Three Bears Again

Saturday I paddled the Three Bears section of the Molalla again - it is such a great run - in my Remix. It really felt good. I'd paddled my Prijon Athlete on the Little Nestucca estuary Thursday and again on the Washougal Friday. The Athlete, in case you don't know, is a slalom cut plastic boat. It's fast, but edgy. Sometimes the water and the boat conspire to do things I don't expect. And I'd paddled my Animas on the Presidents' Day Rogue trip. I still like it, but it requires so much more effort to maneuver.

The lines through the Three Bears are almost traditional now. I boogied through, only to look back to see my younger compatriots eddy-hopping down. Still, it is so much fun. Sometimes I think of it as following a raft line - to find the line with the most flow, in the deepest water, going where you want to go. And then get there. Like O-Nami.

There is a tree with a trailing log between Teen Bear and Baby Bear that we avoided completely by taking the right hand channel. The exit is pretty bony, but I usually hit the top of it because there's not as much drop yet.

We all walked the gnarly part of Baby Bear - it is really ugly at this level, which was 1,420 cfs. I stopped too late and needed some help to get into the little gulch on the left. BTW, the left hand entry on the first part of Baby Bear dropped into a sort of hole. It washes out at higher water, but next time at this level I'm going to enter more right.