than a Subaru can provide, but my Jeep made it far enough to walk in. It will be a bit of a walk through as the snow is fairly deep, but the road is plowed for the dam... I need another paddler though since we have one stuck in the middle of the I-5 flooding closure  Anybody? This may continue through tomorrow and maybe even the weekend due to the amount of snow up there and temperature... ------------- H2O please |
Posted By: Kiwi
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2009 at 10:18pm
| If it holds till saturday my dad and I would be in probley, we boated with you on Canyon creek on new years eve. |
Posted By: RemAcct2
Date Posted: 07 Jan 2009 at 10:25pm
I would, but my creek boat is broken, and looks like I won't get another one for a couple of weeks  ------------- |
Posted By: septimus prime
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2009 at 8:41am
| Im in if it holds till the weekend. |
Posted By: PowWrangler
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2009 at 8:58am
| That is going to be one big messy/muddy slog in. |
Posted By: Fish
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2009 at 10:12am
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Look forward to hearing if this trip came together. Last year when the flow study happened, i was amazed on how high quality this run was.
------------- |
Posted By: huckin harms
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2009 at 1:00pm
| Yep, sweet fun run IF you can manage the slog fest, shuttle logistics, and length:daylight ratio. Hoping some of the wood issues from past years clears up. |
Posted By: franzhorner
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2009 at 1:13pm
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I'm interested in hearing how this goes as well. I would love to
take my catboat up there and run that piece. I have heard it was
done before but don't know about their put-in or take-out. I am
also wondering what a good level for catboats would be. I'm not
afraid of hiking my catboat in the snow. It actually slides
pretty nice!
------------- MORE RAIN PLEASE |
Posted By: Travisimo
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2009 at 1:18pm
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Well it didn't work today... Not enough interest early enough. Dammit! Turns out today would have been a great day, the gauge confused me too, don't look at the one linked from the main page, they are "flushing gravel" there is another gauge on that site that shows the flow below the diversion dam... Look here http://waterdata.usgs.gov/wa/nwis/uv/?site_no=12138160 and subtract 1300 (max that they can divert, as they will definately be doing now...) so at 9am today: @ 4030, so 4030-1300=2730 (big water time, this is for the last part of the run) There is also this gauge at the diversion: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?site_no=12137800 this shows how much water is up there, the river is picking up tons of water all along its length getting bigger and bigger near the bottom. So at 10am this morning, it was at 1500... As long as this stays above 400 it should be good to go!!! One last small thing to note, the guys at the powerhouse say there may have been another slide from a blip they saw on the gauge... (I don't see it, but Tom O'Keefe told me so I'm passing it along...) Tomorrow may be a great day too. Those waiting for the weekend: this thing will fall off fast! I wouldn't bet on Saturday... I can provide both 4x4's to get up there... who can resist??? Awesome run, snowy 1.5-2 mile nature walk, then 9 miles of some of the best whitewater in Wa??? I want to meet in Sultan around 7am for daylight reasons, may even want to take out at the powerhouse since the lower will be BIG, stompy and take more time... Who's in??? ------------- H2O please |
Posted By: septimus prime
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2009 at 1:31pm
| Damn it, I hate work. You should be a salesman, etive. Im just going to have to hope it holds till Saturday. |
Posted By: chipmaney
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2009 at 2:00pm
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franz, there is a pic of a cat boat on the Sultan on the AW website, so apparently it's doable. not sure how he got the cat down the slot in the pic, though....
------------- sitting all alone on a mountain by a river that has no end |
Posted By: chipmaney
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2009 at 2:05pm
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etive, i'm in...think another buddy is going to come, too. i'll give a call this evening...
------------- sitting all alone on a mountain by a river that has no end |
Posted By: James
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2009 at 3:09pm
| I am just guessing but part of that soggy hike would require taking the cat apart or hiking with it on end. Its a really tight little forest towards the end of the hike. Also, I would run the lower along with the upper. She's a tasty treat at high flows. Never been over 2200 but I am sure its fine... As far as best whitewater in WA. We might have to agree to disagree on that one, but an obscure dijour 4 sure! |
Posted By: Travisimo
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2009 at 4:03pm
Hey don't rain on my parade  I'm trying to convince American Whitewater says: "Considered one of the region's premiere whitewater runs by those lucky enough to find it with water." So it has to be true  Should be an adventure and sounds like I'll have a crew if flows hold!!! ------------- H2O please |
Posted By: James
Date Posted: 08 Jan 2009 at 5:05pm
I agree its a great run and since its soo close it is a classic, but not the "best" whitewater in the state... I just wish that there were deeper mud at the putin... 
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Posted By: Travisimo
Date Posted: 09 Jan 2009 at 5:03am
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DAM-it... The bottom fell out! On a side note, looks like the 2nd half would have been good today if we could have helicoptered into the diversion dam. Next time I may check for access to there... Looks like a large feeder creek comes in just above the gauge/diversion, wish I knew how much comes from there and how quickly we would have had enough to get down from the lake/putin... We may have still given it a try (ELF boating) I'll try to do some more recon for the next rain... Sour grapes: This time it looks like the thing was over "recommended" the whole time it was level(ish) and the best time to put on would have been the middle of the night tonight... A smaller rain event would be better to get on it... also I think it must be raining hard on the run the whole time you are on it for rain to work... Which means you can't tell how high it will go... What's this thing like at flood? Next time it rains I think I'm ready to go and see... Thanks to the potential crew for being ready... Next time we'll get it... ------------- H2O please |