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Priest River, February 11, 2006

By Ryan Donahoe

Jerry and Marlene Williams, Terry, Susan, Doug, and I trekked up to Priest River on Saturday, February 11th. The sun was out and beautiful, although Marlene was the smart one and ran shuttle, although there air temperature was still frigid. Dickensheet campground had not been plowed and had about 1 foot of snow. The gauge was reading 3.4 at Dickensheet with the AWA gauge at 1280. We parked across the street from Dickensheet and drove up to the put-in. The put-in was interesting as the snow was plowed about 6 feet high at the turnout. Luckily it was all ice so we were able to climb our way up and over, although Terry did mention it would have been nice to have an ice axe and crampons.

While Terry, Marlene, and I were running shuttle Susan, Terry, and Doug were nice enough to get our boats down to the bottom, which must have been exciting with the nice drop-off you have to lower them over. We all jumped into our boats, well actually eased our way in since we all had about five layers of fleece on and slide in the water. Jerry was the first foolish one to do a roll, although he swore that it wasn't that bad. The rest of us were dumb enough to believe him and all rolled, although it think I am still feeling that ice cream headache one week later. The river was its normal beautiful self with snow on everything and ice on the rocks. I think that the Priest River has the cleanest water as you can see the bottom ten feet down. Binarch rapids was not huge, and the main issue was navigating your way through the rocks. Terry swears the rocks sometimes move and jump out at you, but that's a different story.

At 3.4 on the gauge there are plenty of small surf waves and we surfed our way down. Our good friend, Blackie (the dog), was there to join us at the end and swam quite a ways down the river with us. He of course joined us for an after paddle sandwich, although he would like to let everyone know he does not like lettuce, he does however like meat. Blackie's owner drove up to say hello, and please be courteous and clean if you park across from Dickensheet since this is his driveway.

All-in-all another great day on the Priest River. It may not be the most challenging run in the area, but it is definitely the most scenic. And remember, any day on the river is a good day.