It's actually pretty good. I was in there a few weeks ago at ~800 CFS and it was great. Based on what I saw then, I would say it goes at 600 CFS no problem, and probably evan lower (maybe 400 CFS?). Everything below the rapid under the bridge at the Cascade River Park was boney... but we just bought a piece of property in the Cascade River Park, so there is no longer any paddle out if you go boating with me :-) Definitely scout Bridge Rapid, Premium, Monster, and at this level you should probably scout Shark's Tooth via rock-hopping on the right. Starts With A Bang does not change all that much because it channelizes pretty well. Bridge rapid has a huge (potentially deadly) log in the middle that you can see from the overlook, so be careful. Last time we ran a channel against the left bank, then worked our way right below the log. Premium gets super boney on the right, and gets pretty steep in the middle forming a pretty bad hole at the bottom - scout and/or easy portage on the right. Monster actually becomes a really fun class 4 you can run right down the middle. You should probably bring your beater boat at these flows because you will be losing more plastic than normal, but the whitewater in there is still super high quality. As a boater originally from the East Coast, I can tell you that if something as good as the Cascade River were located in the SE, it would get run regularly at these levels and not be considered too low. Just for comparison, normal release on the Green River Narrows is ~200 CFS. While the Cascade is certainly wider, it channelizes pretty well, even in the in-between rapids, and ELF does NOT mean too low.
With all that said, who wants to run the Cascade this weekend? We can take out at the metal bridge... No more 1.3 miles of paddling out :-)
-Eli
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