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White Salmon River, Washington: III+ (V)
American River Festival, California: II (Boardercross Race)
Upper Clackamas, Oregon - Three Lynx to Bob's Hole: III (several IV's)
Upper Clackamas, Oregon - 22nd U.C. Festival & Oregon River Games: IV (IV+)
Wenatchee River Festival, Washington: III
Clear Creek, Colorado - Black Rock Section: III+ (IV, IV+) [Guidebooks call this a V run with a V+]
North Santiam, Oregon - Big Cliff Dam to Niagara: III (V-)

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Relaxing in Tahiti, riverboarding in New Zealand, and Olympic dreamin' in Australia

INFO Upper Clackamas River - Three Lynx to Bob's Hole 22nd Annual Upper Clackamas River Festival 2nd Annual Oregon River Games Class: III (several IV's) CFS: not sure what the actual # was, the color gauge on Carter bridge was Red - it got higher each week Date: May 14 & 22, 2005
RATINGS (scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being absolutely sick, phat, gnarly, the shizzle, whatever your choice of adjective, and 1 being downright awful) Fun: 8 Extreme whitewater: 6 (the last week) Carnage: Docta P, 0; IceMan, 0 Overall Grade: 7

We went up to the Upper Clackamas River outside of Portland, Oregon for a couple of festivals the past 2 weeks, which were a lot of fun. It mainly consisted of running the Class IV Carter Falls, since that's where the slalom gates were and that's where all the spectators were sitting watching! It's a lot of fun to run anything and have people cheering. We took a friend up with us the first weekend who had never riverboarded before, he's an extreme athlete though with big cajones so he picked it up right away and had a lot of fun.

Our friend heading through a gate on the Carter Falls course - it was his first time riverboarding

A big hole at the top of Class IV Carter Falls - the hole gets deeper the less water is running. It buries you!

Docta P running the same hole and about to be swallowed

The water was a lot bigger the second weekend, or I should say a lot higher - it actually made some of the rapids smaller, bcoz there was TOO much water and it flattened them out. It was a lot of fun either way, although the chute called Toilet Bowl lower on the river was HUGE with the higher water.

Ice showing off for the spectators by doing a corkscrew off the lip of a big hole in the Carter Falls slalom course.

Docta P stylin' through the gates on the Carter Falls slalom course

Ice sledging fast through the first Class IV rapid on the run known as Powerhouse bcoz of an old power station below it

The only crazy thing that happened was the last run through Toilet Bowl after the Oregon River Games - the first time through was so fun and surprising (since it was higher than I think I've ever run it) that I wanted to run it again - the biggest wave in the rapid had to have been about 7 or 8 feet, it almost flipped me straight over backwards. Since there's really not a good place to hike into it to run it, we drove back up to Rock-N-Roll and I headed down again. Somewhere in the middle of the rapid the bottom fell out of the river, and I've never felt anything quite like it.

If you sit and watch a big rapid, you'll notice that the water is constantly changing, especially at higher flows - the hydraulics can make a wave break back upon itself for a few seconds and then a huge surge will come up from underneath and flush it out. Well, apparently I went over a boulder (that the previous run had been harmless) just as the hydraulic was emptied, bcoz without warning I just disappeared, VWHUUUUUUMMMP! It's one thing to go weightless when you're expecting it, it's another thing to just have the bottom drop out from under you. It's akin to walking up a flight of stairs in the dark, and thinking there is one more step than there really is. You put your foot down on the step, but your foot just keeps falling bcoz the step isn't there. That's what it felt like.

The waves were fun again at the bottom, but that disappearing thing really tripped me out!

~IceMan~

	Ice rides the Rocky Mountain Riverboard
	Docta P rides the Carlson Riverboard