After paddling the upper stretch, Stabler to High Bridge we continued on to the High Bridge to Columbia River section.  This 5 mile section has a few awesome rapids it.  The visual gauge for the run is a rock at the put-in at the High Bridge river access.  The rock is in the middle of the river with two ‘horns.’  For our run the rock had water lapping up between the horns on the rock, which is a medium flow.  The run is big water Class V if the rock is under water, or lower if the water isn’t going up between the horns.  This medium flow was good for a first run.

The gauge rock with water spilling between the horns.  This is right in front of the road leading into the river at the put in, couldn't miss it.  If you can't find it, its probably underwater and the run is way too high.

The first rapid is High Bridge Rapid, a longer Class IV boulder garden just downstream from the put in.  There are a few tricky moves in here, but its all good to go.  There is a beautiful pool below the rapid in a deep gorge with moss covered basalt walls.  You can look back up the river here and understand why they call it High Bridge.  You also get to paddle under the bridge support which spans the river.  It is awe inspiring... really beautiful spot only accessible by boat.

JP below High Bridge Rapid, entering the mossy gorge.  The high bridge is visible upstream.

Peter flaots through the mossy canyon.  Very remote feeling in deep gorge.

A bit below here is a river wide ledge that creates a small hydraulic that can be run anywhere with a bit of speed.  There isn’t much for rapids below here until the next big one, The Flume, about a mile downstream.  The river disappears noticeably into a mess of whitewater and air around a left corner with vertical walls on both sides.  Scout or portage along the rocks on the right, but it’s a great run.  The line is straight down the middle, or entering right moving to the center.  Then hold on to your hat as you fly into the messy (but friendly) holes and waves. 

JP entering The Flume.  There is a small flake he is about to go over that worked well.

A beautiful creek cascades down into the pool below The Flume.

Below the Flume there is one five-foot ledge before Beyond Limits, a Class V drop with fish ladder or portage.  Scout or portage on the left side.  Beyond Limits is obvious from upsteam with a large concrete structure on river left with two gates in it.  We opted to run the fish ladder on the left, running through the right-side gate.  This is a tight squeeze, but it was fun paddling down the small hydraulics in the fish ladder… go fast and straight or you'll get worked by the man-made river death traps.  The main drop on the right side looked good to go.. maybe another day.

The flow on the left side of the picture goes off Beyond Limits.

JP runs the enterance and ledges below in the fish ladder.  Boof hard.

Shippard’s Falls is the final big one in this stretch of the Wind.  This is obvious from above with a foot bridge crossing the river overhead,  The falls can be run at very very low flows,  but is a Class V-V+ waterfall.  The river drops about 60 feet over a few drops, and then ends going over an 8 foot weir.  There is a fish ladder along the left side the whole way down, making for an easy portage, until you get to the bottom of it.  The first tier of the waterfall is about 10 feet, and goes into a big pool.  The second drop is the largest at about 16 feet, and then there is a 15 foot slide before the 8 foot weir.

The foot bridge in the distance signals Shippard's Falls.  We should have gone to the eddy directly above the concrete wall in the background.  This would have eliminated the hardest part of the portage.

We eddied out very high for this drop because it was our first time, but after looking at it we wished we had paddled down to the eddy directly above the concrete fish ladder (see picture above).  This would have eliminated the hardest part of the portage.  However, if you missed the eddy above the concrete, or rolled in the waves leading down to the eddy, you might flush over the falls... be very careful with this one.  Once up on the fish ladder, you can just drag your boat along the concrete walkway to the bottom of the falls. 

Carrying around the part we wished we had paddled.  Better luck next time.  The eddy you want to catch is visible in the picture, the lowest eddy.  We caught the one in the distance.

The second part of the portage is kind of tricky:  how to get from the top of the fish ladder down to the river.  The obvious answer is to seal launch off the 20 foot high fish ladder into the pool below, but some of the flow in this pool goes into the wier.  If you rolled in the seal launch or something went wrong, you might get pulled into this deadly looking hydraulic (while we were looking at it, we saw a salmon jump 5 feet out of the pool… pretty sweet).  The next option is to take the long trail hike up and around the rock wall and back down the other side.  This seemed like a good option until we saw the trail on the other side of the rock and decided it would be more dangerous to do this rock scramble than the third option:  throw and go 25 feet off the rock ledge.

After we decided it would be best to launch off the rock cliff rather than walk around it, it took a while to get all our boats and stuff up onto the cliff.  Once up there, we decided I should go first since I had the drysuit and swimming was no big deal for me.  I got ready to go, tossed my paddle and jumped off the ledge.  As soon as I hit the water I felt a cold trickle in my drysuit and knew I had just made a major mistake: I had taken a leak at the top of the portage and had forgotten to re-zip the pee zipper.  My suit was very quickly filling with water from the 8 inch opening in the suit.  I got my paddle and made it to shore before I sank but by the time I got there, I was waist deep with water inside the suit.  I will never make that mistake again, but it was a good lesson:  If you are going to swim, make sure your drysuit is zipped shut. 

The second tier of Shippards Falls.

The second and third tier with footbridge overhead.

Peter and Jon tossed their boats and made the jump perfectly.  We all agreed it was one of the most fun and rewarding parts of the trip.  We’d do it again just for another opportunity to jump off the cliff.  If I could do it again, I would hold my paddle in my hand while I jumped and then let go of it right before hitting the water so it would be right there when I came up.  I would also close my drysuit before jumping in... idiot.  In any case, the jump was really the icing on the cake for a great day on the river.

There is supposedly hot springs below the falls, but we didn’t see them (but we could have used them since we had all just swam below the falls).  The guide book says the run is “rewarding for the last mile down to the Colombia,” but I think that was just the hotsprings.  We found the last mile totally flat and boring.  There was a rotary fish trap on the river, which could be very exciting...  We all totally loved the few rapids on this stretch, and thought it was even more beautiful than the stretch above.  A worthy addition to the upper section.

You can also check out these other Wind trip reports:

Wind River, Stabler to Columbia River, WA - IV+ (V, P) (6.71 ft)
Wind River, Stabler to Columbia River, WA - IV+ (V, P) (5.67 ft)

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