Westside rally

Nick and I decided to take a break from the Cashmere life just as the 3 forest fires peaked around Leavenworth and the whole valley was raining ash. Our plan was to head over highway 2 and do the Skykomish followed by a fun day checking out Seattle. The run on the Sky went excellent with boulder drop being really fun at a lower level with almost too many eddies to catch. Good fun!
The day after the plan was to get out on the Sauk because it would be new for both of us but after doing some research it turned out hwy 2 had closed down because of the fires so the Sauk would add a lot of time to our drive so instead we headed back over I-90 and dropped into the Cooper for another lap on this classic creek. The top part went excellent but as we got closer to the bottom my run started to get a bit sloppy. I swam on s-turn on a shallow rock bed and soon after pitoned on the mankiest rapid on the river and hit my hip as hard as it's ever been hit. My immediate reaction was that I had broken a rib but on further inspection it was just a very large bruise. It was a fun trip but I could do without the swims and hard hits!! Here is a short video of random clips from the trip, enjoy!

-Owen

Cooper River Kayaking

Finally got on the Cooper river just outside of Cle Elum for the weekend and got three runs in on this classic. The Cooper has been on my river radar  for quite sometime so it was nice to get a few runs in on one weekend with Nic, a new raft guide for blue sky that just got out here from Colorado. This run has just about everything that you want in a class 4+ river and it's in a nice gorged in setting with beautiful views in all directions. Here's the edit I put together from the run. I walked 2 rapids as it was both of our first time on the river so making an error was less of an option than with a bigger group. Enjoy!