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Palouse River, January 28, 2006

By Ryan Donahoe

On Saturday morning, six of SCKC members drove down to Washtucna to run the Palouse River. This was the morning with the wet snow and both drivers managed to slide all over the road quite a bit on the way out of town. Luckily it was sunny and dry by the time we reached Washtucna. Marlene Williams, being the bright one of the bunch, decided that she would be the shuttle driver. Especially when she realized that it was about 40 degrees with 40 mph winds. The other five, Jerry Williams, Tim Austin, Terry Miller, Susan Luchesi, and me, Ryan Donahoe, were not as bright and decided to run the river, even with the wind that strong.

The put in was at a bridge in Hooper and we should have taken out there when after we put in we started drifting up stream because the wind was so strong. If you stopped paddling you would immediately start blowing upstream and so we all dug in deep and paddled for what seemed like an hour, making little headway.

We portaged Upper Palouse Falls on river right and put back in after lowering the boats down a 15 ft cliff. We then paddled for about 50 yds before we had to portage again because the river got too low. We only had to bushwack a little ways before we got back into the main current. Most of the flow was through the left three channels at the falls, but all the information we had said to portage right.

Luckily the wind died down, at least to only about 20 mph, while we were in the canyons. There were several small class 2 rapids, with lots of flat water in between. With the river flow at 1,200 cfs it was necessary to paddle most of the time in order to make any forward movement.

The next portage was at Lower Palouse Falls where the three smart members of the group decided to walk it. Tim and I, being the young foolish ones, decided to run the 60 ft slide with the 15 ft. waterfall at the end. The run in was a little bony, but the waterfall made it all worth it.

The next section of the river was in an even taller canyon where we saw river otters, mule deer, and a fox. Thankfully we came around a corner to see a farmhouse at the beginning of the class 3 section. There were two wonderful class 3 rapids which everyone ran beautifully before the take-out on river right. This is definitely a take-out you don't want to miss since it goes over a class V drop and then over the 185 ft Palouse Falls. However, the take-out is bad enough that you almost want to run the falls. The take-out is up a steep trail that takes you 200 ft out of the canyon. Luckily we all made it and collapsed at the top as Tim went to get the shuttle rig.

The Palouse River was a good trip, but we all decided that it would be much better at twice the volume, 80 degree weather, and no wind; or at least with someone who would carry our boats up the take-out.