With almost nothing else in the state running, we decided to head down to Canyon Creek one morning despite lower than ideal flows.  I cruised down with Jeff Bowman of The Outdoor Adventure Center in Redmond, WA.  To make the run more interesting, Rob, Mike and I decided it would be best to take our playboats despite the creeky nature of this run.  At higher water, a creekboat is probably a better idea, but at the lower flow it was pretty good in a playboat.

The first drop on the river was a hard read with a large boulder in the middle of the drop.  It was good anywhere, but the right edge into the pool below seemed like the preferred line.  The next drop had one log jammed into it from the top down and another that had pinned horizontally across it.  It was pretty nasty looking with the logs, so most of us portaged the whole drop or slid off below the logs.  I wanted to take a closer look so I caught the eddy on the right side above the log.  This was a bad idea and I couldn't get out of the eddy without blowing over the log-choked drop.  Fortunatley, Dave was up climbing on the bank, and was able to pull me up it, but otherwise I would have been in trouble.  Thanks Dave!  Scout and portage right.  A few paddlers ran the narrow chute on the far left against the wall, but it wasn't pretty. 

Below this the river has one more Class IV that had a log jammed in it.  This rapid is obvious as you approach it because there is a car on the left side of the river in a jumble of boulders... damn locals throwing their crap in the river.  Climb over it and scout the rapid.  On our run there was a log that was running down the middle of the lower part of the rapid that could be dangerous if you didn't get on the right side of it.  There was a large hole above it making it a sketchy spot.  Use caution here.. the wood is going to move eventually.

The run mellows out a lot after these rapids into some fun Class III-IV boulder gardens and drops.  The next notable drop is Thrasher followed by Son of Thrasher.  Scout thrasher on the left side on the big rock ledge.  There are two ways to run this one.  The center line is good to go, but has a big hole at the bottom.  There is a sneak that goes around the right of the boulder, and is the line that most people take.  This was a really fun rapid, and I hiked up to do it again the other way while waiting for others to scout.

Son of Thrasher is a bit tricky.  There is an undercut ledge on the left side of the rapid, and the drop goes at a weird angle.  The ideal line is to charge it forward and boof off the far end of the rock, avoiding the diagonal hole below.  It is easy to set safety for this one by having someone stand above the undercut on the left bank.

This continues until Kahuna, a 18 foot drop.  Kahuna is a really straight forward drop.  You line up on the right side, go off the flake and drop down into the pool below.  The landing is very soft, so if you boof out that works too.  There is a small flake that sticks out about 8 feet down the drop, so if you hit it, that will flatten you out as well.  Great drop.

Once you get to Kahuna, you have entered "The Drop Zone."  There are two drops back to back known as Champagne and Hammering Spot.  These are both sweet 10 footers, but getting worked in Champagne would be ugly above the next drop.

After the Twin Falls, there is one more ledge before the paddle out on the lake.  Toby Scarpella was vertically pinned and drown in this drop on March 7th, 2000.  There is a boulder in the center with serrious pin potential and it is covered so you cannot see it from scouting.  There is a rock slide you can take on the far left or portage on the right.  A few people ran the main flow of this one, but make sure you have a solid boof stroke.

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